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Spraying Rustoleum Paint --how's that work?

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Jim, well said. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif This hobby means something different to all of us. We don't all have the same budget for money or time. We probably all agree the "best way" is to take the car to a professional. But where do you draw the line? If we all had professionally restored cars we would only be talking about routine maintenance and all the nice drives to take, not about repairs and restoration. For me, my cars stay in my garage unless they're getting tires put on them, and even then it's hard to find a place that will actually torque lug nuts without you looking over their shoulder. I don't expect my midget to be outside more than a few hours a month; at that rate I don't think any paint job will show much wear.

Duncan, I used a rust dissolver from Permatex (famous for their RTV). I think it's a phosphoric acid solution that comes in a bottle or a spray (it's bright pink and smells pretty bad, this might be a good time to use the respirator). I think I've heard it called "naval jelly" before (someone please explain that term to me)? I sanded down the rust, let the dissolver work for 5 minutes, and the remaining rust wipes away. I used some acetone to clean things up afterwards. The only rust it couldn't dissolve in one application was the stuff I couldn't sand (inside a dent or ding where sandpaper couldn't reach). I was very impressed.

Nial, do you get primer from the same store? Do the 2k urethane primer and enamel paint play well together?

Mark
 
Hap Waldrop <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote: said:
....Oh and I would recommend using the hardner, it make the paint harder of course, but I've also found it to make the paint have more gloss as well. It doesn't mention a reducer, what did you use Nial?
Click to expand...

Acrylic Enamel Reducer from the same outfit. About $10 a guart.
They advise to use 1 part reducer for 4 parts of acrylic enamel paint, so that's what I did. I didn't use the hardener, but I might try it next time around.

And I'll admit, I've used Rustoleum in the past on this car, so I'm not knocking any of you guys for trying it. But to be honest, I scraped most of it off with a razor blade.

Mark: I'm a cheapskate and it's a race car anyway (and will definitely get beat up a bit)....so, no primer. Just scrape and sand it down to a fairly good base and spray.
 
Nial,

How did you apply the Rustoleum. Did you thin it? If so, with what?
 
I have been saying this for a while, guys, Rustoleum and the related enamel, or mineral-based paints are great for your swing-sets, patio furniture, etc. where you can just scrape and repaint again next year, and maybe only hose off periodically in between, but a car finish must withstand greater rigors than that paint can provide. Wait till you have to scrub some bugs imbeded in the nose of your car and watch how this paint holds up! And if you use a bug-remover product, it is liable to either craze the paint or take it right off!
A paint used on an auto MUST have a hard, durable finish that must be fairly durable against wear and tear, polishing and compounding. It will be polished to a shine to keep it looking good. Rustoleum enamels are just too soft a paint for this application. In addition, enamel paints never "really" dry, and if you read the labels carefully you may find that they may take upto 30 days or more just to "cure" (or get as hard as they are going to get).

I sympathise with and agree that one CAN get a decent paint-job at a reasonable cost, but it is false economy to use the wrong product. Hand painting, rolling or spray applications are just the ways that paint is applied and each have their virtues. The finish one gets though is totally the quality of the paint! AND the quality of the finish over the long term unless you want to treat it like patio furniture and repaint it regularly!
 
Agreee, any paint can be brushed or rolled if the consistancy is correct.
 
Hmmmm can I powder coat an entire spridget? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
I'm sure it could be done. Need an industrial size oven though. Maybe Saudi Arabia.
 
The place I have taken my stuff to be power coated has an oven that is big enough to take a complete dirt track car frame (and complete cage) with room to spare.

It would be costly though! My Lotus 7 replica frame was $600 for gloss black ... I wanted silver but that would have been two coats (color and clear) and the price quoted was $1000. I expect that a tub, doors, bonnet, boot would be much higher! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

Paul
 
Morris said:
Nial,
How did you apply the Rustoleum. Did you thin it? If so, with what?
Click to expand...

Morris: I thinned it about 20% (around 5 parts paint to 1 part mineral spirits). And sprayed it. Also, later on, I used a foam brush to do touch ups after some "contact". But the stuff gets a dull "haze" and seems to stay soft forever.

And I'll admit, I've done lots of "trial and error" painting.

Once, when I was a kid, I helped a friend brush-paint his car with Latex paint. *That* was definitely an "error".

And, when I was a teen ager, I helped another friend paint his Dad's welding truck. That truck worked in a very corrosive environment, so his Dad gave us a bucket of Zinc-Chromate (yellow anti-rust paint). We put axle grease on the windows and lights and painted it with a mop! (this was his Dad's preferred method).
Afterwards.......it looked like a truck that someone had painted with a mop /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

My favorite rememberance with paint as a kid does not involve painting. When I 15, I had my old Austin A-40 "woods car" which we drove on the woods roads behind my folk's house. It burned a ton of oil. Usually, we'd be begging for everyone's used oil after they had done an oil change. One day, we wanted to go driving and couldn't find any oil. So I look in my Dad's garden shed and find a partly empty gallon of oil-based paint. Hey, I figured it had *some* oil in it! We threw the stuff in the engine and drove it around that day. Smelled funny but kept that Austin alive for another day.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]...and find a partly empty gallon of oil-based paint.[/QUOTE]

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

Nial, you're the greatest!
 
'Til the paint started to set after you parked it I'll bet, hehehehe!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

Reminds me of when I tried to "help" dad out with some house-painting as a kid (I was real young!) I went into the shed and found a gallon can and a big brush and proceeded to paint up as far as I could reach with black-top patch! You know that stuff is REALLY hard to remove from walls! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
I had a friend who painted the dog. He couldn't figure out why his dad was yelling, because he had washed the brush and put it away when he was done.
 
I heard my local air pollution control district is trying to do away with oil-based coatings in our county (gotta love CA). Maybe you had the right idea, Nial. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I thought pretty hard about the non-hardening enamel and you guys have convinced me to switch to the better, two-part stuff. I know plain enamel isn't the hardest thing: we have a metal chair that I coated with a spray enamel close to a decade ago. It doesn't look bad (being indoors all that time) but whenever it hits the wall it leaves some paint on the drywall. It's definitely not that strong when drywall wins the battle.

Mark
 
We keep hearing rumors of water based automotive paints in the near future but I haven't actually seen any yet. I did have a can of a water based sealer a few years ago that I used over enamel fenders before shooting lacquer. That worked fine for its purpose. The car was a Volkswagen so the original paint was catalyzed and the lacquer probably would not have hurt it anyway but I didn't want to take the chance. The lacquer is beginning to fail now but that sealer is still there.
 
Check out the latest Eastwood catalog - they are introducing a whole line of water-based paints for automobile applications.
 
Water base color coats have been around for awhile. We still do not have a water based clear coat AFAIK.
 
Anyone have any experience with the water base topcoats? I wonder how well they work? How do they shoot and what does the final result look like.
 
I think the key word is "based"

oil based paints use that as the way of getting the solids to the surface , the liquid evaporates off and the solids and whatever the binders are stay on the surface,

water based paints do the same thing,

Now the thing I do not think they had figured out at the beginning was getting the water based paints to bind to the old paint (oil based) , which is the key !

Hopefully they have figured that out now /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I think part of it is that they print something on the paint cans label, then everyone ignores that " we don't need no stinking instructions" they do it like they always have , and then bitch about the results /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Probably no real answer , just more problems down the road when you are trying to do it on the cheap ....

Beaulieu

PS.....my friend is spraying his tractor today with rustoleu,,,,,,wonder how that will turn out ?
 
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