Rustoleum paint job

[Detroit Dan]

Anyone here heard about the Rustoleum (Tremclad for our brothers to the North) paint process for painting vehicles? I first heard of it a year ago on another site, linked my way onto a a Mopar board and after reading at least 90 pages of information, instructions, positive attempts, naysayers, etc, I decided I wanted to try it. I havent made much progress, bu this is what I have done. I needed to replace a front fender, so I got a used one to practice on. Took me a long time to feel comfortable with the technique, and I put about nine coats on learning. It wasnt necessary to fret so much, because it is much easier than it sounds. My fender came out great. The color doesn't match the 13 year old paint on the rest of the truck, but it looks good and once the whole truck is painted that way, it will all match fine. I just replaced my bed so I am now working on getting some paint on that, as well as two replacement doors. When thats done I'll just have the cab to do.

Quick rundown of what to do if anyone is interested.
4 inch fine-foam roller, Rustoleum (professional seems a little better but regular stops rust works) 100% mineral spirits ( must be 100%, regular thinner doesn't work well). Mix very well, approximately 5:1 ratio. paint is designed to level out, and the mineral spirits help that immensely. Clean up any bodywork, but you don't need it perfect, and you dont need primer. Remember, Rustoleum is designed to stick to metal, rust, bondo, fiberglas, glass, skin, clothes, even cats. So prep is absolutely minimal. Roll out a thin coat, you will see through it its so thin. Dont worry about color coverage yet. let dry 8 hours or more, 2nd coat. When thats dry, wet sand it smooth (-ish) just to knock it down and clean up any runs, dont take all the color off. Repeat paint-dry, paint-dry wetsand. you are supposed to do 6 coats total, wetsanding after every other one. I find it's not necessary to go all six if you arent changing color, but you can modify the routine as you see fit.
After the sixth coat is wetsanded, buff it out. Be careful not to take too much color off buffing, this paint is not as hard as a lacquer or urethane for up to a month. But it ends up super-tough.

 

[Detroit Dan]

This does really work, and the reasons for doing this are as follows.
1) it's very cheap. paint a car for about $50
2) do it yourself. for those of us who dont have a place to spray or the equipment
3) it is actually incredibly durable and chip resistant.
4) not a show-quality paint job, but easily comparable to the quality seen on new cars.
5) if you goof it up or scrape it later, its a breeze to fix.

My truck is a cool truck but it is still just a plowtruck/daily driver. It needs paint and I am not pouring thousands of dollars into a paintjob for an old worktruck. When it's done, I fully expect people not to believe it is rustoleum laid down with a roller. On the other board a constant was argument from pro paint guys saying it cant be done. What I have done so far looks darn good. And people have done some nice work with it, I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a classic car once the technique is comfortable. Here's a picture of a Charger the guy who started it used to own. Painted with Tremclad safety orange.

 

[NVW]

I worked with a welder who used it on his welding rig. He told me he had spent about 5K on his truck, paint and chrome stacks, etc. He was being pulled into the bush way up north by a cat. The ruts were so deep his truck fell on it's side and the cat operator didn't notice and pulled him for about a 1/4 mile. He now uses Tremclad (Rustoleum)

 

[Detroit Dan]

I thought there would be some comments on this subject. Not many people cruising the exterior topic I guess.

 

[ak diesel driver]

just waiting for a pictorial

 

[Detroit Dan]

just waiting for a pictorial

good idea

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

I saw a great pictoral on an old chevy corvair, ended up white with blue stripes. I was very impressed.

 

[Detroit Dan]

I saw that too, I wish I was doing something white, it looks so easy. But everything I have is black. I really wanted to do my 82 in safety yellow with white roof and white two-tone stripe, but the thought of doing four jambs and four doors inside is a little daunting. It's already mostly black, with new black paint on the inside of the doors and the bed.

 

[D2 Cat]

If you want to read more, here's a link to some discussion.

I think if you took good step by step pictures to document your work and it came out as good as some of these you could make a fortune making wagers at the bar or bowling alley!!

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

 

[whatnot]

I painted an s10 with Rustoleum about 15 years ago. I just thinned it enough to go through the paint sprayer. It didn't turn out too bad but was soft and faded after a while.

 

[Dieseldad97]

I've also sprayed a truck with rust paint. By thinning it down it worked pretty darn good. I've also done a few flatbed trailers this way. Cheap and effective.

I'm gonna try this roller idea as a winter project. I'll pick up a door at the wrecker and experiment.

D2 Cat....thanks for the link!

 

[dmaxx3500]

wow,i've got to try this

 

[Detroit Dan]

Yeah, I got it from Moparts, via plowsite. I must have read 150 pages on it. Fun to follow along with other guys projects step by step. Right now I'm working on my 97, almost halfway done probably. It's definitely getting easier. I bought a fender to practice on, needed to replace my right font. One I got was already black so I could have put it right on, but I wanted to try this. Overdid it at first, it's not as hard as I tried to make it. Next I have a longbed crewcab to do; I think I need to start buying smaller vehicles!

 

[ghostrider500]

FYI, Hotrod magazine did a feature on this technique and painted a car this way. Not sure of the year it was done, but was withinh the last 3 years. the car came out great.

 

[Ed HD]

I read that article too.

Like anything else with paint, it's all the prep that makes the paint. If you have dents, bad bondo, etc. it will look like crap, but if you take the time to properly smooth panels, etc. it will look really good.

 

[Detroit Dan]

If you want to take the time to make it smooth and buff it perfect, you can make it look better than a factory paint job easy. I'm painting an old hagged out plowtruck, replacing damaged panels with better used panels. Still need to keep workingthe truck so I'm not interested in making it into a showtruck. All I am concerned about is getting it all one color, and shiny enough that it looks good driving by. I think I can accomplish that.

My biggest complaint is finding the time to do it myself. I can work on it for an hour, but then getting back to it sometimes takes days or weeks. So very slow progress, I just don't have time between work and house and kids and taking on extra work. It would be so much easier to drop it off and pick it up a week later all painted, but I'm so poor that's not an option either. Hopefully with my new schedule starting tomorrow I'll be able to spend a little more time messing with it.

Still haven't made up my mind on the 82. Actually I've made up my mind several times, just keep changing it. I painted one old door yellow and white, and I liked it a lot. But, again, re-doing a black truck with black jambs is a ton of work. Then I saw a restored black 80s truck that looked so beautiful I swung in that direction again.

 

[BigBlueChevy]

Dan, this Rustoleum paint job you speak of. Any chance you can get some pictures up of how its coming out on your truck? My truck lacks rust on everywhere but the damn roof. There are rust spots all over it and the paint is starting to chip in places up there so I really want to strip it down and seal it all back up. Would you say that is feasible?

 

[Detroit Dan]

I took some pictures with my camera phone, but they came out so bad it's not worth putting up. Cant see any detail. I'll start taking some with the regular camera this week.

I don't know how you'd match your paint color, Rustoleum is only available in primary colors and safety colors. There is a blue but you'd never match it. Not to mention metallics arent feasible.

As for the rust, my crewcab had the sunbaked paint on the hood, clear gone then paint gone then primer gone and surface rust starting. I spent five minutes scrubbing it with a sanding sponge block, wiped it off with a cloth and put one coat of black on it. You'd never know it was rusty, and with a couple more coats, wetsand and buff it will be looking good. Haven't touched my roof yet, I'll be sure to take pictures of that if I ever make up my mind on a color.

Check out the moparts thread, it's a very interesting read.

 

[Detroit Dan]

try for some pics here. apparently I took a picture of the hood after I sanded the right side, but I cant find the picture of after I painted it, except one from a long ways off. But you can see in that pic, there is not a lot of prep work, and no primer needed. Rustoleum just plain stick to everything, thats what its made for is metal to be left outside. Truck was black and red, I changed the doors and bed. right front fender and hood have one coat of black on them now. I will get better pics this week, as it stands right now. I'm going to start a pictorial too.

 

[Paveltolz]

Dan, what is the grit you're using for wet sanding, 220, 320, 400?