painting a car with a roller...

[OlderThanMe]

I just bought a small $8 can of the gloss black rustoleum protective enamel and started experimenting on my Z. My 260 is currently flat black/or gloss black that the clearcoat is peeling off. I tried some of the paint on bare metal, and on scruffed up paint. I didn't thin it enough I think. it seemed to settle out better on the bare steel. I bought one of the 2" rollers that cost about two dollars and it is working fairly well for not being thin enough. Tomorrow night I am going to try to thin the paint out a little more and take off more of the black and original blue paint to get to bare metal. so far I am about $30 into this project with paint, mineral spirits, sandpaper, and a few other little things. I think this is going to work very well once I figure out the consistancy I need to roll the paint on.

[Z-TARD]

I was in the garage earlier today, and found myself trying to scratch the test spot now that it has dried for a few days. My fingernail will absolutely not do anything to it anymore. I was worried that it would always be kind of soft and gummy like a lot of the rustoleum spray paint is, this stuff has hardened up pretty well. Not to be deterred, I then took my car keys to it. As anticipated, the keys go right into it, just like most other car paints. The paint flakes away in little tiny flakes just like real automotive paint does. The key only broke all the way through in a few areas though, for the most part it just dug in about halfway. This is pretty much all the proof I need. As soon as I'm done with all the structural stuff and body work I'm going to get a gallon or so of orange mixed up and have at it.

 

Mike

[ToplessZ]

Hope you can get this done quick z tard I want to see what it looks like as Im thinking about doing the same color mixing trick

[Z-TARD]

Hope you can get this done quick z tard I want to see what it looks like as Im thinking about doing the same color mixing trick

 

I'm moving into a place with a two car garage in a few weeks (Finally!), so I should be able to get a LOT more done on this thing once I get it on a rotisere. I'm hoping I can be ready for paint sometime this summer. It will be nice to have the extra heat to help things cure a bit faster. The ultimate goal is to have it ready for the MSA show in 2007, we'll see how that goes.

 

I might be able to expidite painting of some of the body parts while the car is in the air. I should be able to get the doors, fenders, and rear hatch done shortly after I get moved in. I purchased a couple of one gallon empty paint cans that I can fill up with the final mix of paint. I still need to perfect the orange color I want. I'm thinking of just getting an orange from the produce section, taking it to the paint guy at home depot and having him color match it.....

[Z-TARD]

Just bought a $40 HVLP detail gun at Harbor Freight today, I'll post details of how well it squirts out rustoleum within a few days.

 

Mike

[Guest tony78_280z]

ZTard,

 

You seem to be the furthest along on this technique. Have you experimented witht he roller technique yet? At least get a piece of scrap metal and see what you can do with a roller for us.

 

Are you doing any other rust prevention/repair work first? Like POR15? Or being a professional welder, did you just put in ALL new metal?

 

Has it been established that this product needs no primer?

 

Great thread.

[Z-TARD]

ZTard' date='

 

You seem to be the furthest along on this technique. Have you experimented witht he roller technique yet? At least get a piece of scrap metal and see what you can do with a roller for us.

 

Are you doing any other rust prevention/repair work first? Like POR15? Or being a professional welder, did you just put in ALL new metal?

 

Has it been established that this product needs no primer?

 

Great thread.[/quote']

 

Grabbed a chunk of scrap 20gauge from the scrap metal bin at work today. I think it will make a good test piece to finally find out how durable this paint really is, and just what type of surface prep (if any) is best to make it really stick. The sheet has light surface rust on one side, none on the other. I plan on painting the rusty side with a rust converting primer, and half of the clean side with some rustoleum rattle can primer. Half of the clean side will remain bare metal. On the rusty side, I'll roll half of it with thinned down stop rust enamel, and spray the other half with either airbrush or hvlp. The clean side will get the same treatment, only on both the primed and non primed surface. Basically 4 spots: rolled over primed, rolled over bare metal, and sprayed over primed, sprayed over bare metal. I'll spray another scrap with some DuraCoat firearms finish just to see how much better , if at all, it is than rustoleum.

 

I'll let all of the test pieces cure for one week, afterwards I'll use a pressure washer to attempt to blast off the paint from the metal surface. This should give a good indication of which surface will give the best adhesion qualities. Should it pass this test, which I doubt, I'll leave it outside where I work for a few weeks. I work about 200 yards away from the beach on Coronado, and the salt air in this area is notoriously corrosive to unprotected metal.

 

If anyone has any other ideas for testing (short of using napalm or pipe bombs) that they want tried out let me know and I'll try to work them into the process.

 

Painting should be complete this weekend, and testing will most likely be on monday of next week. Tony, I'll let you know how well the paint rolls out, I'm kind of curious to see how it compares to the sprayed finish in terms of both surface texture and durability.

[Tony240ZT]

I think it'd only be fair if you wet sanded and waxed the paint before putting it through the tests. Well at least do some of it that way so you have a real world comparison.

[Z-TARD]

I think it'd only be fair if you wet sanded and waxed the paint before putting it through the tests. Well at least do some of it that way so you have a real world comparison.

 

I thought about doing that, but I think it would be better to test the paint on it's own, without any special treatment to see which application holds up the best. I'm honestly expecting failure here, I just want to see which technique holds up the longest under the pressure washer.

 

I also picked up some Valspar rust enamel today at the local Dixieline lumber. Ace Hardware was having a sale today, so I checked that out too and found that Ace markets it's own brand of rust paint. I picked up a few small cans of that for the test as well. Hopefully when this is all done we can have some definitive answers as to which paint is the most durable, and how best to apply it. The Valspar paint directions say not to thin, but I'll probably have to thin it anyway to get it to spray well. I bought a few cans of acetone and mineral spirits, so I'll find out which works best for thinning Valspar and the Ace paint.

 

Mike

[ToplessZ]

Z-tard If you are going to spray, valspar makes a hardner to add to enamel paints. It adds to the gloss and durability of the paint. Might be worth looking into its only 9.95 for enough to do mix with a gallon. I am thinking for the roller method only to use half the amount required as to get partial benefit while still allowing rolling on of the paint. Valspar makes several different types of paint. The rust paint, BPS implement enamel which seems to have about the same chemical makeup but comes in more colors and then a truck a trailer enamel which is supposed to be more durable but TSC only had 4 or 5 colors of it.

[Z-TARD]

I'll have to go back to Dixieline Lumber and check if they have the hardener. I tried out the Valspar today in the airbrush, it seems to spray about as well as the Rustoleum when thinned out with mineral spirits. I also tried the Ace rust paint, with not so good results. For starters, their color selection is pretty limited, and they don't look like colors I'd put on a car. The yellow color is very pastel, like something you'd use to paint the trim on a house. It also says in bold letters on the back of the can "Not recomended for automotive painting". Thinning with mineral spirits didn't work very well either, as it seemed to seperate out once it hit the surface. So for what it's worth, I think the Ace paint is a waste of time.

 

My chunk of test sheetmetal is primed, and if it's warm enough tomorrow I'll paint it using hvlp/rollers with the various paints. I'm still really happy with how the Rustoleum test spot on my car looks. It seems pretty durable, and the color is almost dead on with what I want. The only thing I'm curious about now is if the Valspar paint will be any better, and if bare metal is better than a primed surface.

 

Mike

[SonOfZZZap]

Been following this thread as well as the original (which I read first) and actually emailed Martin from Canada (the guy who started it all). Honestly from what I've read about some of the other paints... the rustoleum brand will most likly be our best bet. I've tested a small a square on my fender. Rolled on with a 4" quality foam roller, no runs to speak of... applied two thinned coats about 2-3 days ago. I need to play around with the thinning process but as far as durability... the paint is T.O.U.G.H. I let it cure overnight and tried to scratch the surface with my nails... no luck... now around the edges was easier of course, but you still have to work at it to REALLY do any dmg and every day it gets harder. It does have a nice glossy finish (that is if you are using a gloss color). The paint is Rustoleum Professional Protective Enamel. I applied it to bare metal for the test run. Now about the primer surface being better... There is a special metal prime made specifically for this type of paint... it is called "Clean Metal Primer" and should be next to the paint on the shelf with all of the other rusto stuff. Havnt tried it yet but I will keep you posted.

 

-Jared

[A. G. Olphart]

Z-Tard, I've seen salt air paint panel tests in the past. To give corrosion a chance in a reasonable amount of time, they put one long, deep, (to the metal) scratch down the center of each sample.

 

Without that, it might be a while.

 

Sorry, memory fade... they made an X.

 

 

.

[Tony240ZT]

I picked up a can of glossy white and mineral spirits mixed some up and sprayed an access door with my HVLP spray gun. I did a couple layers, wet sanded, and waxed.

 

I'm happy so far. I want to do my whole Maroon 240z now, but it needs a lot of prep work done. I guess I need to find a good deal on some sand paper, and power sander/polisher and get to work in the garage.

 

 

Here's the car that needs paint:

 

I just swapped on over a set of slotted mag rims and it looks nice now. As you can see the clear coat pealed off of the top surfaces, and it was a cheap paint job anyways. Time for an even cheaper paint job

[Z-TARD]

Lookin good man! I havent had a chance to use my hvlp gun with this stuff yet. I was pretty sure it would work, and I'm glad to see that it does, as I will probably be using it when I finally paint my car.

 

I sprayed my test piece of sheetmetal today with Rustoleum, Valspar, and DuraCoat. The more I use Rustoleum, the more I like it. It doesn't really compare with the DuraCoat, but compared to the Valspar paint, it really shines. I've noticed that the Valspar paint stays tacky for a very long time. This happens with both the thinned and un-thinned versions. For painting in a garage, this is bad juju. I can only imagine the amount of dust this stuff would collect when sprayed over the entire surface of a car. I'll test it out anyway, but I won't end up using it. My plan for now is to use the Rustoleum for painting all the body panels on the car, and using DuraCoat on all the trim parts, bumpers, flares, emblems, etc.

 

From what I've noticed so far, there isn't really a need to take it down to bare metal before applying the rustoleum, in fact I think that might be a bad idea. The paint on my car is for the most part uncompromised, and not rusting out from the backside. If it hasn't developed rust under it in the past 36 years, it probably won't anytime in the near future. I'm going to just block sand mine with some 320 or 400 grit and paint right over it.

[Z-TARD]

Z-Tard' date=' I've seen salt air paint panel tests in the past. To give corrosion a chance in a reasonable amount of time, they put one long, deep, (to the metal) scratch down the center of each sample.

 

Without that, it might be a while.

 

Sorry, memory fade... they made an X.

 

 

.[/quote']

 

Good call. I'll make a big X through all the test areas with a scribe, should they pass the pressure sprayer test of course We have a couple of work trucks and vans that have been around here for a few years now, and the ford arostar vans are having some serious rust issues on the roof areas. One van has a 1/2" hole in the roof, surrounded by about 10" of flakey orange rust/metal. Looks like the floorpans in my 240.... I've noticed the same kind of deterioration with just about every piece of steel in the same area. No amount of paint seems to help much, eventually the salt air just destroys everything. Perfect testing ground for paint samples

 

Mike

[ToplessZ]

Z-tard, something to keep in mind about the valspar paint is that they offer many many colors quite a nice color range if you ask me plus the hardner although the hardner says it is universal.

[Z-TARD]

I wonder if the hardener could be used with the Rustoleum paint? Both the Valspar and the rustoleum are dry to the touch now, and at this point it's hard to tell them apart except for the color. Both have about the same gloss, texture, and scratch resistance. I'm still leaning more towards using the Rustoleum just due to the faster drying time. I do like the colors of the Valspar anti rust paint better though. Their gloss orange is an exact color match for the rattle can chevy orange. A little more yellow and it would be perfect. My attempts at making an orange using the rustoleum yellow and red paints have produced a best result that I can only describe as "Harbor Freight Orange". It's an exact (EXACT) match for my floor jack, jackstands, pipe bender, and sawzall. I was hoping for something a little more vibrant, but not glow in the dark either. Rustoleum makes a gloss orange stop rust paint that looks pretty good, but I haven't been able to find it in stock anywhere. The lighting makes it look a little different, but they are the identical shade of orange:

 

 

Mike

[ToplessZ]

The valspar hardner says for all enamel paints? Might want to read all the specifics on the can and or spec sheet first before mixing with other brands. If you look at their tractor impliment paint line (pretty much identical chemical makeup to rust line) You have 2 or 3 orange colors to choose from.

[caen fred]

Hmmm! do you think this method could be used whatever is the base colour of the car, mine is metalic green and I would like to use orange... Would the colour be consistent on the already green painted body and the new fibergrlass wings ?