I'm sure most of us have heard of "the $50 paint job" for hot rods and such accomplished by rolling on Rustoleum and sanding between coats. I had always doubted that you could actually get an air dried enamel to be hard enough to wet sand and buff. But I have been playing around with an old Coke machine I have had for years. Many years ago I restored the door assembly by cleaning, lubricating and repainting the door, which houses most of the "works" of the machine. I never actually finished the cabinet. A few weeks ago, I started de-rusting the cabinet by sanding and then phosphoric acid etching the rust and then some more sanding. I knocked down the high spots and filled a few low spots and started building the paint layer with Rustoleum Sunrise Red using a small fabric roller. I know the car guys use a foam roller and it would probably lay the paint out even smoother. While working on the top of the box, I decided to refinish the outer door just because it had taken a few dings and scratches over the years. Since the door was in generally good shape, I actually finished it before the top of the cabinet was all painted. Today I wet sanded the paint with 600, 1000, 1500 and 2000 then buffed it out with Meguires Ultimate Compound followed by Maguires #2 Fine-Cut cleaner. The buffing did reveal some flaws in my sanding but you need to get right on top of it and look very hard to see it. The thing that did blow me away though is the finish! Deep, incredible gloss and rich color. I guess these online guys were right, you can actually get a finish out of Rustoleum that's good enough for an automobile. Save the durability comments and how I'd have to completely strip the panel to put "real"paint on it. I'm just excited to point out that you can actually bring up a really high grade finish with this paint. Below is a picture of the outer door, you can clearly see the reflection of my 40 Ford. Plenty good for an old Coke machine! Attached Thumbnails
A friend if mind restored a 37 Packard doing the frame with brushes. It took him a long time with many hours of prep and he had the same results. He used very expensive brushes and experimented with thinner to get it to flow to look as good as powder coating or spray gun shot. I just finished the exposed portion of my LSR roadster roll cage with Rustolem primer and metallic black spray cans. I finished it off with high solids gloss clearcoat with sell for $28+ a can and it has never looked better. Time is your friend and your door looks great.
Looks good. I have been playing with paint from tractor supply it's a good cheap paint and primer with a hardener , it's oil based and stands up to the sun. It's made for tractors out doors. Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have heard of that brand too. Around here it's sold by TS and a small chain called Benny's. I don't know if Benny's has the hardener though.
Did you add hardener? I've used some Rustoleum Satin Black on chassis or the underside of bodies. I pour in some of the Majic hardener and roll it out with a foam roller and it works great! Might buff out even better yet.
The head of marketing probably went to the same business school as the car rag people. Don't see near as many black cars on covers compared to red ones. Apparently red sells more magazines than black ones.
I brushed a demolition derby car with rustoleum, thinned with mineral spirits, with a cheap brush, basically totaly wrong, and it still layed flat, dried hard, although slowly, and retained its gloss for a few years afterwards, until it was crushed finally.
Just an update: I worked one of the big sides of the Coke machine. This one was rough, dented and rusted. It took some filler and a lot of blocking to straighten it out. One thing I noticed is that the paint is soft and I could introduce scratches into it if I wasn't careful. Of course this paint was only like 3 days dry before I wet sanded it and buffed it but it seemed to cut OK with minimal loading of the paper. I used 500, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit then Meguires Ultimate Compound with my HF "Platinum" random orbit buffer with the orange pad. Here's a shot: Attached Thumbnails
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