Technical How do short guys paint roofs?

Not sure what you are painting so if there are break points between roof and body can you stand in the door opening on the door sill and spray roof only? This would get you closer to the center line of the roof but may limit your reach front and rearward.
You may need a hose man to keep the hose away from the drip rail area. Wear a tight fitting paint suit so it won't drag the drip rail area.

 

Remember those teachers that told you to "grow the #%@* up"? Shoulda listened...

 

DRYWALL STILTS may help...(if you don't fall into the fresh paint job)

 

When I painted my F150 super Crew (big roof) and full re paint. I built a ladder shaped like an "L". The idea is the horizontal leg of the L fits under the vehicle and the vertical leg leans in about 10 -15 degree angle toward the vehicle. This makes it free standing. The back side of the vertical section had plastic stapled to it to keep dirt from my clothes getting on the sides of the truck. The steps of the vertical section go all the way to the top with the top step being about 12" higher that the roof. This allowed me to bend at the waist over the top step to easily reach past the center of the roof. As well as being tall enough to get a good view of how the whole roof looked.

I had one of these on each side of the vehicle. I could slide it along the vehicle on which ever side I was working on. And to paint the outer edge of the roof, I could slide in away from the vehicle 2-3 feet so I could still maneuver the paint gun between it and the vehicle.

I kept it at least a foot from the vehicle at all times.

When I was done with the roof, I pulled them back away and painted the sides.

They were made of 2x4's.

Practice your motions before you mix paint. Everything needs to be well rehearsed.

I also took the tires off and put it on jack stands because tires take up space. The stands take very little so it gave me more range of motion for moving the "L" around.

I kept the vehicle high because I also paint underneath the rockers. I like to keep it up off the floor a ways so you don't blow dirt off the floor when painting the lower panels. Even with Washing the floors there is always some dirt that wants to kick up.


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on this wagon i taped off the car and painted the roof first, this allowed me to lean/kneel on the car so i could reach over.

 

more photos in this thread:
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...nt-that-fixtures-and-taping-technics.1008403/

 

I use a longer handle on my roller to paint the roofs.

 

lots of good sugestions here, and lots of funny ones too. The project is my avatar car. When I painted it initially, I did the roof seperatly because there is a good breaking point there, and so I could lower the car as much as possible, which I wouldn't have been able to do and still get under the car's rockers, etc. if I did it all at once. The car was just a shell at the time, and I was able to step into the car somewhat as John mentioned.
I am repainting the roof because of an adhesion problem I had with the primer/seam sealer in the drip rails.
JFYI, I had made the rookie mistake of leaving the zinc chromate coating in the driprail area(only) as an added protection against corrosion. That coating, as I now know, causes an adhesion problem with the epoxy primer, and I was starting to get some bubbling in that area. So, it all got stripped out and redone. This time, btw, I used 3M panel bond adhesive in place of the seam sealer I had initially used, and made sure after I retreated the area with the zinc phosphate etch, I thorughly removed all coating.
As I had said, I built some 6 foot long platforms that allow me to walk the gun along the roof, so height is not the problem. No matter how high I am, or how low the car is, it doesn't make it any easier to reach the center of the roof.

 

dig a pit.

 

Well it is satin black,kind of hard to mess it up.

 

wheels off ??

 

Well, I thought about satin black after this episode, but it's not satin or black. It's a high metalics "tarnished silver" with gloss clearcoat.
lots of good hints on that link, tb33anda1/3, thanks for posting. what you did on that falcon is basically what I did, I'm just not as good. I need to try harder the next time.
I actually had a series of problems with this painting go-round that I hadn't had before, temps too cold, contaminated air line from a previous compressor problem that I failed to address thoroughly before this attempt, ran out of basecoat before I was able to dust out the few stipes I had, etc. Time to take a deep breath and do a redo...maybe in a month or two. I also determined I could have better held the gun in a better position without the inline gauge and filter, so I may give a shot at attaching a 2 or 3 foot short hose to the gun and attach the stuff there instaed.

 

Cut a sun roof in it, stand up through it,paint it, then install it when the paint dries!

 

When I worked at a body shop in the late 60's the painters were still using Dulux straight enamel. It dried very slowly, like an hour or two between coats. They painted after everyone else went home for the night so no one was sturing up dust. With all that time to kill between coats, there was always adult beverages being served. When we would come in the next day, the painters were always teasing each other about how many times they fell off of the five gallon thinner can that they stood on to paint the roof of the car. Every once in a while one of them would fall into the side of the car. Us young guys had to go in with rags and thinner, and wipe the paint off of the side where he hit the car in the fall. Then that evening they would repaint the bad side. Most of the painters back then were drunks.

 

Just get a convertible and avoid the grief!

 

Zip line.

 

It does justice to the 57 Ford body lines.Very cool clean look!

 

Get high and lean way over. Or dont flake the entire roof, lay out panels at the edge

 

Only thing with letting the air out of the tires is it makes it hard to paint the rockers panels.

 

Stand the Car on its Ass end & paint it like a Wall


Just my 3.5 cents

Live Learn & Die a Fool

 

As Randy Newman said ,

SHORT PEOPLE GOT NO REASON

Oldmics

 

I agree with tb33anda3rd.I used to shoot cars in 1 shot. Now that I am older {64} and having more aches and pains I always shoot the roof 1st even if it the same color, then let it harden for a few days and then tape off the roof and paint the rest of the car. Sure its a pain in the ass but I want the car or truck to come out decent looking. GOOD LUCK with the job. Bruce.

 

I did the same thing with my 56 Chrysler Windsor after I got done painting the roof. I put her up on jack stands so I could paint the rockers.Bruce.

 

What kind of station wagon are you painting there? Thanks Bruce.

 

LOL. Bruce.

 

Just like the Sandlot

 

71 or 72 Olds Vista Cruiser.

 

Hire This Guy!

 

Take the air out the tires and used a bench/chair to step on.

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comet. i did it last year at this time.