I like the idea of mixing flat and gloss...BUT..I also found a qt of Rustoleum in a satin finish. I’ll try that with hardener also. Somewhere in here is the answer. I just need a break in the action long enough to play with these and see how they look.
Kind of OT in that I used semi-gloss black rustoleum to paint a wrought iron patio set. I just thinned it down 50/50 with generic lacquer thinner, sprayed with my HF purple cheap gun. No hardener and it was nice and dry after 24 hours in the sun drying time. I had thought about adding hardener, but forgot to get any; and the time to paint was at hand to allow the drying in the sun. Seems to be working fine, no adhesion issues and I did some prep on the old wrought iron to ensure it was clean and wire brushed with my 4 inch angle grinder for any rusted areas. Little hand sanding cleanup, and then shoot the paint. If I ever painted a vehicle with Rustoleum, I certainly would do better prep, and would use the hardener. If only to help with curing out. I am not sure if the reducing solvent makes much difference, acetone vs lacquer thinner vs mineral spirits vs other.
Only difference I've seen is the flash / cure time with different solvents. Works fine without hardener, but I have it so I add some.
With the gov enforcement of the recent (2019) reformulation of the oil based paint products, be pretty careful about how much you are reducing the paint. Too much reduction will greatly reduce how long the paint finish lasts in the sun. The paint on my 39 is already fading pretty quickly, I believe the guy that painted it (not me) reduced it too much. Gene
I finally got a chance to shoot a practice panel using flat Rustoleum thinned with mineral spirits and catalyst hardener. I shot the wheel well side of my inner fender. It was pretty corroded, so I placed it in a citric acid bath for 4 days which removed all corrosion. It still has surface pitting, but I can live with that in the wheel well. I painted it first with Rustoleum primer for rusty metal (heavy coat) using a brush and let it dry for a few weeks. As suspected, the hardener added a sheen to the flat paint, which I would rank as a satin finish. I like the finish. I think I will likely go with it on the engine bay side with of course better prep. The wheel well side will now get under coated. I think I’ll do the other panel using the same mix, but starting with Rustoleum Satin Finish paint. My guess is it will move it up to a semi gloss look. More to follow folks....
And now the satin with hardener went up to being (my humble opinion) between semi gloss & gloss. Hard to capture it in the pics. Also got a little negative reaction on my filler panel , which had a different primer and honestly not properly cured first... All in all, I like the concept for frame, inner fenders, etc. If you want to shoot as a top coat, I could see that happening as well, but would use precise measurements for repeatability. HAMB member Valentines Speed Shop , mentioned using Behr Oil based Paint From Home Depot available in hundreds of colors. So flat Behr in the color of your choice with a little hardener equals a satin rat.
Here is the inside of some panel doors I shot with Rustoleum gloss thinned with acetone and some Valspar hardner. Pardon the dust, a breeze kick up right after the last coat. Nice glossy, hard finish.
I have tried the Tractor supply Majic paint but it did not seem to work as well as the rustoleum. They used to sell Valspar tractor restoration shop paint, that stuff was really nice.to work with.
. HAMB member Valentines Speed Shop , mentioned using Behr Oil based Paint From Home Depot available in hundreds of colors. So flat Behr in the color of your choice with a little hardener equals a satin rat. View attachment 4716727 [/QUOTE] Here is my beater parts getter truck that I painted with Behr semi gloss and hardener. Just to give you an idea of the sheen. (Maybe it won't get taken down with the 32 roadster in the bed )
Here is my beater parts getter truck that I painted with Behr semi gloss and hardener. Just to give you an idea of the sheen. (Maybe it won't get taken down with the 32 roadster in the bed ) View attachment 4717540 [/QUOTE] Palm trees in Maryland?
Palm trees in Maryland? Good catch Agele55! LoL I picked the body up in Florida from a fellow Hamber and had to snap a picture with the palms. Although there is a tropical style bar near me in Ocean City, Maryland that brings in palms every summer
Two years ago I was spraying some Tractor Supply Valspar black (glossy) thinned with acetone...Went back to Trac. Sup. to get another 2 qts., shelves were empty. Counter girl said the Calif. Air resources board suits walked in and condemned ALL the oil paint! It has since been replaced with water based crap. I hafta get some out of state, they can send it to my son in Oregon... BAH!!! California. I used to surf here...
I get the oil based Rustoleum at my local Lowes and I live is the crankiest part of California. We even have our own local governing board that makes CARB look like the Girl Scouts.
Our tractor supply quit selling the Valspar stuff, probably due to the same reasons as Atwater Mike stated... Maryland isn't far behind Cali it seems. Rustoleum is still widely available although they have switched some products to latex such as thier bed liner ( no were near as good as it used to be!) Just make sure the can doesn't say " clean up with water" or thins with water. I stopped into Rural King while I was in FL and noticed they had a tractor restoration paint but after reading the can it is latex as well
Tractor Supply quit carrying the Valspar Tractor paint here in NY too. Checked Valspar's website and it looks like it might still be available from them. Painted my last 2 rod with it: Semi flat black/ acetone/hardner.
Our Rural King has Majic tractor paint in oil base enamel. I seen Matte black and Gloss black, guess you could mix both and get a satin.
Thanks @AGELE55 . Built the Chev Panel for the wife's "grocery getter". A guy from Long Island offered me "stupid money" for it...wife was really pissed. Recently traded the Sedan Deliv to a fellow HAMBer for his '36 Cabriolet (my avatar) Just Painted the '36 last week...same semi gloss black. Used the"old stand by", John Deer Blitz Black...which is made by Valspar...and seems to be exactly the same paint as Tractor Supply's old Valspar Tractor enamel.
Can Rustoleum be painted over? Was told it had fish oil in the product and other paints would not stick to it.
I just painted my car trailer, using the Tractor Supply Majic oil base matte black enamel with the Majic hardener added. Came out with a nice satin sheen. Not glossy, and not flat. Sprayed it thinned with 1 part lacquer thinner to 2 parts enamel. Using cheap HF purple spray gun, outside high 70s day with lower humidity. Nice conditions except was sunny, be nice for cloud cover. But came out fine and trailer good for many more years. Sent from dumb operator on a smart phone
This worked for me on my ’56 Fairlane frame. Dennis Carpenter sells the hardner to use with the tractor paint. It worked ok with the Rustoleum. Thinned it with acetone. Tisco is the brand of the hardener. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
This is an interesting discussion and money saving too! I just recently painted my dragster with Satin Black. I had played around with the idea of this paint job and that one - not hard to do when you see $5k-$10k paint jobs at the race track every week, but those numbers are a bit out of my range. I didn't expect anything great but the car had been in grey primer for a long time and while I would always laugh and say it was my ode to "Two Lane Blacktop" , I was honestly getting tired of seeing it that way. My car is made up of 8 aluminum panels, 3 down each side and 2 top panels. The hood scoop and front nose are fiberglass pieces. I made one mistake in not getting a good sanded finish on the top of the scoop on one side - just missed it somehow. There was also another mistake but I'll cover that in a moment. With the panels sitting on sawhorses, I wiped them down a couple of times with wax and grease remover. Then just before spraying the panel I would wipe it down with a tack rag. I used a 2:1 mix with acetone, I did not add any hardener. First coat was a light, tack one and I was painting 3-4 pieces at a time so I simply moved from one to the next. Second coat was a coverage coat with about 50% overlap - oh I was using a HVLP gun - a Devilbiss FLG-5, I moved though this coat at a fair pace. I let this sit for 5-7 minutes to allow it to flash - I use an old egg timer. The last coat again was at 50% overlap but I slowed the gun down just a bit and gave it a good color coat. At this point I walked out, set my timer for 1 hour and found something else to do. All of the panels came out great, I was really impressed with how smooth the paint covered. The other mistake I mentioned before was a small bug that got in the side of the front nose. I probably should have left it alone, but using a pair of tweezers I removed it, hit the spot with a 3M pad lightly and then re-shot the nose. The issue is that with all of the panels on the car, buttoned up and ready to race - you can easily tell the nose is a different "level" of black. Eventually, I will repaint it but for now I'll just live with it. The last couple of things is a product called Rat Wax - if you haven't tried the stuff on a flat black or satin black paint job you should. I use the wash and the spray cleaner/wax - follow the instructions and you won't believe how good it looks. It also has a UV protector in it. Lastly, I have another race car to paint and I am going to try the Rustoleum Flat Black but add the Mystic hardener and see if I get a satin-look finish. I'm not sure about the ratio yet, probably 2:1:.25, maybe 2:1:.50 - might spray out a couple of pieces of white poster board and see how it looks first.
Update, my trailer that sits outside all the time has faded to flat after about 6 months. No rust issues at all, just lost the initial satin. Don't know if any actual washing or light scrubbing would bring back to stain. Not worried about it.