Technical How do short guys paint roofs?

More specifically, how do guys with short arms paint metalics on roofs? It's not a height issue, as I have made two 20" tall x 6' platforms. My problem is my arms are not long enough to hold the spraygun in the proper perpendicular position to get a good even spray pattern at the center of the roof. I can get it close enough with the primers and clearcoats, but the base coat metalic is giving me fits!
I can't be the only one who has this problem. Yeah, I know, I should let the pros do it, but I've always been proud of the fact I've been able to say I built the car 100% myself.
We had a thread going a few months ago on tools WE WISHED were available. lol, I need a paint gun extension!
frustrated DIY'r gettin' ready for another try.

 

You need more serious scaffolding, so you only have to reach down to paint the roof. Or a taller vehicle, that no one can see the roof (I did that trick on my Suburban).

 

Drone

 

I have a painter friend with long arms.

 

LOL, yep......some type of a higher rig I could at least lean against, but kept thinking of anything being touched or moved above the car was asking for debris/dust/Texas silt being dropped into the new paint.
Not sure If I want another project in designing and building an aluminum lightweight extension that the gun could be bolted to, that added a foot or so to the reach, and of course had a trigger mechanism to actuate the gun's trigger. Sometimes I think too much. I should have mentioned also, I'm 71, so being a gymnast balancing one one foot while I'm walking the platforms and strugling with hoses isn't in the cards anymore, lol

 

Rent an arm stretcher

 

Suspension system to hang you over the car

 

I don't see this ending well.

 

Roll it on to it's side.

 

Short painters just claim they did a fade away roof paint job on purpose and charge extra for it.

 

Otherwise like relic mentioned above I just tip it sideways on my rotisserie.

 

Let the air out of the tires

 

Sorry sir,
Being only 5ft 9in on a good day, I can share plenty of tips to get higher to paint, but I don't think there are too many to overcome "alligator arms"
God Bless
Bill

 

Call your 6'3" son to come help with his "monkey arms"...his description.

 

Self explanatory and innovation will prevail.

 

He needs to drape that hose over the back of his neck. It keeps the hose away from the car. Otherwise he did a really nice job on your roof.

 

About the most logical suggestion so far.

 

Easy, chop the top!

 

They drive roadsters?

 

I've watched him my entire life. He can paint an entire booth of parts hung from the ceiling, set up on sawhorses, on barrels, etc and navigate the entire thing with an uncanny sense of where the hose, his gun, his head, and shoulders are at to keep from touching anything.

Not to say he doesn't make mistakes, but all the best painters know how to fix them without anyone knowing.

 

I saw guys painting a roof on a 12 passenger van, painter on a ladder while two guys pushed the van past the painter.

 

Smacks of a "Chinese firedrill" but that's a great idea!

 

I painted a school bus once, I just walked around on the roof to paint. Nobody would ever see it.
Ruined my good sneakers though....

 

We had a painter named Shorty just barely over 5ft. Tall , he kept 5gal. Thinner cans and lined them up next to the car when he painted a roof, sometimes he would come over to the body shop and get me to paint the roofs for him.
We later figured it out to paint new roofs off the vans and then put them on and since you welded in the drip rail area we just filled it with seam sealer and we were done. We also painted the inside of van 1/4 panels before we put them on this saved us from unloading so they could paint the inside.
Where there is a will there is a way.

 

I used to stand on a milk crate and my brother would grab me by my belt while I leaned over the roof. Trust-building exercise.

 

I usually get “higher” by not using my mask on the first coat....but on a lighter note, air out of tires and I also used spare wheels on rims. Easy to move and stable. Nobody sees the roof anyways . Unless it is a low profile car like a gt-40. (Then that’s all you see, and you wouldn’t have that painting problem...)

 

That's cheating but boy does it make it nice

 

Get a big bungie cord tied around your waist and to the wall behind ya.