Here's my job I just did this morning. I know the car might not be HAMB-approved to some, but I figured it's okay since it's an actual I/Gas drag car... I set up a makeshift spray booth in one corner of my garage using plastic sheeting. I had 10 clip-on work lights in various spots all around the car at different angles, each with 100-watt bulbs in them. Also, I scored 4 box fans from the thrift store and put them under the partially-open garage door facing out. Seal up the space to the sides of the fans as well, so you don't have any open spaces. I'm not going to get into the bodywork here. There's plenty of other info about bodywork everywhere. So, after all the bodywork, patching and such, and masking, I sanded everything with 180 grit, tack-ragged it, then wiped everything down with acetone... I used Rust-Oleum clean metal white primer (2 qts), thinned only about 5-10% with acetone. I discovered acetone dries quicker than mineral spirits, so that was what I used for the primer. I sanded the primer with 400 grit, tack-ragged it, and wiped it down again, then repeated the spray-sand-tack-wipe process... Right before paint, I got everything ready, and my brandy-new spray gun I got off ebay (bad move, I know) would absolutely not spray! I took it apart, made sure it was clean, popped it back together, and nothing. I am still clueless. So, I scooted off to Harbor Freight for a new gun. Yeah, I know, there's way better guns out there than HF krap, but hey, I'm using Rust-Oleum, this is supposed to be a BUDGET job! Besides, I didn't have 150+ bones to drop on a halfway decent gun. I got a good deal on a 2-gun gravity-feed HVLP set, one big gun and one detail gun, with extra nozzles and a cleaning set for 50 bucks. What the hell, I grabbed it. They were actually pretty decent. But, by the time I got back home, it was dark and the cold night air was going to hamper any thought of spraying until the next day. So, after letting everything sit overnight, I tacked and wiped it down one more time before doing the deed. I used Rust-Oleum Professional gloss white in a gallon can, thinned with about 10% mineral spirits. I used mineral spirits instead of acetone this time, because I wanted any orange peel that might occur to settle down before flash-drying. Worked like a charm. I had 2 water separators inline, one is 20 feet from the compressor, and one last-chance inline filter right by the gun. I also have a mini-regulator and gauge at the gun. I set it to 30psi. Set up my gun, and went to town... Now, I have done my fair share of paint jobs. I used to work in a body shop doing prep, and they'd let me use the booth after hours when I needed to paint. I gotta say, the Rusto is not bad to work with. It's comparable to any basic single-stage enamel I have ever used. Laid on nice, great coverage, and not much of the orange-peel I hear about everyone else having. As it sits, it's nice and glossy, and I have heard it holds up extremely well over the years. I'll let this sit at least a few days, maybe longer since I did not use a hardener. Once this is cured, I plan on hitting it with some 400-grit and doing a second coat, then color-sanding if necessary and buffing. But, you get the idea. Overall I couldn't be happier with the job.
Nice, but 400 grit might be little too aggressive. I've tried two different test panels following the original thread on a mopar forum and have found that even the 600 grit I was using for the first wet sand would easily cut thru both layers!
With how bad the urathane paints sink up a conjested nieghborhood and draw unwanted atention,I have had to use similar method, In my case use the black rustolium refrigerator epoxy, seems to have a real slow reducer in it and don't have over spray problems.
For an experiment I bought a 1/2 pints of the aluminum and black,mixed 50-50 and came out with a cool metellic gray.I'm gonna use that color on my '31 Chevy pickup.
Ive been experimenting with rustoleum around the shop, just spraying different pieces of equipment to get a feel for the paint. Ive been using mineral spirits and will try acetone in the future. PEARL, I used pearl from http://stores.ebay.com/Custom-Painting-Pearls, and it layed down nice and even (shot copper pearl in brown rustoleum on my mailbox), no particular measurements, just dumpsed some in. FLAKE The flake the above seller has didnt lay down in rustoleum well at all. You guys might try some test panels, the pearl is cheap enough you can experiment.
I'm on my second winter in my rustoleum-repainted beater van. This one I painted over some actual rust spots with it. So far even though a lot of the paint is really poorly done it's holding up fine; the rust has bled back through a bit in a few places but more because I didn't knock myself out prepping the spots than anything else. I did change a door on it and painted to match and even though all I did was sand and spray, it looks pretty decent. I spent a little more time on that one since it was loose and if you look close it shows. I may redo my 1-ton hauling truck's cab that way, it needs fenders and doors swapped out anyhow.
im gonna paint my dads truck using rusto. cant beat the price to make an old farm truck all spiffy again
As mentioned before, this is so hip for the home built hot rod. I love the confidence to go against the grain and do a money saving job. The hot rod is very excellent use of a mor-door car often shunned and a low buck paint job is awesome. Go man Go! ~sololobo~
Looks great! My only concern is how well it holds up to automotive chemicals, bird shit, stone chips etc.. I was once restoring a motorcycle and painting the parts with lacquer primer and Centari when a friend convinced me to switch to epoxy primer and urethane. I tested both in the bead blaster, the former could be blown right off, the latter took quite a punishment before it came off.
I used Rustoleum Satin black applied with a roller on the bed cover on my 53 F100 a few years ago and it has held up very well to bird droppings and such. Actually as it cured over the years it has gotten smoother. I did it because the fiberglass cover came primed and I just wanted it to look better until I decided what I wanted the final result to be. Turned out so well it has stayed that way.
thanx for the re-post on this subject. Going to do the top panel of my pickup roof this week. Love your hot rod bro. ~sololobo~
I have used a lot of Rustoleum (Tremclad in canada), other alkyd sythetic enamels too. My recipe, mix 8-4-1 paint, automotive enamel reducer slow-med-or fast, 1 part universal wet-look hardener, shoot on 1.4-1.5 tip. I would like to shoot some of this with a Binks model 7 sometime. I have also cut this stuff in a pinch with urethane grade reducers too, and of course naptha and mineral spirits. The rusty metal primer is great, let fully cure, after shooting on, then have used everything from lacquer based to 2 k urethane high build primers and all types of fillers. THE PRIMER MUST BE FULLY CURED FIRST. Here are pics of a 47 Chrysler I used to own, painted with rusto type enamel, lots of paint on for cut and polish, but this baby was good and shiny for years just sold her this spring. My 1955 Fargo truck, will painted with Home Hardware rust enamel, they tint to any color too..
Sooooooo.......I got ripped off on the 5800 dollar black attack, ay ?? Well that fukn' sucks balls then, don't it ?
Yes at first I was planning use rustoleum paint but when I saw that rattle can celery color I just went for it.
It would be nice to see this thread continued- anyone want to comment on how their Rustoleum paint jobs have held up? I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on my '50 Chevy truck
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