The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint your truck with a roller???

Guys, I found this on the sweptline.org forum for Dodge trucks about painting cars/trucks. You can got to the moparts.org forum and see the loooong discussion about this. I'm going to paint my son's truck using this method first, then see what happens. What can I lose??? Read on, fellow 'Bolters!

On the Moparts.org forum there is a thread that is huge its on its 37th page now. Well anyway its about a guy that painted a 69 charger with some stuff called tremclad its the Canadian equivelant to Rustoleum. Well anyway this stuff is a oil based enamel and you thin it down to like buttermilk consistancy with mineral spirits and roll it on with a 4 inch high density roller...yes roll it on. You do two coats wet sand 600 two more coats wet sand 600 two more coats wet sand 1000 then 1500 or 2000 then buff with turtlewax polishing compound yes the cheap pasty stuff. ANd you would be Dumbfounded how nice this turns out!! I have tested this out on a deck lid i had lying around and im on my final coat waiting to hit it with 1500. But let me tell you this works!!!! This paint dries hard like almost unchipable! and buffs to a mirror finish...its amazing. I went to HOME DEPOT and got the tintablr rustoleum profesional and had it tinted to tourqous and then had them add alittle more green to it. Looks good!! This stuff is $25 a gallon. I bought two gallons and the miniral spirits and rollers and sandpaper and im only been out about $70 bucks. I have perfected this technique by practicing on the deck lid now im ready to do my 67 shorty. I have a few dents and dings to fix but i should be able to knock them all out in a week or two then ill get started. I allready took this deck lid i have been practicing on into work. I work at Chrysler here in Stlouis, so there are plenty of guys i know that are gearhead nuts like the rest of us and about 10 guys cant believe how nice this technique turns out. And they all couldnt believe that it was rolled on. I left roller marks around edges so i could prove to them but they still couldnt believe it. they all said you sprayed this!! no way!! hell no!! Get out of here!! you rolled this!! BullS%$T!!!! hahah you guys will not believe it either but ill try to get pics of this while im in process of doing it so you can see for yourself. Cool thing is it can be done anywere without mess no lost paint in air, no special mixing, no problems with fisheyes or anything that makes single stage or two stage paints so finicky!. its great Roll on sand down then buff and wax!! drive the **** out of it! and it cost under $100 bucks and you did it yourself!!

Some of the guys on that moparts forum are painting there cars outside in there apartment parking lots and getting great results and tons of compliments.!! check it out Moparts.org then click question and answer then look for "paint job on a budget"

stumbled across that one awile back looked impressive.i think the key is the wet sanding and the buffing. a guy i wark with is redoing a 74 kawasaki 900.he was gonna have it painted,i told him to do it himself.told him i would show him how to get a killer paint job with a spray can.he was skeptical.he bought a gun metal gray metallic from advance.after primer sprayed three coats wetsand with 600 repeat. then spray it with four or five coats of clear also spray cans then wet sand and buff with rubbing compound.paint job was unbelievable.he was shocked. i've painted many bikes this way. it takes a little effort but its well worth it. congrats on your paint.love doin it on the cheap.......dave

Originally cars were laquered by hand with a brush before spray processes were invented and became common- it just takes a lot of labor in sanding and polishing. Spray is a time saver.

If you have enough time you could paint a car with a roller. It all depends on what your time is worth, I guess. Mine is worth more than that, to me anyway.

You can also hand excavate a basement with a shovel and pour a concrete driveway with a wheel barrow and sackrete but you trade labor for material cost.

don't take long at all Josiah, don't hafta do too much prep or nearly as much masking, depends more on what yer car is worth! - I know a number of folks who've rolled the paint on their vehicles, one that even used freebie house paint .... guess it's a Canadian thing

Bill

I asked the question once before about the airless sprayers like a Wagner Power Painter. Any body done that?

I saw a Corvette that was painted with a Wagner,
the results were VERY nasty. It left an extremly
rough texture in the finish. What was even worse
is that it was metallic paint. I think I'd brush
or roller paint my truck instaid.

All I can say about the roller paint is: try it on something!!! There is so much wasted paint with a gun, even a HVLP set-up. Wouldn't it be worth a C-note to try it out on a parts truck or your barn beater, or maybe a tractor??? Plus, the roller is NOT a 99-cent Dollar General special. I could spray-paint a car with several cans of Krylon, too, but are the results going to be worth anything??? It all depends on the prep!

"This paint dries hard like almost unchipable!"

What makes it this way? Does the wet sanding do something?
I've used Rustoleum Professional in spray can, regular in spray can and applied out of a quart can with a sponge brush and can usually flake it off with a fingernail. One tiny thing hits it and the paint's marred.
-David

What about clear-coating? Do you put a clear coat on with the roller also? I'd like to try this on my '70. Doing a little bit at a time, in my "spare time", sounds pretty appealing. Need more info. Keep us posted!

Never mind, went to Mopart.com & read all about it. Still thinking of trying on a fender. Sounds kinda easy though.

I think the whole point here is the sanding. You don't have to sand between EACH coat, but the sanding is what gives you a nice even surface. If you put on 2-3 coats and then sand and knock down the high spots, then do it again, you can get 4-6 coats of paint on and only have to sand twice. I think the buffing is more of a pain than sanding. I haven't done this with clear coat but I imagine its the same.