The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Paint Question for DIYers

For those who are doing their own basic priming and painting, just wondering what products you are using? I'll hopefully be ready to paint my 59 project this summer and just want to get an idea of what people are using for their paint systems. I'm hoping to find something that's forgiving for the novice but still allows for custom mixed colors, but is also affordable as this project is going back to working as a farm truck, so I'm looking for "driver" quality results if that makes sense. Probably too much to ask, but I'm a cockeyed optimist at heart. I've been working my way up from painting tractors and farm equipment, so have the painting equipment and air in the shop needed.

Kevin, i have not built a "show" vehicle and have always had good luck with the "shop line" of paints with good results.
"the paint is only as good as the painter"........"the painter is only as good as the paint"

I used Nason shop line on my 37 years ago and it has held up very well.

I am currently working on my 50 coupe and using a brand I had never heard of from my little towns "paint specialties". I'm currently using WANDA which I had never heard of. You can google it and read about it. So far I am tickled with the way it lays down and looks.

just my .02 for this trip.

I've only gotten to the primer stage, but am using NAPA/Martin Senour epoxy (their #302, IIRC), and have had good results with it. It does depend on equipment used and technique, as does any paint. My first try was with a compressor was too small to keep up with the gun demand, and had some issues, but once I replaced that compressor with a capable one, things went a lot better.

I've been using Southern Polyurethanes. Epoxy primer. Easy to spray, easy to sand, easy to coat. $200 will get you 2 sprayable gallons. They will ship to your door if you don't have a jobber near by. Unfortunately, they just temporarily closed their doors due the the COVID stuff. Hopefully, they can reopen soon! Southern Polyurethanes

"In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and Georgia's shelter in place request we have decided to temporarily suspend operations.

If you are a new customer and looking for a distributor you can email [email protected] with your shipping zip code and we will respond with distributor info shortly.

Thanks!"

I have been using Omni paint and primer for quite a few years and am happy with the results. It is a PPG brand but is considerably cheaper than PPG paint.

If your not looking for perfection you can try the stuff I used .

I got my paint from Home Depot , primer is an Acrylic epoxy paint that you might find in the household paint section as it is used for concrete floors as well .
It dilutes with water I get out of water bottles which you will need to do as its to thick to flow through a spray gun out of the can , about 10 % worked for me but experiment for yourself. It went on well,covered well and just a light sanding got it smooth enough for a finish coat. About $50. CDN a gallon .
For the finishing paint again Home Depot , I decided to go with BEHR latex exterior house paint, the stuff they use for siding and such.
I used this stuff about 4 years ago . When I bought my truck some patches had been put in and primed in some spots but not others so I bought some BEHR
paint which I could match close to the original color in a flat paint. They have 5 or 6 different finishes ranging from flat to high gloss , but flat hides flaws better.
I did a quick sanding , in some places to bare metal and used 2 quarts to paint the complete truck over the bare metal , light rust and original paint.
I wasn't to fussy as this was a temporary fix .Well here we are 4 years later and the spots where I painted over pin hole size rust marks are starting to show through
but where I painted over bare metal all is fine.
Now I'm in the process of repainting, and sanding of this paint has become a chore , its on there good .
By the way when I painted this truck 4 years ago my total cost including tape and incidentals was about $ 100.
I don't think if I was building a show truck that I would use this paint , nor would I attempt to paint it myself , but for a daily driver or some one trying to do touch ups
on faded paint this might work. I did at one point spray a can of automotive clear coat over this paint as an experiment and it stuck well, no negative affects on the
latex paint.

Good Luck

John

Another option to consider is to contact Chad Sperry at Auto Rod Technologies https://www.autorodtechnologies.com/ in Michigan. He is a jobber for SPI products and if you're doing BC/CC he might be able to fix you up with a quality base coat. Very fair pricing. [email protected]

That's a question with different answers. Are you considering base coat/clear coat, catalyzed or non-catalyzed, acrylic, urethane, plain old enamel, lacquer, what? You mentioned driver quality on a farm. If you're looking for a single-stage paint that goes on nicely and dries tack-free fairly quickly, like 66rollback mentioned, I've had good luck with OMNI/MAE with hardener. WEAR A GOOD MASK. The hardener is tough stuff and can mess up your lungs like crazy but the paint is nice to work with and covers well. You don't need a lot of pressure to shoot it, either. Good luck.

Jon's advice to WEAR A GOOD MASK is excellent/important.

Maybe some members can make suggestion on appropriate masks/breathing-equipment?

I bought a 3M Half Facepiece Reusable Respirator 6300 (can't buy one on Amazon right now, though, and probably very few places) along with 3M 6001 Organic Vapor cartridges that clip on. When I was primering outside with the mask on, I couldn't smell a thing. But when I walked away and took the mask off, the odor was immediately there. They work and are good protection.
You can also get N95 particulate filters (3M Particulate Filter 2071) for the mask for dusty work. (Again, those may be hard to come by currently. I paid $8.95 for 6 pair of those back in 2015, and I see them for $25 + shipping now, and they're on backorder. )

Thanks guys for the info...I knew that folks would have some good suggestions! As far as type of paint, enamel, lacquer, etc., I'm really not sure what's being recommended these days?

Also, for a daily-driver/work truck do most people just use a single stage paint, as that would be easier to touch up?

N95, N100, P95, P100's. All work well for dust work.

For paint work, I've been using a Honeywell 75SCP100L filter, with good ventilation.

I recently used paint from Summit Racing... same for my epoxy primer. I didn’t have a proper set up, nor an official shop.

In my garage, one of those self contained turbine paint guns (Wagner brand), and this epoxy/paint. Epoxy came our fairly well... However the paint was rough. I put it on thick and was able to smooth it out quite well with 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 grit sandpaper. It’s driver quality, took a lot of work, would have probably turned out better with a real compressor/spray gun.

I used single stage acrylic urethane

I painted my truck with paint from Jim Carter. It was PPG ALK-200, acrylic enamel.. I went with that because it was the only way to get the color I wanted (Burgundy Maroon, 1953 only). I mixed it with hardener from the local paint store and it worked well. I used Rustoleum red primer under everything. I probably put at least three thick coats of primer on.

However...I had to paint the truck in pieces, cab, then doors, then fenders, then bed. No way to use a sprayer, so I did the whole job with a small foam roller. And small foam brushes for touch-up and small areas. I sanded the primer pretty well before putting on the finish coat, and it came out ok. Not a show job, but from 8 feet it looks really nice. And I didn't have to worry about breathing the stuff because nothing was floating around in the air.

If I had been able to paint it all at once, and had a suitable shop, I probably would have sprayed, and gotten a better finish, but it came out good enough for a daily driver, and I spread out the work over several months. I was pretty satisfied.

Tim

have been using the ALK-200 for a few years now. It’s the base for many of the Body paints sold by the venders As well as the engine paint. You can use it with or without the hardener. Mix it in any color. One of the nice features is you can use a small Artist paintbrush to touch up the small dings as well as nuts and bolts. I spray out my frame (semi-gloss black) then as I finish restoring the small parts, I paint them with a small brush before I install them, engine included. You can buy it in small quantity. I spray the body.
Spray the big stuff, brush the small stuff. You will never see the brush marks on the small stuff. No toxic fumes.

Mike