Paint Your Wagon - with a roller!

[weegaz22]

Agreed. Needs a flat and polish but that'll be in a few months... no hurry

What RAL number was this? 9010?

Looks good, black roof sets it off nicely, don't know if i could get away with that on my westy pop top, would be too much black i think

[Budgie7]

Need some advise on painting please. I have started doing some repair work on the rear panel of my van, done the rust repair and seam work.
Now do I just paint over the repair and blend in or is it better to paint the whole panel.
If I was spraying I would try and blend in but I am going to roller the CovKid way, or least try.
If I paint the whole quarter will it be easier to flat and polish later on or does is not make any difference.
The picture hopefully shows what repairs I have done.
Thanks for any help or ideas you might have

[CovKid]

You don't say if it was painted with Rustoleum before or how long ago. Most reds are prone to fade though not put Rustoleum to the test as I've not used red. Assuming its recent and rollered, I'd blend in, although no bother to mask off and do the panel I suppose. Mine is blue and I managed to blend after 8 years, which is how long ago I did mine.

[Budgie7]

I don't know what type of paint was used before, when the van was repainted all over. What I do know from the small touch ups I have done is the colour is 100 % perfect and even the finished " texture " is the same. So whether it was painted with rustoleum ?.
What I am worried about are bubbles, yes I have had several trial runs ,with varying degrees of success, or not. Lol.
Anyway I mixed my paint last night. So am going to have a go this morning .

[Trundler]

Oh hell, paint the whole van.. go on you'll enjoy it.

[Budgie7]

Started this morning, gave the area one coat which went on ok but you can still see the repair through the paint so will need at least one more coat.
Still don't know if I should paint the whole panel when I give it the next coat or hope I can blend the repaired area in ok when I flatten and polish.
The colour match is perfect so if it works ok when I flatten and polish the panel ,I can do a few little other repairs that I want.

[Budgie7]

Picture of my first coat. You can see the dull overlap of the paint. I am hoping that I can blend this in when I flatten it if not I will have to paint the whole panel.
Any suggestions welcome

[CovKid]

Yeah, flatting and a rubbing compound should blend that.

[Budgie7]

I will give it one more coat then we shall see what results I get. Hope it matches the rest of the paint work.

[Cyrus]

Getting there

[orangebooboobearcrew]

Had a little paint up yesterday. Front panel before







And after...

[Trundler]

Looks good! What shade of orange is that?

[Trundler]

So, after painting my replacement tailgate (see page 194) and waiting for two weeks (I know it should be three but the weather was very warm) the manky finish was ready for flatting. It really was bad. Somehow I had managed to accomplish a number of the classic Rustoleum rollering gaffs... I had orange peel, evidence of un-popped bubbles AND runs/sags. It was gruesome.

Anyway, after a serious session with the wet and dry I was bathed in sweat and various areas of the red lead primer (and the matt black under that) were showing again but the tailgate was considerably smoother. The prospect of repeating the whole process over again, including the 2/3 week wait for the paint to harden did not fill me with glee - I want to get this tailgate fitted. I therefore turned to the dark side and painted it with Rustoleum Painters touch aerosols.  Three coats went on in an afternoon and were hard dry by the following day.

As I've previously said, getting an even finish with aerosols on a big panel is almost impossible (for me anyway) but the finish is now just about acceptable and the tailgate is now almost ready for fitting. Once fitted I'll decide whether to do a final rollered coat.

The biggest drawback with the rollered Combi Color is that long curing time, which really slows the job down. The aerosols are much more convenient and (if you can get a match) they are a good option for smaller parts or getting a quick finish.

I've left the badges off for now, in case I decide to do a final coat but I've noticed that, on the original tailgate, the holes for the 'Transporter' badge are slightly higher, to make room for the 'syncro' badge underneath - a subtle difference between the syncro and a 2WD van that I was not aware of. My syncro badge will now have to be positioned either on the raised "bar" beneath the Transporter badge, or underneath that. It won't quite look 'factory' but, oh well...

Pics to follow when I get onto fitting.

[orangebooboobearcrew]

Looks good! What shade of orange is that?

Hi,

I can't remember the shade but it was a standard off the shelf Rustoleum colour - when I get a minute (yeah right ) I'll check the tin...

Saw your post on your tailgate rollering adventures. Agree, this is a slow, labour intensive and time consuming process and I have had the same issues with peel, etc but nothing some elbow grease won't sort out and for me, (as many others have said), the cheapness of this method compared to a respray plus the ability to do yourself with basic skills and equipment and to touch up when some buffoon dinks you in a car park, far outweighs the short term pain of doing it....

I think the paint is brilliant and as I've said before, fair plays to Covkid for all the work he has put into this thread and sharing the love with us all...

[what2do]

Hardening time is accelerated by the amount of thinners you use. It's the oil in the paint that has to cure, thus, the thicker the paint (due to low ratio of thinners) the longer the cure time. It's better to apply a couple of thin coats back to back to get the coverage and they'll still cure quicker than one thicker coat.

Bubbles, they're the cause of much concern which is why over the past week I've been experimenting with garage doors. I've mixed the paint 80:20, shaken it and poured it straight into the tray, rollered it immediately without squeezing any into the roller. Applied it straight onto the door, it's full of bubbles and looks like an aero chocolate bar. These are the things that you must avoid but I wanted to experiment a little. I immediately went over the paint with a quality laying off brush, to be honest I wasn't expecting anything positive as the finish was shocking initially (of course) but with a very very fine passing of the brush all the bubbles disappeared. Once it began to dry, it looked ace. And because of the thinner ratio, it was hard next day and I dared to sand it in 6 days without any problem. I'm going to try and paint another bit and then sand in 2 or 3 days.

The fly in the ointment is that the garage door is yonks old and has years of brush strokes visible. I need to get hold of a scrap washing machine to practice on. Will local refuse centres allow me to take one off site? Probably not!