Paint Your Wagon - with a roller!

[CovKid]

And really take your time to start with, completely saturating the roller and squeezing out any air bubbles. Once you've got the roller in that state, loading more paint is easy and you'll find bubbles pose no issue at all. Its really only when you first start that it can create problems which is down to rushing the initial loading process with a dry roller.

[onc onc]

Well folks the paint has turned up and i have put a coat on the old mini bonnet which i am using as ma practice project before i start slopping it all over me van, now the only problem i seem to have is quite a few little bubbles, now i,m not sure if this is down to me pressing to hard with the roller to start with, but after a little practice i got used to just rollering with just the weight of the roller and this seemed to remove any roller marks but i still seem to be left with bubbles, any ideas? thanks

Onkers

I had the same problem too

After a little play around with the paint i found that just soaking the roller and then leaving for around about half hour before using seemed to cure the bubbles problem, they were still there but this time they just seemed to pop and i was left with a very good finish, so now when the weather gets better im gonna go for it.

Onkers

[Llamapup]

If the weather here in Leeds holds out. I'm going to try and complete the rest of the prep on my Westy ready to start rollering over the next 3 or 4 weekends.

I just spent a few more hours and hav finnaly managed to get all the Westfalia stripes off the side of the van. That took ages but at least its done.

I have already dealt with a few rusty seems and the fairly superficial rust underneath the front bumper. Just a few spots here and there to deal with now. And then its time for me to address the odd dent on my van. Not only is it my first time ever painting, but its also the first time I have ever done any body filling.

Nothing like taking a grinder to your car for the first time.

Yikes!

[gaz f]

Hi Guys,

Just on the off chance, I'm trying to find somewhere to buy rustoleum in Germany, preferably a webshop but I'm struggling to come up with anything. I know there are a few guys on here living in Germany so does anyone know where I can find it??

[steveo3002]

http://www.ro-m.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

german site above...email them and ask about local stockists or websites

[gaz f]

Thanks steveo, I had seen that site and looked through the new one it has a link for which does have links to a few suppliers in Germany, but none seem to have webshops and seem to be trade suppliers. I was hoping someone knew of a straight retailer. I'd buy it in the Uk, but would probably get stopped with it in my suitcase trying to get home!

[steveo3002]

its not that easy to find here , i have to drive 45 mins to buy it

can you not mail some to yourself from here? some cheapish corriers on ebay

[dreamcatcher]

Spotted a 110 watt electric sprayer in aldi today so grabbed it as they were nearly all gone, it says on the box suitable for all water based and celulous based paints and also said suitable for car painting, just wondering if anyone has tried one of these on their van using combi colour and if so what was the result, sorry but unable to post pics of the sprayer but it looks just like a weed sprayer but smaller with a 1.5 ltr bottle attached and basicly plug in and spray, any feedback would be great, Cheers.

[CovKid]

I too saw that but quickly came to the conclusion that if I was going to spray (and I don't now), I'd use a much better gun than that.

Looked fine for fence spraying though. I'll happily give it a test though if its cheap enough. Let us know how you get on but bear in mind its out of the scope of this thread for obvious reasons. Once we start drifting into that area, the thread is lost. Do start a new thread if you feel it warrants it though.

[8bit-ash]

Spotted a 110 watt electric sprayer in aldi today so grabbed it as they were nearly all gone, it says on the box suitable for all water based and celulous based paints and also said suitable for car painting, just wondering if anyone has tried one of these on their van using combi colour and if so what was the result, sorry but unable to post pics of the sprayer but it looks just like a weed sprayer but smaller with a 1.5 ltr bottle attached and basicly plug in and spray, any feedback would be great, Cheers.

Don't think we're allowed to use the "S" word on this thread. just quickly though-

I've been pretty much looking through every forum searching for rustoleum info. A few people on a US honda forum and UK mini forum had fairly good success with those cheap electric guns you get. 3 coats seem to be what most people lay on which is comparable to 8 or so roller coats. I've read a lot of posts where people have just got bored and given up on rolling and opted for the cheap spray gun option with much better success.
I'm going down the spray route as i'd rather get it done in a long weekend compared to several weeks of faffing.

Theres a pic of the sort of gun a lot of people seem to use on this thread-
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?i ... d=56188400

[CovKid]

And the ALDI version pictured here. http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/sp ... _13570.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nothing against spraying by the way, but I think it will dilute the thread. Much better to start a fresh one as spraying is a much wider subject area and this is roller-specific.

Heres the spraying-specific one: http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66623" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[twd40]

Looking for a little advice on removing stickers, stripes etc. before I paint my van. Any ideas would be of great use, Ta twd40

[Llamapup]

Looking for a little advice on removing stickers, stripes etc. before I paint my van. Any ideas would be of great use, Ta twd40

I just removed all of the stickers from my Westy Joker using my wife's hair dryer and paint scraper with a sharpened blade. It did damage the surounding paint, but as I was going to repaint anyway it didn't matter to me. You have to be pretty systematic with a scrapper and hair dryer as the stikers only come off easily when quite hot. It does work though. I reckon all the Westy stickers took me about 4 hours to remove. Crap job, but needed doing.

Some people have suggested using a "toffee wheel". Which attaches to your drill. As the wheel spins you push it up againts the stickers and I guess it must just blast them off.

I reckon a heat gun would help too.

Good luck

Llamapup

[eatcustard]

That aldi one is utter pants

You need to spend £150 to get a decent one

[Llamapup]

Here is an update on the progress with my van rollering. I'm painting the bottom half using RAL 2000 Orange. I have completed the prep work on both sides. This involved removing Westy stickers. Grindng out rusty seams with a wire wheel attachment for my drill and filling a few dents.

I bought a random orbital sander (ROS) which has really helped speed up sanding the filler in my dents and just generally flatting back the whole side of the van. Word of caution when using a ROS for filling dents. You must use wet dry sand paper as well to finish the job, otherwise you cant feel the level of the filler with your hands.

Here is a photo of my van painted orange on one side. After only one coat.





Here is a photo of the van after realising that there was still a dent in the van that I missed when doing the prep. The dents really show up on shiny new paint!





Word to the wise...... Don't miss any dents like I did. Otherwise you will just have to strip off the paint and fill them. Lucky for me it wasn't a huge dent and I was able to fill it pretty quickly. I have since painted over the area with one coat of orange to match the rest of the side of the van.

I have refitted the headlights even though the front still needs more prep work and painting up. The van will be used for school run tommorow, just one day after some painting. Thats the beauty of this method, you can paint bits as you have the time.

Llamapup

More pics will follow as I make progress.