Paint Your Wagon - with a roller!

[chickenkoop]

well wait and see what me and covkid got up to today, he'll be posting photo's later.

[CovKid]

Like now: Before and after. Rob can give you the rundown but thats complete prep, and two coats in 2 and a 1/2 hours on rear hatch. Before photo is vactan from LAST year - just shows how well it held up without primer as camper was covered in snow several times!

Pictured rollering and removing masking tape



Typical stone-chipped tailgate, flatted and Vactaned



CovKid applies second coat of Rustoleum (must ask Rob what the RAL colour is!)



Removing masking tape



Finish

After all that time in this heat, our heads felt like they'd been roasted in a George Forman (shouldn't that be Formby? - Turned out nice again) grill.

[The Bobdogs]

Another fruitful day at the 'coalface'...






It's been so hot that the areas I used a small brush on had time to 'flat off' and then just dried...leaving a very good finish!
Hopefully have at least one coat all over before going to I.O.M next weekend...

[dugcati]

looking good Andy - but your still a tart!

[dugcati]

Is there anything in this thread about finishing the paint? - I looked on the wiki and saw the part about using Cif/brasso etc but wondered how people have don the whole van.. I would expect it could cost a fortune in tcut/cif/polishing compound etc doing a whole vehicle?

Also what method of finishing the paint are people favouring?
* by hand
* by electric sander
* by proper eccentric mop
* other means

in line with the above how long is it taking to do a whole van?

[CovKid]

Depends up to what or whose standards. I note that most production cars these days seem to have an extraordinary amount of orange peel in the finish but what is an acceptable standard or finish has changed greatly. Chickenkoop and I are working on a full-finish project at the moment but basically (and much depends on how skillfully the paint was applied) you work to much finer grades. We're using an electric sander, wet, and this is giving us great results so far.

[catflaps]

Hello,
I know there is loads of info on here about thinner/paint ratios but i still dont think i'm getting it right. To begin with i started at the higher end of the scale with about 15% thinners and have since gradually dropped to around 5%! My experience has been the more thinners added the more bubbles when i roll, perhaps i should be going the other way and putting more thinners in?

I'm covering a dark colour with white so it's always going to take a few more coats but i'm not overly happy with the results after coat 2. I think i concentrate so much in making sure no bubbles appear that there isn't then enough paint left on the panel to flatten out to a smooth finish. Don't get me wrong it's certainly not a disaster and i'm loving the white but it's not quite as good as i'd expected and i know this is down to my techinique.

Cat

[steveo3002]

Hello,
I know there is loads of info on here about thinner/paint ratios but i still dont think i'm getting it right. To begin with i started at the higher end of the scale with about 15% thinners and have since gradually dropped to around 5%! My experience has been the more thinners added the more bubbles when i roll, perhaps i should be going the other way and putting more thinners in?

I'm covering a dark colour with white so it's always going to take a few more coats but i'm not overly happy with the results after coat 2. I think i concentrate so much in making sure no bubbles appear that there isn't then enough paint left on the panel to flatten out to a smooth finish. Don't get me wrong it's certainly not a disaster and i'm loving the white but it's not quite as good as i'd expected and i know this is down to my techinique.

Cat

white over black will look pretty bad after 2 coats ..dont expect it to look anything else yet

bubbles should even out when you get it right

[T25Convert]

Hello,
To begin with i started at the higher end of the scale with about 15% thinners and have since gradually dropped to around 5%! My experience has been the more thinners added the more bubbles when i roll, perhaps i should be going the other way and putting more thinners in?

Hi,

I don't confess to be an expert (I've done four coats, each one with its own special probelms!) but I found much the same - i.e. more thinners = more bubbles. I went from 15% to 25 % though. It made no difference how long I soaked the roller for (1 hour or 5 minutes) either - still loads of bubbles.

However, the bubbles were much "softer" and smaller the higher the thinners content. I'd roll a panel until the roller was almost entirley out of paint, then use this 'dry-ish' roller to give the area I had just done a working over, and all the bubbles would pop. If the roller was still too 'wet' then it would make the bubbles worse! As CovKid states in his WIKI, use the lightest of touches whilst rolling out the bubbles.

I found through experimentation that (as you would expect) more thinners gave a smoother finish, but the finnished paint was thinner So less covering power, but also less rubbing back....

Its taken me four coats to obscure the remians of a brown stripe round mine (using the might bright orange RAL 2000) so don't loose faith on how it looks after two!!

Good luck with it all!

Alex

[CovKid]

Go below 15% and you might as well trowel it on. The secret to ridding yourself of bubbles is to 'work' the roller in the paint, spending time soaking up and squeezing out the roller in the tray before you even get near the vehicle - a good five minutes spent doing that should eliminate it. Over the weekend with soaring temperatures, an incredible 30% thinners was about right.

As T25convert has rightly stated, thin coats are the way to go. 5% thinners is nowhere near enough and although the ratio may appear to influence the appearance of bubbles, the cause is actually poor preparation of the roller itself.

[Cruz]

Best laid plans? Got the van prepped, in the searing heat, ready to paint to today. Weather forecast was for cooler weather but today it's really cool, the air is damp and it feels like it could rain any minute which would make a mess of a new coat of paint.

Bladdy british weather

[CovKid]

Should be fine today and actually temperature better as it allows more time for paint to level out. What you do have against you now in late May is dust and insects.

[Cruz]

Weather has bucked up. The temp has gone up from 12 to 18 this afternoon, and the damp 'threatening to drizzle' feeling has passed

Applied the finishing touches this morning and the van is washed. Just having some scran whilst it dries off fully then it's the masking.

I painted my first coat in late May last year and avoided the flies and dust. They seem not to like our alleyway.

I thought it seemed a bit cold in April for doing it as we had some frosts and nearly ever morning was damp. Plus I didn't have the time

[CovKid]

Start as early as you can then as the insect count is low first thing. Keep us updated buddy.

[onc onc]

When i painted the side,s and the back of my van the weather was a bit overcast and i was humming and haaing wether to paint or not but went for it in the end and was well pleased with the way it went on and not to many bubbles to flatten out, however the weekend just gone the weather was a scorcher and while painting the front of van not only did i have the sun to deal with(oh my eyes) but the paint seemed to dry to quick and the finish is reasonable but not as good as the rest of me van, so what i have concluded that overcast is better than full sun, saying that it could always be down to me not getting the mix correct, but i,m still pleased as punch and will try to post some more piccies later.. Happy Days