Paint Your Wagon - with a roller!

[Andy c]

Bubbles.

Had my first go at rollering yesterday, and despite watching the video and following this thread I could not stop the bubbles. I tried three different types of gloss roller, and let the roller soak. They did not disappear as the paint dried either.
I can get rid of the bubbles by lightly running a fine brush or foam brush over the surface before it dries, but I dont want to be doing this for 3 or 4 coats. Therefore I am off to get some mohair rollers. Any advice on rollering with them would be great. Will I need to let them soak for a while also?

For the record I used 20% thinners from b&q, rustoleum mixed to original vw colour by avenue coatings, mixed together gently the night before with the thinners.
Rollers from wilko, harris and b&q (diall). The bodywork was rubbed back with 180 grit, cleaned several times the night before, and wiped down with a lint free cloth before painting. I cant see why I would get the bubbles.

However. It was foggy in the morning. Could this have affected the paint? I didnt' start painting til the fog had lifted though.

Anyhow lets hope mohair is the way to go

[CovKid]

It only occurs (if at all) with a fresh roller. I generally work it on some clean scrap for first few minutes/ Can't advise on mohair - entirely different technique.

[boatbuilder]

I think you'll find that unless you spray it you'll have some amount of bubbles to pop. Tip it off lightly with a clean dry roller or clean good quality brush.

[Woodyyellow]

I found that I had bubbles from the roller when first applied, but keep rollering. With very little pressure after you have applied the paint to an area, so with an almost dry roller and I found that the bubbles were "reabsorbed" and removed. Practice makes perfect! Let it dry/cure and then rub down poor areas and reapply.

[Trundler]

My van first appeared in this thread on page 156. I roller painted it in sections over a few weeks in 2013 – progress pics on pages 159, 160 and 161 and was happy (ish) with the results. I always intended to do more flatting, add more coats and, ultimately, polish. However, you know how these things are.. I never got around to it.

The finished paint job caused surprise in some circles (my local garage for one) and drew admiration in others and I’ve happily run the van for the past three years whilst concentrating on other more mechanical jobs (there are always plenty to be going on with).

Here are a couple of recent pics. One taken last year and the other very recently, just before ‘The Tree Incident’ (more of that in the next post).

Syncro OCT 2015 1.jpg

Syncro at Inskip.jpg

The paint has held up well. It may have faded very slightly (or maybe it’s just dirty!) but reds are known to be bad for that.

I’d say it is softer than the paint usually found on cars and gets scuffed/scratched more easily but, as CovKid always says, it’s easy to touch up.

[Trundler]

So, to The Tree Incident. I often park the van on a kind of ‘siding’ next to my drive, so that I can get another car past it. The siding is quite steep so I always leave the van in gear, usually the ‘G’ gear. On the fateful day, a week ago, I jumped in the van, stupidly assumed it was in ‘G’ and attempted to set off, somewhat enthusiastically. It wasn’t in G it was in reverse and before I could stop I’d reversed hard into the tree visible in the pic below! Note in the pic that a rather more healthy safety margin has been left between tree and van - along with a brick as extra insurance.

Tree damage 1.jpg

It was a heavy impact, buckling the bumper, smashing the rear window and putting a deep v-section dent in the tailgate (my lovely rust-free tailgate)! Oh, dear (or words to that effect). The good thing was, the rear panel had escaped damage!

Tree damage 2.jpg

After cleaning up the shattered glass – not easy on grass – I set about locating a tailgate. My trusty local Type 25 breaker, Mick at Much Hoole (07968 367046) had a choice of two, both at £200. One had wash wipe and a heated screen and the other had niether. However, I chose the one with plain glass because it was in better condition. Mick also did me a deal on a new black bumper.

Tree damage 3.jpg

The tailgate was matt black so my next port of call was Ace Décor in Preston for a new tin of RAL 3005 Wine Red Combi-Color and two Rustoleum ‘Painters Touch’ aerosols.

I used the aerosols to paint the inside of the tailgate and the bumper. The colour (claret wine) is a perfect match for the wine red and is much more convenient to use, being touch dry in 30 minutes and can be lightly flatted and recoated in an hour. It worked well for the small areas inside the tailgate and for the bumper but it’s my experience that you can’t get an even finish on a large area with rattle cans, so the outside of the tailgate got a coat of red-lead primer (aerosol) before being rollered.

I’m happy with the finish on the bumper (it’s described as satin but seems glossy enough for me) but I’m not happy with the first rollered topcoat on the tailgate, so much so I’m not showing it to you..

A storm of flying dandelion seeds erupted the day I was painting and despite painting in the garage quite a few got in and stuck to my paint. I picked them all off but with this and a few stubborn bubbles, the finish is manky and I will now need to wait the requisite three weeks before flatting and recoating. Dammit!

I will post again when I tackle the recoat and the fitting of the replacement tailgate (I may fit the tailgate and do the topcoat in-situ)

[Trundler]

As an aside (though still Rustoleum-related) on pages 186 and 187, I raised the question of rollering metallic silver. CovKid gave me sage advice about why metallics don't work well with a roller.

Well, I finally got round to painting the boat hull and guess what? CovKid is absolutely right! It's impossible to keep the metallic particles evenly distributed, resulting in a horribly patchy finish. It certainly wouldn't work on a van and I've decided it's not good enough for the boat either. She will now have the hull repainted in a solid colour.

Learn the lesson: listen to CovKid - he knows what he's on about, that dude.

Silver Rustoleum 2.jpg

[CovKid]

You can have similar probs with matt as you need an even distribution to avoid ending up with a part-silk, part-matt finish. Any of the straight glosses (and the full Rustoleum range is vast) are fine, fairly easy to apply and get good results. Just don't paint in white with old window rubbers - you'll end up with streaks. But like spraying, a good substrate and careful prep is the key to success.

My friend Charlie's camper. She did the lot on her own in her front garden (great colour too):



It used to be a poptop - she changed it back to a tintop!

[Trundler]

Well done Charlie… the colour is great and it was definitely the best decision to return to the tin top (pop tops/ hi tops are so ugly!).

… don’t like that front spoiler though…

[CovKid]

Good for clearing light but deep snow though

Agree - high tops ARE ugly. Wouldn't swap my tintop for anything.

[robber_roo]

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

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Trundler]

Nice (even if it is lowered..)

CovKid, what colour is Charlie's camper? It's a nice rich orange that.

[CovKid]

Would ask her but think shes on her travels. Yeah I like that colour too. I think she started with a red then changed her mind. Glad she did - looks awesome.

[silverbullet]

Trundler: surely that dented tailgate would straighten out in skilled hands for less than a replacement?

Sent by Morse code from the bunker

[Trundler]

I thought of that but it has badly distorted the edge of the window aperture. The relacement is nearly ready to go on now anyway..