Paint Your Wagon - with a roller!

[Nuggster]

Hi there, I've not been on this forum for a long time as I've not had a T3 for a few years, (I'm now onto T4's), but when I did, (I had 3), I found this thread and considered but never did paint my vans with Rustoleum. As well as owning and restoring a few VW vans I am a serial car restorer and have a bit of a thing for Imp based sports cars, my latest is a Davrian which I have restored mechanically and converted to BMW K1 bike power, I've tackled the bodywork, (which is an all GRP monocoque), a few times and as I use it a lot on trackdays treated the paint job as temporary to see if my GRP repairs would stand up to hard use, when I was happy that all was good and that I had sorted the weak points I decided to go for the Rustoleum route to cover the crap rattle can paint job, I used your guide in the Wiki and am pleased to say that after a lot of hard work I'm really chuffed with the results, apologies its not a VW, but I am a dubber, so just to show what can be achieved on a curvy GRP car here's some pics:

Dav Rust 1.1.jpg

Dav Rust 2.1.jpg

Dav Rust 3.1.jpg

Cheers

[Nuggster]

Just a quick one to add to my post above, the only real snag I had once I got used to applying the paint was rubbing through on a few of the high spots, I wasn't sure if touching it in with a brush would work very well, and because the paint was thinned I didn't know whether or not a can would come out quite the same colour, so I bought a cheapish, (£90), airbrush and compressor, and thinned the Rustoleum and blew over the rubbed through parts, it worked a treat, 3 light coats, and a sand with 1500 wet and dry and it blended in perfectly.

[CovKid]

Thanks Nuggster. Great pics and a great car

[DavidS]

Well, after a rather erratic and slow approach to sorting out my van (I bought Covkid's down load back in the spring) I have just ordered the Combicolor from Avenue Coatings. I would heartily recommend them as they are both helpful and friendly; I had been pulling my hair out over what standard RAL colour to use (my van is Pastel White L90D), a quick phone call to Avenue sorted it out - they have L90D on their database and the mixing price is very reasonable (for some reason I thought it would be much more expensive) and they still do a 5% discouint for Club8090 members. Helpful and fuss free - brilliant! The paint should be here within the week. It may be a less than ideal time of year to paint, but I'm undercover and will wait for dry weather and hopefully it will turn out ok

On a different note, I don't know how to post photos on here - anyone have any tips, then I can share some pics of the work.

.

[mshaw1980]

As I am nearly ready to roller the repaired side of my van I just wondered how I go about cleaning down the bodywork before painting?? Obviously some panels have the sanded down paint still on, however the new panels I have put on have primer on and I have heard primer can be porous to water? Don't want to have gone through all this hard work only for rust to set in after a few months because the primer has sucked in some water. Any bright ideas as no matter how much I dry wipe the panels down, dust from the old paint and dirt keeps coming off.

Cheers

[CovKid]

Wash it.

[mshaw1980]

Wash it.

I trust you completely. Will do. Cheers

[CovKid]

Cheaper washing up liquid best - less likely to leave residue on surface. Mildly soapy is all you want, and dry thoroughly.

[what2do]

Panel wipes are what I've always used.

[CovKid]

Too much information

[crazyhorse]

Well this thread has been quiet for a while.

Rollered the van, 2 coats, going to put a 3rd on in the next few weeks.

Quick question. With the foam brushes, whats the best technique to apply this?? I have been dabbing it on rather than strokes, problem is with dabbing I get some air bubbles. Strokes, paint hardly covers anything, or maybe I havent thinned enough

Any ideas??

[CovKid]

Its only bubbling because theres air in the brush. Let it sit in the paint for a little while.

And yes, dabbing is the way. Its never a quiet thread - it gets read constantly - judging by the PMs I get.

[crazyhorse]

Its only bubbling because theres air in the brush. Let it sit in the paint for a little while.

And yes, dabbing is the way. Its never a quiet thread - it gets read constantly - judging by the PMs I get.

Thanks for that.

Hate to imagine how many PM's you get.

[mikes.bus]

Hi, what an amazing thread, it may just have saved me driving around in a crappy looking van for years while I tried to find a way to fund a respray!

My main query is that mine is high top that has been bodged with filler to stop leaks (hasn't worked!) and both gutter rails have been filled with silicone of some description.
I'm going to clean the old sealant out and then get inside and use Silka to get a good waterproof seal and then I'm going to have to do something with the gutter rails so, when I paint my van (and I'm going to!) I'll be painting over filler and silicone/adhesive of some type. In light of this, should I use one of the rustoleum undercoats or, is the 3 in 1 paint suitable for what I need?

Cheers!

[CovKid]

It gets complicated when you paint on mixed materials like this. Rustoleum will cope with most things (including the hightop) but silicone is difficult for many paints. Others may have found a workaround.