Paint A Car With Rustoleum?

[leo]

There was a time when the thought of this would have made me laugh but now with paint costing about $1000 for the average car, the equipment needed to apply it and the protective gear, maybe it's time has come. And I'm talking about the do it yourself person, if you opt to have the job done by a shop then the cost becomes even more. It appears after looking at a few YouTube clips that you can do a good job using a roller as long as you take the time to progressively sand each thin coat with finer grades of wet/dry sandpaper. The process is much more tedious than spraying but could really be great for anyone working on a budget restoring a car. Is it viable?

 

[miss victoria]

my neighbor rolled a 65 dodge dart i was surprised that it looked as good as it did,but in a short time it faided and peeled off in big chunks ??

 

[34pickup]

I read on another forum that Rustoleum was made with a formula that included an oil that was incompatible with other paints. I think it has fish oil in it.And because of this, it never seems to "dry" and is gummy. I wouldn't use that brand.

 

[charlesea]

A member in our club painted his coupe with rattle can paint & buffed it several years ago & it still looks very good. Buffing is what brought it out. The car is like most of ours, it stays inside most of the time.I am not sure how many cans it took but it was a whole lot cheaper that several thousand dollars to have it done. It was not a quick process either.

 

[cayager]

more of an industrial finish, for weather protection. wouldnt last long in the sun. it will turn to chaulk.

 

[gweilbaker]

If you like black, Centari enamel isn't too bad, you can add hardener but it becomes a harsh spray. As for rustoleum, I think they have an industrial line for things like tractors.

I had a truck painted with regular rustoleum, it certainly held up for 4 years but it did chalk.

 

[leo]

Hey thanks for the input. Let's open this up a bit more, so Rustoleum would not hold up well to sunlight over time, well how about some other type of paint which would roll on and be able to take a sanding and buff?

 

[PetesPonies]

If you are considering going real cheap $$$ wise, then get some industrial/farm machinery paint. IMO much better than Rustoleum and you have a lot to choose from. You can even add hardener if you wish.

 

[alan]

a couple of things-I have painted cars/truck /tractors and even a US Navy ship with good grade of industrial enamal - Fixall-Rustoleum- and a local paint company called Piedmont-even rolled out a Navy issue Ford pick-up. I painted trash trucks with Rustoleum and found that if you use an enamal reducer they spray or roll out pretty good and they will have a shine to them. My car trailer was painted over 18 years ago and it needs to be done again but not from rust. Going to use Rustoleum on it again.

 

[TomW]

You might try Interlux "Brightside" one part polyurethane enamel. It's much more durable than Rustoleum, and will look sprayed if you use a small dense foam roller. (available at marine stores) It also sprays quite nicely, even for a novice like me.

 

[mmindling]

Hi, this is Martin in Ohio. My car was restored in the late 70's, early 80's and there are spots where the paint is chipped or damaged by normal wear and tear (including a few dropped tools!!). It is Arabian Sand with Copra trim and black fenders, all done in lacquer, no clear coat as far as I can see.

Trying to save some $$'s, went to the local auto paint store and had a spray can made up with the Arabian Sand. They went to the step of using their spectrometer analyzer (took the Model A to the paint shop) to get the match as close as possible. Turns out it was significantly different than the stock formula for AS.

What I have learned is that EVERYTHING is in the PREPARATION, which you guys know. Used up most of the can doing repairs incorrectly and now am getting the hang of it. Using sandable primer from a spray can and three grades of wet sandpaper - 400, 600 and 1500. Result are getting better but not perfect at this time. Troublesome areas are feathering in where the new paint meets the old paint, sanding right through to the primer, and getting the spray can to paint and not spit.
Also, question whether or not to use clear coat on the new paint when it is finally sanded with 1500 paper to try to match the shine on the old paint. Tried Griots Fine Polish, but something more is needed to match up.

Let me know any comments or suggestions. Since I am needing a clutch rebuild, tried to save money on the paintwork.

Regards,

mmindling@aol.com

 

[steve s]

My dad painted his with Rustoleum and a brush. It looked better than before he painted it, and it held up perfectly well for 40 years or so.

 

[Charlie Stephens]

My guess is that you would be better off going to one of the high volume low cost paint shops, Earl Schieb, Macco, One Day, to name a few.

Charlie Stephens

 

[Jim Brierley]

We spray-painted our Bonneville lakester with Rustoleum and are very happy with it. Being a race car we have not buffed it out, but it looks very good. We chose Rustoleum because of several things, cost, the color we wanted, and availability of rattle cans for repairs. For the original coat we bought a gallon of it, later spray cans for touch up.

 

[Keith True]

You can still buy cheap equipment enamel from Magnet paints in N.Y. They sell what they call a synthetic urethane.They also sell a hardener for it,and if you want it to dry this year you need to use it.I've dumped their hardener in rustoleum,it seems to work.They also sell acrylics and SS urethanes too.I've been buying SS urethane from the PPG dealer here.I buy the fleet colors,and it will be in their short line.Omni?Nason? One of the colors used was 48 Ford commercial red.On the crossover chart it crosses to one shade off from an original A color.It cost me $130.for six quarts of sprayable material.That was paint,reducer,and catalyst.Recently I tried to thin some new rustoleum with some of the old fish oil thinner.Big mistake.I ruined a quart of paint and a cup of the thinner.It was like trying to mix oil and water.Turns out the new stuff is completely different than the old.I do know it dries much better than the old.

 

[Aok]

This is a subject that has been well cover for older cars on many forums but maybe not on model A's if you do a search on the subject you will find much information. A few years back there was a in depth how to but I have switch computers and no longer have the link

 

[leo]

Hey this is all great information! I'm not trying to put any restoration shop out of the paint business because I don't expect this to result in anything like a $10,000 paint job. It's just good to know that a Model A person has options when it comes to finishing a car on a budget and having look good.

 

[1931 flamingo]

I was 13 or 14 when I painted a 29 sport coupe with black rustoleum with a brush, no brush marks. I think this was the one I primed parts of it with red oxide primer sprayed using an electrokux vac cleaner, around '59 or '60.
paul in CT

 

[gwhite]

There are far superior paints than Rustoleum. Rustoleum is not UV stable. Instead, check out finishes for yachts, they're formulated for the tip & roll painting technique...I'm going to use oil enamel from Kirby Paint Company on my "hot rod" model T.

 

[MALAK]

My Poupe (PU/Coupe) IS painted with Rustoleum. My dad painted it in the early 70's when he got the car. Not much prep work was done other than wire brush the rust off the body. It's flaked off in a few small spots but surprisingly held up well. At least in my case it matches the patina of the rest of the car. So it seems: with the proper prep and a little elbow grease you probably can do a decent paint job with Rustoleum (or some other brand).