Reducer or no reducer when brushing on paint

T

The "A" Team

Member
I know this can be extremely unpopular, but for a number of reasons, I'm planning on applying my new paint job with a brush instead of spraying. I'm looking at a few single stage paints, and going for a semi gloss for a some shine, but not too shiny. My question is, some single stages call for a mixture of 4:1:1 (one part reducer). Do I need the reducer if I'm brushing the paint on?

Thanks.
 
The "A" Team said:
I know this can be extremely unpopular, but for a number of reasons, I'm planning on applying my new paint job with a brush instead of spraying. I'm looking at a few single stage paints, and going for a semi gloss for a some shine, but not too shiny. My question is, some single stages call for a mixture of 4:1:1 (one part reducer). Do I need the reducer if I'm brushing the paint on?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Not really. The solvent's purpose is to lower the viscosity where the paint can be atomized with air pressure to spray thru a gun.

Since you mentioned brushing, have you considered applying it will a latex roller instead??
 
Not at first, but I'm looking at rolling the epoxy primer on, and I guess it could work for that too. By latex roller, do you mean the ones that look like little spikes?
 
If you use a reducer, use one designed for brushing. It evaporates slowly to give the paint a chance to level out. For marine use, epoxy paint is rolled on using a fine nap roller and then dry brushed (called tipping). The brushing is in two directions, perpendicular to each other. The brush is a high quality one. I found the brushes at art supply stores to be the best. The paint is thinned with reducer for brushing to get the right flow. If done right, it can be hard to tell from a spray job.

Here is one video, there are others that may be better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_T84GU_as

After painting, and this is true with spray jobs too, the paint can be wet sanded starting with 400 grit and ending up with 3,000 grit, and then machine polished and waxed. This will give the mirror finish seen on show cars.
 
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No matter how good the brushes are, they tend to lose strands as you paint. A roller would prevent that. Applying paint this way puts a lot more paint per coat than spraying does. Once a coat is down it's a good idea not to re-coat until the surface is dry. The tackier it gets, the harder it is to make it look good on a wet re-coat.

The only time I ever used a brush was when doping rag wing aircraft and I always sanded between coats. The final color coat was sprayed on. Dope & fabric is a tedious operation.
 
I had some Imron that brushed on the trunk and interior of a race car. It leveled out to a nice gloss. Pretty sure you can get a similar product designed for boats today. It was nasty stuff you didn't want to spray without all the proper air filtering.

When I was a kid I got a 59 Ford Anglia given to me by a friend of my dad's. It had a rattle in the engine so my dad taught me how to pour babbit. The paint was ugly so we got a surplus gallon of lacquer paint for $1. He had me brush it on and taught me how to sand and buff to a great surface. It was labor intensive - I was sure glad when we got a bigger compressor and a spray gun.
 
Since your brushing the paint. you need to experiment a bit with the reducer. Start with 5%, then 10% and finally 20%. See how it flows out. and use the reduction that works for you. Also consider the temp. and use a fast, medium or slow reducer. This will help the paint to flow out as well.
Cars where brush painted up to appr. 1925 so give it a shot. Have fun.
 
Lacquer paint is still available at auto color library, also straight black lacquer maybe available at local part store, I see it listed on there web sites but don’t know if it is really available.With lacquer you can sand and buff it to desired gloss.
 
There was a guy from Va. who was building replica wagon out pf wood. He was brushing his paint and even on vertical surfaces it leveled out and produced a beautiful job. Very Impressive! As a younger person, I worked in a marina one summer. I worked on inboard mahogany speedboats, the old Chris Crafts mostly. We had an old guy who could "Lay on" a coat of varnish on any surface of the boat and and to would be like glass the next morning. R...... was an alcoholic but he could get himself together to use the one skill God gave him, and use it well! Play around with thicknesses of the paint , see what it takes to get a run, see what it takes to prevent one. Pay attention to drying times. It can be done!
Terry
 
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