Roller Paint Job Diary

dammit stormin norman!
join the 21st century brotha, your freekin killin me! i need some pictures!
its like goin to prom with the sluttiest girl and she dont put out!
i need some pictures! :banghead3:

 

$arge, here's some of the ones from last November.

http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u234/StorminNormanSquire/

I'm in a bit of a panic with the weather so I can't go out and shop for a camera, right now. I've got 4 days or so of no rain, maybe, and threats of frost by Tuesday.

 

Mixing issue and solution

I got the second coat on without wetsanding the first coat. BUT I discovered 2 things.

First, I should have done it earlier in the day, when I could see the effects of the Thinner/Paint mixture. I don't drink 1% milk so I don't know what that consistency looks like except for that video (I posted the link in page 3 or 4 of this thread). Anyway I should have added another 10% mineral spirits because I got a lot of bubbles and I put too much paint on, so I had some very thin runs. I decided to follow the instructions that come up in the third section about bubbles and 'ugly' spots. Ignore the 'ugly' spots, wetsand after the second coat.

Well, its a very forgiving process. I mixed the next batch with more thinners (50% thinners to 50% paint) in a 1 quart canning jar. The second coat 'melted' the bubbles and softened the fine runs to nothing!

The second issue is the Rockguard. Its a professional product from a good body shop supplier. I bought it because it has no lacquer content. You shouldn't use lacquer-based products on top of Rustoleum/Tremclad paints and primers. The rub is that even though it dried all night, the Tremclad/Mineral Spirits mix does try to dilute it when its running down, so I made sure it didn't get down that far and then I kept checking back to make sure there were no runs into the Rockguard region (from where the molding rivets are down to the rocker panels.) And I painted on a very thin/dry coat just to 'seal' the Rockguard overnight before I put another coat on.

One more thing. After you wetsand, wipe off as much of the 'residue' as you can with clean, soft, damp (water) cloths. I'm using clean, old, cotton T-Shirts. Then wash off whatever streaks (the whole targetted panel) with Mineral Spirits. It dries pretty quick (5 to 10 minutes), and then tack-cloth the surface in case any dust is still there.

Wetsanding tomorrow.

I put the entire second coat on the car and touched up the lower door sills where the Rockguard sprayed through in about 2 hours!

Its easy enough to adjust the paint/thinner mix. Just dump what's in the paint tray back into the jar and add more of the one you need. Too many bubbles beyond two minutes means more thinners (add 5% at a time). It should be juicy enough that you can blow them off with your mouth.

As the guy says in his instructions, you won't cover the color in the first coat or even 3 coats, so don't worry about the fact that you can still see bondo or glazing putty. A spray job only puts on about 2 mils of paint. The roller job does add more thickness, but it takes a few coats to get there.

Most of the guys on the original blog thread stopped at 4 coats, but the guys that got the best mirror finish went to at least 6 coats and preferably 7 coats. For 14 hours of total painting and maybe the same in wetsanding, I'll go the extra to get a super finish. Heck a quart of lacquer paint costs more than the 4 quarts and thinners of this stuff!

Tomorrow, I'll be wetsanding like a fool. I tried the 400-grit on one run with water and it rubbed off in about 8 small strokes. When I used the roller with the wetter (more thinners) paint, the other runs and bubbles just about disappeared completely. If you're doing this outside, try to do it when the wind is below 10 MPH. Humidity was 53% and temp was about 64F (16C). The wind was about 35 MPH but I'm surrounded by a 6.5 foot fence and my 'Mexican Garage' blocks off bird poop and most of the wind's downdraft effect. Still, I noticed that some bubbles remained. You have to master the bubbles and runs! Keep a small 1" brush handy. Buy a good one, not some cheapy. You don't want brush marks in the curves and door handle openings.

 

thanx...now theres coffee on the screen..

 

Sticky isn't it?

 

I was reading the 8 Word documents and some guys used the dual-action sanders to wetsand between coats. I think I'll try that tomorrow to get my first coats down flat (little bubbles from the first coat.)

 

Forget the Dual-Action Random Orbital sander! Wetsand with 100 grit to remove the bubbles. Sometimes, when you make a mistake, you don't forget; you read the instructions; you do it right, RIGHT!!!!???

Well, I been spending most of today sanding the hood and the roof back to the original paint! I mixed too thick on the first coat and didn't have enough daylight to see the mess of bubbles that weren't going down.

Added this here:
Since the paint is still curing from yesterday, the paper fills up because the bubbles form little balls and clog up the paper, so I kept a bucket, sponge and a 4 inch long cleaning brush handy to clean off the paper. The 100 grit wears off the first layer of abrasive (white aluminum oxide bits on the paper) but then its still sharp enough to cut the bubbles and paint fairly quickly. I've still got to 320 and 400 wetsand the roof and hood, but I'm just eating dinner for round two.

Then to make those two (Roof and Hood) worse, I put a second, thinner coat, and did the doors and sides for a first coat. They came out perfect! But the roof and hood looked like a Volcano Ranch, and in fact that's almost what they are. The air stays trapped inside because the bubbles dry too fast - not enough thinners.

The 8th Word Document has an excellent comment on the bubbles. Ricklandia - the beer fridge guy, says to keep it really dilluted with thinners. Not 60% Paint and 40% thinners, more like the reverse and work up. Apply dry coats or load the roller, quickly spread the paint and then go back and spread the first strip so that its thinner, but don't press down - just the weight of the roller.

I'm a stubborn SOB and I'm gonna do it, but I have to admit, as my arms were tiring that I thought about rattle-cans, then I remembered that the original poster 69Charger, mentioned that the reason the rattle cans work in 10C (60F-ish) temperatures is because there's only about 10 to 15 percent paint and the rest is thinners! I'd say, for a rookie that starting off with a 30% Paint, 70% Thinners mix, would ensure decent results, as long as the paint is rolled on very slowly, the roller isn't too loaded or if it is to get the paint in the roller on fast and roll over the first row to get the coat just right - he called it a 'sweet spot' - where the bubbles go down by themselves in a few seconds and before the paint 'flashes' - starts to dry or get dulled off because the thinner is evaporating.

Anyway, my wife is back around 10:30 PM. Tonight its 21C, wind is dying down in an hour or so, and tomorrow is forecast for rain all day, and only 13C. So the 1000 watt construction lights will be my midnight sun today. It's almost dusk and I've got another 2 hours of flattening my volcanoes (bubbles) before I put the new First Coat on the roof and hood!

I'll just put 4 coats where the woodgrain vinyl goes to make up for this booboo (about 1/2 quart of paint lost. )

Bah-humbug! But onward we go, the adventure continues. Think positive! I am positive - positively ticked that I didn't read the whole thing (all eight documents) AGAIN! Mea MAXIMA CULPA!

If there's anything to guide you on the mixture, go with more thinners to start! You don't want to be sanding off bubbles, trust me. The mission statement is ZERO BUBBLES NO RUNS! Its the only game I know where ZERO is the best result!

 

Mano-
if its that bad i might NOT try it! sounds like alot of fustration! how about spraying it through one of those wagner house paint gun thingies? and do you have to wetsand between coats? you would think if you just keep painting the paint will adhere to itself (eventually) you're using min. spirits, right??? good luck dont burn the candle too much at bothe ends cause sooner or later there wont be no damn candle left!
Rafa-

 

It's only frustrating because I had all the right info and didn't use it.

You'd have to wetsand between coats to get a decent shine, no matter what you use. Lacquer and acrylics are both hard paints and you have to thin them anyway. It was my own dumb fault and that's why I ranted. I think partly because I expected the weather forecasters to be as good as the farmers to forecast rainy weather.

I've got a Wagner setup, but my neighbours would be all over me if my spray got on their cars or yard furniture. Rattle Cans would be ok, but the number of cans you'd need to do a whole car would cost a potfull of money.

Anyway, I'm going back to it, now. I fed myself some good homemade stew, a good cup of coffee and this evening's weather is perfect. With my big lights, it'll be like daytime! You just don't want to get too close to them. 2 -500 watt halogens is like a steaming kettle! Caliente! Mas que la vieja quando esta molesta!

 

Te gusta este. Well, you know that when they are encabronadas, you could move a mountain far easier, and when they're pi$$ed, you're better off muy alejado!

OK, I really think this car loves me. I got all the wetsanding done. The roof wasn't as bad as the hood. It was a piece of cake. The roof bubbles were just dust specs. I ran 320 and 400 and ... Done!

The rain has been downgraded to all-day drizzle, so I may get one coat on.

 

Couldn't paint but went over the wetsanding with 400 again to catch what I missed last nite. Paint tomorrow for sure. NO RUNS ZERO BUBBLES, my new mantra!

 

ok so cuando pules la pintura-
you want it to be flat right. wetsand till its flat and then you repaint correct?

 

Plano. Mas plana que una tortillita! I mean so flat that that a knife edge would look round!

Yeah. I'll get two decent coats on today.