Roller Paint Job Diary

In one of the above links and you posted it elsewhere as well is a photo of a guy taking a picture in the reflection of the paint; what impressed me was in the photo the reflection is so great that you can't tell what color the paint is.

I could get talked in to trying this.....possible candidate to try is my daughter's 86 t-bird. It would look great in tan. Then my beat up Ranger.

 

It's in the 8th document too (AussieDriver is his site name). He said it was Rustoleum's standard Canvas white (ivory-ish) Page 22.

I spotted a newer Ford mini-van yesterday with a pinkish salmon brown color (factory finish). Mine's a lot darker and no pinky hues. Can't wait to take the "MXGarage" down later today!

 

Are you sure you don't need the garage anymore? You still have 1199 parts to go!

 

I can put the tarp back on, but it's been 11 months since she got a tan!

 

More pictures tonight. He came by when all I had left to do was buff the other side of the roof. I'm still going to wax tonight. and I'll post the pics as soon as he puts them up on his download page.

The machine sucks. Its for waxing, not buffing! As good as it is, it is not the right tool for this buffing job. Wax yes, buff not!

And my arms are just good enough for the rest of the roof and move that machine around for waxing. Its the last warm evening/day for us until April, so this is it, baby!

 

I can't wait!

 

Wait no more! But I have to warn you, like the Wizard of OZ, if you look, you'll Beef-Hooked (be hooked into doing your cars.) And I just finished waxing after he left! I waxed and polished by hand too. I had some really old bath towels that I got from a second-hand store (Value Village?) for the wood shop in the basement, and they did a far nicer job. I just chopped them up into 1 sq. ft. sections and used the Turtle Wax I had bought in Mexico (Super Hard Shell liquid). Eat your heart out MacGuiars! Oh! and that's the 3M Swirl remover on the roof.

It's 10C tomorrow, so it'll be warm enough to put the wood grain and windows on and the roof rack. The tarp comes down. Snow is on it's way next Thursday. The race is on!

Here's the pics:

 

Holy dog poop! That's not a dent in the roof to the right of the swirl remover in the first pic is it? Or is that the roof rack mount? Must be just the reflection of the tarp. Whew! that was close. Lol. When you've created a mirror everything shows.

I didn't mean to panic there.

 

You're right it is the roof rack mount depression. I thought about filling it before I took it off last spring, but when I did I saw that they packed it with a putty to keep water out, so I left it. When you put the special fastener back in, there's a rubber grommet between the plastic gasket and the chrome 'foot'. That rubber is pretty hard from being 'cooked' on the roof day after day, so when you reinstall the main large fastener you have to put the putty around it. Then the plastic gasket squishes it down once the foot is mounted.

I just saw it from the kitchen window and my wife thought that the car was generating the redish glow in the yard. She was pulling my chain, of course, but she was impressed! The wax job makes it all worth the sore muscles. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Just went outside with the wife and she asked if she was safe to touch it. Sure! I said. She said in Spanish: Hijo de la rechingada, qu' esta suavecita, lisa, y brillante! SOFT, SMOOTH, SHINY!

She uses skin lotions, so she would know. And she does have smooth skin. She was my benchmark for smoothness, after all. (I had to check often!) Well the 2000 grit was too.

Anyway, I made woodgrain 'templates' from wax paper before I scraped off the old stuff, so off I go. It's 7C outside, so I'll cut them up inside, grab the masking tape and the sponge and the heat gun.

More pics tomorrow, if he's in town. (Calm down guys, i'll get any new pics up as soon as I get them. I hope the next ones are with the tarp (MXGarage) down!

Should I continue this trilogy in here, once the final exterior stuff is done or post in new threads?

 

Admissions of my sins

I ain't no bodyman, not that it is an excuse. I hereby give the humble bodyman his dues. You've got to know how to read sheetmetal if you want a perfect job.

I'm so glad that it's a woodie, because the 'hand-rubbed' orange peel on the doors and fenders would have needed at least another day or two to clean up. As it is, they'll ADD a woodgrain texture to the vinyl! No, they aren't that bad, but it would have been a lot more work. Thank god I wasn't painting Black!:banghead3: That needs more guts than muscle - or maybe both...

I didn't cheat anywhere. When I had the bubble fiasco, I went right back down to the factory paint. By the way, I've still got 1/2 quart of new paint and 1/2 of the mixed paint, from the original 4 quarts. I've also got about 1 quart of the the thinners left. I used that gallon to wipe down the car after wetsanding and to thin the paint, so I averaged a 45% paint to 55% thinners ratio.

I screwed up mixing the last coat or cleaning my tray - don't know which, because I got a couple of lighter colored stripes, luckily evenly centered, on the hood. You have to look straight down to see them. I can redo the hood next spring if it bugs me. The lesson is to remix the mixture before you dump more in the tray, or make sure you cleaned it up thoroughly at the end of each coat. Mix enough for a complete coat too, because if you have to adjust for humidity something will have just a shade off - not good.

This paint is forgiving, except when you paint below or really close to the minimum temperature 10C - 45F. It goes into a matte finish, even the Flat paint has a sheen, but this ended up like a blackboard. Most of you wouldn't encounter that issue, but I did. Murphy's Law was having a tug-o-war with my Horseshoe, but persistence won the day!

I should have read those 8 documents step-by-step, using MS-Word's Find menu more often. Cleaning, dust, brush, Roller, Sanding, Grit, Buff, Polish, Wax, runs, sags, touch-ups, bubbles, coats, masking, door frames, stripping, metal, filler/filling, lacquer) Those are the main keywords for the job. If you want humorous stories, when you're dog-tired or frustrated, use Serpent, Ricklandia, Lawnmower or Beer Fridge.

To re-motivate you, check out AussieDriver's pics in the 8th document.

It works great!

 

So, if you decide to close out this thread why not give us a ball park figure of what you spent just doing the paint and if possible the actual time it took taking in to consideration the bad weather days.

The original premise was the "$50 paint job" but I think it'll be a bit more than that.

You should be very proud of yourself. Especially considering the unpredicatable weather you've dealt with.

 

Sandpaper:
80 -2 pks, 100 -2 pks, 240 -1 pkg, 400 - 2 pks, 600 - 2pks, 800, 1000 and 2000 2 pks. CDN$ at 3.79 each pkg = 15 pkgs at $56.85. I refinished parts as well and the wheels. So say $50 in sandpaper.

10 rattle-cans of the same paint (hood, inside door panels, door frames and jambs, gas tank door and touch up backups) $5.49 each. I could have cut out 3 cans, because the door jambs and window frames painted really nice with the brush. So say, $38.43 (7 cans)

1 gallon of thinners: $8.99

1 quart (litre) of primer (needed only a pint for the Rock Guard at the bottom below the woodgrain molding. $11.55 for the quart, $5.29 for a pint)

4 quarts of Tremclad/Rustoleum paint ($11.55 each) $46.20

The rollers and tray came with 2 rollers. I bought that and two packs of 4 more rollers: $12.00

I bought masking tape that I didn't need except to reinstall the windshield and tailgate/rear quarter windows. 2 rolls at $4.00 (Green color doesn't leave residue, blue might be even better).

I bought a pack of foamie brushes, but they break up at the molding rivets, and they hold the bubbles ($4.00 for the variety sizes or the 1" wide packs) Instead I used a fine bristled varnish brush 1.5 or 2.0 inch wide - I used both. They're tricky too, because they have to be super clean (dust, dry paint clogging the free bristle movement) so they have to soak in thinners overnight). $15 for a variety size pack. Or up to $20 each. I used the packaged variety. The bristles should be at least 2" long, so that you can change the pressure depending on the curves in the metal (hood lip, roof drops, etc.) They collect bubbles too, but you just tap the brush tips on the roller and keep going. Don't load the brush with paint! If you do, wipe off the brush with a rag. Bubble-city if it's too wet!

I had containers to soak stuff, so that wasn't a cash outlay for the roller job.

You can do this with the moldings on, but it would have been a mess for me. And when I saw that I could buff without a machine, I realized I could have left the windows in place. I'm glad I took them out, because I caught some rusty areas that wanted to start flaking, so I got more protection from rust, but Arid country like yours or Arizona or New Mexico wouldn't have that issue.

I didn't include the Rock Guard, but it was $22 per can (two rattle cans) - just enough for a Fairmont. A bigger wagon would need a third can.

Nor the rubberized undercoat rattle-cans inside the doors ($9.00 each -3 cans.)

And the Body seam-sealer (white juicy sealant that is paintable after 40 minutes if its less than 1/8" thick.) $15.00 for a quart.

I figured if I was going to restore, I'd restore the body's integrity and keep the dog-legs protected, the rocker panels and any parts that our roadsalt normally gets its way with. Undercoating the entire underside of the car, new adhesives for the headliner to be reinstalled, refinishing the wood-grain moldings, the bumpers, etc.

But the roller paint job alone:
Sand paper: $50
Paint (4 quarts): $46
(7 R-cans: $39
Primer (1 quart): $12
Thinners (1 Gal): $ 9
Tack Cloths (4): $ 6
Rollers: $12
Brushes: $15
Masking Tape: $ 8
Buffing comp: $10
Wax: $ 7
====
TOTAL: $214

If you don't strip the inside doors, you could take out 4 more rattle-cans. I even did the window weather seal tracks. So knock of $20. to net out at $194 CDN. I think you guys pay $3.69 or $3.97 per rattle-can. And your quarts are like our litres, and they cost less too.

Not one Beer (but I think that'll will change PDQ!) I think she's picking up a 6-pack of Imported Corona tomorrow!

So yeah, it cost me more, but I didn't use a lot of it directly in the rolling work. Just the same, those are things you'd have to buy (masking tape) or you might have on hand in your workshop.

 

I forgot you asked about times, sorry!

Prepping depends on the car. And as picky as I was, I missed stuff - gotta get my glasses checked. But after I got the filling and repairs:

Each coat took about 4 hours to roll on. I think my best time was 3.5.

Taking the first bubble fiasco mess off was about 4 hours or maybe 5 of wetsanding with 400-grit. Don't underestimate the power of 400-grit. I tried finding 320 but it seems every time I went, the shops were out, so I used 400. I tried my dual-action sander but went back to hand-sanding. The machine clogged up the paper with the bubble residue.

Sanding each good coat started at 1.5 hours, and went up to 2.5 when I got to the 1000. I did the whole car with each of 400 once, 600 once, 800 once, 1000 twice. And a final 2000 on the roof and hood, tailgate (everything where there was no woodgrain or Rock Guard.) I did the Rock Guard with 800 and 1000 one time each.

Paint two coats: 8 hours
Sand with 400: 1.5 hours (previous sanding marks, any paint ridges)
Paint 2 coats: 8 hours
Sand with 600: 2.5 hours (this one catches the orange peel heavies)
Paint 2 coats: 8 hours
Sand with 800: 3 hours (Wagonmaster mentioned orange peel, so I checked more carefully)
Paint 1 coat: 4.25 hours (I thought this would be the last but I did it in nearly 10C weather and it went matte on me) It was gorgeous when it went on, and we got surprise fog during the night - wrecked it!)
Sand with 1000: 4 or 4.5 hours. Caught the remainder of the orange peel and paint ridges)
Painted the 8th coat: 4.25 hours.
Sanded with 1000: 4.5 hours. My camera buddy thought the brush marks wouldn't come out, so I spent more time on the roof and hood areas.
Sanded on that same coat with 2000: 3 hours in the same evening as the 1000 sanding session. This was the last shot to get it right. It was all the areas that got no woodgrain or moldings.

The Fairmont isn't that long a roof, but it sure looked like it after two sanding sessions, until I got to the buffing. I thought about Superior Coach, where they make the Limos and 'Bun wagons' and thanked my lucky stars that mine wasn't a GM wagon. And then I waxed it.

Buffing took 5 hours, by hand - the machine method was way too messy, and its not the time to start practicing.

Then I got the waxing done in the same evening - Rock Guard and the non-woodie areas. 3 hours.

And he saw that it was good, and kept the wife awake, snoring his bones off! She said. I wouldn't know, cause I was gone to Turtle Wax heaven!

That's the only downside to all this, I won't stay like the lean, mean, rolling machine I've become during this year, unless I get another Mexican Fairmont.... Hey honey, what about...

 

Thanks, When I first started reading about the $50 paint job my mind was reeling. I was thinking about 30 days of steady work. It looks like four full days of painting and another two full days of sanding (in between painting). Excluding the prep.

So, when you compress the job into days it doesn't look that bad if you consider controlled working environment instead of being at the mercy of weather.

So, a guy working full time should be able to pull it off in a easy three weeks working a few hours in the evening and sanding the next evening and weekends.