OK. I don't think anyone has opened up this can of worms yet...so let me be the first on this forum. I read (about a hundred pages) on the mopar site about this guy who (wanted to paint his car cheaply and) decided to paint his car with a paint roller (using Rustoleum) and (after about 10 - 15 coats) wasn't getting the shine he expected but another guy suggested using yacht/boat paint that is MADE to be applied with a roller in 2 -3 coats and has UV protection and Teflon and blah, blah, blah.

I bought some of the aforementioned Interlux Brightside paint (and primer and thinner) and went for it on an old moon roof.

So about 6 weeks ago I decided to try it and through trial and error (read paint it, sand it off, paint it, sand it off, and try again) I think I have figured out the technique.

I am pleasantly surprised with the results. This weekend (weather permitting) I'm going to do the hood. I'll post pictures, good or bad, before and after, about my experience.

Some have said that a roller job will look like a roller job but my tests have shown that you may be surprised too. (And better than a rattle-can)

It won't be a $5000 paint job but, so far, it looks better than a Maaco job and you don't need a paint booth or compressor or paint guns, etc, etc.

If you have the proper cash, equipment, talent, and environment, you probably don't want to read this, but since I don't, I figured...why not try?

Call me crazy (I am) but I'm always willing to try what makes sense to me even if it goes against convential wisdom.

Wish me luck. I'll keep you updated...

DD

 

Sounds interesting

do you have pictures of the moonroof that you did?

 

Your Crazy

 

i dont call you crazy. ive seen pics of it online and with great results. GL and post ur finishing pics

 

this is called the $50 dollar paint job lol ive read about it on here a couple times

 

Yeah I read that also and supposedly it works if you get the proper paint and technique down. Post your results.

Don't discredit a rattle can can paint job. I have seen show cars painted with rattle cans that looked every bit as good as a $6,000 paint job. It just requires lots of care, patience and compounding.

 

OK, OK. But this will cost more than $50. Probably more like $200 and I'm keeping receipts to let you know exactly what it costs.

And I apologize to all the rattle-canners out there. . We were actually thinking about just "tagging" the whole car. I'll be the first to admit there's some real talent out there. It's just that...I don't have any.

DD

 

i wonder if this would work better if instead of using a roller we use rattle cans.and then sand..then paint ..an sand..ect

 

no No No No No!!!!![u]

 

Haha, Ive personally seen it done twice. One of which surprised the hell out of me, Id be willing to bet that unless it was brought up while you were looking at it that you wouldnt notice it was rolled. The other time however, didnt turn out so great. I think color choice is definately important with the roller IMO. If it was me, Id do a rattle can job over the roller anyday, once your comfortable with a paint can its quite easy to make a car look nice, touching up old paint with a rattle can is much more difficult though.

 

I used to work with an old guy who painted (with a roller) his car each year. He claimed that he could paint it in half the time it took him to wash and wax it. Of course he didnt sand it and painted the vinyl roof too. No masking involved - he also painted over the emblems (Monte Carlo). After a few years the details were just full of paint. From about 100 feet it looked OK but up closer,
it looked like crap - but he didnt really care.

 

A couple of my buddy's did this came out excellent. The real trick is to take your time! here's a link to one of the fourms I joined

http://the209forums.proboards42.com/...ead=1142051142

 

again i say: no !

 

NO you are not crazy
Its better than throwing a can of paint at it

 

ive seen cars painted with a rattle can and cars painted with a roller. The rattle can came out pretty damn good everytime and i have only seen one rolled once and it looked TERRIBLE. I suggest just doing the rattle can....

 

Numbers guy painted his civics with a roller. It turned out damn well I must say.

 

better idea than some of the people I hear of doing it with a paintbrush...

 

Best thread ever: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...0&fpart=1&vc=1
this EG looks better than 90% of our cars w/ a $50 paint job:http://forums.club4ag.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=133867

 

wow...

 

Here's a close up picture of the moonroof before I started so you can see the sunbaked condition of the paint:



And here's one with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of black paint (supposedly the hardest color to make look good), leaning up against a pole and sitting in the grass:



And the same thing but sitting on a magazine:



Keep in mind that this is not from 20 feet away but from just a few inches away to show the flaws, and that it has not been sanded (to remove the minimal orange peel) or polished or waxed in any way. If I can get the rest of the (< $1000) car to look this good I'll be pretty happy. And the worst that can happen is I'll get the car properly repainted later!

DD

 

wow that looks really good!! I didn't understand the 2nd picture until I really looked at it, then I noticed the right side of the pic was a reflection of the moonroof!! nice job!

 

yeah, I was also confused at first about the 2nd pic. From what I have seen, if you thin it right the paint can look amazing. If you are willing to spend the money on an air compressor and spray gun, you can spray with the thinned down rustoleum.

 

very very nice!