Roll on paint?

[Redline]

You could buy a cheap gravity feed sprayer for $60 at Home depot so you don't get roller fuzzies in your paint.

Having also painted an old GTI with a Wagner gravity fed machine, I can say that the rolled-on paint job is much, much better.

[wikkid]

The OP used Rustoleum; I wonder how the high density foam rollers would do with a urethane and clearcoat?
It would be fun to get a couple of old body panels from a junkyard - any old car would do - and experiment a bit with the process.
Also, as Lex said, there would be less masking, not only of the car, but of the work area - you could tent for dust reduction purposes only, not worrying about overspray.

[Fiat88]

Looking good.

[Lex]

\/ house is for sale \/



Notice that it changes color drastically, its almost charcoal during sundown. And a deep blue in cloud cover, at no point in time is it strictly 'smokey gray' lol. This is only 4 coats, and is a 3 to 5 footer; however, like some of the rest of you, I ran out of good weather, and will finish come spring. The Black hood stripes will RETURN! If you also notice the rocker panels are off, my passengers side had major rust (on small spot turned into the hole panel) and I'm attempting to heal it, I also hit the bumpers with some satin black I was tired of Rust and Chrome.

Shes is on the road, and looking better then she ever has. 60% of the original paint had weathered off from the previous owner, and I just found out about this method a few days into the repair or else I would have done it a long time ago

[fiasco]

Looks great. I'm hoping to start mine in a couple weeks. Any suggestions on the best source for paint? I'm looking for a particular orange color, and will probably need to buy it from a shop that has a wide variety of colors in stock..

-- se

[wikkid]

Looks great. I'm hoping to start mine in a couple weeks. Any suggestions on the best source for paint? I'm looking for a particular orange color, and will probably need to buy it from a shop that has a wide variety of colors in stock..

-- se

Ask a local shop, if you have one (I have none around here). Otherwise, TCP Global, online, will set you up with any color you want, in either 1-step or urethane base/clear.

[Raze]

looks great, if you want actual depth in the paint, I'd go with a single stage poly like the topside westmarine paint since it's already got UV inhibitors in it, yes it is much more expensive, but the result is better, I've seen both, and I went westmarine. Now that being said I did it in straight white, if you want it colored I've seen single stage polys w/UV paints that are tintable online. I think you could tint the westmarine stuff and that, IMO would be a pretty good setup. Also, roll on VERY thin coats, 1 quart, thinned 3:1 rolled the entire XR4Ti 8 times, let me say that again, the car has a total of 1 quart of paint on it with complete coverage. The following shot was to show how glossy it was, but the orange peel was bad cause I got lazy after coat 4 and doubled up on 5&6 and 7&8, which took near mirror finish to orange peel. I was also too lazy to buff it out since it's on a track rat, but if you go super thin and wet sand 800 grit between coats you can get near mirror gloss...

[Fiat88]

That looks really good!

[AnthonyZarco]

This is what will be towing the fiat around the rockies for car shows/trips
The top is done/ front end is painted as well. Here are my roll on results. I will also be doing a roll on paint job for the fiat hopefully sooner than later.

Cut, not polished.

[peggus]

I rolled mine using topside paint. I mixed yellow and white to get the right shade, I wouldn't recommend mixing though. It was very hard to get the right shade between batches, or do the whole thing in one batch. Make sure you mix it very very very well or you get streaks in the paint.

I sprayed the doors some 6 months after I rolled the body, the finish on the doors is definitely better than the roll-on but the roll-on looks good too. Lots of work though.

I wrote some more about it here:
http://www.electric-lemon.com/?q=node/174

Here's a pic of my hood:

[kmead]

That looks very nice. Seems like the process is very similar to the other roll on. I would think the poly urethane would be a better finish over time.

I see you work at Aerovironments, I had Martyn Cowley as an instructor when I was at Art Center along with Peter Lissaman for aerodynamics. Funny how small the world can be.