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First two coats, I thinned 25 percent with Penetrol. The white came out fine, but the orange showed the peel more...as colors are likely to do.

That'll put us at 65 paint, 25 penetrol and 10 mineral spirits. Sort of like finding the perfect barbecue sauce.

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Hi Rev! Great job with the truck by the way! That's about the same proportions I used. White worked fine with Penetrol alone but black dried too quickly. Adding mineral spirits until I got a milky consistency made the mixture easier to work with.

It also seems that the trick to using the Penetrol variation is to just immediately tip the rolled on paint with a brush. Bubbles become a non-issue...just brush them away. I used a brush similar to what Coach painters use- one with flags (i.e., split ends.) I found one at Dixieline Lumber. After rollering a horizontal cover coat, I brushed in a downward motion, then again using light pressure. This gave me super-fine brush marks. In some areas there were no marks at all. I found the brush marks easier to sand away then orange peel.

Letting the paint sun bake also helped (at least in my experience.) When I first tried polishing after a day, I got the haze Exit had mentioned before...probably because the paint was too soft. For my Black Mustang I let the paint dry in the shade a day and then it sat out in the sun for the rest of the week. This gave me a harder surface to polish. After using Turtlewax polish I also finished off with a Scratch and Haze remover then wax. (See before and after pics on attachment.)

The polish surface was not only mirror smooth, it also revealed a problem others came across...transparency. But then again I was only up to 4 coats. In addition, this combo does tend to dilute the pigment more than normal. Also, I'm only using the Rustoleum/Penetrol combo as a base coat. It allows me to see low spots and other imperfections (sometimes more than I care for) that I still need to work on.

After I get the imperfections out (the question is when? ) I'll apply a final gloss coat of Dutchlac marine paint, let that dry a month then polish it.