Hi, all. I read every post up to page 35 in this section, and have to put in my
About 10 years ago, I painted a travelling van with Home Depot Aluminum Industrial paint (I don't remember what brand). I wanted the highest reflection possible, because I lived in AZ. I rolled it on one night, at about 2 AM, when it was about 78 degrees out. I wasn't concerned about orange peel, or anything. I painted everything but the glass, and lights (I even "smoked" the signals with a very light spray bomb silver). It stuck to the paint, rubber, plastic...etc.. perfectly, and in about a month, I polished it. I felt sorry for the pilots overhead! It was like bright anodized aluminum! It hurt my eyes, and I'm really surprised I didn't get pulled over for it!
Here is a testement to it's durability:
I went head on with a new Mustang, both of us going about 35. Mustang: Totalled. I had to pull my fender away from the tire. Paint stuck great except where the original paint underneath flaked off.
Then, got rear ended by a teenager. I had to make him get out of the car because he was so scared. His Honda went under my bumper, and peeled back his lights, hood, etc. I buffed out the bottom of my bumper.
Got sideswiped by a drunk in Cali., on the freeway. He was raging mad, and rammed my driver side. His Trans Am: TOTALLED! Fiberglass everywhere. He went to jail, I buffed out the paint. It had a 1" deep, 3 foot long crease, but NO loss of paint!
April 8, 2004. had a 70 mph front collision with another van that almost killed my passenger, and I, and caught the van on fire, warped the roof in waves all the way back, and pushed the engine back almost a foot. Doors were stuck, etc.. The paint was fine (except, again, the original paint that had flaked off). It was even okay after the fire.
So, in my experience, silver is great. The van, however was cursed.