I don't think anyone has done enough experimenting with metallics. I've tried using "aluminum" color which is metallic, but after sanding it looks horrible, probably due to uneven moving of the metallic flakes.

Some people have asked what would happen with a light coat of metallic paint, covered by a coat or two of regular paint, so that the metallic paint itself isn't sanded. That might work, don't know if anyone's tried it yet.

The color you see on the dart is "safety red" professional rustoleum.

"regal" red in regular rustoleum is closer to candy apple red. here's some put on thick with penetrol:

http://www.rustoleum.com/Product.asp?frm_product_id=32&SBL=1&dds=15

oil based clear coat...i wonder if you can spray this over our rust-oleum

i think i might experiment with that do one coat of the matallic, cover by one, maybe two coats of saftey red, sand, and go from there. do you think that that will be enough coats? as far as underneath, my car is already red so after i sand it down, and not too much cus it is plastic after all, i dont think ill need that many coats. ill try the metallic though see how it looks and if i cna find the digital cam post my results.. thanks exit.

My car took over 10 coats. But they went on really thin. That's the only way I know how to avoid orange peel without having to spend time sanding down the orange peel every 2 coats. I was sanding more to take out imperfections like dust specs and hair.

If you start with a solid color car, i.e. no black spots or light colored spots, you can probably get away with fewer than 10 coats.

Let us know how you fare with the metallic stuff. Be careful to put it on thin, since you wont be able to sand it smooth.

What is the Wagner part number for the sprayer you used? I would like to investigate this further.Any other tips on using the Wagner sprayer? Thanks.

got soem bad and good new on the fiero project... couldnt get metallic in a quart, they only make it in spray according to lowes.. good news is.. i started on my test peice today using differnt ammounts, pressures and im gonan see which way works the best.. so far after 10 min the thinest least pressure layer looks the best..

also, i dont know if i liek the way the saftey red is looking at the moment, its really orangy kinda brigtish red, i may mix it with sumthing and see.. dunno.. otherwise painting plastic i think is gonna be a bit easier than metal. i wont know for sure until i paint my brothers car, but im hoping to get mine to work out first and then see. but otherwise ya.. really wanted the metallic stuff though.. and my rents wont let me do the project if there is any spraying involved.... oh well... ill keep u guys posted hopefully gonna put a second coat on tonight.. and try a scratch test on some of the dry stuff... supposed to be totally hard in 8hrs according to can.. lol.. almost wishing i could go with the regal now lol.. anways.. i think ill stick wit the saftey for now..

also need some help wit the painting decisions... i plan on putting a black stripe down the middle, my dad will help me with tat, but... what shoudl i do with all the moldings.. jsut lookign for some opinions .. right now all the moldings are balck.. see first picture on my other post(pg 7)...
should i go liek this..

[image]http://www.motorcities.com/media/image/640/05JGM021409530A/1988-Pontiac-Fiero-GT-A.jpeg[/image]

or jsut paint all the moldings and jsut have the black stripe going downt the middle as the only differnt color.

ok got 2 coats on today and gonna wet sand tommorw.. ran into a few small snags.. i think i may have put too many mineral spirits into the paint.. but hey its only a test peice and ill learn soon enough.. lol.. anways.. the other snag i ran into was my parents.. neithor of them wants me to paint it .. they dont think i can pull it off.. and they say its gonna end up costing me 200 dollars more to get it removed and taken to macco when i mess up.. so i dunno im gonna keep running my tests on the door panel.. for an 18yr old im not stupid.. ive read and re read alot of what you guys did .. i have all the materials to do the whole car as of right now.. and i belive i can do it.. seeing how i did the test doors i dont belive it will be too bad..the only thing tat worries me... is all the wet sanding.. i got the paint mixture down pretty well after doing 2 coats and 1 coat on another.. so im at the moral delema.. do i listen to the parents and let them win.. or.. do the paint job i think i can do and show them wrong.. .. decisions decisions.. do you guys think im capable of doing it?? it is my car.. and i was told i can do as i want.. but they stressed they dindt want me too

also, after 10 hrs i didnt run into the scraping problems exit did.. mine was pretty much solid and i was using non oderless mineral spirits.. i could scratch it if i pressed hard.. but i couldnt peel it off.. but i could always do tat to the regular fiero body so not much differnce..

I say go for it, if you want you can just start out by doing a full fender on the car, and work it until it's done, just so you can see how it'll be before you do the whole car. Worst case scenario you messed up a fender, not the end of the world.

Yeah keep rolling. Direct them to some of the photos in this thread if they think it can't be done. The good thing is with this paint job, if you screw up on a coat you can just wetsand it smooth with 600 and keep right on going.

Also be careful if you're putting 2 coats on in one day. If the paint isn't well cured, there will be mineral spirits (solvents) trapped by the next coat and eventually it will flake off, like in a few days. Either that or it will remain soft for eternity.

Here's a pic of what it looks like.

thats why i set up two tests.. im doing one coat a day on one spot.. and im doing 2 coats a day on another.. seeing how it works out..

i really need to find a digital camera.. so i can get u guys some pics.. it looks so cool on the plastic.. has a little differnt effect than the metal i think.. its pretty cool actually.. color looks great and i only put on one coat.. it covers everything with jsut one coat pretty much.. i think if i did the bare minimum.. i could get away with only 3 coats.. but i plan on doing 4 to six at least.. posibly up to 8.... im doing lots of testing on my door skin i had left over.. so far i got 3 differnt things going.. i did a thin coat that is going on once a day.. i did a thin coat going on twice a day , each of these will be sanded the next morning and process will continue.. and the third test is alot of paint just kind of slopped on with little care.. figured id try and see all sides of the spectrum.. and find solutions to deal with problems before i get to doing the real thing..

the main problem im worried about with doing my car.. is how to do all the little cracks and crevices... im thinking high density little foam brush.. and rub it thin.. i think thatll do it.. i wanted to start the car on saturday of this week.. and end it wensday of next week.. becuse otherwise i gotta wait a few more weeks.. so im hoping i can complete all my tests by friday.. tape off the car same day.. and get started doing the car on saturday.. would you guys say its best to put a coat on the whole car all at once.. or do differnt sections at a time..

exit do you happen to have any type of messanger? like aol instant messanger, yahoo messanger.. that way i can get faster responses if i need them...(sorry for spelling mistakes.. its form spending too much time on messanger programs.. lol)

hey .. i got some industrial strenght soap.. with like lemon stuff and sand in it.. works well. but does not get all the paint off my hands.. wats the best way to get it off..??

Thanks to 69charger for posting so much info on the roller paint job. Your fame is spreading worldwide

Here are a couple of pics of my efforts on my MX-5/Miata.

Pre painting



First coat



Second coat



I spent weeks practising on a spare boot lid and I'm really happy with the way that everything is progressing. I'm using a paint called Tremco Metal Armour which is the closest match I could find to the Rustoleum thats available Down Under.

Thanks for the inspiration and the know-how guys, you are all dead set legends!!!

Wow, that looks pretty good Aussie Driver!

The little foam brush works for cracks and crevices. As long as the paint gets in there you should be OK, since you dont need to worry about sanding and polishing there. When you're doing that, you can move the paint around with the foam brush even to where it looks slightly uneven (it's tough to get it to look even unless there is a thick glob of paint), in my experience it levels/evens out on its own.

and a quick rub with mineral spirits works wonders to get the paint off. I've been doing that, and I'm not dead yet.

I've been following this thread for about three weeks now and I'm planning to begin my paintjob next weekend. I've started to compile a guide based on all the posts, but I still have some questions about the the type of paint that can be used:

I can't find any store that carries quarts or gallons of Navy Blue (Royal blue is too light for my tastes), so I'm thinking of using a tinted store brand. Lowes carries tintable akyld and acrylic enamels, which kind should I be using?

talk to the people at lowes.. im sure they can order it.. i know the one in wisconsin had almost everycolor in stock.. jsut ask.. they might be able to get it.. otherwise i dunno.. try home depot and stuff too.. i found home depo carried less colors.. but i know they can order alot too..

would there be a problem if i buy 2 different kind of colors and mix them to get a color you like? example i have forest green but id like it to be darker...if i buy black and tint it a little... it would get a darker forest green... anyone?

I tried unsucessfully to mix colors once. It was probably just my weak understanding of what colors when added equal the correct color. I had some red and some yellow, and was trying to get a reddish orange. Yellow and red is orange, right? Instead I got something that looked like thousand island dressing. Good on a burger, not on a car. Hopefully adding black to green will be more straightforward.

alright guys hers and update on my testing.. hit a few more snags today...

i am now doing three tests, the first test started on tuesday morning. i layed down a thin layer on part, and a moderate layer on another.. let that dry while i was at work, came home.. it was solid and dry no problems, so i put on a second coat and i started another test spot with a real thin layer. let both those dry last night, woke up this morning and decided i was going to wet sand the one with 2 coats. i was using 600 grit, real wet.. the paper and the door. well it took most the paint off and i hadnt been sanding for more than 15 seconds with moderate pressure. but it took most of it off leaving spots everywere. was not too happy with tat. is that normal? anways i put a second layer on the other real thin one i started yesterday. i think it was a bad idea to use the same brush, even though i cleaned it well last night. so i did half of tat second test wiht a new.. and the other with the old. i belive if i do the whole car i will use a new brush for every layer.. jsut to not take the chance.. but its jsut testing right now so no biggie. i think im gonna wait till the 4th coat on tat test before i sand.. it really levels smooth on the plastic for some reason, and other than a few things in the paint which i blieve are form the old brush, and not taking alot of care in my mixing i think it will look pretty good. the problem i think i may have had with the first test is tat i put the layers on too thin.. but is tat possible??? i had total coverage of the test area..maybe plastic abosorbs the paint a little bit.. or it lays differntly i dunno.. itll be interesting to see how all of thes turn out.. i also started another test today.. with real care taken into the prep.. i made sure the surface was perfect with no imperfections.. there were a few scratches .. but it should turn out well.. i dunno.. ill post pics when i can..

il keep trying test until i find a way tat works.. oh.. and thanks the spirits work wel on takign the paint off your hands.. only thing is i wish i had the oderless lol.... kinda smells like old gas lol..