The hood is actually fiberglass and it was well wiped down with mineral spirits. The next panel I paint I'll go for as thin a coat as possible. thanks for the feedback

so i rolled on the 3rd and 4th coat super heavy, came out like . It was still wet the next day, sanded a bit, then i threw it up on the roof to be in direct sunlight...a nice 80 degree california day......

i think if you put on a nice thin coat and let it dry and keep it thin each time, the process will work well, but if you get a little excited and go big early...you are going to blow it...

Hey guys... not sure if you guys remember but I started painting my TE71 Corolla.

Here is the result after painting six coats on the hood and cowl, and four coats on the fenders and front.



I like this method as I can just do a panel at a time when I wish. I still have yet to fix some rust on the C pillar and I have more work to do on the doors yet.

so the paint mostly dried and i wetsanded it. the peel came out, but now i have high and low spots. i am not using a block, just my hands, some places the paint looks good, others i burned down to the metal. i will post pics tomorrow

d

go to eastwood.com or your nearest body shop supply stotre and gre a set of sanding blocks.
something like this



you dont have to get all the orange peel out just leave a very little hint of them and after you buff the paint then they will disaper.

Well the car has been sitting for a while again. I was waiting for the paint to get harder before putting the trim back on.

Final coat was early October.

I washed all the dirt and pollen off the car and it cleaned up fine. The sun dried dog slobber did leave a faint stain. I am sure it will clear up with a light buff.

I had 2 coats of Meguairs Show car glaze and 2 coats of the yellow high tech wax.

We have had a few nice days lately and when I walked by the car I smelled solvent again. I did the nail test today and it passed. No problem at all. The paint is rock hard. Just like 69Chargeryeeha said it would get.

Guys, you might hate me. I may have finally cracked the secret to the $50 paint job. No joke. A few pages back, I told you about how I was painting the interior of my '60 Oldsmobile with New Holland Red tractor paint by Van Sickle. It's another Alkyd enamel, like Rustoleum. Well, I used the urethane hardener when I painted the trunk, mostly to improve the cure time because I've been painting in 40* and colder weather.

Well, at the same time I did the trunk, I had a little leftover paint...so I decided to put some on a fender I pulled off my old truck when I did the body work on it. This fender is going to the scrap heap, so what the heck. I didn't do any prep work at all...didn't even wash it . The top half I used a roller on (same 4" high density you guys have been using), the bottom half I used a 2 1/2" brush that cost me $1.25.

Now, with the paint I didn't thin it at all...it was straight from the can, mixed about 8 to 1 with the hardener. The hardener seems to make it thinner all by itself. This was about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I let it sit in the garage for a week, but then it was just getting in my way while I was working on welding a floor board in my Olds, so I put it back out behind my garage. We finally had some sun this week, so it got to cure out there.

The section painted with the roller had some pretty good orange peel...could have been because the paint was too thick, or it could have been the ancient primer under it, or maybe my rolling technique. Who knows. The brushed section was actually pretty smooth...it had some waves from the bristles, but it really was'nt bad.

So tonight I decided to see what I could do with it. I only had about half an hour to play with it, so tried to wet sand out the imperfections with some 400 grit, wet. Sanded through in a couple of spots, but it went through the orange peel plenty fast. Once it was smooth, I used what has to be the cheapest polish made. I paid less than $3 at the grocery store for it. I hit it with my Craftsman 10" polisher. Finished with some Meguiars carnauba paste.

The result? I just about crapped. You guys won't believe how good it looks for the work I put into it. I'm dead serious. Aside from the fact that the fender itself looks like ***, it's amazing since I only sanded with 400 grit and polished. I know, I know, this is all meaningless without pics, but it's pitch black outside and my camera batteries are dead. I was doing all this with a halogen work light. I'll try to shoot it at lunch tomorrow and post them in the afternoon. I've been doing body work for 15 years, and I gotta say...if this thing had maybe one more coat of paint and a real wet sand, it would look as good as any other enamel paint job on the road. It's that good. I've still got some more experimenting to do, but if this pans out it could make this whole "cheap paint job" a lot easier. Right now that paint is rock hard...no fingernail business. And I painted it a couple of weeks ago. One of the other nice things about using the hardener is that it actually "cures"...it's an anaerobic process. It's not like drying by evaporation where thin layers are important. You can have the paint thicker than the micro layers you guys have been using, and will still dry.
Anyway, like I said I'll try and get some pics up tommorow. I was just too stoked not to post something tonight. I won't have much time to experiment with this process for a couple of weeks...I've got too much going on, but if anyone else out there wants to take a stab at it, please post your results.

Can you provide details/link to the hardener you used?

- What is the brand name of the hardener you used?
- Does it have isocyanates?
- What kind of filter did you use in your respirator?

- Do you think this will allow you to paint on maybe 2 thick coats, then sand/polish?

Thanks for sharing your info. And by the way ... I'm in Potomac, north of Missoula.

I checked our TSC , this is what they have.

http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcI...;productID=9169

Hehehhe... that enamel hardener sounds like an interesting addition to the roller job... although a careful look at the label of the can mentions things like 'LUNG DISEASE", throat problems.. dizziness... etc.

So I don't think anyone thinking of spraying should do anything until they read the product sheets on that stuff. It sounds like a respirator ( or oxygen tank ) might be needed to avoid killing yourself.

Possibly a roller or brush job might be able to make use of it.... but I suspect a 'well ventilated' work area is definitely needed.

I do like how it mentions that it not only hardens.. but also gives an enhanced GLOSS

On the topic of the Tractor paints at :
http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcI...;productID=9169

It was interesting to note the various "red" colors that they offer. I would have to do a little more research to see if any of the tractor reds match up with something that is 'deeper and darker" then the Fire Red offered by Brightside and Rustoleum/Tremclad. Too bad they don't have a color card available. I did notice that they were offering a Coca Cola red and a Chevy Red. I suppose some of those other colors might appeal to the folks looking for more variations in the blue, gray, greens, oranges, yellows, etc

.

Ok, here it is...the fender I did the test on:



You can see all the crap I painted over...cracking bondo, 5 year old primer that's flaking off, rust, dirt... I did exactly ZERO surface prep before I painted this thing.

Here's the result:



Do you think anyone would believe me if I told them I painted it with a brush? And keep in mind that this is after a single wet sand with 400 grit paper, and a polish with the cheapest paste I could find. To be honest, the 400 grit was too agressive, and I did go through in a few spots (you can see them in the full length pic). 600 would have been better, but I only had a half hour to dink with it and I know 400 will wipe out orange peel in a big hurry. Doing it the way I did, you get full coverage on the first coat. A second or third coat may be needed if you have to take too much off to clean up any impecfections. Other than that...piece of cake! Waiting a week or more to wet sand may help...it'll be cured nice and hard by then. OTOH, you might be able to do it the next day...someone with more time than me can experiment .

Anyway, there it is. I couldn't be more impressed with it given the fact I have a 1/2 hour into the whole process.

Our TSC doesn't carry the Van Sickle anymore. They have a Valspar paint under BPS (Best Paint Sold).

I scanned the card for the colors available but the light from my scanner brightened them up some.

Per ga was $23 and hardener was $9 at least here.

The hardener said paint dry/handle time was 24-36 hours without and 2-4 hours with. With the very thin coats are being rolled here I would think even less time than that. That # might be for a heavier brushed on coat. That also means with the hardener less time to apply your paint and it couldn't be mixed back in with the rest of the paint.