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The acetone will flash much quicker.... BUT you better have an oxygen tank slapped on your back to avoid breathing the fumes. And don't have any open source flames where you are putting that acetone laced vapor into the air.

The main flaw I would suspect with the paint flashing too quickly is that it is not going to allow the paint the time to naturally self level.

And acetone is pretty nasty stuff all round. Acetone can eat into plastics, remove enamels, cleans hardened nail polish etc. So based on acetones nasty ability to eat things prior to it evaporating and drying, my biggest fear would be that when the second coat is sprayed the acetone will spend half of its energy trying to eat the paint layer below and the other half of its energy evaporating. IF it is able to eat or soften the lower layer of hardened paint, I suspect you would get a bad case of orange peel or elephant skin

But most importantly keep the health reason in the back of your mind if you plan to experiment with acetone...
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good point Marq !
(BTW - Thanks for all of your posts !
Like many others I started reading the whole thread and when I finally finished it, it was obvious to me who the big contributors have been all along, have a lot of respect for you, Exit, Aussie and of course Charger)

I did 2 coats of regular gloss rustoleum, wetsand, and a couple of coats of Brightside White on the Hood and I just finished wetsanding it with 2000, I am waiting for some pads and Poorboys stuff to get here and I'll put my new Porter Cable to work and make that baby shine !

I will do a quick test one of these days using acetone, but as always, I do it outside, not inside the garage, because I have 2 Cobras in the garage, don't want any overspray on them.

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good point Marq ! (BTW - Thanks for all of your posts ! Like many others I started reading the whole thread and when I finally finished it, it was obvious to me who the big contributors have been all along, have a lot of respect for you, Exit, Aussie and of course Charger)

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Look into my eyes... look deeply into my eyes... you are beginning to feel sleepy from inhaling paint fumes. Your eye lids are getting heavy as you are falling deeper and deeper in to sleep. When I count to three you will wake up... and immediately sign the pink slip of the blue Cobra over to me for no charge... ONE.... TWO.... three...

Thanks for the kind words. I try to do my part

three.. !
Three.. !!
THREE... !!! Whats a matter.. can't you hear me...

Darn.. it didn't work.... ;(

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If you have orange peel in the paint that you don't want once it's polished then keep wetsanding until it's all gone.

Once you have finished painting then don't worry about finding the cause of the orange peel unless you plan on painting another car. My guess of the cause though would be not enough thinning.

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I may or may not attempt another car in the future - but I still need help with this one because I've only done 3 out of 10 panels so far. I took a cautious approach to this because I was still slightly skeptical about rollering a whole vehicle, so I started out doing a comparison - I rollered my tailgate and sprayed my hood, convinced that the spraying would yield better and easier results. How I wish I would've done the opposite! Oh well, I'm learning as I go.

I'm in the middle of doing the roof now, and I will definitely be rollering the rest of the truck entirely. I tried going a little thinner with the mix this time, and now I'm pretty sure that didn't cause my slight orange peel, because it began to run/sag on the roof sides as I applied it. I'm beginning to think maybe I nitpicked a little on the tailgate finish because what I'm seeing and calling "orange peel" isn't as bad as the word implied. I've seen factory finishes with a similar amount in dark colors. I probably could have wetsanded it away with a little more patience. You can see slight roller-strokes in one spot though (if you know to look) and that does bother me a little.

One quick observation for anyone else trying this for the first time - I'm on the 4th coat for the roof and I noticed I seem to be getting smoother results from sanding in a direction perpendicular to the direction I'm rolling (i.e. sanding north to south, painting east to west). It seems like such a simple thing, but I don't know if anyone else mentioned or tried that yet. At first I was worried I'd end up with a checkerboard effect, but that's not the case.

Thanks for all the great tips Aussie Driver, you can bet I'll be back for more!

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One quick observation for anyone else trying this for the first time - I'm on the 4th coat for the roof and I noticed I seem to be getting smoother results from sanding in a direction perpendicular to the direction I'm rolling (i.e. sanding north to south, painting east to west). It seems like such a simple thing, but I don't know if anyone else mentioned or tried that yet. At first I was worried I'd end up with a checkerboard effect, but that's not the case.

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I really dont want to spend THAT much time, when I could just pony up the extra $40 for paint that needs no polishing..... It seems like the $50 paint job is $50 but 40 hours of hard labor, where as a real paint job might be $70 for a gallon of real auto paint, plus you need a paint gun, but it can be done in an afternoon and done with it.... Factor in the labor and its much cheaper to just spray real automotive paint on there....

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Nowhere in this exhaustive thread does anybody say this is quicker or cheaper than spraying IF you already have the capital equipment and expertise. That is a big if.

Also, "Real" automotive paint requires you to mix reducers and hardeners in the right combinations for the atmospheric conditions. If you can't handle mixing mineral sprits with rustoleum, you are in for some real disappointment along with your $70 of "real" automotive paint.

And don't get me started about trash in the paint. If you don't have a clean place to roll, you definitely do not have a clean enough place to spray.

Cal96 got excellent results with regular Rustoleum and a Wagner, so it can be done:


If you require more gloss out of the can, might I suggest Brightside. AussieDriver has had good results:



Be realistic with your expectations. This method is not intended to be a shortcut. It is an alternative that allows for a quality paint job with A: little investment in cash and capital, and B: personal control over the finished product.

But it does require time and effort.

Cheap, Good, Quick - pick any two.



PS: If I have linked to images inappropriately, let me know.

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... that have spent more than 3 Grand for results half what Aussie has.

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Thats me. I would have been happy with that metric if anyone could have ever delivered.
I have yet to get a paint job as good as promised - at any price.

Conventional wisdom says without access to a booth, compressor and gun, and the chemical expertise to mix modern paints, the average Joe had no choice. When is the last time you saw a non-metalic color other than red, white, black or yellow on a new car?

"...The only way to win is not to play..."

Its a revolution, Baaay-bee, yeah.