Here are a couple of pics so far.

before shot:


What it looks like now:



Cant wait to see what it will look like after a wetsand and polish!!

Roll On!

Well i Got coat number 4 of the topsecret TS-100 on yesterday. It was looking okay....I felt as If i could have done just as good (maybe even better) with rustoleum. This stuff does not self level as well as I would like.

So today I took a trip to West Marine. They did not have any brightside, but they did have a store brand polyurethane topside boat paint. The clerk said it was equivilant to brightside. I figured I'd give it a whirl.

WOW!!!!

There are bubbles to deal with, but they are easy enough to deal with. This stuff flows and covers like a dream...with VERY high gloss!! The topsecret paint was much harder to apply and was prone to runs. I thought it was my technique, but now I know otherwise. I just put 1 coat of the polyurethane on with zero runs and all of the brushmarks leveled out!

I feel like throwing the TS-100 in the garbage!

I learned a lesson.....dont mess with a good thing!

rustoleum satin black, the one with the patio furniture on the can.

little dirty and needs a final detailing but its still sexy

well, final detailing and waxing is done.. so at this point the car is basically done.





todo list:
1. front bumper groundfx - need more paint
2. door groundfx - need more paint
3 stick emblems on
4. go ruin a set of tires.

Hottest car colors
Friday September 14, 6:00 am ET

by Erin Peterson

In the car color popularity contest, silver continues its reign.

Nearly 20 percent of all 2006 vehicles (the latest year for which figures are available) were silver -- the seventh consecutive year that the color has taken the top spot.

There's good reason for that, says Chris Webb, the exterior color and trend designer for GM North America. "There's no question that silver on a vehicle looks incredible," he says. "When the light hits it and refracts, it shows off the vehicle's architectural form beautifully."

The color has other advantages, too: It hides dirt, it's an enduring favorite and it's easier to resell than other colors. (In the United Kingdom, many police agencies have switched from white to silver, because the silver cars fetch a higher resale price -- up to 10 percent higher than white cars -- after they've been pulled from the fleet.

Silver got a bump in the late 1990s as a result of a growing interest in technology, the future and Y2K, says Karen Surcina, color marketing and technology manager at DuPont. "Metallic finishes -- whether on cars, cell phones or stainless steel kitchens -- really took off," she says. "And now that it's stayed a top color for so long, it's become a safe color."

Still, there are signs that silver's popularity has peaked. "Silver is a cold color, and people are beginning to look for more warm and inviting surroundings," says Teresa Wong, a color designer at Mitsubishi Motors. "Silver isn't going to go away, but it might be declining."

Stuck in neutral?

White, gray and black take the second, third and fourth spots on the list, respectively.

While the colors may be popular, they don't necessarily represent what buyers actually want, says Barb Parker, a color designer for JDSU -- Flex Products.

"In the United States, most cars are bought off the lot," she says. "Dealers pick gray and silver and black because they're safe."

These neutral colors are also popular for rental cars. "A lot of vehicles go into the rental car fleets -- if you look around at rental cars, you'll see that they're silver or other neutral colors," says Parker.


Surprisingly, these neutral color trends are reflected particularly in the youth market, says Webb. The Scion brand, which is heavily targeted to the Generation X buyer, features remarkably subdued hues. "There's not a single bright color on the vehicle," he says. "Youth don't want that, because then they assume it was marketed to them. They associate bright colors with cheap, disposable products."

As a whole, the popularity of neutral color choices reflect a financially unstable climate, where buyers stick to safe, conservative choices, says Webb. The good news is that color is making a comeback.

A more colorful market
Henry Ford once famously said that his customers could purchase his cars in any color -- as long as it was black.

Today's consumers, however, have many choices, and they're starting to take advantage of brighter, bolder colors on their vehicles. "People are willing to go further with color," says Webb. "Lifestyles are becoming about extremes now -- for example, we're seeing a lot of extreme reality TV shows -- and the same thing is happening to color."

Medium colors, like the midvalue greens seen on cars in the late 1980s and 1990s, have been abandoned in favor of more saturated hues.

"Colors are very bright and chromatic," he says, noting that purples and oranges are finding their way onto vehicles-- even if they're not yet in the top 10. Some 50 percent of vehicles in GM lines have an orange hue available as an option, a color Webb thought would be a flash-in-the pan trend five years ago.

Parker agrees that color is back. "You'll still have blue cars," (No. 5 on the list) she says, "But instead of navy, you'll see cobalt. Greens (No. 8) might be Kelly green."

She says the change will be particularly notable on sport cars and small pickups, where school-bus yellow (No. 10), bright orange and red (No. 6) make dramatic statements.

Even staid silvers are getting a colorful update-- some of them can now be seen with green and silver tints.


Looking ahead
While it's likely that conservative color choices will tend to dominate the car market for years to come, Webb suggests that there is a growing interest in more unusual colors.

"People are starting to want to customize, personalize and express themselves," he says. "One of the easiest ways to do that on a car is to change color."

Color Popularity Survey
The numbers reflect the percentage of vehicles manufactured during the 2006 model year in North America, as compiled by DuPont.

1. Silver 19%
2. White 16%
3. Gray 13%
4. Black 13%
5. Blue 11%
6. Red 11%
7. Light Brown 7%
8. Green 4%
9. White Pearl 3%
10. Yellow/Gold 3%

Thanks to new technologies and processing techniques, consumers have color choices and options that weren't widely available years ago. One popular trend is colors that seem to change depending on the light that hits it and the angle at which you see it.

"It's amorphous," says Barb. "Is it gray, is it green, is it blue? These are cars that seem to have a little bit of everything." The high-tech hue-shifting finishes have tiny metal flakes, usually aluminum, added to the paints to create the special effects.

Wong believes another paint trend may make a big impact in the near future. "There's a trend toward water-based paints," she says. It may not look any different on the car, but the paints reduce the amount of harmful emissions known as VOCs, which should pique the interest of environmentally conscious buyers.

And if you want to pick a color that's making a comeback? Try a deep, luxurious brown, says Webb, who says that we can thank Starbucks for the reinvigorated color.

"There used to be a lot of negative connotations to brown -- like mud and dirt," he says. "But now it's a color associated with premium coffee and luxury."

He says that the Buick Enclave, a luxury crossover vehicle, has benefited from brown. Its cocoa exterior is the top-seller among its color choices.

Surcina predicts that golden hues like copper and bronze also will be seeing a resurgence in the next two to four years.

While color trends may suggest what's popular for many, Parker recommends buying a color that you love -- not one that everyone else does. "Don't just buy whatever's on the lot," she says. "Order the color you want, because you're going to look at it every day for years. Let it express who you are."

I'm getting ready for the Rustoleum/mineral spirits/roller method. Did some minor bodywork followed by Rustoleum Professional red primer in a rattlecan. This was a week ago. Last night I wiped down the area with mineral spirits, and some of the primer came off easily. Do I need to be less vigorous with my cleaning, or has the primer not totally cured yet?

ok I just got done reading a bunch of the first thread, noticed there was a huge 2nd thread, and even a 3rd and gave up. I would like to try this method this weekend and would like to know if I am missing any steps at all.


1)sand with 80,100,200,400 (use a foam/rubber sanding block)
2)paint two coats and wait 12 hours, paint another coat (paint with rustoleum aklyd enamel mixed with mineral spirits so it is almost like water)
3)sand with 600
4)
paint two coats and wait 12 hours, paint another coat
5)sand with 800
6)paint two coats and wait 12 hours, paint another coat
7)sand with 1000,then 1500
8)polish with the cheapest turtle wax compound and buffer

*keep sand paper wet with a spray bottle when wet sanding and use a shammy to wipe off extra water.


I've searched a lot for some sort of step by step just so I could print something off to have and not have to remember it all in my head. Did I miss it somewhere?


just found a good guide. It's about using the brightside but the process seems the same. If anyone want's the link, here it is.

http://carpainting.wetpaint.com/page/Rollering+Interlux+Brightside+Polyurethane+Paint/diff/9,10?t=anon

Wow that white Interlux Brightside on the Bimmer looks fantastic. I cant believe how flat it lays and how glossy it is straight from the can. Im sold on the Interlux Brightside.

Ok I am just trying to figure out how much of everything I will need before I place an order over at boatersland.com I just have a medium sized sedan so I am guessing that two quarts Interlux Brightside and one quart of Interlux Brushing Liquid should be enough?

Also, sense I will be using the brightside, do I still mix it with mineral spirits as well?

Thanks everyone, and hopefully I'll have some pics up in a few weeks!

Hi all,first time poster long time lurker.

I am getting ready to paint my 1969 Camaro, and was wondering if any of the Oranges that Brightside, Tremclad or Topsecret sell that might come close to the good old Hugger Orange Chevy was using way back when.

Thanks
Kevin

While I'm at it - here's a question:

I was originally doing Satin black, but I couldn't get the roller marks to level off well on large panels like the hood and roof. So I gave up and switched to gloss (Rustoleum) knowing that I could sand/buff out any final errors, which I would not be able to do with in a final coat of Satin.

But - I still would really prefer the Satin finish over the gloss. A decent satin finish looks like primer and says "work in progress". I'm worried that a mediocre gloss finish will just say "cheap paint job". And my original goal for the car (68 Charger) was to have more of a rat-rod look, anyway.

Here's my question - I'm at the point where I could do two final coats of gloss and start polishing. If I try (instead) another coat or two of Satin at this point, and I still can't get rid of the roller marks, can I just re-sand and proceed with a final couple coats of Gloss and proceed to buffing? I guess I'm not sure what it would look like during buffing if I burned through the final gloss and got down to my aborted Satin coat. If it would end up all splotchy.

Let me see if I can make that more clear. Here's what I have now:
2 coats satin
sand 600gt
2 coats satin
sand 800gt
2 coats gloss
sand 1000
2 coats gloss
sand 1000gt

If I used Satin for the final and it turned out OK, I'd be done. Otherwise I'd have to do two more coats of gloss and end up with (in addition to above):

2 coats Satin
sand 1000gt
2 coats Gloss
Final Rubbing / Polishing

How likely is it that my final Polishing would go through the final two coats and expose the satin underneath? And could I just keep polishing the Satin layer up to the same gloss as everything else?

Am I even making sense?

I know from experience - with Rusto - that you can indeed polish a flat to a gloss.
I tested a bit when I painted my Newport, and it was amazing how quickly the flat finish went shiny.
And I didn't use a single coat of gloss on the car anywhere, so it wasn't that I polished through.

I sprayed my flat finish, so I can't help you with the roller marks issue, but as above, I can say that you can make a flat into a gloss pretty quickly!

just thought i would share a site i ran across that sells the pc polisher and some polishing stuff. they also have some videos of the using it with tips on how to use some of the stuff. thought someone might get soemthing out of it....and no I don't work for them.

http://www.tropi-care.com/

So I decided to do this paint on a budget thing. First off, I took off as much paint as I possible can. Unfortunately, there was a chunk of old paint that was impossible to take off. I worked on it for hours and it would not budge. I went ahead and painted over it anyways, now I ran into a problem. I think the pictures will tell it all. Does anyone know a cure for this problem? Please help