"Real" automotive paint (base coat / clear coat) is much different than rustoleum chemically. Both types of paint have advantages and disadvantages.

The primary advantage of base / clear paint is superb resistant to UV light. UV light from the sun causes the surface of paint to "chalk". Base / Clear paint is very resistant to this natural process. It will look great for many years even if the vehicle is always outside. A second advantage of base / clear is excellent corrosion resistance.

The primary disadvantages of base / clear paint include: It's dangerous to apply requiring personal protective equipment. It should not be sprayed in some places. (townhomes for example) It requires a large (expensive) compressor and other equipment for spraying. When sprayed the overspray goes everywhere!

Rustoleum or similar paints, when applied as recommended in this tread and given several months to dry, are quite scratch resistant. These paints are comparatively easy to apply with very few health risks.

The primary disadvantage of Rustoleum is it will chalk and start to look bad after a period of time. (1-2 years) 69Charger, the originator of these posts, has recommended frequent waxing to slow the chalking process. When the paint chalks, rubbing compound / polish will bring back the shine.

I know a fellow who sprayed synthetic enamel on an antique truck approximately 20-25 years ago. (Synthetic enamel is very similar to Rustoleum) His truck still looks fine. Of course his truck spends 360+ days a year in a climate controlled garage under a cover. He washes and waxes it regularly. I'd be surprised if this truck has traveled 5,000 miles since he painted it. He probably has the ideal conditions for paint to last.

In summary, every type of paint has a "lifespan." How long a paint lasts is determined by the environment the paint is in and the level of care given to the paint. Which type of paint a person should use is very much dependent on their situation and the intended use of the vehicle. There is no correct answer for everyone. I'm using rustoleum on some parts of the car I'm restoring. (such as interior metal parts) My current plan for the outer sheet metal is base / clear. I like the look of base /clear better and I like the lower maintence of it.

Edit: I'm thankful for the posts on this method. I'd never considered using rustoleum anywhere on a vehicle till reading these posts.

my , my duster was painted 17 years ago with Dupont Cronar single stage enamel, and it it still as shiney as it was the day it was painted. granted it is garaged, but it's got 50k miles on it in that time, and sits outside a fair amount, especially when I drive it to work. I have no doubt brightside will hold up as well, as it's very similar to the sprayed on single stage uerethanes and enamels. my car is starting to show some bubbling in the quarters, and in a few years when I tackle the bodywork, I'm going to use the roller method with a boat topside paint. I dropped $4k on painting my 5th ave 2 years ago, and am overall fairly happy, but it's not as good as I think $4k is worth. so if the duster doesn't turn out perfect I will have nobody to complain about but me, and it will be significantly less than having it done at a body shop.

I'm thinking of maybe changing the color on my car again using this roller method. The car was red from the factory and i did it black and then decided to do it in bright white rustoleum and that was about 1 and a half years ago and it still looks as nice now as it did then. I'm kind of undecided though about maybe doing it a two tone black over white or all black.

Just replaced all the front sheet metal and put the correct year box onto my truck, so I'm back to where I was 2 years ago.

This is what the truck looked like on Friday.

And what it looks like now.
The nice thing about the roller paint job is that I can go back and recreate it with a quick trip to the hardware store for paint and sand paper.

Thanks for the response I beleive your are right that light rust needs to get out of their. One thing I did not get when rounding up supplies Glazing putty. I recently made some progress on the sides of the car were the body trim studs use to be filled with bondo then sanded back to smooth hopefully staight surface. Next are the holes about 1/4" some are perfect round others are oblong.

My The so called Auto paint is just a realative term depending on the year and make of car if you are talking Factory paint. Most modern Factory base/clear coat has been highly regulated by the Gov. for clear air act, low VOC paint, water based and in the beginning dissaster and evan today not as forgiving to the elements that a lot of people think, 1997 PLY. voyager after year 8 hood and roof totally trashed. On 78 volare shop repaint with single stage acrylic after year 5 highly faded and rust was back. 1988 Olds factory paint has ZERO clear left on all Horizontal surfaces and as smooth as concrete but I do not have the time frame on deteroation. Just look around next time your are driving around town all the factory auto paint that is faded, peeling, chipping, or covered by orage peel. Most purest Hot rodders will only use laquer paint for its high gloss but to get it ... you guessed right color sand, then polish, then wax, it is never used by auto makers any more today... labour intensive and not very durable to the elements. Alkayd enamal has been used by Auto industry in the past. Up to a point most factory paint is designed to last 5 years ... The pay of date for most of us poor debt laiden fools. Since car prices have gone up over the last several years I geuss it is resonable to assume the life expectency of the factory paint to at least match it. I also have fond memories of an Old 1960 something blue ford pickup with original paint that would chalk out and about once a year, help dad wax it up and the deep, smooth, gloss blue would return again.

Ace250xr84, Part of the reason you see paint failing so quickly is your location. Florida's climate ruins paint fairly quickly. I'm not 100% on all the technical reasons, but one of the testing methods used by ASTM to measure industrial paint durability is exposure to Florida sun.

In this part of the country, base / clear paint will typically last 10 years. Of course it depends on a LOT of factors. (care, application, initial quality, etc.) Yes, some vehicles had poor quality paint from the factory. One of my cars is in this catagory. It's only 6 years old, but will be repainted within the next year or two.

Every type of paint will fail at some point. I sprayed some Alkyld Enamel on my tractor 9 or 10 years ago. Just thinned it and sprayed it without any other additives. It's been faded badly for the last few years. (It's never been waxed, polished, etc.) Now it's starting to rust underneath the paint, so it's going to be repainted this summer.

The appearance of the tractor is not real important. The appearance of my car is MUCH more important. So even though the car's paint is in better condition than the tractor's paint, both will be repainted.

Quickdodge you hit it square on the head EVERY paint system will fail and the sun is punishing to paint here. Time till destruction and the amount of money spent are really the two main factors. Plus when it comes to paint its just about like mechanic work if you can do it yourself your better of. My 2 experiances with repaint shops have not been that good (1)(local independent shop) My 78 had good shine and little peel but they did have a few big ol fish eyes and a sag that looked like they painted over a couple slugs getten it on. Since it was getten a color change they painted the jams and oversprayed the whole interrior, white vinyl with a dusting of Burgundy ....nice... (2)factobake, dads 1992 conversion van with their top dollar job. The hard to get to spots they just didn't, between front window and roof drip rail peeling off, the roof was nearly skipped and it shows. So to draw to a close the car I am painting (rolling) Would NEVER be taken to a shop for a couple reasons and money is a big part of it, and until this method was put forth it would have stayed in its factory Auto Paint that had already grenaded so this method seems more than adequate and I hope I can pull it off. I fully realize that for around $1000-$2000 I can get it painted but would a $1K-$2k paint job really be that good evan with REAL AUTO paint.

Post deleted by Serious Sat

mmmmm

Thanks Tom

Thanks for the info everyone. I'd like to do this to my truck but after wading through over 100 pages I'm still confused about prep work. Should I use the rustoleum primer over the original paint? The previous owner took a rattle can to one of the quarter panels so I'm worried that the paint will react different in that area. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'm glad to see this thread is still alive! Quick question for anyone who has used brightside or pettit paint.

Did you have to use an expensive primer? I talked to someone at pettit who suggested that rustoleum primer would work but I just wanted to chime in to hear from someone who may have actually done it.

I used brightside and thinned with mineral spirits. No problems