If the Rustoleum / Tremclad marketing people were REALLY SMART they would seize on this and put together some 'gathering' where all the Rusto cars and Tremclad cars could gather for a 'car show'....

Tee hee... a gathering of cheap but well motivated car enthusiast...

But then again... since we are all so 'budget' minded we probably wouldn't want to drive to far to get to this Concours... ahahhhhah....

Anyhow... on the update with my car... I just sanded down the paint and I can assure anyone who wonders about the 'hardness' of the Tremclad when applied this way that the sanding only produced DUST... dry as desert dirt dust... There was absolutely NO gumming up or clogging of my sandpaper. And this was from a 3 day old application of paint.

On other topics... I have been following that other thread where the guys are using cheap Wagner electric spray guns to apply their paint.

So I took a trip over to the Home Depot to scout out the units that they have there. It turns out that the guy in the hardware section had experimented with the range of Wagner sprayers AND RUSTOLEUM.

From what I gather from his experiences, the cheap bottom end Wagner sprayers 'might be able to do the job'... but he does not recommend them.

You can spot the weaker and less likely to succeed Wagner electric sprayers by the fact that THEY DON'T GIVE THE PSI ( pounds per square inch ) pressure rating on their boxes. These units are usually in the $50 to $70 range ( CDN$)

In fact these Wagners are the ones you tend to find at Walmart etc. Instead of telling you the PSI their boxes they usually make some idle claim about " you can paint 15 feet of fence in 10 minutes' or some crap like that.

For some odd reason Walmart was charging about $20 to $30 per unit more than Home Depot for these lower end Wagners. I was a bit surprised that Walmarts price was so 'uncompetitive' compared to Home Depot.

The Depot guy says to avoid those ones that don't tell you right on the box what their PSI is. Wagner is embarassed to say it.. so you should avoid it. They only have about 1200 PSI and you would have to cut your Rusto/Tremclad with about 35% to 50% mineral spirit for them to function properly.

The ideal or dream Wagner electric sprayer is rated at 2200 PSI and proudly proclains that on their box. You pay a bit more for this puppy - but it has the ability to atomize even straight Rustoleum or Tremclad - and it has the valve to handle that density of paint. However, the Depot guy says that you should cut the paint with mineral spirits ANYHOW.

There was also a 1500 PSI model and an 1800 PSI model Wagner. Again note that Wagner clearly indicates the PSI on the boxes of both of these products. Both are up to the task of atomizing Rustoleum and Tremclad. The Depot guy gave his personal thumbs up to the 1800 PSI model. But again he suggest that the results will be better if you cut the Tremclad / Rustoleum with about 10% to 20% mineral spirits.

The 1800 PSI unit was going for about $89 bucks CDN and the 2200 PSI unit was going for about $109 CDN$.

Strangely enough the Walmart no PSI Wagner was also going for about $109 CDN ( and since we know it is only a 1300 PSI model that price difference is what made the Walmart unit seem so overpriced ).

The end user is supposed to test out their sprayer / paint and mineral spirit mix by fiing against a 4 x 8 sheet to fine tune the spray being delivered and the runability of their paint and mineral spirit combination.

The only caveat that I was given about the Wagner that is shown in the earlier message ( the ultimate control and minimize overspray model ) is that they don't show on the box what the PSI is for that unit. As such he thinks it may be a 1200 or 1300 psi model. Therefore you would probably have to cut your paint to mineral spirit something like 40% mineral spirit in order to not clog the valves and for the spray gun to
onsistently atomize the paint it is spraying.

So the conclusion to this tale is that :

a ) if the Wagner spray gun doesn't tell you the PSI on the box... it is probably best to avoid it.

b ) the one labeled with its PSI rating on the box ( and especially the one rated at 1800 PSI is probably the best bang for your buck and can perform a thousand other duties when it isn't being used to Rusoleum or Tremclad a car body.

Hope this info helps someone out who might be considering the electric spray method of applying their paint.

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I am seriously thinking about this option because it sounds like an ideal way to deliver a consistent and thin black layer and then overcoat it with a red layer ( getting that deep black cherry look that I want - instead of just settling on the standard issue Fire Red color on its own ).