Hi there, I came across this thread randomly. I started reading from the beginning, read up to about page 15 and then realized there's another 30 pages, then the link and then another 15! So I am sorry to have skipped so much and came to here. Starting from around page 10, there was a discusssion about Tremclad in Canada vs Rustoleum in USA and people were concerned whether they are indeed the same paint. I started using Tremclad some 15 years ago and IMO Tremclad is by far the best off the shelf Enamel paint ever existed and is not the same as other enamel rust paint. I've tried many other brands (mainly rattle can versions) that are available at Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona and none give the same results. Here in Vancouver, we can get Rustoleum brand paint as well, not only are they more expensive, they are not nearly as good. Tremclad sticks to anything including bare metal really well, while Rustoleum and other brands tend to chip and flake off easily. With Tremclad fully cured, I can take a hammer and put a dent on a steel surface and the paint goes in with the dent, while Rustoleum come apart from the metal and flake off. Tremclad paint really does self-smooth but not so with other paint brands.

I first learned about the idea about paint a car using Tremclad and 4" hi-density roller about 2 years ago from Sean's Turbo Niva site www.turboniva.ca He painted all his Niva's that way. I decided to do the same to my Niva. (yes I have heard all the Lada jokes thank you very much) I went to Rona to get paint and because Tremclad didn't have a colour I wanted I asked them to tint me a deep orange colour with their house brand rust enamel paint which they said was exactly the same quality as Tremclad. I sanded the car quickly with a sand block, wiped the car with paint thinner, and painted the hood, doors and rear hatch straight out of the can no thinning (I didn't really care, the Niva is a bush wacker!). The paint went on ok but a LOT of orange peel. I didn't like the colour after painting those parts and I ended up going back to Rona and got another can of paint. This time I got the Tremclad Recreational white. Again, without thinning I rolled it on and what a difference with paint quality. Much easier to roll on, great coverage, and the self smoothing was incredible, no orange peel at all. I've attached a few pics, they were taken over a year ago and about 6 months after the paint job. I sold the car last year and it is sorely missed

I only did one thick coat. I didn't sand the hood, doors and rear hatch after I painted them orange. The pictures were not taken intending to show paint quality but you can kind of see that the hood and doors are orange peely, while the roof and the rest are really smooth and shiny. It's almost not possible to get orange peel from Tremclad because it really smooths out itself. I did paint in the winter so temperature might have made a difference. The grill, mud flaps, the rubber pieces on the bumper and wheels were painted with Tremclad gloss black rattle can version. The wheels were rusty but the paint stayed on them as long as I had the car.

Sorry for the lengthy post, just thought I would share my roller paint experience. By the way, Tremclad has a colour called Aluminum. The colour is exactly the name, Aluminum. It looks real good, looks just like aluminum and has a metalic tint. I painted a lot of wheels with it. But I do not recomment paint the car with it. The colour never really cure, and you can always rub some off. And it cannot be re-coated with another colour! I emailed Tremclad about it and they said you can paint the Aluminum over another colour but never the other way, can't even put clear coat on it. So in case someone wants to mix colours and get some metalic look in the tremclad, don't do it! I heard that Sean at turboniva.ca mixed Aluminum and Black 50/50 and got a really wicked colour and painted one of his Nivas but the paint ended up peeling off. So definitely don't use the Aluminum to paint your cars!