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A couple of question.. if I get the rustuelom do I get prof or regular paint? second..

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Both will do the job... but the 'professional' version may have a bit better pigment and solids in it. In theory you might get better 'coverage' with the professional version. As an aside topic, I seem to recall someone once mentioning that the Professional Grade Rustoleum was in fact the Canadian Tremclad paint. Not sure if that is true... but it is conceivable...

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can I use a dark or light primer? or do I really need one? third.





The choice of primer color is directly related to the color of paint that you are going to apply and the end result color that you want. For example, Fire Red paint laid on a blue-gray primer gives a darker Fire Red color then if you had laid it onto a white primer.

Should you use a primer ? That probably depends more on what you are painting onto. If you already have a uniform color on your car body that you will be painting on to then you might be able to go straight to paint without a primer. If you have a bondo'd body, a white fiberglass hood and a mish mash of colored body parts on your car, then you might want to go with a primer JUST to have one uniform color underneath the paint to start from.

I think the main reason why I decided to put a good quality primer onto my car was to achieve the darker red color with my paint ( because the paint inherits some of the color refraction of the sub-layer ) and because with a good quality primer I was able to sand like a mad man and get one heck of a smooth surface to start laying my paint on. Smoother subsurface EQUALS glossier finish with the paint on it.


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. which grit sandpaper do I use beside 1500 and 2000?





I guess it all depends at what stage of the bodywork and painting you are at. I made use of a 220 grit to level out my primer and then resanded it with a 400 grit to get it smoother. When 'wet sanding' between every second coat you can use an 800 or 1000. If you need something a little more agressive you can fall back to your 400 and then hit it after with the 800 or 1000. You don't get into the 1500 or 2000 grit until you are at your final coating and that is mostly to prep that final surface for hitting with the polishing etc.

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.. the powerpainter does it work well compare to the roller? if i use the powerpainter do I sand my truck as often as you do with the roller?..





I think you can achieve excellent results with the sprayer - and I was even tempted at one point to splurge and pick up a sprayer. The results with the sprayer will give you a potentially more uniform application of the paint on to the vehicle. But the price you will pay for this convenience is MESS... the overspray is the one nice thing that the roller totally eliminates. And I guess you won't end up with as many bad things in your lungs and nostrils when you roll instead of spray. But if you develop your ninja paint rolling skills and paint mixing formulations than the roller job can give you a paint job that will be equal in appearance to a sprayed job. The key here is that it will obviously take more time and potential wetsanding between every second layer with the roller - compared to a sprayed on paint job. The sprayed paint will in theory be more level so that when you are wetsanding every second layer it should in theory be a smoother surface and hence less wetsanding required.

The other factor in the spray vs roll debate would be how much more masking off of the car you will need to do with the spray. When rolling you have far more control over where the paint is going - and hence your masking of the vehicle requires less time and tape spent doing that....

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