I just thought of some more 'secret' hints that I stumbled across while using the Brightside paint and it they are equally applicable for the Tremclad/Rustoleum guys.

Discovery ONE : If your paint on a panel goes to h*ll... try a fluid soaked roller...

While working on the trunk lid things went bad. The paint started drying too quickly and started getting tacky. I tried to work the paint with extra rolling to try to level it out.. but it just got worse. I walked away from the car mad as h*ll because I figured I was going to have sand the trunk down and start it over ( when the rest of the car was already basically finished. I guess you can guess how pizzed off I was.

So I got mad and I figured that since it was screwed up there was nothing I could do that would make it worst. So I had a little light bulb go off in my head. I went to my paint tray and I dumped a ton of brushing fluid in with the remaining little bit of paint that was still in the tray. I would say the mixture was about 70% brushing fluid ( ketone ) and only 30% paint.

I lathered up the roller with a full load of this mixture and I started reworking the trunk lid.

MIRACLE UPON MIRACLE.. the paint on the trunk lid began flattening and spreading beautifully. This saturation of brushing fluid was able to save the day and the trunk lid turned out perfect.

So I mention this story just in case one of the panels you are working on goes to h*ll in a hand cart. Curse at it for a minute and then try a highly saturated roller to try to remedy what might appear to be a lost cause.

I suspect this 'last ditch' suicide effort might also work for the Tremclad/Rustoleum applicators as well. If the paint on the panel you are working on appears to be suddenly welling up and turning to orange peel... or if the roller marks are too visible and not levelling out... or if the surface has gotten too tacky before you had worked the surface with your roller to the point where you were satisfied... this might work for you to save you from having to sand down a pile of your work..

DISCOVERY TWO : If the paint on a panel goes to h*ll - reach for a rag as a last ditch measure

When I was originally applying the Tremclad paint to my car... I had a similar problem occur on the front driver's fender. I had just added a layer of Tremclad. Right before my eyes I could see that everything on that panel was going to h*ll... it looked like an instant case of severe orange peel. I cursed... I swore... I walked away knowing that I would have resand that panel down again and basically restart it.

So I decided to quit for the evening... because I was sooooo pizzed off at myself. I took a fresh cloth and soaked it with mineral spirits and started to clean my hands. Then that little light bulb went off in my head again. I took the mineral soaked cloth over to the panel and began WIPING IT DOWN in long steady swipes. It took the crappy layer off and left me with the previous layer - in perfect shape and ready to just dry out and repaint it.

Sometimes the greatest discoveries are done totally by accident or from sheer frustration...

DISCOVERY THREE : Two rollers work better than a roller and a foam or bristle brush

This probably ranks right up there with my other accidental discovery of using two rollers... one to roll the fresh paint and a fresh one to just roll over the fresh paint to level it, pop bubbles and work out any track marks left by the 'painting' roller.

DISCOVERY FOUR : Don't bother with 6" foam rollers

Ooooh... one last tidbit of info that I thought I would share. My experiment with the six inch high density foam roller was basically a failure. Although it seemed in theory to be better at laying down paint... it turns out that the FOUR inch high density foam roller gives you far better control. The only value you might find with the six inch roller is to use it as the secondary roller ( as described above ) to go over the paint laid down by the FOUR inch roller. But frankly you might as well use the four inch roller for the painting and the secondary rolling. I truly believe that the dual rolling works out better than the roller and brush method...

.