Okay I suppose I should tell my story here. Over the years I have made a hobby of buying beat up Honda Preludes for cheap and "restoring" them to sell for profit. Sometimes the profit is small but it is fun to me. I had always taken them to Maaco, but Maaco never wants to paint a car for the advertised $250 price. They insidt that it needs a lot of prep blah blah blah and they usually want 5 or 6 hundred to paint a car even if you prepped it before hand. This angers me so I began searching the net for a way to paint a car myself for cheap. Of course I found these threads. I read part 1 & 2 and I just finished reading this new thread here. Ok I will never be sold on the roll-on method, I will never try it, specifically because all that sanding inbetween coats is too much work and too much downtime. Is your time not worth something?
Anyway Ive done a couple jobs with the rustoleum pro rattle cans. I had a red prelude with cracking peeling paint. Maaco wanted 600 bucks. Not good enough so I sanded the car, didnt prime it, and sprayed it with the rattle cans "regal red"
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/nupaint02.jpg?t=1187579737[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/nupaint04.jpg?t=1187582363[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/bbb03.jpg?t=1187582381[\image]
Well, aside from a few runs which isnt the paints fault its mine, I thought it was pretty good for 25 bucks. It took about 7 cans to cover the 'Lude. It did not have a mirror relection, the reflection in the paint was dull, and it was more like a semi gloss finish. I bought some 1500 grit paper (highest grit I could find) and some turtle wax rubbing compound and a $14 buffer at walmart. I wetsanded the trunk lid which left visible scratches in the paint. So I buffed it with the compound and I would swear it did nothing. Do you have to buff it for a really long time or what? I spent about ten minutes buffing the trunk lid and altho the paint was smooth as glass now, it still didnt have the shine I was looking for. That rubbing compound was $7 at pep boys and I think I should have used some 3M expensive cutting compound for better results...... But anyway, my coworkers were telling me the paint looked dull and I need a clearcoat on there for the shine. I let them convince me to go for the clear coat, and sprayed a bunch or rutoleum crystal clear enamel cans on there. No pics of that since it looked horrible. Blotchy, some areas were glossy, others not, some areas were smooth some textured, etc. It was hideous. I didnt like the orangy regal red anyway so I decided to re-do it with rustoleum pro gloss white ( the regal red wasnt "professional" and I thought maybe thats the key)
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/g02.jpg?t=1187582420[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/ddddddd.jpg?t=1187582979[\image]
this is after wetsanding 1500 grit and buffing with the turtle wax rubbing compound and that walmart buffer, which has one speed of 2500 rpm.
Pics make it look good but in reality it was about a 5-10 foot job. Any closer than 5 feet and it was obvious that the paint was super cheap and kind of dull.
Well that car developed some electrical problems that I didnt have any patience for so I traded it for another prelude, a rusty gold prelude with a few dings. After filling the dings and patching the rust I painted it black with Rustoleum cans again.
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/zz1.jpg?t=1187583002[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/cl4.jpg?t=1187583261[\image]
Again, pics make paint look good but in real life it was semi-gloss, kinda dull. This is no wetsanding and buffing since I wasnt able to improve the paint any when I did that the last time. Well that car was also a peice so I sold that and picked up another cheap Prelude, this one was a 4 wheel steer (rare and sought after)but had a bad white repaint on it. In one weekend I painted all the door jambs, sunroof, gas cap, engine bay and trunk black, then sanded the car and sprayed it with Rustoleum "appliance epoxy paint" gloss black. I was convinced the epoxy was the way to get a good shine out of a can, however now Im convinced there is no way to get a good shine from cans
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/b1.jpg?t=1187583579[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/b2.jpg?t=1187583605[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/b3.jpg?t=1187583620[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/b7.jpg?t=1187583674[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/be1.jpg?t=1187583690[\image]
[image]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c99/BAD91Si/fogsonly.jpg?t=1187583742[\image]
This is with no wetsanding and buffing because, again, I cant seem to improve the paint with polishing maybe because the compound I used is cheap or maybe the cheap buffer I used doesnt cut it.... But anyway you can see its dull.

I do not admit defeat yet tho, I will concede that I am done with rattle cans, they are best left for the engine bay and door jambs.
What I want to try is the Wagner electric HVLP spraygun, with either thinned rustoleum or real auto paint. I was thinking about it and you guys seem to be getting VERY shiny results with the heavily thinned rustoleum, maybe that is the key to a good shine. If I get the electric spraygun I can spray the thinned rustoleum on, I have no compressor, and I live in a small apartment I have no room for a compressor.

But I still must find a way to paint a car myself cheap and fast. The roll-on method will not do in my case. I need to do it all in one weekend.

If anybody has anything to add to my story or any advice it is much appreciated.

-Rob