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I have a question regarding painting now that it's getting cold outside. I plan on using the roller method to paint my truck eventually, but I still have a lot of body work left to do. I'm currently working third shift so I don't presently have a whole lot of time to really do anything right now, nor really the money to do it, but I have to do something soon. Awhile back, I sanded the hood down to bare metal to take care of some rust issues, then just shot with a couple coats of Rustoleum spray primer and left it at that. Now, it's starting to rust through the primer and, with winter coming, I know I need to get some kind of paint on it quick. So I just figured for a quick fix, I'm going to resand it, primer, then spray some paint on it. The thing is, I sleep all day, this is my daily driver and I don't have a garage to keep it in. My concerns are about driving it with relatively fresh paint (if I was to paint it around 5pm and I go to work at 10pm), and what might happen with a cold, dewey, or frosty morning. Also, when I resand this, should I use the rust converter/primer, or just use the Rustoleum primer again? Any advice out there?



Ok... so let's break this down :

a ) cold temperatures mean a longer curing time is required or the paint/primer stays soft

b ) moisture, humidity or gawd forbid snow means the paint will take a foggy appearance and a slightly slow drying time.

I would probably suggest the following prescription for your situation :

a ) sand the primer down to smooth it all out and to remove where the rust stain is breaking through.

b ) don't prime. Go straight to laying on a coat of Rustoleum/Tremclad or Brightside. They all have the ability to serve as a basecoat/primer and they have the ability to stop oxygen from getting through to the metal ( therefor starving rust of the oxygen supply that it needs to grow ).

Ok... now what I would do.... is for that first coat of paint ( after the removal of the primer and rust ) is to be a bit of a farmer ( no offence meant ) and just lay on a straight coat of paint ( undiluted or with very very little mineral spirit added to it ).

The idea being to get as nice thick coat down to ensure the starvation of oxygen from the rust/bare metal.

The thing is that when you next have the opportunity to do a sanding and your next coat, you will be able to sand off any irregularities in the smoothness of the painted surface.

The subsequent coats of paint will be done with the normal dilutions of mineral spirit ( in order to lay only a very thin coat of paint for each subsequent layer ).

There is no problem if you have foggy paint for the initial layers. The wet sanding prior to each coat will remove the outer skin layer where the fog is actually located ( if it happens at all ).

A lot of this will also depend on what color you are going to be using. For obvious reasons the fogging is more noticable with the darker colors... and less noticable with the lighter colors.

EVEN if there is a slight fog on your final coat of paint... that is something that the final wetsanding, polishing and waxing should be able to make disappear.

NOW.. there is no problem with driving the vehicle during the painting. But you have to keep in mind that the paint will be slightly less cured ( hardened ) depending how soon after painting you hit the road and cruise. You also will having all kind of 'road crap' landing on the curing paint. So all that means is that WHEN you go to do the next layer of paint, you will have to spend a little extra time preparing the surface to be painted. It may require a little more wet sanding ( to take the previous coat of paint to a clean surface of paint ) AND it will require a little more attention to thoroughly wiping down the wet sanded surface to remove all the artifacts lifted by the wet sanding ( since you are removing the sanded off crap and any contaminants that may have landed on the paint ( bird poo... dust... bugs that have splattered on to it... strange liquids that have landed on it from cars in front of you or that sprayed off their tires. ( its amazing the crap that is turned up by the cars in front of you.. dust, dirt, road oils etc ). So that is why you have to do a thorough disinfecting of the surface prior to adding your next coat of paint.

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