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Hey guys, long time follower, first time poster. I recently sanded down the rear half of car, I started with a whipe over of all the panels with goo-gone( a common household solvent) and soap and water. After I was satisfied with the clean, I sanded with 100, 150, 220, 320 and finally 400. It felt pretty smooth. I washed it down with smelly mineral spirits and then let it dry for 45 minutes. Since I had quite a bit of filler,I then rolled on a layer of rustoleum, clean metal primer (white colored stuff). I rolled it on with a 9" roller for some odd reason, it was just what I had around and it had a black foam cover thing on it. This was ultimately not the best idea as it gave it quite a bit of texture and was hard to maneuver. However, I saw no drips and the orange peel was very easy to deal with. I was satisfied with my result even though several places I had accidentally sanded down to bear metal when sanding down some more bondo I had put over the primer and then covered with rattlecan filler primer. So yesterday, I had cleaned the car and whipped down my panels with odor MS. Letting these dry for roughly half an hour, I mixed my rustoleum black *came in a quart* with mineral spirits till it seemed to be about the thickness of water *It ended up being about 60% mineral spirits*. I then rolled it onto my car with a 4 inch high-density roller. Instantly, I noticed a TON of bubbles which I needed to blow on very very hard to pop. So I tried chasing it with a 3" black foam brush. First thing I noticed were brush marks from the brush, it seemed to push the paint around too much and the primer underneath was exposed. It looked bad. So I decided not to chase it and see if I could just pop these bubbles with my roller, just rolling back over them with my roller. The roller seemed to even the paint out a bit but still left plenty of bubbles. This annoys me like crazy but I figured the bubbles would pop and self level. Well they did pop, but they seemed to leave thicker spots of paint around them so now it looks very blotchy. I also noticed I have tons of runs. In sanding out the runs and bubbles, I wetsanded with 400 grit like I did on the primer coat. This seems to cut quickly through the paint around the imperfections. it took a long time to get through the drips and bubbles and often cut straight through to the factory paint. I was using a block for most of this sanding. Also, the paint is not very even at all but seems to be alot better on verticle panels like my rear fenders rather than the hood lid. Any suggestions? I'm thinking thicker paint, any other ideas? Thanks for the help!



I've been using both a foam brush and a roller for the second pass and my experience is that the timing is critical and is dependant on which tool you're using.

If you're using a brush for the second pass then you should hit it immediately to avoid leaving brush strokes. If you do this and you're still getting brush strokes, then you're paint is probably too thick.

If you're using a roller for the second pass, its best to wait 3 - 4 minutes for the paint to begin to set. You want to use very light pressure to just pop the bubbles. If you start the second roller too soon, you'll just be creating more bubbles in the meantime.

Regardless of method, thin paint applied sparingly will reduce the amount of sanding and give a better finish.