I'm using the brightside black and like spyhunter said it's way black.

I'm going to thin mine even more today because I got more orange peel than I wanted yesterday. Time to sand...

This is about how black is gets. This was taken without a flash, the with flash pic doesn't show the shine. THe wierd spots were where i sanded down some small runs.

Well, after about 2 months worth of reading and finally a nice week, I decided to try this. I have a 1992 Dodge 250 2 wheel drive , that had the paint peel problem. I work my butt off for a couple of days trying to get all that old paint off so the new wouldn't fall off with the old paint. I am using the Implement Enamel from Tractor Supply Co.( The industrial version sold under BPS name on top.) It is in a can with a brownish-gold label. I also am using the odorless mineral spirits and the hardener sold by TSC. I mixed my first batch of blue by using 4 0z. of paint, 4 oz. min. spirits, and 1/2 oz of hardener. (Might I add that I am painting it two tone as it was from the factory.) The dark blue went on a little too thin. It got alot of the bubbles in it. By the time I got the silver painted, (the middle section), the bubbles weren't disappearing yet. To my horror, they were dried anough that they marked. Oh well, I needed to sand a little more. No big deal. I adjusted my mixture to 4 oz paint, 3 oz min spirits, and still used 1/2 oz of hardener. This seems to work the best on my truck with my current weather. I got through my first 2 coats, wetsanded it with 600 grit, dried it and gave it the 3rd coat. Wow !! I know I am not nearly done yet, but I think it is going to look awesome. I did try the paint in the refridgerator and it does keep the paint ok with hardener in it, but only for about 18-24 hours. I discovered something about the wetsanding. Now this may be co-incidence, but I had my truck out in the driveway with a garden hose. While wet sanding, I kept squirtong the truck off as I went. I could see where I sanded and where I didn't. One Guide that I found works is, fresh paint will make the water bead up like a wax job. I just wet sanded it until the water didn't bead anymore, it flowed right off of the truck. After I dried it, I was worried about how the next coat would show up. It looked like glass. This "Bead Method" my or may not work for you, maybe I lucked into it and my next sanding set will be a disaster, but I am doing it again anyways. I can't wait to PATIENTLY finish the truck and get some pictures of it here. I didn't really doubt this roller deal, I was just a little skeptical on gloss and prep. I can unofficially say that I like it!!! I will officially admit it when the truck is finished. A guy at our dealership offered to spray it for me , since I did all of the sanding work. I said," Anyone can spray it, but it takes BALLS ot roll that paint on!!! Jason

Ok, I've finally had some time to start finishing everything off. First up is the race boot. I've decided to thin the Brightside out more than I have in the past (I'm thinning it with mineral spirits) and I'm really happy with the results.

And for the first time for ages, I didn't get any roller marks in the paint.




The reflections from the boot are really good. This shot shows some of the neighbour's trees.




Thinning the paint more than usual (plus wet sanding the living hell out of everything before I started painting) has reduced the orange peel considerably. The next shot shows just how little orange peel there is now, (look how easy it is to see what brand my new camera is). Please remember that this picture was taken about 10 mins after painting. It hasn't been polished or anything.





I'm planning on sanding the whole car tomorrow (400 - 600 - 800 - 1200) and depending on the weather I will hopefully be able to paint it the day after. I'm finally getting close to finishing this thing off once and for all.


I just had to include this pic
I bought a tripod along with the new camera, so of course I had to take some more pics of the boot once it got dark. The area around the lights shows the usual dust/crap/etc that gets on the fresh paint. I can't wait to see what this will look like once it has been wet sanded and polished properly. As one of my students mentioned to me the other day "I'm bringin sexy back".....

great work again aussie driver! what % of thinner are you roughly using? while i've been playing around with it i've found it to change how fine the orange peel is, but coudlnt work out which way was better so left it lol, but that looks very smooth

has ur technique changed much due to it being thinner? or just roll it on, then roll again lightly after a bit?

Here are some more pix of my progres over the weekend.

The stripes are completed! I used one unthinned coat of Brightside followed by one thinned about 20%.



First coat of Brightside on the sides:

I stumbled across a technique that really cut way down on orange peel, runs, and sags on the sides of my car. I decided that I really hate sanding so I tried everything to get the paint to lay down, and this is how I ended up.

First, I applied an unthinned coat of brightside working in all directions with the roller. I just kept rollering until it was evenly distributed with no edge marks.

Next, I immediately knocked down the bubbles with a foam brush. As spyhunter pointed out, this left brush marks. So I rollered over it with my unloaded roller, which made a few smaller bubbles.

I knocked down the resulting bubbles with the brush again, then the roller. Back and forth until there were no more bubbles and the orange peel was very small.

This was all immediately upon application, and the amount of time spent was actually pretty small.

After completing the section, I went back and found my various sags and drips and agressively rollered them out, followed by the above technique of alternating brushing and rolling.

The end result was very small orange peel, and the next day (today) that was mostly gone. You can sort of see that in the above pix.

Hi all, I found this site a couple of weeks ago and been reading it the WHOLE day lol. Decided im gonna give it a go. Ive got a '59 Ford Custom, and was just wondering how much paint most people have had to use to cover their cars. The Home Depot said they can custom mix a color, but can't guarentee they can ever mix the exact color again ...anyone had to use more than a gallon?
Also, in terms of prep work (im new to this whole painting thing), I want to change the color over from red to green, so do I have to sand EVERYTHING down to bare metal, or can I just give it a light sanding where the paint is good, and a thorough sanding on the poor panels?
I hope to start a test piece this week Great site! Can't say how glad I am to have found it

OK, If these pics don't make a believer out of people, NOTHING will. I would take that paint quality ANY day....awesome job!

Thanks spyhunter and BCINGUU for the replies. I'll definitely try out the Brightside black.

I really like seeing everyone's photos so please keep them coming!

AussieDriver, nice job. The gloss you're getting is amazing. Quick question, is there any reason you're using mineral spirits over Interlux's 333 brushing liquid?

I've got a '62 Galaxie and I am in the process of painting it right now. It's a two tone so the amount of paint may vary but it looks like I'll be using about 2/3rds of a gallon to cover the body and about 1/2 a quart (a pint?) to do the roof. The roof took over ten coats due to some early missteps. The body is probably going to go 8-10 coats...

This is using rustoleum professional.

Ok, here are a couple of shots of my truck. This is after the first 600 grit wet sand and the next coat. I have a few more coats to go, but here is the 2 tone attempt.

another shot of truck

yet another

by the way, i am only doing the top 2/3rds and the blue gets darker with each coat. It actually matches closer to the orig. color on the bottom in the day light. Yes, those are cat prints on the top of the fender. (Luckily the paint was already hardened when that happened.) I'll post more pics as I go.

The blue color is just "Dark Blue" by BPS Industrial sold at Tractor Supply. The silver is by the same company. I believe it was about $9 per quart. Bps has 2 kind of paint/ One has a green label and one has a brown. I used the brown label because it offered this blue color. I have used the green in the past on other things and it is a good paint as well. The green is normal implement paint and the brown label is industrial implement paint.