For your first question -
Well, you can polish over decals and stripes but...
There's a good chance that you'll scuff/tear/remove them with the polish - especially if you use an automated polisher rather than your own hands, and also, you'll find that you get some dried compound around the edges of the decals/stripes which is time-consuming, and sometimes impossible to fully remove.

I'd say your best bet would be to polish the paint before you stick or paint anything on top of it.
If the decals don't stick, then you can easily prepare the polished paintwork.
First wash it down with a PH Neutral soap and water, then wipe the area down with a grease/wax remover.
It's probably best to spray the remover on from one of those garden-spray bottles you can get at any dollar store. While it's still wet, wipe it off. You can maybe do this a couple of times if you want to be really sure it's spotless.

Couple of things to bear in mind -
1. Wait until you're certain the paint has cured fully before you prep it for the decals, and
2. Buy a proper Wax/Grease remover from a proper auto store. There is a difference between Home Depot Mineral Spirits and a proper automotive wax/grease remover. It'll cost you more (I used a Sherwin Williams one before painting pinstripes, and it cost me $22), but it's good insurance.
An impure cleaner could lead to adhesion problems with your decals, or worse still - problems with your paint.

Anyway, here's my $0.02.
1. Paint it,
2. Polish it,
3. Prep it,
4. Decal it.

As for your second question - I'll let someone with more experience on bigger vehicles answer up!

[quote: rmross wrote]So, that's mixing together 2 colors of Rusto paint, right? What about making a new color with a base of Rustoleum by adding pigments to it to make a color Rusto doesn't offer? Would the pigments mix in with the kind of paint that Rustoleum is? Thanks

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[quote: tonyvan wrote:]Yes - this was mixing two Rusto colors.
Now, as for adding pigments.....
I don't know how/if they'd affect the paint at a chemical level. In theory, it should be OK - as long as you had the right pigments.
But why go to that trouble/risk anyway? Rusto comes in all the primary colors, plus black and white, so you should be able to mix up any color you like.
To try out the colors before you take the plunge and buy some big Rusto cans, maybe you could experiment with some of those little modelers' enamels?
What color are you trying to achieve?

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I was looking for a teal. Green and blue would be the way to go, probably, huh?
Thanks

Green and blue would definitely give you a turquoise...and knowing the Rusto colors, it would be a pretty dark turquoise at that.

You might need some white in there as well if you want a true teal, and possibly a dash of yellow to save it from being too 'khaki' !

That's why I'd experiment with little Testors-type cans before I mixed up a bigger batch!
And of course - take notes about the proportions you use...

OK, are you supposed to wax it after polishing?
im using the green tub turtle wax polishing compound with a 10" random polisher and its not shining up nearly as glossy as it was after the paint tried before i wet-sanded it. My final wet-sanding was done with 2000.

Just came in from coat #4. The more I do this, the easier it is to put on. I did find out that you don't want to keep that foam brush in the paint that is thinned already. It started to break down and put crap in the paint. I took a soaked mineral spirits rag and wipped the whole door and t-tops off and started coat #4 over again. Wasted 2 buck in paint too!!! heh...

This might be my last coat due to it being black aready before the paint.

The very large areas to cover can sure be a pain. I had to continue working on around the front to keep from getting the stopping and starting lines.

Here is a picture of coat #4

Another coat #4 picture:


Ok, now I'm starting to think of my next paint project. (69 fastback)

I need to come up with a Harley orange. I'm thinking about mixing the red and orange together. Anyone done this before?

Like the orange on the old XRs? I think an orange/red would work, with not much red...

Mixing's no problem, the only issue is the ratio of color:color.

This article is quite useful...
http://www.nitaleland.com/articles/split.htm

But nothing beats trial and error.

That Vette's looking real good BTW!

what you see here, is i sanded the roof with 2000, and polished with the turtle wax. the pillar wasn't touched since the final coat, and you can see it has a much nicer shine.

yea my polisher is something like that... some $20 bargain bin unit.

what do i need to get it to shine up decently? is there any way of shinning it up nicely without a $200 buffer?


heres the car, only the roof has been touched since the last coat

One Year Later

Well it's been one year since I painted my old 'scort and the wee beastie keeps on purring,

I posted this pic at the time:




I just wanted to comment on how well the Tremclad paint has held up after sitting outside for the last year without protection.

There is some dulling of the paint. However I never did get around to properly finishing the job and I think I only put four or five coats of paint on it. I didn't polish or wax the car and I am quite certain that this paint requires additional protection to hold up for any duration.

I intend to finish the car and sand out some drips and runs I have. These were the result of a thick mixture applied during a heat wave and the paint dried too quickly.

I also intend to put a Tremclad clear on the car rather than trying to polish out the paint. I believe this will give a satisfactory gloss without polishing and provide better protection.

69Charger, what kind of buffer/bonnet are you using? Because i notice your getting decent results out of the CT compound.

Would following up with a coat of wax after the polishing compound give it some shine?

I did this ages ago with my random orbital polisher (similar to a PC 7424), a light cutting pad and Poorboy's SSR2.5 swirl remover. That was about 10 mins work and I did one pass.




This next shot was after using Turtlewax on a polisher similar to yours and I polished for about 20 mins.




I'm not bagging your polishing efforts but if you want to get a 'perfect' finish then you really need to use decent polish and polisher.

ive got it to look not too bad, but when you look at it straight on, into the light thats bouncing off it, it looks preety bad.



maybe part of my problem is the bonnet im using... i have no cluse what it is, it came with the buffer.

what do you mean using water to buff? the instructions i read said to just have the surface dry..

heres my equipment... LOL

Hey all, I joined here to chat about this DIY paint job, which I am interested in. I am taking the summer off from college and I have plenty of free time, so this sounds like a perfect summer project.

The car: 1997 Acura Integra GSR
The photos:

Paint fading and peeling on the front fender

A dent that goes to the metal, use Bondo or knock dent out from the inside?

Paint faded on the hood with etched bird crap

Clearcoat tearing off rear bumper

Paint fading off of spoiler

Paint fading off of passenger quarterpanel

The paint I hope to use (Omni Blue Metallic):


I purchased the following from Home Depot/Lowes/Advance Auto:

3 qts. Paint Thinner w/ Mineral Spirits (though I think I have to return these for 100% Mineral Spirits, since nowhere on the can does it say the amounts of chemicals it contains)
2 4/100 Foam Rollers + Rolling hardware
1 ring of blue painters tape
1 qt. dark grey Primer
1 sheet of 400 grid waterproof sandpaper
1 metal paint spread plate
1 dust mask
1 4"x1" drill attachment sander

What else do I need?

gittin ready to sand and roll solid gray with red ROLL-bar stripes on the skin

What kind of paint to do you have there is looks metalic?

Hello all I have been following this post for some time now and working every weekend to get my project ready for paint .I plan on doing it the brightside way two tone gray ,one part brightside steel grey the other darker mixed with black {formula TBD}
I have a 1936 chevy 5 window master coupe that was media blasted and PPG primmed a long time ago I intend to rough up the PPG primmer and apply the interlux two part epoxy primmer it will act as a filler and is sandable and I dont expect any bonding problems with the paint afterwords.I know it will cost more but I can say I did it myself.
The coupe totally apart works out to approx 26 separate pieces to be painted most can lay flat on a table .
Should be at it some time in May I will post progress pics





Things have changed {big time} since my April post.
I am now going with the tremclad method .I went to home depot and had them scan the brightside paint I had picked out I was going to use tremclad as a base and top the car with brightside.
They could not match the steel gray bright side but the color that came out is a nice dark grey { I like it }
I am in the process of priming the entire car with tremclad primmer they have a new can primmer that fills minor scratches and is sandable.
I hope to be paint some of the body panels this week end.