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looks great 88transamguy....i will be doing mine with a gun this time around...just have to remove the dings .heres mine a little over 6 months since painted..still holding up good.
looks great 88transamguy....i will be doing mine with a gun this time around...just have to remove the dings .heres mine a little over 6 months since painted..still holding up good.
looks great 88transamguy....i will be doing mine with a gun this time around...just have to remove the dings .heres mine a little over 6 months since painted..still holding up good.
Any updates on how it's doing now? How often does it need to be waxed/polished etc? Looking to do this to mine, as I have clear coat failure. Thanks!
Can you get a big Massey Ferguson "Triple Triangle" Decal for the hood and some small ones for the sail? Might start an MF counter style to the GTA.
At 100° I would have thought that 2 cans of hardener would have zero'd out the working time and might have even monkeyed the surface.
Ummm.....which one of us has one of the most linked to, viewed, and followed DIY paint job threads on the Internet? There's probably a reason for that. Oh, because it works.
Does it work in Fairbanks? how about Connecticut? Wow! impressive. Might it be that someone asks a question because they would like to know something. Last time I checked a chemistry book, a 10°C rise in temperature halves the reaction time. So do the laws of chemistry change in Texas?
Since my first Model A was newer, when I got it, than your 88 SC conv. is now, I've been around automobiles for a long time. I just picked up interest in Third Generations when one of my grandson's acquired one. I've been on lots of Bulletin boards like this, however, a bulletin board without a sense of humor is not worth posting.
So keep your knowledge, and I'll just listen.
Dude, nice work! I have paint my car some day. However I will take it down to metal. The factory paint job started peeling in 1992. I waxed that car every other week practically. GM PAINT SUCKS!
Then in 1994 i had it taken down, not to metal unfortunatly and repainted grey. Now that has been peeling for several years. Need to get rid of all the bad paint and start new.
All of these budget paint jobs not using even the cheapest of Automotive grade finishes lack shine and depth big time. I bet most guys who do this are constantly waxing the cars to keep it looking half decent.
In the end you create more work for yourself. Removing gummy paint to do it properly would suck big time. Is it that hard to save up some money to buy real paint? You can use the same methods but with quality finishes.
$120-$140 worth of single stage. (probably more like $200 or more now, this was around 6 years back) Not including the 2k primer I bought.
Started with:
Ended with: [/URL]
Progress
60% of the car shot outdoors with a cheapo spray gun.
Last edited by The_Wraith; 03-07-2015 at 02:35 PM.
^ Agreed. I painted a coworkers Nissan 240 last summer with $20 worth of fleet farm single stage tractor paint (I couldn't talk him out of it). There was never any depth to the paint it but it look decent .. for the first week or so. It started loosing its shine after that. Its pretty close to flat now, looks terrible just like I expected a $20 paint job to look.
I used limco single stage, about as budget as I wanted to get. About $300 in paint and it's legit paint... Dust is the devil with these cheap DIY jobs though.
^ Agreed. I painted a coworkers Nissan 240 last summer with $20 worth of fleet farm single stage tractor paint (I couldn't talk him out of it). There was never any depth to the paint it but it look decent .. for the first week or so. It started loosing its shine after that. Its pretty close to flat now, looks terrible just like I expected a $20 paint job to look.
Paint and primer has a way more important purpose than looks. It's primary purpose is to protect the metal from rust. If you have peeling paint then surface rust is soon to follow then comes the rot. So for people who can't afford to go all out on paint it is a way better idea to do a budget paint job to protect the metal from rust. Waiting to save up for a professional job is something that could take some people years to accomplish especially if you are in school or have a family to support. Letting your car rust while you save up money is just plain ignorant and will cost you even more work and money to fix the rust. Rust repair is more expensive and more harder work than stripping cheap paint and primer off. Also in my instance I'm going to be painting my truck. I use it for work and hauling so it's not really worth it to do an expensive paint job on it.
Plus for people who want to learn how to paint their cars using more expensive paint isn't really going to give them that better of a paint job when they're first starting out and making alot of mistakes. It's better for them to learn with something cheaper so they don't waste a ton of money.
Now that that is outta the way. Does anybody have any pics of their car painted John Deere Green. I'm thinking of painting my S-10 that color but I want the lighter green they use on the lawn mowers.
At the end of the day its MY car so I will do what I want to do with it. Btw I think the tractor paint DIY job looks FANTASTIC! Will be looking into this myself as soon as I can get some body work done to it.
I painted a fender with gloss black tractor paint then went over it with a cheap clear from napa. Did it last summer and it's sat outside in the sun since, seems to have held up well. Still nice and shiny.
The black fender is Majic brand tractor paint from tractor supply, with cheap napa clear on top. Lots of orange peel is this. I had just bought a gun and compressor and this was a practice piece.
This blue is Majic ford blue also from tractor supply. I painted it around the same time I painted the fender. No clear coat on this and you can probably tell, it really doesn't have much of a shine anymore.
Both of these have been sitting out in the elements just like you see since last summer. I didn't do any prep work for either piece other than a quick wash.
I'd definitely use clear over the tractor paint if was gonna paint an entire car.
By the way, this is the same ford blue from above. I painted it the same day as the pic above. This is just for reference to show how much the tractor paint alone (no clear) lost it it's shine.
Just to update this thread and show people what I've learned about tractor paint..I sprayed this fender about a month ago(no prep). I used a .8 mini hvlp from tractor supply that came in a 3 piece kit for like 30 bucks(was actually spraying metal chairs for the wife, paint was leftover in the cup). The orange peel is horrible, I'm no painter....
The fender sat in the sun a month, I washed it up to see how much it had faded, and it definitely had. It was getting dark outside, so I brought it on to the back porch/parts room...
I hit the fender with 3m machine polish, and waxed it..heres the result...
I think the cheap tractor paint can work if you can't afford a better paint job, but you'll need to keep it waxed for it to hold it's shine.
Another option would be to clear over the tractor paint, but from my experience the paint takes forever to fully harden. If you were to spray the tractor paint, then clear it, the clear would most likely wrinkle.
I feel like there could be a happy medium here. Spray paint, clear a few days later...I'm not sure, but I do think this paint is decent for someone who cant afford better.
Last edited by Billgluckman; 07-31-2016 at 12:15 AM.
I feel like I should also add that I think the orange peel could have been reduced by taking more time between coats. This is a very slow drying paint. It needs longer to flash.
I will also say, I have sprayed real base/clear and it turned out much better without polish or wax. It still looks great a year later with no polish or wax. No where near the orange peel either, though i was using a much better gun.
Last edited by Billgluckman; 07-31-2016 at 12:18 AM.
For anyone considering doing this, I took a deck lid and shot it with majic tractor paint a while back. I let it cure for 7 days then sanded it flat to get rid of orange peel then I shot it with clear. It came out looking pretty good. I sat the deck lid on top of my shop for 5-6 months to test its durability with the sun beating on it. Still looks good.
I also sprayed this. This is just Ford red. Looks ok as is but I haven't been able to get any of the tractor paint to lay flat with no orange peel. There's no clear on this.
maybe needs to be thinned out more or heat lamps when curing to have less orange peel.
I thought about thinning it a little more next time. Honestly I don't plan on using this paint on my car so I'm not too concerned. I would use it on a beater truck or something but I'll buy decent base/clear when I do my car.
How come there is such a huge difference in quality and durability between yours and the OP's?
If you're referring to me, I think there's a couple reasons. Number 1, I've got almost no experience painting. Number 2, op probably keeps his waxed and/or covered. Also, op used valspar, I'm using majic brand.
I know someone who painted an old fairlane with the stuff in 05/06 (valspar). His car stays under a carport or in his shop at all times. Plus, he keeps it clean and waxed. It still looks good to this day. He has said that it is higher maintenance to keep it shining though.
If I was to ever use the tractor paint on a paint job I'd definitely let it cure, scuff it, and shoot a clear coat. I don't think you'd have to worry much if you do that.
Just thought I'd add this here since this thread is now active again.
I'm sure a lot of you have heard of many people that roll on cheap enamels with mixed results. Most people use Rustoleum (aka Tremclad in Canada). Tractor paint like Valspar is popular too.
One of the most linked examples is the white and blue Corvair seen here.
At the bottom of the page, you can see how the paint job has held up over three years sitting outside. It's not a show car paint job, but it looks better than most factory paint jobs these days.
After more research about rolling on paint, I came across a guy in Australia that used marine topside paint called Interlux Brightside. It's quite a bit more expensive than Rustoleum, but you can still paint a car for less than $200 with a roller. It seems to level out a lot more than Rustoleum and it has far better UV protection. You can see that here.
Here it is after 8 years of Australian sun!
Pretty incredible results for such low cost. Obviously there's a lot more labour involved, but a lot of people on here have more time than money.
I believe most of them are using a method called "rolling and tipping" that is used to paint boats with minimal orange peel. Basically you roll on the paint and follow it right away with a fine, dry brush to level it out.