mx5cartalk.com

I'm testing out painting my car with marine paint and a roller. I'm all finished with the coats on the top panel, so now I just have to wait a month to buff it. I didn't thin the paint as much as the "$50 paint job" or even the other marine paint guide because It's a different type of paint. Also, I wanted to experiment with a less-work method (4 thick coats rather than 9 thin).

At the end, I've got the expected roller bumps. Being a high density foam roller and fairly thinned paint, the marks aren't too bad, but still visible.

How flat should I sand it before bringing out the buffer? I'm willing to put in the hours sanding it 100% flat, but I don't want to remove paint if I don't have to.

Also- will buffing return the gloss that sanding kills?

Pics?

Giselle wrote:I'm testing out painting my car with marine paint and a roller. I'm all finished with the coats on the top panel, so now I just have to wait a month to buff it. I didn't thin the paint as much as the "$50 paint job" or even the other marine paint guide because It's a different type of paint. Also, I wanted to experiment with a less-work method (4 thick coats rather than 9 thin).

At the end, I've got the expected roller bumps. Being a high density foam roller and fairly thinned paint, the marks aren't too bad, but still visible.

How flat should I sand it before bringing out the buffer? I'm willing to put in the hours sanding it 100% flat, but I don't want to remove paint if I don't have to.

Also- will buffing return the gloss that sanding kills?

Speechless

No It will look like a boat

Will it float?

That's unusual.

Pics or it didn't happen.....

I remember reading about this ages ago and thought it was interesting. Most paint finishes you can sand smooth and then buff out with a cutting compound but not sure about this stuff. Good luck and I look forward to the end results.

Can't help you with your question, but ooh! Show us some pics when you're done. I've been tempted to try this at some point.

I don't know whether this is relative or not, but i found this video after looking for ways to do my rear bumper. He buffs it at the end and it really looks incredible.



If not, disregard!

I'm going to post a full instructional when it's done.

When I bought the car it had a super dodgy spray can paint job. It also had some dents/rust/etc.

Figured I could take the opportunity to fix the imperfections and repaint it myself. Nothing to lose because the original paintjob was ghetto.

I posted up this pic a little bit ago. The paintjob was in 2 phases at this stage:
- The boot was sanded to primer, had 2 white undercoats and the about 8 coats of colour, sanded in between each, first 600, then 800, then 1000, 1200, 1500, 200 etc
- This method felt a little wasteful, so I decided to try something out on the rear quarters. Sanded through the spray paint, the clear coat and some of the original green paint. Applied a white undercoat and an undercoat of 50/50 undercoat/green (manufacturer's instructions). Then I've done about 4 or 5 colour coats with minimal sanding in between.

I figured that since it's my own paint job, I can easily sand back and restart one of the panels if one method is better than the others. I'm not going to start on the rest of the car until I see the finished results of the test panels. I won't be getting her on the road until early next year anyway.



This photo was taken after about 2 colour coats and now it has 4 or 5. The colour looks MUCH nicer in person.

--

For an example of how nice this paint is, here is a photo taken after the first coat. It's super blotchy because it was the first coat (of 8 or 9) with really thinned down paint. Pretty though, isn't it?


This gives an idea of how nice the paint should look polished. The paint is real fancy stuff :p

Here's someone who has already done it:
http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/holden-commodore-how-tos/76882-diy-painting-your-car-rollers.html

So I'm pretty hopeful. Like I said, the original paintjob is ghetto so I have nothing to lose. It looked SO much nicer already (in person) than the previous paint. One of the previous owners had put a spoiler on, removed it and left 4 holes behind on the boot, never bothering to fill them. Repainting has allowed me to fill the holes and fix a bunch of other flaws (paint chips etc that the previous painter just sprayed over)

Nice work dude, its good to see people tackling jobs like this. Once you sand down all the orange peel and give it a decent polishing it should looks great. Good luck

Sent from my Nexus 4

Very good. I particularly like projects like this when there is nothing to lose!

As an aside... is the sign across from your car from the famous Torbreck flats in Highgate Hill? I used to go past them on a daily basis.

*following this with interest*
btw, spills wont be noticed, the carpet doenst need to have the newspapers covering it..

Pamex wrote:As an aside... is the sign across from your car from the famous Torbreck flats in Highgate Hill? I used to go past them on a daily basis.

Oh no, I've exposed myself

Those flats are awesome. A true Brisbane icon.

I was one of those fluoro green uniform wearers from a certain private school around the corner.

Sorry for the hijack. Back on topic now.