Are there any DIY Exterior Painters??

[doristhexploris92]

Hey everyone. Just pulled my sweet ride out of storage and getting her ready for some summer camping out west.

I have been researching and talking to other van owners about painting her myself. I have a '92 xplorer extended conversion high top.

I am really interested in using truck bed liner paint and will most likely be rolling and painting it on. I have watched some good videos and talked to fellow vanners who have done it.

Just wanted to see if anyone on here has tackled this project themselves.

What type of paint would you recommend? Value vs. durability & lasting

I'd be interested in hearing the different types of paint used and maybe some tips for applications....mistakes you made or things to watch out for and avoid.

I do not have a covered garage so we will most likely be doing this outside.

Any other info would be awesome and helpful. I will be taking the van out west to desert conditions so was thinking something durable, at least for the bottom half.

Thank you in advance!!

[Rockwood27]

Go to YouTube and search there. You won't run out of things to view.

[booster]

I just finished painting my old Roadmaster wagon this winter. There are pix on another thread. I used PPG Omni product line with epoxy primer, urethane surfacer, and urethane base and clear.


The newer paints are kind of tough to get used to and are designed for the HVLP and/or now available RP reduced pressure guns. I only had painted one car before and it was 35 years ago and with laquer which is really easy by comparison. I have done some panel repairs and paint since and the roof of our Roadtrek.



You are going to be outside, so you will have dirt and bugs in it almost certainly. You will need scaffolding to reach the top, but not the lower areas, so best to do the top first, let it dry well and mask it off before doing the rest.


Paint is very expensive these days. The Omni is second line paint so nearly half as expensive as the really good stuff and I still had about $2500 in materials. I already had the new style spray guns, but decent ones are also expensive, but for an outside job lower end would be OK, I think.


I assume you will going over well adhered old paint? If so, you would scuff it well with recommend grit from the spec sheet for the paint, put on a primer sealer coat and a single stage (no clear coat) color in 2-3 coats. Your basic choice are acrylic enamel without hardener, which nobody uses much anymore, the enamel with hardener, or urethane with hardener which seems to be the most popular now.


I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is not a job for the faint of heart, especially outside with all bad things that go on like dirt, buts, wind, sun, rain, you name it. The size of the vehicle makes it even more daunting for certain. Hopefully you will doing a solid color non metallic, as if you do and have hardener in it, you will be able to sand out bugs and runs once it dries well.


Depending on where you are, you may be able to find a gypsy painter that does things from home. They would have all the stuff and a paint source, which is getting harder to find all the time, and would be indoors, but probably not a booth. The extra cost would likely be well worth it, especially if you can help sand, mask, etc to reduce the labor. Getting bodywork straight and true and final spray are the high skill items so paying for that not all that bad if you have done it at all before.


https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f...ulk-10352.html

[MobileCabin]

Booster,

What grit and how aggressive was the sanding of the epoxy primer? I have an old tractor that started as a simple engine rebuild and ended up as a complete teardown. I blasted the sheet metal parts and then sprayed epoxy primer. That was more than 3 years ago. Now I need to rough the parts and spray the leveler and paint.

Thanks.

[booster]

Originally Posted by MobileCabin

Booster,

What grit and how aggressive was the sanding of the epoxy primer? I have an old tractor that started as a simple engine rebuild and ended up as a complete teardown. I blasted the sheet metal parts and then sprayed epoxy primer. That was more than 3 years ago. Now I need to rough the parts and spray the leveler and paint.

Thanks.

Times have changed on a lot this stuff. It used to be nearly every street rod made at home by folks would even get put fully together with the epoxy primer on it, then once all was tested as good to go, scuff and paint. Now if it sits more than 3 days they want you to scuff and reshoot another coat of the epoxy and then get the finish paint on within 3 days.



That said, and this being my driver and not a show car, I did the old school and just scuffed the epoxy, as it worked out better because I was doing a side at a time as I did the body work needed. Just for giggles I did some of the basecoat right on scuffed epoxy and on some I put the base right on the coats of surfacer that had been sanded. They also want epoxy put back after doing that.


I found lots of people including body shops that don't respray the epoxy when over 3 days and lots that put base over the surfacer including some show car shops that said the sanded surfacer gives a better surface for the base to be uniform and low orange peel.


On the tractor, one concern might be if it sat outside for the 3 years as epoxy primer is not UV proof like finish paints are now, so it could be oxidized which I don't how it would need to be treated. If it is out of the sun, a heavy scuff with 320 grit or maybe 240 grit should be enough. Sanding until you are 100% sanded would be best, which means all the orange peel needs to sand off, which can be a big job on true epoxies. If you have some areas that don't clean up well, you can often use the normal 3M Scotchbrite flexible sheet "scratchpads" to get the small low spots if it is pretty smooth.



Epoxy primer, at least the Omni that I used, sands very poorly and pills up constantly. You may wind up doing it wet, as long as you aren't all masked already and don't want to get it all wet. Wet will work somewhat better. I found dry the 3m premium long life paper worked well and wet the 3M wet or dry paper. They say the premium can be used wet, but it did not work well for me.


Side note. If it was rattle can "epoxy" it is likely epoxy powder in some sort of enamel binder or such, and I have no idea how that would be handled. I know some people have said that epoxy has a tendency to lift on subsequent coats, especially if it was not put over bare middle. That would normally mean it isn't 100% solvent proof like catalyzed epoxies are.


I saw an old John Deere a few years ago with a show color base and clear show car quality paint job. I was very nice, but no longer looked like an antique tractor! Block sanded clearcoat on John Deere green just looks wrong

[Bud]

Originally Posted by booster

I just finished painting my old Roadmaster wagon this winter. There are pix on another thread. I used PPG Omni product line with epoxy primer, urethane surfacer, and urethane base and clear.


The newer paints are kind of tough to get used to and are designed for the HVLP and/or now available RP reduced pressure guns. I only had painted one car before and it was 35 years ago and with laquer which is really easy by comparison. I have done some panel repairs and paint since and the roof of our Roadtrek.



You are going to be outside, so you will have dirt and bugs in it almost certainly. You will need scaffolding to reach the top, but not the lower areas, so best to do the top first, let it dry well and mask it off before doing the rest.


Paint is very expensive these days. The Omni is second line paint so nearly half as expensive as the really good stuff and I still had about $2500 in materials. I already had the new style spray guns, but decent ones are also expensive, but for an outside job lower end would be OK, I think.


I assume you will going over well adhered old paint? If so, you would scuff it well with recommend grit from the spec sheet for the paint, put on a primer sealer coat and a single stage (no clear coat) color in 2-3 coats. Your basic choice are acrylic enamel without hardener, which nobody uses much anymore, the enamel with hardener, or urethane with hardener which seems to be the most popular now.


I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is not a job for the faint of heart, especially outside with all bad things that go on like dirt, buts, wind, sun, rain, you name it. The size of the vehicle makes it even more daunting for certain. Hopefully you will doing a solid color non metallic, as if you do and have hardener in it, you will be able to sand out bugs and runs once it dries well.


Depending on where you are, you may be able to find a gypsy painter that does things from home. They would have all the stuff and a paint source, which is getting harder to find all the time, and would be indoors, but probably not a booth. The extra cost would likely be well worth it, especially if you can help sand, mask, etc to reduce the labor. Getting bodywork straight and true and final spray are the high skill items so paying for that not all that bad if you have done it at all before.


https://www.classbforum.com/forums/f...ulk-10352.html

booster, what would you suggest for one of those Express Van's that has the Bad Primer with the paint peeling off? I'm trying to deal with it. I don't mean some Jessie James 50 caliber solution, putting it out of it's misery.

Bud

[booster]

Originally Posted by Bud

booster, what would you suggest for one of those Express Van's that has the Bad Primer with the paint peeling off? I'm trying to deal with it. I don't mean some Jessie James 50 caliber solution, putting it out of it's misery.

Bud

That is a very good question and I don't think an easy fix has ever really been found as the bad adhesion is over most of the vehicle, I think, so even what is attached now may go later. The parts that get the most sun seem to go first, like the hood, and who knows howl long before rest follows?


IIRC most of what I have read on the multiple vehicles that had the same issues would indicate the most body shops will not want do anything but a strip to bare metal and start from scratch routine. For the whole van that can be a huge cost to bear. Just doing the hood wouldn't be so bad. You could even do the stripping at home with the hood off and take it to a shop for paint.


The other option, especially for hoods, would be to do wrap with carbon fiber looking wrap. I think they told me about $100 when I asked about doing our hood to cover up the acorn dents. Heck, you could even do a flaming skull and crossbones if you like.

[Peder_y2k]

For many years, trucking and farming maintenance have used Derusto oil base enamel cut with Naptha for outdoor spraying. Derusto Enamel is available everywhere in rattle cans, but many sources have 1 gallon packages. BTW, rattle can paint is incompatible with the bulk packaged 1 gallon stuff.
Using Naptha will cause a controlled flash off at medium outdoor temperaures.

[Average_alice]

Not sure if this is helpful at all for what you are really looking for because I was just looking to do some quick cosmetic fixes on my old Roadtrek, and I'm hoping one day to pay someone legitimate to paint the entire vehicle. But I just used the Duplicolor cans (lacquer) and it sprayed outside with no issues except getting the application temperature right (i.e. time of day and staying out of direct sun and trying not to spray paint in my face in the wind). I was disappointed in the 3m blue painter's tape which wouldn't adhere to itself very well for masking off lights etc....had to bring in little bits of gorilla tape to hold it overnight occasionally... there's probably a much better solution as far as taping goes. I used Bondo Glass to fill a couple of scrapes in the fiberglass body, followed by the 3m Acri-white glazing putty, which was hard to work with and dried incredibly quickly. And as expected the Duplicolor white which was supposed to match the color code provided by Chevrolet on the Roadtrek door wasn't a perfect match, maybe because some parts of the van - like the storage doors - had a clear coat that had yellowed a tiny bit over the years. So the newer sections look a little bit whiter. Anyway it certainly looks a lot better now and I can't say how long it will last because I didn't apply a clear coat because for some reason the existing finish was a type of matte (not glossy). We just asked a RV park in Vegas if we could stay there even though our van is 20 years old and they said it passed inspection, so maybe it doesn't look too bad. We definitely need to re-do or re-style the decals in the future.