Polishers

[nova1313]

I'm planning on painting my car this weekend. I picked up some rustoleum industrial national blue in a 1 gallon can (I saw a guy that rolled it on and polished and it looked amazing so I figured I'd try). I'll post results when done

Can anyone recommend a polisher? Is their anything I have to look for in them? I've searched around and saw some have variable speeds, different size discs but I know nothing about them otherwise.

I have a bit of body and prep work to do so we will see how long that takes. It supposedly rolls on and looks orange peelish the first 2 coats, then you wet sand and the next coat you put on levels itself out. Takes 4-6 coats total, no need to clear. Wet sand after each coat beyond 2 and then polish the last coat to get a mirror like finish. No need to clear.

Paint cost me 37 bucks for a gallon from granger. Gonna practice on my spoiler first. I figure if I fuck it up I just get it professionally repainted.

[gthompson97]

I've never heard of the stuff. I would be too keen on something that just "rolls on and peels off" And by polisher I'm guessing you mean a buffer right? I would get a variable speed one, but you don't want one that has extremely high speeds, the lower the better. Nothing is worse than having a buffer spin too fast and burning through the paint. What we use in our body shop is called Wizards, they make all kinds of compounds. If you're going to wet sand I would go with Wizards Turbo Cut, then Wizards Finish Cut, and then some Wizards Shine Master wax. I don't know your refinishing skills, but painting and polishing a car isn't something for the everyday person.

EDIT: After re-reading your post, it seems as if you have no idea what you're doing. Are you painting the car? With what and how are you going to paint it? And a $37 gallon of paint probably isn't very good paint. I would NOT recommend doing this yourself unless you know what you're doing.

[nova1313]

I've painted large metal structures before boats and an airplane but never a car.

I have the coats on the spoiler already. It has a nice shine to it and can't scratch it off..

This guy painted a beetle with it and it still looked great after 5 years.

You've never heard of rustoleum? It's called tremclad in canada I'm not sure where your from. It's actually quite amazing stuff. Sticks to almost anything.

As for if it doesn't turn out that good I'm not too worried because:
1) it's cheap and if it works great
2) I have time to kill
3) Anything will look better then the current paint job
4) If it really gets messed up I can have it professionally painted I have the cash on hand.

I have done body work before so thats no problem.

Thanks for your help I'm gonna go try to find those buffers today. I did mean buffer I screwed up. I'm going to use it for polishing the final finish...

This is a link to the forum that a guy did it. He painted a 69 charger with it. It looks great. Those pictures are after a couple years too. Note: Tremclad = Rustoleum
:ong read though...
http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...0&fpart=1&vc=1

[gthompson97]

Yeah I've heard of rustoleum before, I didn't understand the post correctly I guess. I was thinking something else. GL and let us know how it turns out.

[vanilla gorilla]

Wow. I would be very scared to try that........ Very interesting, I really want to see the finished product. good luck

[nova1313]

spoiler came out really nice before the polish. I'm heading to harbor freight tomorrow to pick up the polisher and finish it up. Will post pictures when I have time maybe monday or tuesday. Paint is hard too. I havn't done anything since friday came home tonight and tried to scratch it with my finger nail and can't do a thing to it. I'm very satisfied so far. Lets see what it looks like when it's polished

[gthompson97]

I'll be waiting

[nova1313]

http://www.novaslp.net/pics/v/newcar2/paint/

The first pictures there outside are after 3 coats before I wet sanded for the second time. The last 2 pictures on paper are in my garage after the wet sand (got rid of orange peel) and I had rolled on another coat. It flattens out really well when it dries. You just have to make sure the rustoleum is as thin as water. It's a pain because it tends to run.

I rolled the first 2 coats with my friends this weekend on the rest of my car. Need to wet sand it tomorrow night and then maybe I can get in 3 and 4th coat this weekend. It's a total of 6 coats + or minus a coat or 2 if you wetsand down to the surface. When your all done polish it up.

The nice part is in addition to roll on they have matching spray cans for touch up. I hit all the parts that would be hard to reach first (lips on wheels, door jams, underside of trunk, underside of hood) with 3 coats of the can first. Then I'll polish it the best I can in places you can see. You can't tell the difference from what was sprayed and what was rolled. It's a very solid color. No roller marks either after you wetsand.

The only complaint that makes this hard is the sanding. It takes a long time to sand a whole car free of runs, and roller marks. The prep work was a bit long too. But it should hopefully turn out nice. I did all the black plastic on the car with black gloss rustoleum in a can a while ago it's been holding up nice and looks like it's brand new from the factory.

I do need to find a place to purchase the mitsu badging again though.

[nova1313]

Wanted to add the following pictures. This was someone elses results...

Before:
http://www.controlledspin.com/~mike/...s/P3062597.jpg
After:
http://www.controlledspin.com/~mike/...s/P5102732.jpg

He even went all out and did stripes.


While I'm sure spraying would be better. For the cost and simplicity of this I don't think it can be beat. But beware you need to have patience. I tested on the spoiler first.

[l_eclipse_l]

It actually dosn't look half bad. Are you going to do a coat of real clear or a coat of clear rustoleum?

[vanilla gorilla]

Yeah, that looks pretty good. Keep it up. I'm ready to see the body!

[nova1313]

I'm not sure yet. I want to get another test piece (maybe a hood from a junk yard) and try to clear it. The people on the forums I was reading about it didn't clear it and said it held up fine over a few years. If it gets bad It's not like I can't touch it up easy. The spray can matches the rolled stuff and I can always get the stuff to roll it.

So I want to see how it looks it keeps it shine aparently after polishing.

Someone mentioned using real clear and they said it may effect it. They have a roll on clear and a spray on rustoleum clear so I figured I'd try those.

[Nayr747]

This is really interesting! I would have never thought you could roll on paint on a car and get good results. I really wish I read this years ago when I wanted to get the non-hideous bumper on my Grand Prix, but decided not to because of the cost to paint it. I really think a clear coat would make it look 1000 times better though. If you look at the pic of the black/bluish bettle, there isn't the same shine you would see on a waxed, black, clear coated car. And I doubt it would be that much harder to put a couple coats of clear on top. For all car detailing info this is a really good site: http://www.autopia.org/ There are people on there that have done AMAZING things with paint. One guy touched up like 2000 chips, scraches, etc on his black G35 and it looks flawless now. In his pics it looks like a mirror.

Edit: Hey look, they even have a link to a clear coat in that thread: http://www.rustoleum.com/product.asp...t_id=548&SBL=5

[nova1313]

Yeah I saw that. I'm not sure how a spray on clear would work. Like would I buff it after because it's spray you would want it to cover everything. So I'll prolly play around with another hood first before I buff my car.

But it got rid of the scratches on my car. Made me fix the problems with my cars body. It's cheap and it wasn't all that hard. Plus it looks 100% better then the old paint job which was starting to have the clear peel, faded plastic pieces (they were now orange) and was keyed and chipped to all hell.

If you decide to try it let me know I can give you some tips on things I did that did and didn't work. I have some pictures of the whole process after each coat but they are on my other memory card.

[Nayr747]

Originally Posted by nova1313

If you decide to try it let me know I can give you some tips on things I did that did and didn't work. I have some pictures of the whole process after each coat but they are on my other memory card.

Yeah, post that stuff. I think it would be really helpful for people looking into this.