Triumph 675 Forums banner

$50 Track body work paint job

24K views 110 replies 42 participants last post by  dsmitty37 
#1 ·
It's amazing what you can do with a couple cans of Rustoleum paint and rollers.:sifone: After reading this thread posted here a long time ago about a guy painting his Charger this I way I decided to give it a try. What the hell, I've got nothing to loose especially since it's for the track right?:nod: Without a long winded intro, here is the concept, end product and action shot :curtsey:. I'm just waiting on the vinyl lettering to say it's 100%. A special thanks to TZ for providing me a template to butcher with my awful PhotoCHOP skilz :notworthy:
 

Attachments

See less See more
8
#6 ·
That came out real well, nice job man. :thumbup:
 
#7 ·
Did you really use a foam roller or a foam brush? Did you just go to Home Depot and pick a red that looked close? How many coats did you do? The guy on the link talks about painting metal and bondo, how well did the pain work on fiberglass?

Sorry for all the questions, but after reading that link, I think I might give it a try once my Catalyst bodywork arrives.
 
#9 ·
Did you really use a foam roller or a foam brush? Did you just go to Home Depot and pick a red that looked close? How many coats did you do? The guy on the link talks about painting metal and bondo, how well did the pain work on fiberglass?

Sorry for all the questions, but after reading that link, I think I might give it a try once my Catalyst bodywork arrives.
No prob man. I get so much useful info from this site that I am happy to share the little I know/find :coolgleamA:

Yes I did use a roller. The key is the high density ones that are usually white. The cheapy yellow ones will give you lots of bubbles. I found that out as I could not find a high density corner roller when I was doing the yellow. It took a bit of working to get it in the crease correctly which would probably have been easier with a brush but had no time for that.

Home Depot was my one stop shop: paints, tray, tray liners, rollers, acetone, blue-tape and sand paper. There were only two reds that were even close so I chose the brighter one. I did two coats with the black over the entire body work, four coats of red and three of the yellow. It's my theory that red is a hard paint to get the results you want after painting my house AND the bike. It always takes more coats than other colors. I bought the quart size cans but really used less than what's in the tiny touch-up cans.The yellow can was virtually untouched so now I have enough paint left to have a new scheme every year for several years :cool:. I did this in my tiny bike garage (8'x4') as there is no mess like with the rattle cans and hung the parts from the ceiling to dry while my baby slept below at night.

The paint bonds to anything. I noticed the bond was much better after a few days probably because it dried correctly then. I had finished painting the yellow at 10 the night before my trackday and rubbed a tiny bit of it off with my leathers from the trailing edge of the fairing. You don't need a primer unless you really want to, just clean the plastics really good with the acetone to get rid of the oils and use latex gloves when painting. If you have the time, let each coat dry at least overnight.
 
#12 ·
Keep us posted on how the durability is on your plastics. I just read a bit about the whole process that you posted a link to and it sounds like this stuff should hold up really well. The guy with the charger talks about his hood getting hit with rocks and no dammage to the paint. Kind of makes this stuff sound like a good alternative to powder coating on things like wheels (cheaper and lighter than powder coat).
 
#13 ·
wow looks good for a diy job!
 
#17 ·
The paint holds up pretty good. The longer it cures the better, mine was on the track with hours of the final coat!

thunder900ss that looks sweet! :thumbup: How does the black match up?
Thanks,
Matches close enough for the track, Lol. Actually pretty close. It took some patience like link says. Will def. be a little easier next go around. I didn't even wetsand on final coat, probably could have gotten it a bit shinier. Next to a "real" paint job you can see the difference, but its close and for the price I am happy.
 
#16 ·
cool man looks pretty clean as a:whistle:
 
#28 ·
Damn!
Good job, nice shine.:coolgleamA:

Did you wetsand? I didn't but still got a decent shine. Can imagine it would have been as glossy as yours looks in that pic.

Takes a little work, but for the price and the higher probability of a get-off on the track it is well worth it. Hate to spend too much on a fresh paint job and rash the hell out of it at the track.

Anyway, looks great!:thumbup:
 
#30 ·
Thx for the props!!

I did wetsand; the procedure that i followed was 2 color coats then wetsand starting at 400 grit. I went 400, 600, 800, 1000, then all the way to 2000 grit just because they had it at Walmart (you could probably stop at 1000 and get the same results).

The shine really didn't come through until i buffed using 3M rubbing compound, a foam buffer (thx Matt:thumbup:), light pressure, and and slow speed. Don't stop buffing until you are totally satisfied with the depth of the shine cause just when I thought I couldn't get it any deeper i took a break came, and went a whole level deeper in shine.

I'll be taking the lower over to Tank Slappers to have the leading edges coated to prevent rock chips event though it didn't get that chipped up at Streets of Willow yesterday.
 
#32 ·
This is the procedure everyone is doing correct??

here's how i painted my car for about $50, it's actually very easy and the results are amazing. First off, get a can of tremclad real orange (or what ever color u want) in the can, not spray, yes tremclad, it is a acrylic/enamel paint which is very durable. next prep your car as if was any other paint job, fix all the rust, ect....no need to prime the car since the tremclad allready contains elements which allow it to be painted over bare metal. next, after prepping the car get a small 4" professional FOAM rollers, it's tiny and has one end rounded off, and the other cut straight, and is a very high density foam. u also need a jug of mineral spirits to thin the paint. The thing i really like about this is that there's no mess, no tapeing the whole car, just key areas, and u can do it in your garage, since your not spraying there is virtually no dust in the air, just clean your garage first, also it does'nt really smell at all, dries overnight and it super tough paint. also it you decide to paint the car professionally later, just prep and paint, there's no need to strip the tremclad. i have done this to a few cars, and i can say it works amazing, u just have to be paitient. next u thin the paint with mineral spirits so it just about as thin as water, a little thicker. get out the roller and paint away, don't get the paint shaked when u buy it, enamel is stirred, otherwise you'll have bubbles in the paint for a week!!! after u do 2 coats, wet sand the whole car, then repeat, 2 coats, wetsand, 2 coats wetsand. i painted the charger using a can since your not spraying the car u use all the paint and not spray 50% in the air, use progressivly finer sand paper each time. it's not really that much work, cause u can stop and start any time, u can do just a door, or the hood, ect. do one panel at a time, and don't stop once you start. once your done the final coat, wetsand with about 1000 grit to a totally smooth finish, and then using a high speed polisher i use a buffing bonnet and turtle wax polishing compound. do the whole car with this, and i'm telling u, depending on the amount of time and paitence you have, the results are amazing. laugh if you want, but for $50 ($30 for paint, about $20 for rollers, sand paper, ect...) it really looks good. also you can do these steps overnight, paint one evening and by morning u can wet sand. i have personally done alot of painting, mostly single stage acrylic enamel, and i've sprayed several cars in my garage with really good professional results, just it stinks, it's a real pain to do, easy to make a mistake, messy, and expensive. The tremclad is awesome paint, the "real orange" is an amazing hemi orange, and almost looks like it has some perl in the sun, awesome color right out of the can. I used this technique on my 1974 beetle also, here are the results:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/Picture10.jpg
the car before:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/IM000475.jpg
another after pic:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/DSC00164.jpg
here is a car i sprayed (71 beetle, midnight blue metalic):
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/DSC00194.jpg
here is the car before (71 beetle):
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/Picture1.jpg

here's a few pics of the charger done:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/DSC02764.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d13/69martin/DSC02769.jpg

well that's my 2 cents worth, sorry for the long post. i was borred lol
i painted the orange beetle in 1999, and it still looks like the day i painted it, the 71 blue beetle i painted in 2000, and built the car for my dad, i used the same paint on my charger, maybe one day i'll spring for a good paint job, prepping is 90% of the work, stripping the car, sanding, ect.....painting is overrated!!!
So if you have TIME, then i'd say go for it, the worst that could happen is that it does'nt turn out and your out $50, but if your paitient, and expriement with lets say just the trunk pannel and if you like it do the whole car, if not just get it done by someone else for $4000. i don't know about you guys, but i would rather spend the $4000 on other parts like getting the mechanics sorted out and new chrome, cause when u have really nice paint and crappy bumpers, door handles it just sticks out more.


Thanks,
-Nigel
 
#34 ·
Also for those that have done it, would appreacte the brand/type of paint and where you got it... (just makes it easier for the ones that are going to try it, including myself) ..hehe :)

Thanks,
-Nigel
For folks in the US, I used Rustoleum and got it at Walmart. You can also get it at Lowe's, Home Depot...many places. A quart of each color is more than enough to paint your plastics. If you get the Rustoleum Professional, I hear the only difference between that and the regular one is that it dries faster. You'll want to get the gloss finish to really bring out the shine with a buffer. I would recommend getting a big ziplock bag to put your roller so you can resuse the foam roller. I'll put a condensed version of how to do it on this post shortly when I find the Word Document I made
 
#35 ·
#36 ·
I used the rustoleum also and got it at Home Depot. One can was more than enough.

And like the link Tooble posted above says, make it THIN. It took me a little while to get the right consistency. If the bubbles don't pop it's too thick. Some patience helps.

I will definitely do this again. There is a nice satisfaction in doing it yourself. And next time will spend more effort in the wetsanding. I got a decent shine without it, but the extra effort can really pay off!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top