back in black... *I slopped some paint on the 'ole girl*

[Longhorn Man]

I painted the longhorn.
Last winter I had set a goal for myself. I had hoped to actually had replaced some body panels, and maybe have a straight truck... but, one way or another, I wanted it to be painted by the time the snow starts fallin this year.
While, yes, it has snowed twice already... none of it stuck, so in my little world, I met my goal.
Don't look too hard... matter of fact, I'd prefer you squint when looking... it looks better when you do that...
at night...
in the fog...
in REAl tall weeds.
It didn't come out NEARLY as good as I had wanted... but that's ok.

I didn't have time to expiriment on junk panels (other than the ones bolted to my truck) so the mixture I needed was discovered as I was shooting it. 50/50 was a bit too thin, so I thickened it up a bit and it laid down pretty good... but there's still runs under the top coats, and they show. That's OK, come spring, I'll be repairing the panels one at a time, and I'll re-shoot it one panel at a time too... maintian the look, but improve the underlaying canvis.
It has been 13 years since i used a paint gun. Matter of fact, I bought the old style (most refer to them as primer guns these days) with the cup on the bottom. To be honest, I don't even know if it was a HVLP or not. The box said 30 - 50 psi... I set it at 35, and it'd deadhead at about 60. What ever... not important.
I used the trusty old Rustolium...

Found it on sale about a year ago... something like 4 bucks a quart. A gallon of mineral spirits, and a bunch of sand paper for my DA and long board... and some filler I've had laying around for a few years... and i was set to go.

So here's a few shots of the begining. I worked on it from 8 PM saturday night, untill 8 AM sunday morning. LOTS of sanding.
I rehung the hood, replaced the passenger side door with one I've had laying around since the death of my first truck (the blue longhorn) and ripped off all the crap bolted to it... door handles, mirrors, nubs for trim that won't find it's way back on (chrome divider on the back of the cab). Since the passenger door is blue, I figured I may as well paint the inside of the doors... but I left the rest of the inside gold. Since I have no idea what it'll look like when it gets real paint... I figured I'd leave the gold on there for contrast since I have black seats and trim inside.
I shot the first 2 coats of paint early that morning on the first go-around. This stuff takes FOREVER to dry... if you go this route... remember that. FOREVER to dry. I sat around for an hr and it was still wet, so I said screw it, went and got some breakfast, and went home and crashed for a few hrs.

[Longhorn Man]

So I came back around noonish on sunday. I left the infared heat on all morning, cranked it up to about 75 degrees (that's 24 degrees in canadian talk) The sheet metal was considerably warmer... so i got a good baked on finish.
Knowing how long it was taking to dry, I knew I didn't have a whole lot of time here. It was 1 PM or so on sunday, I had to have all my stuff cleaned up, to include all my sanding/bondo dust that got ALL over the shop, and have my only vehicle back on the road Monday. (I did however, borrow one of the shop rigs for sat and sun nights) So I got out the hose and the 1000 grit, and gave the whole thing a quick scuff, then washed it, then wiped it all down with prep-solv after a good drying... and I was ready to put on the first real coat. Shot the inside of the doors, the door jambs, tail gate jambs, and under the hood first, and a 1/2 decent coat on the rest of the body. Let it sit for an hr while I cought up on some phone calls and then shut the doors and tail gate, and got ready for more.
This coat went on a bit too wet, and it took way too long to dry. In the end, I ended up putting the last coat on at about 9PM.
had to leave at 9:30 to pick up my mom from work, so I cranked up the heaters to about 85, and took off. I was back by 10:30, and started mixing the last bit. After shooting it one more time, I pulled the tape and paper off and drove it to the other end of the shop... I knew it was spending another night. Set the heaters at 70 over there and let it dry. It was past midnight by the time I got out of there after cleaning.
Monday after work i re-assembled it, and here's what I ended up with;
*note, I took these pics today... it's raining... it was painted not this past weekend, but the week before*

[1969C/10]

Cant wait to see the other pics Andy!

[Bob D]

I cant wait to see the pics either! I thought I was the only nut-job who was spraying his truck with rustoleum.

Bob

p.s. when done right, it actually looks kinda good:

[Yukon Jack]

Looks darn good to me!

[jaros44sr]

I rolled my rustolem flat white on 100% seemed to dry pretty fast but that was in the summertime!!! What do you use for a top coat, do they make a clear?

Looks good to me, I hope mine comes out 1/2 as nice. Should I cut 50% ?

[TruckinDaddy]

Looks awesome LHM

Me next.

[1969C/10]

Andy, I think that looks really nice! I might try something like that when I get a new bed and new front fenders.

[Bob D]

That does look good. Never thought of using semi-gloss.

Bob

[67ChevyRedneck]

I'd be damn proud of that bud! Reminds me of my '67 when it was FIRST done. It looked like crap 9 years later, but she looked great the first time I did her in black!

Kinda sucks you have to drive the old girl in the winter though... I REALLY HATE salt! My 67 was parked every winter back when I lived in NY. I drove a $400 crapbox Toyota truck 5 months of the year.

[krue]

Looks a heck of a lot better than it did.

[Longhorn Man]

All in all, the paint (only used 2 quarts) the miniral spirits, news paper, DA in both 80 and 180 grit, a little bit of 1000 wet/dry that I've had laying around for 13 years....yeah, from high school... some 80 on the long board, tape, 3 year old can of filler... I'm sure I'm forgetting something.... anyways, I'm guestimating that I have about 75 bucks into this paint job. I can't get an acurate figure due to the fact that i spread the cost over such a long period... and some of the stuff was loaned/given to me. I did NOT include the price of the tools I had to buy, some were cheap harbor freight... some were off the snap on truck and I'll be paying on untill my son graduates.
Either way, it was done DIRT cheap, and came out pretty decent.

Now, for anyone wanting to try this on there own rig...
1. Don't listen to the ppl say that "It's Rustolium... it doesn't need primer".
While we have all sprayed something with rattle can rustolium onto bare metal, and never had a rust issue.... there is a HUGE difference here... BONDO. If you were to look at my truck in person... or, if i took incriminating photos, it is painfully obviouse where the filler is located on this truck. USE PRIMER. Even if it is spray bomb.

2. Practice on junk sheet metal.
NOT the junk hanging on your truck... but something else. Prep it properly, clean it, prime it, treat it like a good pody panel. You'll have to figure out your mix ratio, which varies acording to hear, humidity, type of gun, spray method, and alcohol consumption. (mine was minimal)

3. Have plenty of time to do this.
As you can see, my weekend wasn't enough time to do it all. It sucks trying to do this on a driver... but, that's how it goes for some of us. If you are spare car challenged... like myself, work on it one panel at a time... getting it all straight and in primer... then once it is all done, decomision the truclk on friday after work, and get to work. Hopefully you won't have to call in sick monday.


This wasn't supposed to make it look good... it was intended to make it look better. yes, I painted over dents that needed more work, I painted over the huge holes left by the removal of junk gas tanks... and yes, I painted over rust holes in the rockers.
However, 2 weeks ago, my truck looked like a circuis wagon. A blue hood, black primer cowl, gold cab and doors with a white roof, and 4... yes 4 shades of gray primer. So, it looks WAY better now, the paint will slow down rust, and help prevent new rust as I drive it through the salt covered roads in the upcoming off season. Plus, the whole rat rod thing... yes, it looks kinda cool. I've gotten more thumbs up and cool truck coments in the past week then I have in the past year of the circuis wagon look. It's a win-win situation.
Now... some are wondering why not just spray bonb it with black primer.
Well... this is why not;
1 Primer absorbs water.
Yes, there's ways around that, generally, not in rattle cans.
2. Primer... or flat paint... absorbs dirt.
Not really, but you will SWEAR it does when you wash your truck. Plus, the added scrubbing to get mud/grease off will wear off the primer in a year or so in some spots
3. Cost
Believe it or not, this was cheaper than the spray bomb job I did on my old SWB.


So, tell me what you think, good or bad. And if you do this on your truck... have fun.

[Longhorn Man]

wow, lots of esponses while I was typing all that out.
I didn't top coat it... I just left it rustolium. I put the last coat on a little wet.. which was riskey. I didn't want orange peel, so I risked runs in the final coat. I came out on top on that gamble. I used to paint in high school, and I was the best in my class. So some of it was luck on that top coat, but by the time I got that far, a lot of it was coming back to me.
Cut it 50%... but make sure you have a practice panel. You may need to thicken it up. Keep track of what you do so you can do it again on the next cup of paint. I got a mix cup from Meijer (think super wall mart without the uncontrolled manopoly or battering of suppliers) that shows percentages and ratios. If you can't find one at wall mart or your other normal stores (in the home paint section) then try NAPA, tractor supply, or ask your local body shop/dealer body guy where to get one.

[70c/10barebone]

It looks good from here. Will you remove the rustolium before you paint permanent color in a few years or will it make a suitable base.

[qksilver]

How did you get the water to bead? What is your secret wax?

[texascowboy593]

Well done man!!! I like it!

[Longhorn Man]

I've been told you can paint over it... but don't quote me.
Water tends to bead on frehs paint... however, yesterday, i washed it with some industrial car wash stuff called zep - o - clean. Really, that's what it's called. I think it has some kind of wax in it or something?

[wibilly]

looks way better andy. i use a lot of rustoliem pain and used to reduce with miniral spirits but now i use acitone. the old cans recomond spirits but if you read a new one they suggest acitone. it seems to dry much faster

[hotrod 80]

I have the motor out of mine right now and have been painting the fire wall with gloss black . I've pulled together the paint and thinner and intend to paint the truck gloss white on the outside .

[72CSTC5]

Looks good all one color.

[RSRXION]

Hell, it beads water. That's better than my daily driver ! No not my Mustang, my F-150.

[Russell]

That looks a billion times better Andy!

[cdowns]

looks good/ i've been doing rustoleum paint for years , for gloss colors i spend a bit more by useing automotive reducer and hardner for a high hard gloss finish

[Green Machine]

That looks great, the $75 paint job probably made it worth $2000 more !

[Brad]

Andy that looks really nice. Thanks for writing this all out for us. I'll probably go this route myself next summer.