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So I do the roller paint job on my car....

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SimpleS14

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
If any of you know about this...you will know that this paint job can yield great results if you have the patience and pay attention to detail.

Welp...my car has been five shades of green for quite awhile and its finally getting to me. My only problem was that I was tight on time...so I kinda rushed things..such as taping the seals instead of removing them.

I'm still not completely done, as I'm waiting for my JDM bumper to come in, paint the mirrors and give a final wetsand and polish.

I will say that doing this paint job is damn tedious...I started on Sunday with sanding the car and finished the last coat on Friday. I put on six coats and literally waited almost 24 hours between each coat.


NOW...onto pics (what little I took):

Here is the clearcoat sanded off with 400 grit sandpaper. You can see most of the materials I used for this project:
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Here is the first coat.....a classic WTF moment...
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Every coat had to be layed down thin...so the first and second coat look horrid.

I don't have a picture of the second coat, but here is a pic of the third coat..you can see the color start to show...
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Wetsand the car and layed down the fourth coat. By this time HOA finally jumped on my ass...so I had to move the car to a friend's house to finish it up. Here is the fourth coat...
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I missed out on taking a pic of the fifth coat since I was in a rush to get this thing done. Speaking of which...I finished the sixth coat on Friday. As I said before it still needs some work...mainly the rear bumper, mirrors, and wetsand (1000-2000 grit), then polish. This paint takes atleast three months to fully cure...but once it does it will be solid (think of a cast iron tub enamel). I plan on painting the mirrors black and using the enamel spray paint this time around.

Here is the sixth coat:
Image


Once everything is complete I will host a writeup on my website. I recommend this for someone that has time and patience on their side. Also suggest this for someone that has a really bad paint job and doesn't care about winning points at a show.

The paint I used for professional grade Rustoleum enamel. I thinned it out with mineral sprits and rolled it onto the car using a dense foam 4" roller. Sounds ghetto...and yea it actually might be...but for the price I'm not complaining.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
DLSracing said:
You are going to have so much trash in that thing it's not funny. Good thing it's white so you won't be able to see it as much. Just be aware too that it is probably going to flake off due to the vibrations.
Click to expand...
Trash in what? the car? Yea I have some tools I need to take out but I don't consider that trash.

White does had the imperfections rather nicely and I don't get how it can flake off due to vibrations. Been driving like this for four days and no flaking so far. Mind you the paint is technically still soft and will not fully cure for three months...I think its holding well IMO.
 
#10 ·
Automotive based paints are flexible even when cured. House hold paints aren't made to be flexible they are stiffer. I got a bud that used house hold paint on his and about 1 year later it was flaking off. As for the trash the roller will place particles of itself all in the paint. For the money though it is a good job. I am just used to doing HVLP spray booth paint jobs...
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
DLSracing said:
Automotive based paints are flexible even when cured. House hold paints aren't made to be flexible they are stiffer. I got a bud that used house hold paint on his and about 1 year later it was flaking off. As for the trash the roller will place particles of itself all in the paint. For the money though it is a good job. I am just used to doing HVLP spray booth paint jobs...
Click to expand...
House paint is latex based, the paint I'm using is oil-based and for industrial use. Also the roller I used was a high dense foam roller, so no particles were left behind.

This technique has been done on plenty cars already and yield great and long lasting results.

This is the thread that started everything: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
 
#12 ·
looks good, makes me want to do mine. But I'll wait to do the 97/98 conversion on it first so I have a reason to paint lol.
 
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Discussion starter · #16 · (Edited)
silviaks2nr said:
nicely done. any way to get the hood seal black again?
Click to expand...

Replace it....which is what I've just done.

Anywho to add on to the informative bit....

Just want to let you guys know that I finally got my rear JDM bumper (used) and started to paint it last week. I'm done, but I haven't found the time to install it onto my car. Since I was only painting the rear bumper this time around...I actually took my time and wetsand between each two coats and let each coat sit overnight (almost 24 hours between each coat). Far less orange peel and runs were apparent...even my neighbors thought I sprayed the bumper instead of rolled it. Also I had time to take pics between each coat and some other detailed pictures. I'm going to use these pictures for my writeup when I find the time to write it up...since I'm going back to school and want to refresh the website.

Here is how the bumper looked when I first got it....
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You have to roll on the paint very thin...so thin its like your rolling on milk. You get runs and micro bubbles...but that is easily fixed by catching them with the roller. Here is a pic of the runs and bubbles before I used my roller, just to give you an idea of what I was working with....
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Here is the final and sixth coat....very clean IMO....
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I still need to wetsand and buff the entire car.....BUT...I managed to get the front end out of the way. Its hard to take a pic given its white, but I must say I like the results. Smooth to the touch and quite glossy...and I used 1000 grit, medium rubbing compound and polishing compound.

More to come with time on my side....but for now I'm happy with the results , the amount of money I saved, and the experience I gained.
 
#18 ·
dang, on the first shot of the rear bumper i thought there was a huge piece missing, but i now see that its your exhaust cutout! hahaha
my friend also did the roller, but he used black.
turned out good, but he didnt put a whole lotta work into it, therefore it had alotta orange peel in it. but im thinking about doing my coupe in grey.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
S14DreamN said:
Did u really do everything outside in some parking lot? lol
Click to expand...
I really did paint the car out in a parking lot, but then again HOA told me to stop or else the car gets towed. So I finished the fifth and sixth coat at my friend's house.

Because of this I had to rush on the car, so orange peel is apparent.

As for the rear bumper, I did it at the same spot I took the pictures. That's the advantage to using this paint, you can do it outdoor given your willing to sand of the bugs and brush off any specks of dirt.
 
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