Painting fibreglass

[garethj]

I've had this brilliant idea* to buy a GRP bodied car, or possibly two. Thing is, they both need paint and there's no way I can throw £1500-£2500 at each of them to look nice.Is respraying at home a viable option these days? What equipment would I need? Can you paint by hand if you go at it with a polishing mop or something? Anyone know people who do a decent paintjob for not much money?Errr, anything else I need to know or ask?*My better half is unlikely to see it that way

[pogweasel]

Please say it's so?!

 

Anyway, paint, what's wrong with some dulux and a brush/roller. Or at a push some vaguely matching tins of aerosol from your local motorfactor?

 

This is autoshite, not bufty paintjobs forum!

[garethj]

Please say it's so?!

I know how much you'd like one yourself, Mr P. 'Specially in yellow, with a nice Trotters logo?

Anyway, paint, what's wrong with some dulux and a brush/roller. Or at a push some vaguely matching tins of aerosol from your local motorfactor?

 

This is autoshite, not bufty paintjobs forum!

I really want to buy this, a 1959 Peerless

 

But to do that, I'll have to sell the Land Rover and bike, which means I'll need some sensible transport too. Cortina parts availability in a 4 seater coupe body but for sod-all money? Sir will be wanting a Ginetta G26, currently on ebay

 

Both fibreglass, both needing paint. While I don't mind paying a bit for the Peerless paintjob, the Ginetta will never be worth more than £500 even with £400 stuffed in the glovebox

[Ratdat]

Have a look at this thread. Some dude painted his Beetle and Dodge Charger with a roller. Check out the finish!

 

[mouseflakes]

Hey - that Tremclad treatment looks fantastic - great for those on a shite budget.Wonder if they do it in metallic brown though?

[Father Ted]

Interesting - the bonnet on the micra is truly fooked, and Im debating painting it red, or matt black and the roller and can of smoothrite is looking favorite. Might even make me a "Harlequin"....

[r.welfare]

This is an easier-to-read paint-it-with-a-roller link :http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

 

Personally, I've done a few panels (wings and bonnets) with a £99 Wolf compressor and gun using cellulose colour-matched by my friendly local paintshop (Automotive Paint Supplies); the results are getting better but I'm not sure either the compressor or I would be up to doing a whole car.

[garethj]

Cheers for the links. Even though cars always look better in photos, I'm mighty impressed. And that level of cost seems just about right Is there a distributor in the UK? The dollar exchange rate is a bit smelly for importing parts from the US.... What sort of sander is needed? I don't have a compressor so am I better off getting a decent electric one or a second hand compressor and an air sander?Will I have carpal tunnel syndrome (wanker's cramp) after the second lot of sanding?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I've just resprayed my entire car, from blue to black, using a £99 HVLP gun (illustrated spraying fake tan on maker's website) and £130 worth of cellulose paint (including thinners and primers). It's a shit job, for many reasons including inexperience, freezing spraying weather and poor preperation, but a vast improvement over the flaking mismatched paint it previously wore.

[r.welfare]

I think Rustoleum paint is marketed under another name over here...but I can't remember what. There might have been a R-R thread about it a while ago.I've have thought an electric sander would be OK personally; I've only sanded by hand but all I've needed to do is get a 'key' on panels that were already painted, so can't comment on the white-knuckle syndrome! But, as everyone says, a good paint job is 99% preparation. Of the half-dozen panels I've done only one was close enough to the surrounding factory-painted panels.I had one of those Earlex electric sprayers (that PC seem to rate) which I picked up for £10 (boxed and unused) at a boot sale but I must admit I couldn't get on with it as I found the spray pattern a bit unpredictable. My compressor was cheap enough to make it a worthwhile purchase, I'll be pressing it into use for high-pressure Waxoyling in the summer.

[FredTransit]

Looks like Rustoleum is Combination in the UK http://www.rustoleum.co.uk/?action=main . As for painting fibreglass, it's no different to painting anything else as long as it already has a finish on it.

[Station]

I've done loads of rattlecan spray jobs on entire wings and bonnets, and had it up to professional quality.The problem with rattle cans is they chip really easily, they don't harden enough, and when they're dry, the mopping process always goes back to what's underneath. I use G3 and a spinning thingy (on slow) on a drill (don't use the B&Q 20 quid buffers, they're absolute shite).The problem with compressor spraying is getting the pressure of the gun right, getting the thinners/hardener/paint ratios correct, making sure the nozzle doesn't clog. If you can spray something, lay it flat, it stops it running.The best tip for shite spraying is spray a load on all over the area for about 10 seconds, then let it go dry-ish, then spray more on. This cuts down on orange peel effect. I've done thin layers and it's hassle.

[Timewaster]

There used to be a product on the market called Cannons RePaint which was a brush on paint that supposidly dried flat with no brush marks.This was about 20 years ago, I've tried googling it with no luck.Maybe some paint experts know what happened to it or if its still available.

[Ratdat]

I used that repaint stuff to paint my A35 burgundy in about 1987. It worked pretty well but took a lot of coats to cover the original blue.

[r.welfare]

A company called Roltec used to advertise a similar system to Re-Paint on the back cover of Jalopy, mind you that was 16-17 years ago so they may not be around anymore, either.

[Richard]

I'll see if I can find their number.

[fotorabia]

i hand rolled my East German truck with these dinky lil mini rollers i found at the paint supply shop..i thinned the paint slightly..gave it two coats over two weeks [big truck!]and wunderbar..looked like id sprayed it...

[andrew e]

I'm sure Halfords still sell re-paint, I used it about 5 years ago.

[Volksy]

I've just resprayed my entire car, from blue to black, using a £99 HVLP gun (illustrated spraying fake tan on maker's website)

I think I see the results of this fake tan spraying on a daily basis, whoever does the prep work doesn't rub the filler down enough in most cases, or mask up properly either.

Only seem to so mahogany or orange too..

[Station]

You can paint with a brush on flat horizontal surfaces if you use more thinners.