Painting Rustolium
Throw in some "Japanese Hardener" for super results! I used gloss black tractor paint from tractor supply with 30% acetone and 10% Japanese Hardener on my home built Cal-tracs. Hell, I used a paint brush and it layed out smooooth!
Small correction- no offense!
its called Japan Drier, and though the name might imply it, it's not japanese.
I read the "paint job on the cheap" thread, or whatever it was called, until my eyes bled. In the end I decided to use a marine paint called Brightside made by Interlux and bought at West marine. Its probably availble at most boat/marine stores for about 35-40 bucks a quart. I thinned it down with about 25-30% xylene and sprayed it with a TCP Global hvlp gun with a 1.4 tip and an inadequate craftsman 30 gal. compressor.
First off let me say I thought I had made a terrible mistake going this route. After all the hours I spent fixing rust and getting the body close to where I wanted to it to be, I was VERY discouraged after the first coat. Orange peel, runs, and a generally crappy looking paint job was what I saw, but since it was the first car I had ever painted and I knew I had made mistakes I kept going. On the upside, it was now alot easier to see the holidays on my bodywork.
After a complete re-sand, fixing the holidays, and boning up on spraying techniques, I layed down a second coat. Keep in mind that it was done in a condo parking stall with pretty poor lighting but excellent ventilation.
After waiting a couple weeks for the single stage to dry through, I blocked it down to 2000 grit, then cut and buffed.
I can say first hand that very nice paint jobs can be had without spending 6,7,8,or 9 bills just for paint. I have about $450 into this including k2000 primer and reducer/hardener, sandpaper, mud, everything!
The stuff I used is hard as granite and not alot of fun to sand, but it has a bunch of UV protection (its for boats) and overall I'm real happy with it.
I'm not sure if there's a satin black Brightside paint, but I would recommend it to anybody that feels sick when they get an estimate for a paint job.
Sorry for the long-winded response. -pauly
I'm on wifeys computer, I'll post up some current pics to this thread tomorrow
