So the paint on my '91 has been fading ever since we have owned the car. A few weekends ago I got realy tired of it and I started searching for cheap ways to paint the car. The best thing I found online was on another forum. This dude from Canada painted his '69 charger with tremclad paint (rustoleum in USA) but the best thing was that he didn't spray the paint on, but used rollers to get the paint on it. Yea you heard right, ROLLERS. The stuff you paint walls with. Here's the link to the forum: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...art=1&vc=1
So I decided to try this out myself. Since I didn't wanna ruin the already ruined paintjob even more, I decided to try this out on my bumper, which was in horrible condition anyway and I figured I had nothing to loose. So I went to wall-mart, i got 2 cans of royal blue rustoleum in a can (navy color) and 1 can of gloss black. Mixed them together and then mixed the paint with 40% mineral spirits. Then I got some high density foam rollers and brushes (for tight spaces), and a set of 320, 800, and 2000 grit sandpaper. My plan was to "prep" the surface of the bumper with 320. The prep was a pain in the *** for the bumper since the color was so faded and I had a lot to sand. It should be easier on the fenders, hood, etc. Then I applied the 1st coat of paint (with rollers of course) and it looked hella bad. I let it cure for 24 hours and then I wiped the surface with wet paper towels and I applied the second coat. It looked much more promising than the 1st one but there was a lot of orange peel. Then I wetsanded it down with 800 grit and as you can see on the pic I kinda thought I ruined the previous 2 coats untill I applied the 3rd coat. VOILA! It was shiny as hell and becauseI had sanded it previously, there was much less orange peel. The plan that I' gonna stick to is the following:

-prep the surface with 320 grit
-apply two coats
-wetsand with 800grit
-apply 2 more coats
-wetsand again with 800 grit
-apply 1 or 2 more coats (depending on how it looks)
-and finaly sand with 2000 grit and then buff with polishing compound and wax after a few weeks

Here's the process so far. I'm on the 3rd coat now and I will most likely do the 4th one tomorow. I will update as much as I can so keep looking at this forum.

first coat


first coat (im beginning to lose confidence)


right after 2nd coat (looks better)
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wet 2nd coat-shiny but hella orange peel


wet 2nd coat reflections


dry 2nd coat


wetsanded 2nd coat (800 grit)


wet 3rd coat-starts to look somewhat promising


wet 3rd coat-some reflections


10min after 3rd coat-all i can say is damn (in a good way of course)


10min after 3rd coat-you can see the orange peel on the reflection. After the wetsanding (after 4th coat) it should magically dissapear

 

I couldn't wait to see how the 3rd coat looks when it's dry so I went out and took some pics, even though it was hella dark outside.
Here they are:




At first I was skeptic about the color but I'm begining to like it. When it's a bit darker it looks as blue as the metalic blue I had and when it's bright at times it is almost green (as you can see on the pics with the flash on).
Since it's turning out this good I'm pretty sure I'll do 4th coat tomorow and I'll update it.

good nighty