@Fly I-80: Restoration by checkbook gets you no points.

bobdobbs

It says in the article that he paid $74.74 and it took 40 hours. To get to $75, his time must make up the difference at a rate of 0.65 cents an hour. I think I figured out why he's poor.

He could have given the car and $300 to Earl Schieb and his breakeven for a part time job would be $5.62/hour. Hooray comparative advantage.

Fly I-80

Yeah, it's the labor that comprises the bulk of the car painting charge, not the paint itself. We've gone over this before in other similar threads.

Go ahead. Paint your own house. Tile your own bathroom. Install your own hardwood floor. Plant your own vegetable garden. It's the labor that makes outsourcing these projects expensive, not the materials.

cv

Hot Rod did an article on this method in their Winter 2007 Paint & Body edition (cover has a '57 Chevy and a hot blonde both with flames painted on.) No online version (I checked.) I just picked it up the other day, and they painted a '62 Falcon; it looks pretty good, but sounds like a lot of work. To do it right it'll take upwards of 6 coats to get good coverage, with sanding in between and lots of buffing after. Expect it to take about a week. The upside is that it doesn't take any special equipment or a paint booth.

Don't expect a show-quality body from it, but it's a good cheap way to get a decent paint job on a daily driver. I've got some rust to eliminate and will likely be doing the paint with a roller & brush.

thunder

Paint my wife's Cavalier for seventy five dollars?

That reminds me of headline from The Onion: $500 Stereo Installed In $400 Car.

Vipper Of Vipp

Great idea. I'm actually a house painter and this never even occured to me. I would imagine a small 3 inch foam roller would be as good, if not better, than a foam brush. certainly faster.

I have an '89 Dodge Ram van in desperate need of paint. This looks like just the ticket!

Cell9song

This is pretty cool but you will have to remember the time commitment is large compared to a traditional spray job.

To make it look good you will need to do proper wet sanding, which is more than just using some good sandpaper.

It's not to say don't do it but it's far more than a single afternoon project.

Techguy1138

Old Jalopnik post with better instructions and a much cooler car:
[jalopnik.com]
Also, save $25!

Dr. Spaceman

Also...leave the windows rolled down, and you can do the interior, too!

scotte

Having just finished a 50-buck paintjob last night on an old Nissan, I don't see how using foam brushes instead of rollers would lead to less sanding.

bobdobbs

just spray paint the whole damn thing black. same crappy quality, less work.

ogz

Hmm, I have a '91 Volvo 940 with badly oxidized paint that I plan on giving to my younger brother when he gets his license. This might be just the thing to get it looking presentable, and it can't be that much worse than Maaco (for about 1/10 the price).

ranwhenparked

I am using Rustoleum on on my '67 Volvo 122 Wagon and it is looking great. The only difference is that I am spraying it on. Same results, just less sanding to get a good finish.

evolwun

@bobdobbs: Driving around in a wreck that you slaved over for 40 hours only to get brush marks can't be good for a lot of points, either. We're about 20 notches below a "restoration" here, J. Bob, and entirely free of slack.

Fly I-80

@MaxHedrm: Did you see the paint MG/Triumph/Fiat used to put on their cars? Rustoleum is an improvement. Your local Pay-and-Pray-While-They-(Over)Spray is not.

bobdobbs

It all depends on how much you value your time. If you have free time, but not a lot of free cash, this works. Of course I can't remember seeing a car that had it on for a few years in some good Texas sun, or the like. There's no clear coat to protect it from the elements.

@BOBDOBBS: I'm pretty sure restoration by Rustoleum doesn't even count as restoration. :^)

MaxHedrm

What Edward wrote. I did this to a $250 Yugo a couple of years ago, using high density foam rollers and a quart of gunmetal-colored Rustoleum "Hammered" finish paint. You know, the kind probably meant for ornate lawn furniture, mailboxes, and such.

It went on surprisingly even for the most part, though I'd recommend continuous stirring of metallic paints to keep the metal flake distribution consistent.

The paint lost its luster within a year, but it retained its adhesiveness remarkably well --considering the car wasn't sanded, primered, or even washed before application. I kinda wish I had used the copper color instead of gunmetal, as by now it would have taken on the exact color and patina of pitted rust -- a kind of fitting and appropriate color for a 20+ year old Yugo with foot long holes in the fenders and rocker panels.

I have a Rabbit with less body rot, and I wouldn't hesitate to give the technique a shot again, with a non-metallic paint and proper prep.

00solstice

Rustoleum seems like the perfect paint to use on my old about to rust out S10...

RoninianHoon

This whole paint with rollers thing started here: [board.moparts.org]

Edward

Great, now the car is worth $75. What a waste of time..

bd_juju

ACK Beretta I loose. spelknging id muh strungk poingt.

DiscoQuinn

Who would spend $75 on a Cavalier?

DiscoQuinn

@00solstice: that gunmetal stuff is great at less then 250 degree spots all over the car. I use it on mounts and certain other stuff.That with the "brown" rustoleum spray as the primer that sticks to everything.. I stopped chuckling about cheap paint along time ago living in the northeast. Just the past couple of years I am finding stuff in cans that leaves shiny spots you tinkered with visible on the car forever it seems..even after junked and rotting in half.. keywords for me are "xylene" (gentle acid) in the cans of primer. if to just color coat, be sure it is in that too. That is the only positive miracle from these cheap paints in recent years that I could read on the back of the cans that kept the stuff that lasted. That and acrylic with xylene if to clearcoat spot spray. of course the sanding and blah blah to prep it all done first, (the labor no-one talks about). oh..and dupont for color matching (if to chose an actual brand).

bdon

If anybody wants to borrow my '80 El Camino and give this a try let me know.

nosirrahg