Embarrassing Question...

[DetailGuy]

Actually, two questions...

Is there a single stage automotive paint that I can brush on, (that's right, brush on, multiple coats like using a spray gun with flash time in-between), let dry and then sand and buff smooth.

Please don't laugh, I'm serious. I have a paint gun, and I've painted a few cars in my life, but right now I don't have an air compressor and I don't want to turn my garage into a paint booth.

What I do want to do is to paint my old truck, let the paint dry and then wet-sand, cut and buff the paint for a high gloss finish. It's not a show truck, just a daily driver and the paint is thin in places and past the point of buffing to make it look good.

Okay, take a moment to laugh, and if you know of an automotive paint that will fit the bill, please let me know of your suggestion. Even a solvent-evaporation lacquer or enamel would suffice. I want a nice thick layer of paint so I have plenty to work with.

Thanks...

[Henry]

I doubt seriously that there is such a paint that would ever hold up. No one should laugh though because there is a roll on primer out for the past year or two so maybe paint ain't that far off.
I know a couple farmers who brush on Rustoleum thinned on trucks that sit around and used during hay season.
Why not just sand and prep the poor truck and run it by a Macco. With all the scuffing and repairs made by you the cost should be cheap.
I have no idea of any paint that you could brush on then wet or finish sand with the intention of getting a nice shiny flat surface. The heat from sanding and buffing would destroy the paint. And, you never want thick paint. Good luck and keep us posted on what you do. Henry

[Fasteddy]

We had an old man's car in the shop in the early seventies for a bumper replacement. I noticed the vehicle had been brush painted, it looked real nice. The brush marks were hard to see. Somehow the paint looked smooth and glossy. We asked the old man who brush painted his car, he stated that he had worked for Henry Ford as a painter, they brush painted cars before the spray gun was introduced. BTW the color was black, as all early Fords were painted.

[Jon E]

Actually, all of the Feadship yachts are brush painted with Awl-Grip and they look absolutely flawless. Do a search online for it, I know I've read a few articles on it before that showed pictures of them doing it.

[TimG]

I THINK really OLD stuff was painted at the factory w/ brushed on nitrocelluose{sp?} lacquer,talking about the teens/twenties.
I remember seeing an article in a magazine about how they did it,I think the flash between coats was weeks!
Any public Vo Tech scools in your area? May be worth the cost of an adult Ed night course to use their equipment,plus have a pro to oversee you.
Good Luck!

[gtcway]

Many boats are painted by brush. I'm not sure if it will work well on a truck but the preferred method is the use a roller to apply the paint then use a high quality brush to "tip" it or smooth it out. I know a house painter who burshed his truck with Awlgrip. I haven't taken a close look at it but seeing it from a few feet, you can't see any brush marks. It's not something I would do but it can be done and with acceptable results. If I were doing it, I would thin the paint just a little more than recommended and apply several thin coats. I think that any single stage, non-metallic paint will work.

[mr.kenny]

I painted the hull of my sailboat dark blue using awgrip & a foam brush. It flowed out good and looked really nice.... for an old boat. ;)
I even thought the same thought about using it as an experiment on an old beater or truck.
Very tough paint.

I think during all the hours of sanding you would be doing;(even if the paint cured) you would telling yourself......"I shoulda sprayed, I shoulda sprayed......"

I had a very experienced old painter give me this advise, "never ever do a crummy paint job even for free"..... "That paint job will always have your name on it and will never seem to go away & everyone will say.. "yeah,ol Joe did that paint job, he's not a very good painter."... It will just haunt you forever."

[wisconsinjimmy]

We had an old man's car in the shop in the early seventies for a bumper replacement. I noticed the vehicle had been brush painted, it looked real nice. The brush marks were hard to see. Somehow the paint looked smooth and glossy. We asked the old man who brush painted his car, he stated that he had worked for Henry Ford as a painter, they brush painted cars before the spray gun was introduced. BTW the color was black, as all early Fords were painted.
I have a photo of how the T was painted and it was done with a hose yup hose and what did not stick ran into a troff to be reused, I repainted my Grand daddys 23 with just plain tractor black and brush looked good also I have no idea what that T paint was as you needed something more than sandpaper to remove it. Go to a fleet supply that sells equipment.

[DetailGuy]

Thanks for all the input so far guys...

I painted part of a boat once with Rustoleum Outdoor Enamel, applied 2-3 coats over a couple of days and then a couple of week later after letting it dry and harden I sanded it flat and buffed it out and it matched the single stage Imron around it pretty well. I found the paint to sand and buff very easy.

I thought about trying this paint and doing the entire truck, but I was hoping to find an actual automotive paint versus whatever this Rustoleum paint in a can is.

Or is there that much difference between this Rustoleum Enamel, (I guess), and say a Dupont, or PPG, or fill in the blank, single stage, black paint in a can.

I can rent a spray booth, I can turn my garage into a spray booth, I can even take the truck in and have it painted at a number of buddies shops, but the goal was to see if I could in fact find a paint that I could apply by brush, foam, roller or otherwise, and have the paint fully dry/cure hard enough that I could then sand it down and buff it out.

So the paint has to meet the above criteria.

I know a little bit about Awlgrip paint as it's used on Yachts and Commercial boats. It's a long lasting, incredibly durable and resistant coating but one of the drawbacks is that after curing it's very hard and as far as I know, it's not formulated to have a high gloss finish like an automotive paint but more of a semi-gloss finish. For these reasons, Awlgrip won't meet the criteria.

I was thinking more along the lines of a traditional solvent-evaporation lacquer or enamel like was used in through the 1950's and the 1970's.

I've seen some ads in Hemming's Motor News for companies that claim to sell these types of paints, but would rather deal with one of my local paint supplies stores, (Automotive, not house).

Do paint companies even make these traditional paints anymore?

Is it possible to look outside the box at another industry that may be using these types of paint for a different application not regulated under automotive applications, for example farm equipment, furniture manufacturing, etc.

It seems it would still be possible to obtain an automotive black paint that could be thinned and applied by hand, allowed to dry, more coats added, and then finally sanded and buffed to a high gloss finish.

I haven't even tried calling my local PBE stores, but I could give this a try next.

Thanks for all the input!

[kenc]

I THINK really OLD stuff was painted at the factory w/ brushed on nitrocelluose{sp?} lacquer,talking about the teens/twenties.
I remember seeing an article in a magazine about how they did it,I think the flash between coats was weeks!
Any public Vo Tech scools in your area? May be worth the cost of an adult Ed night course to use their equipment,plus have a pro to oversee you.
Good Luck!
Not nitrocellulose lacquer. I think they used some ashphaltum based paint - hence they were all black.
I read about this recently and can't remember where :confused:

I do remember the article said that a car took about a week to paint, and the paintjob was lucky if it lasted a year out in the sun and rain.

[gtcway]

Awlgrip is a high gloss paint, maybe not as much a a quality single stage automotive paint but it is glossy. Also, you can't sand and buff it. Whatever it looks like when it dries, that's what you have.

[DetailGuy]

Awlgrip is a high gloss paint, maybe not as much a a quality single stage automotive paint but it is glossy. Also, you can't sand and buff it. Whatever it looks like when it dries, that's what you have.

Okay, that's what it was that I read or heard... regardless, it's not the right paint for what I want to do.

Tomorrow when everyone gets off their holiday vacations I'll try to call around to a couple of paint stores and see if I can find any countermen/paint mixers that would have a suggestion.

Thanks all!

Helpful forum!

[emerson]

its funny you brought this up. me and my dad used to buy old 70's model pick-ups that had mechanical troubles to repair and sell. i remeber 1 time in particular we bought a 77' ford pickup that needed a transmission,the truck ran like a top. but the paint was awful. we usually would prep and spray the vehicles, but this time we decided it was in such bad shape we would just wire brush the bad areas and brush paint it. we used implement paint from tractor supply. i swear, you would be surprised how it turned out. we ran the truck in the local classifieds, and two people showed up at the same time to look at the truck.we explained to them that the truck had a "CHEAP" paint job, and it was just an old work truck. i thought they were gonna fight over it. that has been 8 or 9 years ago, and i still see this old truck around town every now and then, and surprisingly enough, it still dont look bad.

[Dennis N. Schmidt]

I think it can be done with synthetic enamel and a foam roller. I'd use the slowest reducer and hardener I could fine and give it a whirl. There isn't much different between automotive synthetic enamel and oil based Benny Moore Impervo.

The hardener is imperative. Without it the enamel will never get hard enough to work.

[mnydvr]

believe it or not ,boat builders that paint wooden boats do it all the time,if it is possible,find a boat shop that restores old boat and ask them!!