Down n dirty paint job

[skybluefreeway]

Looking to repaint my bus without spending a whole lot of money...was thinking about rolling it on and possibly adding sand to texture and hide any imperfections...probably going to paint it the dark brown all the way around...any suggestions would be helpful...thanks

[lornaschinske]

Why would you add sand? Our bus is combination of brush (rub rails & bumpers with Rustoleum Hammered) and foam roller (ACE's Rust Stop in a custom tint) The foam roller leave a very slight textured finish. Upside to rolling is that I can touch up the paint very easily and if I touch up with a foam roller, you can't tell it was touched up. The brushed on evened out pretty well (it is naturally textured). I will be repainting part of the brushed on to change the colour. I changed my mind. I'm a woman and that's my prerogative.

Wiped down paint well with deglosser, rolled on 1 coat. Let dry overnight, rolled on 2nd coat. Let dry. No sanding. No wax. Only paint run is one that was in the previous sprayed on paint job. I sanded it but got tired of sanding. Took too much precious time that I really didn't have.

I have a 40 ft paint job. It looks good at 40 ft away. Actually it looks good 3 ft away. Be careful you don't leave roller marks (excess paint on the edges of the paint roller, leaves thick line of paint, use light touch to roll over the line to pick it up and even out).

[lornaschinske]

Wouldn't the "sand" texture hold the dirt more? I prefer a smoother texture (ours is like a rough egg shell or fine orange peel - a real orange). Nature washes it fairly well on the rare occasions it rains. I don't wash my jeep (it's allergic to soap), I'm certainly not going to wash my bus.

[Accordion]

I have had great success by cleaning the surfaces with TSP, and then using oil based enamel house paint that was mixed with Penetrol (basically linseed oil). I used 1 quart of Penetrol to 1 gallon of paint. The Penetrol made the oil base paint flow like water based latex paint.

I used rollers and paint brushes. The results were a durable and shiny finish that lasted many years.