So you want to paint your bus, do you?

[Robin97396]

Thanks. I've never been able to figure out the spray tips and so far the people in the stores didn't know either.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Thanks. I've never been able to figure out the spray tips and so far the people in the stores didn't know either.

getting the spray gun set up right can be difficult if one isn't familiar. The cheap ones can be great, but lots of em can be a real nightmare to try and paint with.
I've been doing ok with some cheap ones from Lowes so far.

[Jolly Roger]

Originally Posted by jasonbailey

I work for a commercial painting contractor and we paint everything from walls with sheet rock and block walls to chemical tanks for Clorox or even water towers. For something like a bus I don't see why it would be much different than say a steel wall or even a conex container. Why not just go over the whole thing with TSP and then hit it with DTM (direct to metal) bonding primer and then hit with eith a DTM paint or even industrial enamel? Obviously the worst part of the whole process would be the TSP if only because its so time consuming.

I assume you are talking about self etching primer? I grindered down to metal in some spots covered with rust oleum self etching(galvanizing primer) and in the areas I painted over with another color rust oleum brand either bubbled or didn't stick? Finger nail test?
Commercial construction for 20 years.
Please give us more info. On your idea. And how it will work in a flexible world.
Never been a painter and my wife has taken over that area? And no disrespect to you but how will a solid wall paint that don't move work on a moving structure?
I ain't ready for paint but if water tower paint or real steel tank paint was the answer? Then I passed up many a 5-gallon bucket left overs cause the sprayer didn't pick it up?

[Robin97396]

I've used my airless sprayer to paint my powerwagon using rustoleum and rudy brown primer, after over a week of prep. Some 15 years later the spray paint job is pealing, while the brush paint jobs on vehicles from 30 years ago with oil based exterior high gloss house paint and no prep actually seem to have lasted longer. Maybe it was better paint?
I don't claim to be any kind of a painter, but I wouldn't use latex on a vehicle unless I really didn't care. Oil base seems to last longer.
It's not so much about the quality of the paint job. Most people will never examine it close enough to see any brush strokes. The good part of painting your own vehicle is you can touch it up any time you need to.

[Robin97396]

Ok, this is a 15-18 year old spray paint job done with rustoleum after over a week of prep time.















There's no rust but I get the coastal air blowing through here every evening. I couldn't tell you if rustoleum is bad or not. I haven't had that good of luck with it.





My little truck that could.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Ok, this is a 15-18 year old spray paint job done with rustoleum after over a week of prep time.















There's no rust but I get the coastal air blowing through here every evening. I couldn't tell you if rustoleum is bad or not. I haven't had that good of luck with it.





My little truck that could.

That's a VERY rad truck!!! Gotta love a Power Wagon, man.
Awesome stuff, glad to see it!!

[cadillackid]

nice power wagon!! ive not used a lot of rustoleum.. ive done quite a bit of POR-15 for things like under-body and frame.. never tried to use it where its in the sun a lot.. I think a lot of paint breakdown is UV related..
-Christopher

[Tango]

The "new" EPA approved paints are garbage compared to old school lacquers and enamels. And worst of all are the water based primers that Detroit is using. I have seen new car lots that had brand, new vehicles popping rust from that crap. I define "new" as anything that has hit the market in the last 20 years. So much for advances in science. Paint science, anyway. Whoever dreamed up spraying water onto raw metal ought to have his PhD revoked.

[cadillackid]

I second the new paints SUCK!.. they also scratch MUCH easier than anything !.. I lease my daily drivers brand new every couple years and its darn near impossible to keep a new car scratch free.. the last car i had with full enamel paint on it was my 1976 Cadillac.. and when I had it repainted I had it done specially at a specialty shop that painted with enamel paint.. and that car had a beautiful perfectly mirror like black finish that NEVER exists on a new car... and I accidentilly knocked a bicycle in my garage parking the car and it left a mark that rubbed off with my finger.. in essence the bicycle took it worse than the car as far as finish...

but its all EPA AND TIME.. my roomate works at the Honda plant in marysville and works with the crew that monitors the waste water and sludge pits / etc from the paint shop.. the new water base paints can be applied and the car body sent down the assembly line in 1/3 the time of old enamels.. and the waste from the paint shop can be neutralized , sludge removed and the water released to the river.. whereas the process with enamels was MUCH tougher to obtain the EPA standards for water quality before releasing it... so in essence it costs much less to use these new water based paints.. body shops LOVE the stuff because they make more money repaiting cars.. and can turn the cars around quicker..

the color qualities of water based paints are already fairly bad so makign a car "look new" isnt hard like it used to be...

-Christopher

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Tango

The "new" EPA approved paints are garbage compared to old school lacquers and enamels. And worst of all are the water based primers that Detroit is using. I have seen new car lots that had brand, new vehicles popping rust from that crap. I define "new" as anything that has hit the market in the last 20 years. So much for advances in science. Paint science, anyway. Whoever dreamed up spraying water onto raw metal ought to have his PhD revoked.

My newish Subaru has the same crappy paint.
Its horrible.

[jake_blue]

Re the old paint - new paint controversy, just as a perspective on how these things come to pass... Fifty plus years ago when the Indiana town where my family originated was booming from the auto industry some 30k people were employed by auto industry suppliers. Over time as auto parts were outsourced overseas these giant factories closed their doors, leaving behind thousands of acres of unusable land which cost both the city and the EPA Superfund millions of dollars to clean up the toxicity, especially from the chemicals leeching into the soil from the paint plants. So bureaucrats decide that to prevent this sort of expense they'll outlaw or make impossibly difficult the production of such chemicals in the future and the result is laws such as water-based paints or outlawing incandescent light bulbs - because we as citizens apparently aren't responsible enough to take care of ourselves. So just remember that next time you think to yourself or utter the words, "they ought to pass a law to ...".

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by jake_blue

Re the old paint - new paint controversy, just as a perspective on how these things come to pass... Fifty plus years ago when the Indiana town where my family originated was booming from the auto industry some 30k people were employed by auto industry suppliers. Over time as auto parts were outsourced overseas these giant factories closed their doors, leaving behind thousands of acres of unusable land which cost both the city and the EPA Superfund millions of dollars to clean up the toxicity, especially from the chemicals leeching into the soil from the paint plants. So bureaucrats decide that to prevent this sort of expense they'll outlaw or make impossibly difficult the production of such chemicals in the future and the result is laws such as water-based paints or outlawing incandescent light bulbs - because we as citizens apparently aren't responsible enough to take care of ourselves. So just remember that next time you think to yourself or utter the words, "they ought to pass a law to ...".

Big business definitely can't take care of things. Our local beef plant had been illegally dumping their waste for decades. When the epa finally got involved they were shut down.
The real reason I don't work in the steel shop I'd been in for over a decade is because they illegally dispose of HORRIBLE waste. They also bypass the air filtration to save money on filters which is poisoning the entire workforce with hexavalent chromium, among other things. When I refused to back down and kept pushing them to stop killing us, they decided to "downsize".
Proper enforcement of the rules we already have and increased corporate accountability are the only real solutions. Making us use inferior products doesn't change much in the grand scheme of things.
Now we have continued polluting coupled with the decreased quality of products. The consumer always loses.

[Dapplecreek]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

...When I refused to back down and kept pushing them to stop killing us, they decided to "downsize"....

Hope I show that character if I get put in that sort of situation.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Dapplecreek

OK, so the wife says when we get a bus (and need to paint it) we ought to do a "C+" job on it. I don't think she realizes that the C+ job may be a lot closer price-wise to the hired $4000 "A" job than the $200 bargain basement version.

Question 1: how would you grade the $200 Scotchbrite / TSP / ImplementPaint+Hardener / FoamRoller job - is that an "F", "D", "C-" or what?

Question 2: on a limited budget and desiring to sell the bus after moving across country, but not wanting to create a time-bomb for the buyer, how would you go about doing the "C+" job she wants?

Note: I *really* want specifics if at all possible, such as:

1. Sand window frames until no longer glossy;
2. Use a Scotchbrite pad and TSP and scrub down the whole area to be painted (use protective gear);
3. Remove trim or mask if that's not practical;
4. Spray with self-etching primer from a spray can if you go through to metal anywhere;
5. Ospho and primer any area which was de-rusted;
6. Buy Tractor Supply implement paint and add hardener;
7. Roll on using foam rollers, in the shade and not towards evening;
8. Roll on a second coat if you can possibly afford it;
9. Remove trim masking while paint is still wet or after it is completely dry.

Note that the above is a noob's guess, not a prescription: do not follow these instructions unless they are enthusiastically recommended below by folks who know what they're doing.

Pressure wash it, scrub off any rust with abrasives, give it a quick sanding anywhere necessary, then roll on some rustoleum or implement paint- whatever is cheaper they're the SAME.

[Dapplecreek]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Pressure wash it, scrub off any rust with abrasives, give it a quick sanding anywhere necessary, then roll on some rustoleum or implement paint- whatever is cheaper they're the SAME.

Thanks! Would you add hardener to the paint?

[and in case anyone noticed that the original post was deleted, I did that to change the order in which it appeared, but EastCoast came back with a reply before I was able to add it back in; the quote above will suffice]

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Dapplecreek

Thanks! Would you add hardener to the paint?

[and in case anyone noticed that the original post was deleted, I did that to change the order in which it appeared, but EastCoast came back with a reply before I was able to add it back in; the quote above will suffice]

Yeah you can, but for the purpose you're using it for you could skip it.

[jasonbailey]

Robin, that is a nice looking Power Wagon! I'm a Dodge man all the way and the Power Wagon is like the Holy Grail. In my book it's the only thing that beats a 1st gen Cummins. Except maybe the Legacy Power Wagon with the 4 cylinder Cummins option.

And someone else stated that UV was the most damaging toaint and you're absolutely right. Paint that is formulated for vehicles have UuV protectants in the clear coat. Commercial grade paints for the most part do not. Although there are additives that you can get as well as separate clear coats you can buy to spray on them. If any of you shop at O'Reilly auto parts, the next time you go to the store pay attention to the red portion of the front wall. Especially if the paint is newer. If you look really close you'll notice that the red has a secondary clear coat on it. And its quite hard. We paint the red "portal" and then apply a clear on top to give it more UV protection.

Also the machines at Lowes or Home Depot, if they're set up to do gallons or 5 gallons, have a prime function that circulates paint firstt through the machine and when switched to paint will then put paint through the hose.

Unfortunately there is a bit of trade off when using commercial paint versus vehicle paint. Your vehicle paint will last much longer. Enamels over time break down and become chalky and eventually will crack and flake off. But you should still get about 5 years or so out of them. Maybe more if your busmis covered when not in use.

As for the primer peeling and not getting good adhesion? Not really sure about that one. After sanding and scuffing clean up is key. You must keep cleanning until that white cloth comes back just as white as it started after wiping it down. And the etching primers are good as well I'm just not sure if you can get it in anything other than a rattle can.

[Robin97396]

Thanks, that's my favorite truck. The paint job was doomed from the beginning because of some teen neighbors living across the alley from me in town at that time. I spent over a week prepping the truck for paint. I took that sucker apart to prep it down to the metal. The primer is still sticking extremely well actually, and the trick is it's also on the underside of everything. Running boards, fenders, frame. It's the top coat of green that's been the peeler. That was basically due to my teen neighbors at that time that seemed to have splashed the truck with something that caused the top coat to start peeling. It was only a couple weeks after I'd finished the paint job and I was still sore from all the sanding. I've had to be satisfied with the fact that I got a really thick coat of rudy brown primer on there that has pretty well eliminated the surface rust that had been there with the original paint job previously.
Would it upset anyone to know I got this for $2k, off the side of old Hwy 99 in Tenino WA? It had belonged to the Dept of the Interior, which is apparently a renamed department these days. My guess is they had a generator mounted on the bed that they took to remote areas, which would also give you the weight to navigate rough ground. I'm the third owner and I think it's got 27,000 painful miles on it.
It always starts. Just slip in a good battery and drag a piece of sandpaper through the points. A little sip of gas down the carburetor doesn't hurt to speed things up. It always starts but it doesn't always stop anymore. Brake problems lately as a result of having them worked on last year.
Just out of curiosity, what year do you think this truck is? That's not fair. They made these trucks this body style until '72, I believe, for export only. The difference is the width of the hood nose. Old trucks have a nose that ends the size of a water mellon while the nose on this one is about 20" wide. It's a '62. Low miles, only driven to church on Sundays. The vacuum wipers don't work anymore even though I've replaced them at considerable expense, thanks to my kids using them as handles to climb the truck when they were small. Can't win them all. After this many years I feel fortunate to still have the truck.
This would be an amazing vehicle with Tango's 4 cylinder in it. Ok, a copy of Tango's diesel.

[skoolie_n00bie]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

I eat what tastes good.. and that to me is not fruit and twigs and nuts and berries and Leaves... sorry just not...

Part-time vegan here. Twigs and nuts and berries and leaves are good for you!

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

This is the degreaser I've been using. Its awesome stuff and CHEAP at Lowes.

I clean my grill with this stuff.
Specially if you grill a lot, keeping the thing de-greased is good for you, as oils/fats tend to release all kinds of nasty toxins when burned.

back to skoolie talkin'....

[Stu & Filo. T]

Originally Posted by skoolie_n00bie

Part-time vegan here. Twigs and nuts and berries and leaves are good for you!



I clean my grill with this stuff.
Specially if you grill a lot, keeping the thing de-greased is good for you, as oils/fats tend to release all kinds of nasty toxins when burned.

back to skoolie talkin'....

I'm a hard core member of PETA, People Eating Tasty Animals.