Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Two quarts of Sunrise red, one quart of naptha. About $25.00 plus tape. Previous owner had rattle can painted it with the same, so I added more.

very nice. how many coats, and sanding regime ?

The car was hideous, but all the same color. I believed it would not take any normal paint, (it would lift), without sanding it and the rattle can primer completely off. I sanded the orange peel off with 400 grit and used red primer where it burned through to the grey primer to hold color. I cut the paint about a third with the naptha, and shot it with one coat. Rustoleum from the can dries slow, only naptha will thin it enough for it to flow and not run. Temp needs to be around 70 degrees and no sun or it will orange peel. I ran a few experiments with sanding and buffing, but the high gloss goes away some. It was tricky to apply, getting it on wet without running. Car craft did a story on this with a roller application and lots of sanding and buffing. my trick was to get it in one shot, I wasn't about to spend a couple of days buffing on a car I intended to sell. It is not a very durable paint for a car, but you can't argue the $25.00 cost for paint.

I painted some trucks, bulkheads and other equipment years ago (90's) with industrial utility enamels. Problem with Rustoleum is it ALWAYS fades. Had better luck with the Tru-Value / Tru-Test enamel not fading.

I'm impressed. Nice job of photographing too.

It's not something you would do to a keeper. For the prep work involved, good paint would have been easier, but for a beater to sell, it saved me about $200 and increased the profit from the sale by at least $500. People lined up in the driveway at an advertised price of $1500. Before paint I would have been lucky to get half that. When I started sanding on the trunk, I found holes where someone had mounted a spoiler.

I was planning to put this truck out of its misery, but my boys (7 and 10) had another idea.