Maybe a dumb question, but why cant I use a good oil base paint like something home depot has to paint my work van. I dont need a finish that will last 20 years.

 

You can. It won't look very good, but any paint that will stick to an auto will change it's color.

Somewhere I saw a thread that involved using Rustoleum to paint a car using a paint roller. I proabably wouldn't go for the paint roller, but the car looked good finished. I will probably come up if you search for the web for it.

before you go for house paint or something, check out your local farm supply store and look at thier implement paint. Look for a paint that comes with a seperate hardener. It will never look as good as quality paint, but it will proabably last longer than your basic oil paint. It cost's about $25.00 a gallon and works great on the stock cars I have painted. Of course, they were never really intended to look good for very long.

It works great on tractors as well, but then that's kind of what it's meant for.

I often use implement paint (There is a Rust Kill brand that is sold near me) to spray things I won't be able to get to for a while. It has to be stripped off later in order to repair any damage, but it keeps the panels from rusting any further. At least for the short term. It even seems to be somewhat shiny if the panel is striaght. I'm thinking of painting my work truck with it, just to see how long it will last. You will be limited to whatever color they have available. It seems like my farm store only carries about ten colors. I doubt that this paint be tinted but I might be wrong about that.

 

Cheap paint jobs seem to be a popular thing, well guess they were always done. Not for me, about the cheapest I will go is a single stage enamel with hardener or urethane which is made for auto refinishing and will have good resistance to chemicals and should last a good while if taken care of and keep out of the sun all of the time. Without a clearcoat, you don't have the uv protection and some colors are known to be prone to fading. These paints ain't really all that expensive in certain colors. But cheap paint jobs as well as flat black, suede seem to be popular. You can just look at the size of the threads and how often it comes up. There is a mile long thread on hotrodders.com about blitz black and the one that fix is talking about is on moparts.com about using tremclad which is like rustoleum over here. I know the work I have to normally put in to get a nice looking paint job, and like glossy paint to show off a nice body, but to each there own. The mechanics back in my technical school days seemed to like the brush painted house latex black paint job on their cars. If the paint is an unactivated one, it really isn't made to stand up long in the environment cars go through. gasoline, sun, salt trucks, bird poop, and a million other things it can have thrown at it any day of the week. automotive grade paints also generally use better pigments too.

 

Thanks for the advice. I like to do all of my projects myself and try to learn as much as I can before I take on a new one. I would rather paint my car myself and have it look like a pro did it than pay a pro for a really pro job most of the time, Thats all part of this "hobby" to me.

 

Do i assume correctly when isay this is a van that is a workvan/a van you dont care too much of the apperance. The only reason i ask is cause ive done some pretty redneck paint jobs, which is actually fairly common come to thinhk of it. Actually where i see it the most is on ricers (ever see a flat black ricer). Anyway i would do a duplicolor spray can job anyday over a oil based paint. Ive seen a old station wagon that was white oil based paint, it would hurt my eyes to look at it. Furthermore i have some pics of my truck that one color flat black that i did. Its not fancy but it looks good for a work truck and sometimes play truck.

 

fORD USED ENAMEL FOR MANY YEARS.

 

I use rustoleum oil based enamel for everything. I should buy stock in them and get some of my money back If you take your time with the prep, it can look decent. Of course, it will never be the same as a real automotive finish.

 

If you take your time and prep the surface correctly, it wont matter what paint you use (If you dont care about appearance or longevity) I know someone that roller applied enamel 10 years ago on his truck and its still that way, but it has since faded worse than automotive paint will. If you know how to spray, get cheap automotive enamel and spray it yourself. A little more ex*****ve than getting paint at HD or Lowes, but it will last longer and look better.