Spray Can Painting My Own Truck In Hammered Copper,off Topic

I can't sleep, I'd go out side and continue painting but the dew and moisture in the air will not mix well with paint. First thing in the morning I need to go to my brothers shop and have some new tires which I ordered installed.

It will be strange driving around in a two toned partially painted truck. :-)

I spray painted a small pick up and a station wagon. It uses a lot of paint! Eventually I had the truck done again professionally. With the station wagon I got pulled over a lot because they could tell it was repainted and cops wanted to check me out. Good luck with it its sounds like it will look cool when done. I just wonder how much paint it will take doing it that way.

I did this years ago on a few of my cars. Hammerite was the paint and it always worked well.
I would have thought you had a spraygun, Mario?

~Richard

Hey Bradford it's kinda consoling knowing I'm not the only one who this has occurred to. Lol! I haven't ventured outside yet to look at it.

I would not have attempted this with regular spray can paint. These specialty paints however behave different than regular paints, it's actually pretty amazing how the hammered look develops. I will not have have to wet sand or buff out this paint like a traditional paint it's very forgiving and hides a lot of the imperfections and this truck has a lot of that.

My brother does professional auto painting in his shop and I can't wait to show him how this is turning out.

I am getting great coverage with this paint, 5 spray cans did an entire rear side panel and the hood of a full size pick up truck with multiple coats more than 3.

I might post a picture once the project is completed but looking at the weather it might not be for a few days. :-)

Richard, I do have a commercial spray gun but then I could not say I spray can painted my truck. I have a bit more control with the low pressure cans and I purchased one of those spray can attachments and get good directional control with the can in any position :-)

Hopefully you are wearing a mask.

I thought you did this a couple of years ago? Or did that not just not pan out at the time?

I did not use a mask Ed, I will when I do the rest though.

Chuck that's how long I was thinking about it but couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on it.

Best to use a respirator with the correct replaceable cartridges for the type of paint you are spraying.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=paint+respirator&crid=1WXAXIU7RST95&sprefix=paint+resp%2Caps%2C170&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_10

It was windy today so I didn't really need to wear a mask outside as I stood up wind while spraying. I took off the tailgate and painted that along with painting the other rear side panel.

This is all about expectations and I didn't really have great expectations about it but I did not want to invest min. $1,500 to $2,000 for an average paint job. I just spent $500 on new tires and that's because my brother hooked me up.

I think it's looking really cool and it's still a wip. Considering that I did minimum prep for this job and that it's only cost me $97 so far and I'm 1/2 done and I sill have 6 cans of paint left it was the best choice if not the only choice I had. Plus I get to drive my truck and it's not sitting in some shop waiting to be worked on.:-)

I hope you show us pictures...

No pictures David but here is a short little video I just put together.

Looking great, Mario!

Wow!

WOW!! That is looking really good Mario! As soon as I started reading your post, I was hoping for some images of what you have done so far. I love the video, that is cool! Is it OK if I share it on one of my twitter accounts? Maybe one of my car guy follows will enjoy it.

Looking forward to seeing progress!

Thanks for sharing. :)

Love the color Mario, it is looking great!

Wow thank you all, glad you like it. In full disclosure I must confess the photos do hide a lot of the imperfections.

Angie you certainly can share that video any way you like. :-)

I wasn't going for a showroom look of a new car I wanted something where you do actually see all the imperfections of the old paint and the hammered texture hides a lot but it lets enough of the old come through to give it that rustic character of old patina metal.

I'm looking around now for some interesting decals to apply to the sides maybe in black with some contrasting accent color as well, or something wild in a 3d design, so many possibilities or I might paint something myself. I don't really know what the end result will be.

When I was in the service myself and a friend of mine used to buy old cars and fix them up and resell them.

Most of them were ugly with very bad paint and other cosmetic problems. Then the base passed and unsightly vehicle ordinance. We had for or five older cars sitting around the base waiting to have mechanical work done on them.

One night three of them got fix-it tickets and we had seven days to get them off the base or get them cleaned up. We didn't have anywhere off base to store them so we painted one with over 20 cans of spray paint but that took to long and cost us too much money.

The other two we painted with a broom. We masked off windows and the chrome of course and then bought three or four, five-gallon buckets of remnant house paint from a paint store that was only partially full. We mixed them in one bucket and used a broom to paint the two cars. We took them base the police and they laughed their butts off but they signed us off on the fix-it tickets. And, no we did not use water base paint, we were smarter than that. lol

After we got them up and running and mechanically sound we repainted them in the base hobby shop and we sold them all.

Hey Floyd, you gotta do what you gotta do and sometimes it's only with what's on hand but if it works then it's problem solved in my book. Lol!

Cool I will tomorrow, Time got away from me tonight and its after 2am now. But when I watched it at the source it was larger and I was able to pause it, I was able to see the imperfections. I still like it!

Honestly though, when you described the paint I kind of had more of like a multi-tone coverage, kinda like shadow and light offering different tones and even though it doesn't look anyway like I imaged it as I read the thread, I did great enjoy the look you have coming together, and it is going to look so much better once it's all done. The way it was, was screaming for paint. ;)

I also watched a few more of your other videos and I greatly enjoyed looking over your twisted wire people and them doing their activity. Those are awesome. I especially like the man with his dog and the one with the 2 adults in the background as the child seems to be building or just touching the huge pillar. Very cool Mario!

It looks great! My husband and I used to paint cars for a living. Will you be putting a clear coat on? You will probably want to use a spray gun for that, overlapping the coats to avoid streaks/lines.

Mario,

Sharp job.

Reminds me of 1980s 90s colors.

Dave Bridburg
https://Bridburg.com

Yeah! I like it!

Thank you Angie, I've had this truck now for so many years that I've become very attached to it. It is of course a work truck after all but like you say it was screaming for paint. Thanks for checking out my other videos too! :-)

Liesl coming from a pro like you I must tell you how good it makes me feel to hear that! That must not have been an easy business by any means, my brother and his wife also had a huge auto body and paint shop, all I can say is that darn over spray! Lol.

I'm not sure how I will finish it off, I would hate to have to mask it all up yet again, since I am doing it in sections I have masked and re-masked. I have a sprayer but I don't really want to run clear through it. I might try it with the same rustoleum clear cans but I'm really undecided as of yet. I have been looking into this product called F-11 which is just a wipe on and it's supposed to really be a great top coat but I can't get past the hype yet either.

Thank you David and Mike me!

David, yeah it does remind me of the 80's in a way, like when I had to replace the clutch in my 1980 Fiat x-19 in my back yard because money was tight. Lol!

That actually looks pretty cool, Mario! I'm a good wall painter but I would be afraid to attempt something like that.

Thank you Mary, trust me I had my own reservations about squeezing that paint can trigger, it was a leap of faith. Still I say it's probably a bit to rustic for most tastes but I like the hammered effect which is really hard to see unless you get up close and in person to the paint. It feels really nice to run my hand over it as you feel the indentations on the surface.

I made a real hand hammered copper one piece counter top and it feels just like it. Actually the copper color is a very hard color for paints to really matchtaken and look realistic, this product really does a fantastic job in that respect.

If I would have gone through the labor intensive task of really prepping the surface by sanding,applying bond and primer and sanding again it's very possible to get a flawless like paint job if that's the outcome you want. I settled for rustic because my truck is older and a work truck that gets exposed to heavy duty use sometimes under extreme conditions.

I had looked into truck wraps before deciding to paint but for two reasons I decided against it. First vehicles that will be wrapped in graphic 3m film have to have a good painted surface to get good results and my truck was not a candidate for sure not to mention wraps can cost $2000 to $6000 so for that reason out of the question.

That looks really good, Mario.

Thanks Lisa, best thing about it is the cost $97, I might need a few more spray cans and another roll of frog tape. Lol!

After about two days of living with the new partial paint job and deciding I like it lot more than I thought I would I decided to put in a little more effort into making it look even better. So today I wet sanded the entire truck including the panels I already painted.

The painted panels I hit lightly with 1000 grit and the unpainted I went with 400 and then 1000 grit mainly trying to feather the peeling clear coat on the truck and sanding down some primer I gave a long time ago when this started happening.

The result is I have a much cleaner smoother surface to paint over, I might give a light coat of paint over the sanded painted panels after testing a small area I already did and wet sanded.

I do plan on compounding the entire truck after the paint cures and hardens more in about a week. After that I will give it a gloss clear coat if I like how it looks.

I just finished with the painting. I still have a little to do under my rear window but I'm 99% done with the painting and my thumb is sore from the trigger on the spray can, it took 17 cans of paint and I still came in under $200.

I made a really short video from the photos I was able to take but it was dark already.

I am very pleased with the outcome.

Mario, I can't see why the truck needed painting in the first place....lol.

I just painted my new bike flat iron black with one can. But I have to admit, your paint job looks a lot better. Good job.

Hey Bill! Well the clear coat was almost all gone over half the truck and the paint was wearing down to the primer and the primer was gone as well so it started rusting.

It's my business truck so I really needed to be more presentable to my customers, not to mention Alina is now working and riding with me and I wanted it to look nice for her as well. Lol!

Why is it when your truck is clean and nicely painted that it runs better? :-)

Well Mario, I think customers should give you business just because of your creativity with your truck...haha.

Thank you Bill, they should right? hahaha, but I have found that most customers want FAST+AFFORDABLE+RELIABLE and that's what I market to them even though creativity goes a long way in the home repair business they mostly focus on FAST and AFFORDABLE the reliable gets me hired as well especially for repeat business.

The painted truck won't hurt though, first impressions go a long way, I wouldn't show up to a customers house in sandals and a tank top and I won't show up any more in a truck with peeling clear coat.

This paint I used is a one stage paint and it's oil based unlike the new water base paints that are usually two stage. I don't have to clear coat this as it's supposed to be very durable, so much so that you can paint anything and even right over rust.

I'm now trying to decide on some graphics for the truck. I'm leaning towards a black and white 3D horse scene for my rear window, you know the kind that are transparent that take up the entire window.

The sides I want to do in a black 3D barbed wires running the length of the truck.

I don't like to advertise my business name or phone number on my truck, so this theme for my area fits in very well I think.

These graphics I can install myself and they are also very affordable.

Today I completed all the painting on the truck. I finally decided on the graphics and ordered them. Here a a short video showing my selections.

The rear window I'm doing in 3m perforated vinyl in the black and white horses, this is a see through graphic that is applied to the exterior over the glass. Then I will pinstripe the truck on both sides and the tail gate in the barbed wire in black which is 1.5" in height.

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Today I decide to compound and polish the paint, that was a big mistake as it almost ruined the paint job. It developed a white cloud over the paint that I could not buff out either with the compound or the polish.

I had to wipe down the entire truck with gasoline and then wash it again for the second time and dry it with a micro fiber. It seems to be ok now but I won't really know for sure until I see it tomorrow. Worst case is that I might have to wet sand the hood and the roof with 1000 grit and possibly spray another coat of paint in those areas.

The thing is that this paint I used is a specialty paint and it does not seem to behave like today's car paints which are mostly water based and two stage paints. The good thing is that since it's not clear coated I can touch it up and this paint blends very well.

Tomorrow I take back the rotary polisher for a refund and I will order some f-11 top coat and apply it once the paint cures and I'm done messing with it. This is like tweaking an artwork and almost messing it up big time.

Looks great, Mario. I was wondering though, you probably have to get a new registration when repainting a vehicle a different color? Can you make the change on renewal by any chance?

Thank you Ken, dmv is going to have to wait until next year as I just renewed my tag in Feb., what identifies a vehicle is really just the vin. # that hasn't changed. :-)

That’s good Mario. How are you going to pinstripe it?

Vinyl or brush?

Ken, I just went through a little nightmare with this since I followed a pro's advice to compound the paint and then polish it, at a cost of $153 for all tools and supplies needed, I awoke to a clouded whitish paint finish. I took everything back to the store I purchased from and got a full refund.

Then I went to auto zone and picked up a turtle wax hand compound and also a 2 hand polish but before I ventured into this cure I decided to follow a tip from a forum talking exactly about the problem I encountered with the Maguires ultra compound and it suggested to apply a little vegetable oil to remove the haze.

Well that worked out great and now I'm going back to return the turtle wax products for my $19.00 refund and going to sip some pinacoladas at Maragrita Breeze an the waters edge.

Oh, ordered some 3d barbed wire graphic pin stripes to go around the truck.

Glad to hear you recovered the paint job, it’s looking good.

Today my rear window perforated graphics arrived and I installed it. I really like this as the image is invisible from the inside and I can see perfectly out the window. Now I'm waiting for my barbed wire graphics to arrive.

Looks great!

Thank you Rose, yesterday we went to Ocala and it being horse country we cruised some of the equestrian areas so I'm very happy to have these horses on my truck as well.

While in the area we dinned at a Brazilian churrascaria which had amazing Brazilian decor and I saw these amazing cow portrait paintings and I'm thinking of maybe getting some cow heads done in black and white to put on my side windows The restaurant was amazing to, the food out of this world.

It's looking great Mario.

Thank you Lisa, I didn't want to do a commercial vehicle look as I don't think I ever had a customer call me because they saw my phone number displayed on my truck. On the other hand if my customers remember my truck and associate it with the service I provide it may actually be more effective than traditional advertising.

The paint job was inexpensive so I treated myself to a new tool box and a new gasoline power washer.:-)