The materials:
I am using a foam roll on purchased from bunnings for around 20 dollars including 10 spare rollers. The idea with this paint is to roll it on the follow quickly with a brush to burst the bubbles, I purchased a good quality brush from bunnings as well (cost around 14 dollars), obviously not the most expensive but did not want to swearing at inanimate objects because a hair has come off and been trapped in my new paint job. I also bought a tin of enamel thinners. The paint is made by a company named International and the product name is “Toplac”.
The application:
I firstly took to sanding all panels down with some 240 grit paper, not back to bare metal however but merely just to get a good surface for the paint to grip onto. The one (and only) good thing that can be said for enamel is that it can paint over anything, if you can’t tell I’m not a fan of enamel and never have been. Always prone to runs and could never get an ideal finish from it so sided with acrylic paints over the years. Once the paint has been smoothed over with the orbital sander I cleaned the surface with the air compressor and then a tack rag, finally I wiped the surface over with some GP thinners and a clean rag. Initially I had no idea what the correct technique would be to apply it but I found the best results to be from a half loaded foam roller with only light rolling to avoid runs which will come thick and fast if you press on the roller. The application seems to benefit from speed, that is the quicker it goes on and the quicker the brush runs behind it the smoother the final result will be. The guide given on the website calls for painting in the shade and drying in the shade also, a contradiction to most painting I have done but after seeing just how quickly this paint dries I can easily see why this is advised. If you leave this paint for 1 minute without completing your touch ups with the brush it will dry and the runs and strokes will dry with it which will require sanding after the paint dries. Trying to fix your mistake at this stage when it’s dry will only make things worse so I advise just leaving it and coming back the next day, anything can be sanded out and good news that it seems very sandable and easy to get those stroke marks out and orange peel out too.
Some points to consider if using this paint:
- Speed is key: Apply as quickly as possible and smooth with a brush as quickly as possible, the longer you leave the paint to settle the better the result.
- Paint in the shade: I tried to paint a panel in the sun, once, and the paint dried so fast I had a significant amount of rubbing back required to get it looking pretty again (~25-30degree day).
- Don’t apply too light: Too light leaves streak marks far more defined than a semi loaded brush. Obviously you don’t want to load to brush to saturation but a semi loaded brush with light strokes seems to dollop the paint on leaving minimal stroke marks.
- It’s not a spray job: I have to concede this is not a spray job so don’t expect a spray job result, maybe my technique needs fine tuning but it it not anywhere near the quality of the job sprayed on but keep in mind this is half the price and probably 30% reduced labour time.
- Sand between coats: Put one coat down the sand with ~1500 grit paper to get rid of the orange peel and imperfections, don’t leave it till final coat as it just shows through and you will have a good coat of paint to get through to get to the imperfections.
Mmmmmmmm Lexus V8.......... Hehehe
