Bus Paint

[bottomacher]

Anyone who has a paint booth large enough is not going to do it cheap. The paint can easily cost a couple of thousand, and there's lots of labor.

[Nineforever]

I ended up painting myself , bought premixed automotive paint ( White ) and primer threw Napa , bought spray gun and pressure regulator and water filter , wire disks for electric drill from Canadian Tire  for stripping old paint off ( hired some students after school ) also some sanding papper and sanding bar .
Hugn plastic on the walls in my garage .... used ventiator mask and sprayed myself ..... need to bleed water seperator several times . Paint turned out great there was a couple of runs , cause i didnt bleed of water when i needed to . After finishing primer coat  i cranked up the heat in the garage left over night then gave it a light sanding before i put paint .
Saved thousands and thousands i think my total  cost was about 1200.00
There is a couple of spots all redo mask off and repaint this summer , but no big deal .

[Dave5Cs]

So wheres the pictures we like pictures?!......

[Nineforever]

I would but cant figure out how to attach photos  , i could send to other members email maybe they could post for me

[Dreamscape]

If you look in the Board Help section, there are a lot of ideas about posting photos. Here is one that I have.

http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=13997.0

[Bob & Tracey]

I almost hate to ask... Has anybody tried latex? I know it is being used on boats and airplanes.

[digesterman]

Personally I would never use a water based paint but here is an interesting article some might find informative.

http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=maintenance&subject=paint&story=Paint101&referer=advice

[HB of CJ]

Years ago, (here we go again) Douglas Aircraft Corporation had a surplus sales yard geared to the aircraft assembly industry.  Long Beach CA on the North side of the airport.  One could buy surplus very very expensive airplane paint very very cheap.  We did and hand sprayed painted a very nice, (at the time) 1963 Ford One Ton flatbed duelly.

High school auto shop 2 painting project.

Are there any industrial surplus outlets in the Atlanta area?  Big area, might be.  Maybe you can find enough surplus high end paint to do your bus.  Excellent answers already given.  You would not believe the regulations now required to have that legal large bus or truck size paint booth.  The permits are extremely expensive.  HB of CJ (old coot)

Also....have you considered turning an expense into a fun project and try to hand brush paint your Bus Conversion?  Certainly makes things less expensive.....and perhaps more fun also.

[bottomacher]

Our friends at the EPA have made sure that NO ONE has a conforming spray facility that is big enough to paint a bus at a budget price. As for doing the work yourself, most shops would not mind if you strip off the old paint, provided that the stripper residue is cleaned off properly (It's going to get into places that may allow it to bleed into the paint later). Don't prime it without their consent. However, if you're going to go that far, by all means paint it yourself. Do your chemistry homework, learn about retarders and levelers and additives for whatever and avoid the fancy stuff. I would personally use a fleet acrylic enamel, tape it off, and paint in sections. It won't look like Picasso (actually, it might!) but it will look a lot better than a spotted, ugly 15 ton  lawn ornament. And you can do all your driving at night. This hobby is all about doing it your way, and you can't do it if you don't try. It's also good to know your own embarrassment threshold. Good luck.

[Oonrahnjay]

Our friends at the EPA have made sure that NO ONE has a conforming spray facility that is big enough to paint a bus at a budget price. As for doing the work yourself, most shops would not mind if you strip off the old paint, provided that the stripper residue is cleaned off properly (It's going to get into places that may allow it to bleed into the paint later). Don't prime it without their consent. However, if you're going to go that far, by all means paint it yourself. Do your chemistry homework, learn about retarders and levelers and additives for whatever and avoid the fancy stuff. I would personally use a fleet acrylic enamel, tape it off, and paint in sections. It won't look like Picasso (actually, it might!) but it will look a lot better than a spotted, ugly 15 ton  lawn ornament. And you can do all your driving at night. This hobby is all about doing it your way, and you can't do it if you don't try. It's also good to know your own embarrassment threshold. Good luck.

   "spotted, ugly 15 ton  lawn ornament" - I love it!   Remember the 60/100 rule -- "If it looks OK when you're driving past someone at 60 MPH and you're 100 feet from them, you're OK!"

[Debo]

I'm probably in the minority, but I did mine myself. I've painted a few sailboats in my life, and I just removed the trim and prepped the way one preps for that kind of job. I did it using the "roll and tip" method with Interlux Brightside boat paint. (My bus doesn't know it's not a boat.) It's not difficult to get excellent results rolling and tipping, and mine looks like it was sprayed on. It just takes patience, and knowing that 95% of a quality paint job is in the prep work. If you're not a painter, there's tons of free, useful information on the Interlux website. Of course it's a single-color job, but I don't have ten grand lying around for a paint job. I probably have a couple of hundred bucks in it in materials.

[Ace]

Ten grand is cheap! They just yesterday quoted me 37k$ for a paint job, and it didn't matter if it was one single color or multiple! Only way it goes up if you add graphics. Ten week turn around! Uh I don't think so!
Heck my bus ain't worth much more than that ands I told him so.



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[luvrbus]

I got 3 quotes to redo just the clear coat they were 11k up to 15k

[Oonrahnjay]

I got 3 quotes to redo just the clear coat they were 11k up to 15k

      A bucket of latex house paint and a mop is starting to look better all the time!

[Jim Eh.]

Just as in welding, you don't have to be a good painter .... just a good sander!