How many cans?

[Jeremy]

I've got a book about about automotive refinishing which (I think) was a text book for an academic course on the subject - least ways there's an awful lot of chemistry and technical data in it, and it's definitely not aimed at the hobbyist. Naturally it's all about spray painting all the way through, except for the last section which is about ways of getting the 'ultimate finish' in very specialist applications - in fact all the examples it gives shows the Queen's horse-drawn carriages being painted (true 'coach-building'). Anyway, as you've probably guessed, those 'ultimate finishes' are all achieved by hand with brushes, and a lot of skill.

On the subject of Rolls Royce paint finishes - there are videos on Youtube showing the current Rolls Royce paint plant where the completed aluminium bodyshells go down an automated line which dips them (and rotates them upside-down) in something like six or eight vast baths of liquid, one after another. Starting with etching acid, various corrosion-resistant coatings, and finally the first couple of coats of primer. The line is half a mile long or something ridiculous. Sadly though it's in Germany - the body-in-whites are transported to Britain after that stage. (Body-in-white is a term my engineer Dad frequently used incidentally).

Jeremy

[HB of CJ]

However...and I love a good plan, if somehow you come across the bunch of cases of spray paint priced right, (like for $free$) then how about considering doing the proper prepp, then spraying a primer thick over a small area....then feathering it in thin with a good high quality finish paint brush?  We have done this with excellent results.  But an entire Bus Conversion?  Dunno that fur sures.  HB of CJ (old coot)

[Charles in SC]

I painted the inside of mine with spray cans about 14 years ago and it still looks as good as it did the day I did it. I cannot remember how many cans I used but it went a lot faster than I thought it would.

[Oonrahnjay]

it still looks as good as it did the day I did it.

    You know that that can be taken in several different ways, right???   

[TomC]

Most boats are still painted with brush. Course it is usually with two painting side by side to achieve two coats immediately and be able to brush any sags or drips. Marine paint is probably the best (translated expensive) paint made. Good Luck, TomC

[lornaschinske]

I painted our skoolie with a foam roller and oil based ACE Ruststop (custom tint that has faded several shades), Rustoleum Hammered Copper (it dulls like a penny) and Rustoleum Hammered Black in 100F heat with stiff winds. Tip: don't paint anything in high temps when it is windy.

I will be repainting the body in a couple of years (after we leave this state and get a piece of land) with Behr Marquee Latex Paint (Satin). This fall, when temps cool a bit more, I will sand, oil prime (oil paint needs oil primer) and repaint the rub rails, etc that were painted with Rustoleum. It will be repainted with Marquee Latex house paint (satin sheen) I don't think the campground we live in would allow me to do more than that. My paint colours will be somewhat similar, just a little bit deeper in tone.

Before I started painting the bus, I read The $50 Paint Job and the Rolled On forums. Prep is everything. The websites I read advocated hand sanding between coats. I was not going to hand sand a 40 ft bus. So I just deglossed and rolled on two coats. The lousy drip that was in the previous sprayed on paint showed thru the rolled on paint. The paint I used was a semigloss. The resulting finish was like a fairly smooth textured egg. It looked very good until you got less than two feet away. NM is hard on paint. Any paint. The bus gets sand blasted pretty much every day. The sun has faded the ACE paint quite a bit over the 4 years it's been painted. I realized this when I had to do a little touch up (tree branch fell out of the tree we are parked under) and had to match the colour. When I compared to a can of the original paint, the difference was very surprising. I expected a little fading, just not that much.

Hey, it's a skoolie. We have done things to the skoolie conversion that we would not have done with the Eagle 05.  But I had been looking at rolling on the small amount of paint needed when we still had the Eagle. I would roll on paint rather than using spray cans. I have also used a hand held Wagner paint sprayer to paint our old Apache popup with Rustoleum Hunter Green. It had to be thinned down a lot. It stuck good, lasted for years but the finish was dull and more far more textured than the foam roller. Could of had something to do with the colour I chose. But I wanted to keep the pop up green, just not Granny Smith apple green, since the title said "Color: Green". All things considered, I prefer the foam roller paint job over the Wagner sprayed paint job. In both the looks and the ease of application, the foam roller is the best of the two. Plus touch up is easier and pretty much undetectable.

[sdc53]

I recently experimented with roll and tip vs spraying on two different areas on my roof where nobody would see. I used PPG "omni" epoxy primer and single stage topcoat. I compared results rolling primer, spraying vs rolling topcoat. I was comparing results using 4" Home Depot "best" foam rollers (other lowes rollers gave me trouble) and a cheap harbor freight paint gun.
Here is the before shot of the problem area, just nasty:

One of these from HF is your friend for removing goo and roofing caulk instead of scraping:

This is after rolling on the single stage primer, and maybe a bit of sanding:

Now at this point I gotta say, I love this primer in white! This stuff is tough as nails and really easy to apply and work with. It is somewhat watery going on, more watery than the topcoat. I wish it would survive on its eon, but it doesn't have the UV resistance of a proper topcoat, so on to that next.
I tried rolling the topcoat. Now this didn't go well, I was having problems with bubbling. Now there isn't a rolling additive available for the PPG stuff, it is a car paint, and if I were to use industrial paint additives are available. However, it's what I had, so I pressed on.
The topcoat paint is more sticky and thicker than the primer. I tried the "tip" technique, which is where you go over where you've rolled with a very light brush stroke with a chip brush, but it was grabby and uncooperative so I reverted to spraying.
This is the final (mostly) sprayed finish:


I would have no hesitation rolling the primer again. I think to roll topcoat I'm going to need something formulated differently, though. Spraying needs a properly adjusted gun, which I had trouble with, and lots of taping off.  Rolling is way easier in comparison, but bubbles are a problem, but far less masking off required, maybe only a strip of tape to protect from accidents.

[Oonrahnjay]

      Good enough for a roof.   

[Cosmo]

I started out just having fun, but after reading all the posts there was some good information posted. I will be needing to paint the ol girl at some time, so it was very helpful. Rolling paint seems like the way to go up top. I was told to use tractor enamel from Attwoods. Going to keep it high gloss white. Currently the bus was painted using Imron one tough paint. But we can no longer get it, I heard it has glass in it(?). So sanding of any type I will have too wear a mask. Like I said, need to look into it. Thanks for all the information.

[Iceni John]

Several of us have rolled paint on our unflashy buses.   Would you roll paint onto a high-dollar Prevost  -  no, of course not.   But for us folks with pauper conversions, rolling makes sense and works well provided you use the right paint.   Any paint intended to be sprayed probably won't roll or brush on well, if at all.   Rustoleum, and all its variants and equivalents, rolls on well and is durable.   I completely repainted my roof, taking off all the old paint down to bare metal, and I:
  A) hand-rubbed with 80-grit (and used wire wheels on the 1600-plus rivets!),
  B) cleaned with an acetone-based degreaser,
  C) brushed on Mar-Hyde 5113 self-etching pre-treatment primer (really it should have been sprayed, but brushing it seemed to be OK.   It's VERY volatile, so it's best to paint it on a cold day),
  D) recaulked every seam with Loctite S40 polyurethane caulk,
  E) rolled on Rustoleum Stops-Rust 7780 clean metal primer,
  F) rolled on two coats of Rustoleum Professional 242256 gloss white enamel with Hy-Tech ThermaCells ceramic insulation additive mixed in to it,
  G) rolled on two more coats of the same but without the additive (the additive makes the paint rougher, so these two plain coats helped smooth the surface to stop dirt sticking to it so much).
I used 4" short-nap rollers from Home Despot (sorry, Lorna!), whatever their best available quality level is.   This winter I'll be rolling the sides, but over the existing paint that's still adhering well there  -  again I'll use use Rustoleum gloss enamel, probably Almond color because it has almost as good solar reflectivity as plain white.   Using stock colors will make any touch-up easy in the future.

John

[bevans6]

I have to say if I were to repaint my bus I would spray it with automotive paint, probably base coat clear coat.    On my bus there really isn't that much paint - just a 2 foot high by 30 foot long mid panel below the windows.  Taping and masking the windows for their black trim would be about six times as much work.  Roof would get a roller job, though.  But I have a "booth" to paint it in, and all the compressors and guns and such.

Brian

[mung]

Since I am going to go back to white and blue, I plan to roll the white (top and stripe) then spray the blue stripes with auto paint. 

Vern

[luvrbus]

You can still buy Imron paint I watched the guys at Volvo in Phoenix painting a Prevost with it

[Iceni John]

You can still buy Imron paint I watched the guys at Volvo in Phoenix painting a Prevost with it

Imron contains cyanines (and a whole load of other nasties), so you MUST wear a positive-pressure breathing apparatus when using it.   A dust mask ain't enough!

John

[Jeremy]

Since I am going to go back to white and blue, I plan to roll the white (top and stripe) then spray the blue stripes with auto paint. 

Vern

Do be sure that the two different types of paint you use will work together - it's would be a disaster to have a reaction between them after you'd sprayed the blue stripes

Regarding the availability of Imron etc - in Europe such paints were banned a few years ago for automotive use (everything has to be water-based now), but they're still available for commercial & industrial applications only. Your regular supplier will only offer you the limp-wristed car stuff unless you specifically make clear that you aren't actually painting a car. Maybe similar laws are filtering into the States now too.

Jeremy