Painting exterior with a roller - how sacrilegious

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AuroraGirl

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If I find another hood or bed that isnt as rotted out as mine.. id like to paint it to be similar, yes i know it wont hold up long at all but neither has my paint. it was professionally redone in the 90s but my grandfather never clear coated it. But if I get a bright yellow bed and a red hood,its gonna clash bad. I would just find a similar can in white and brown and use a roller like a maniac.

Is this something anyones done?i know it will be evident it was rolled, but i figured it would look more uniform than brushing(OH GOD)
 

79dentside

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I’ve done it... but it’s not too pretty. I thinned some rustoleum paint down and rolled it on with a foam roller... I couldn’t stand yellow and I didn’t want to spray any paint so I had at her...
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Not pretty, but looks okay from a distance. There are some tutorials on YouTube, I just threw it on to get an immediate color change. I didn’t care so much about quality.
 
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80BrownK10

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Lots of people do it. That's where the original "$50 Paint Job" came from. It was Rust-Oleum thinned out with mineral spirits and applied with a foam roller. It lays flat and looks good if you did decent prep work and enough coats.
 

79dentside

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I’ve seen those videos too, a person could definitely get some decent results. I half did mine... I mean... look at the truck lol. I plan to put cab corners, doors, and patch metal behind the wheels, so this is just temporary before it looks bad again... then hopefully I put a uniform paint job on.
 

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I'll try to get more info from my brother who owns a marina but he has done it. He also rolls boat hulls and they look like glass. I think he uses foam rollers and changes the ratio of hardener and reducer. If you look up how to roll boat hulls to a high gloss I think you'll be on the right path.
 

AuroraGirl

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Lots of people do it. That's where the original "$50 Paint Job" came from. It was Rust-Oleum thinned out with mineral spirits and applied with a foam roller. It lays flat and looks good if you did decent prep work and enough coats.
Define "prep" I was thinking of going ham with two colors divided by tape and plastic. Or is that not a valid \option? I just want it to appear nicer. Or at least match.
 

77 K20

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I had rattle canned the truck not long after I first got it. Paint didn't last real long even with prepwork. So the next time I used monstaliner bed coating. They have something like 50 different colors and can ask for free color samples first to see which one you like. It is applied with a roller. I did my truck 6 years ago and it has held up great to thousands of miles of dirt roads with no mudflaps and often go down overgrown roads that typically would scratch the sides to hell. The bedliner holds up nicely.
Someone else here used the same stuff but in a brown color.

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80BrownK10

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Define "prep" I was thinking of going ham with two colors divided by tape and plastic. Or is that not a valid \option? I just want it to appear nicer. Or at least match.
Sanding the old surface to give the paint something to bite too. Take care of surface rust by making sure to sand it down and any deeper rust sand it down...the right way is to cut it out but if you get rid of loose stuff and neutralize the rust with a rust converter then prime it and fill what you want with Bondo and prime that then paint it, it will adhere much better and you will buy your self anywhere from several years to a decade depending on your environment and how much exposure the truck gets.

We're talking a roller paint job so this obviously is not what you would want to do if you were doing a proper paint job that you want to last decades.

Or you can just knock the major scale off of it, rough up it a bit and then go to town with the roller since it's cheap and easy to touch up.
 

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I had rattle canned the truck not long after I first got it. Paint didn't last real long even with prepwork. So the next time I used monstaliner bed coating. They have something like 50 different colors and can ask for free color samples first to see which one you like. It is applied with a roller. I did my truck 6 years ago and it has held up great to thousands of miles of dirt roads with no mudflaps and often go down overgrown roads that typically would scratch the sides to hell. The bedliner holds up nicely.
Someone else here used the same stuff but in a brown color.

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I've thought about this for my 83 k5. Either the tan or brown monstaliner.
How many quarts did it take? Did you do the jams or just the exterior?
 

77 K20

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I tried to find my receipt- but can't find it. I think I used a little over a gallon. Didn't do the inside of the bed and didn't do the door jambs. The truck was already painted a similar color so it doesn't stand out when I open the door.
 

AuroraGirl

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Sanding the old surface to give the paint something to bite too. Take care of surface rust by making sure to sand it down and any deeper rust sand it down...the right way is to cut it out but if you get rid of loose stuff and neutralize the rust with a rust converter then prime it and fill what you want with Bondo and prime that then paint it, it will adhere much better and you will buy your self anywhere from several years to a decade depending on your environment and how much exposure the truck gets.

We're talking a roller paint job so this obviously is not what you would want to do if you were doing a proper paint job that you want to last decades.

Or you can just knock the major scale off of it, rough up it a bit and then go to town with the roller since it's cheap and easy to touch up.
Can one of those large polishing things have a pad to scratch it up.. thats a lot of surface area to sand
 

80BrownK10

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Can one of those large polishing things have a pad to scratch it up.. thats a lot of surface area to sand
I don't think they make sanding pads for buffers? You can just use a cheap orbital or vibrating sander yes. One of those like 4-6" orbitals. You still will have to hand sand tight locations and the cab vertical supports and around trim etc. You don't have to sand all the way through the paint...you just wanting to rough it up. If the paint is bad or pure rusty metal you will need to sand more. But if it's all rusty metal and you don't care if the texture shows through from the pitting. Just rough sand it and knock the loose worse stuff off and use a rust converter on it and then paint over it. If all your wanting to do is a quick 50ft paint job it will be perfect for that.
 

AuroraGirl

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I don't think they make sanding pads for buffers? You can just use a cheap orbital or vibrating sander yes. One of those like 4-6" orbitals. You still will have to hand sand tight locations and the cab vertical supports and around trim etc. You don't have to sand all the way through the paint...you just wanting to rough it up. If the paint is bad or pure rusty metal you will need to sand more. But if it's all rusty metal and you don't care if the texture shows through from the pitting. Just rough sand it and knock the loose worse stuff off and use a rust converter on it and then paint over it. If all your wanting to do is a quick 50ft paint job it will be perfect for that.
Ahaha, nevermind. I have a giant hand held band-type sander for finishing large wooden projects, that would make quick work. And i think i will do it to a bed I plan on using and have it stay on the trailer for a while so I can test it, I will spot test the head of the bed(bent to crap on trailer, good on my bed)
 

80BrownK10

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Ahaha, nevermind. I have a giant hand held band-type sander for finishing large wooden projects, that would make quick work. And i think i will do it to a bed I plan on using and have it stay on the trailer for a while so I can test it, I will spot test the head of the bed(bent to crap on trailer, good on my bed)
I wouldn't want to use a belt sander. There pretty aggressive and the same pattern might leave weird sand marks vs the random patterns of orbital. Also you usually can't get too fine of paper in the belts I don't think? I know I was just in my sand paper box last night and saw I had a 180 belt I think it was.
 

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