Brush Painting

[joolie]

IS it possible to paint a car and have it looking half decent, by brush painting??

I dont have the space (public garage) or equipment to use a compressor ,though I could possibly use aerosol, (but only outside).

If it is possible to brush paint, what paints do I need, do they have to be hardcore cellulose paints or maybe normal paints ,what so you rekon for priming/preparing??

I have to admit, Im even considering using hammerite

[AndersDK]

Exactly that : half decent
Better still : use a felt pad = 3/4 decent

If you experiement a bit with thinner added - and do a couple of thin coats - you will get a much better result than trying do it in one go.
Problem is you get carried away by the job and lose your patience

[DavidRutherford]

One thing that works surprisingly well is to thin the paint with 20-ish percent thinners, and then use a Gloss roller.

a couple of coats of that, and then rub down with wetted 1000grit wet-or-dry paper, and then LOTS of effort with T-cut.

Comes out looking lovely.

[joolie]

what kind of paint, ordinary gloss?

very good quality (brand) or any?

is it possible to paint with metallic paints?

[jeremy]

There are a number of paint systems - and the most common 3 used un repair businesses are:

2 pack - specialised spraying product - with an isocyanate catalyst /hardener. Sounds nasty and is if not handled properly.

Cellulose - the grand daddy of them all - good old fashioned paint - still used today - with a very volatile solvent - and does produce very good results - if rather soft and prone to bloom. Due to rapid evaporation of solvent - not suitable for brushing - as it pulls all the bristles out of your brush and if you're not careful you get a surface like a ploughed field.

Synthetic - or lorry or machinery paint. - lovely stuff - again an old process but loved by lorry painters as it stays wet for long enough for a painter to finish the job - whereas on a large vehicle cellulose cellolose has dried long before the job is complete - and so overspray sits on top and joining the ends is virtually impossible.

Synthetic brushes beautifully and is nice to handle - sold by specialist paint suppliers and I believe is even available in metallic colours. Thin it a bit - worth a few experiments.

[cavmad]

Can I just echo Jeremy` sentiments about 2 Pack paint?. Very nasty stuff and requires the use of air fed masks and a `proper` spray booth. Definately one for the professional only, certainly not worth risking your health for. There are some water based paints now (or at least there were) as these were designed to be user/ozone friendly, not sure whether these would be suitable to brush on though.
Quality is everything, as is preperation, and if you buy some brushes from a pound shop you`ll soon regret it! If you do brush I`d get the best possible qulity brushes you can whatever the cost as anything else will leave marks and bristles in the paint meaning you`ll need to start again!
Can you borrow a compressor and spray gun? Might be worth finding some old car panels and giving it a test run to see how you get on, this would be ideal for spraying or painting.

[sleepy0905]

Halfords sell a product called re-paint in tins which is designed for paint brush application. used it once and got a very good result.

[jeremy]

Sleepy - I expect the Halfords paint is a synthetic one - I think Hammerite and its relatives are synthetic as well. Solvent is something like Toluene which is used for or similar to panel wipe - and there are always dire warnings nnot to use cellulose thinners (Acetone?) - although many do with good results.

Secret of good brushing is slow drying - also a good tip is to put on a thin layer first and when its gone nice and sticky (touch with the back of your finger - should feel sticky but no paint comes off) - put on another layer which it will now hold hopefully without running.

Synthetic sets like rock and is virtually impossible to compound etc afterwards.

New water-solubles sound wonderful - how quick they dry I don't know.

[cavmad]

Toluene is used in thinners, and quite a good deal of other things too including pharmaceuticals. Very nasty stuff and if you`d witnessed what I had seen once about three years ago you wouldn`t go near it. It has an extremely low static point which will cause it to ignite. A small metal screw (such as one from a pair of glasses) inside a container could be enough to set it off, it really is that bad. What I witnessed was about 1200 litres or so of it `going up` and believe me it scared the crap out of me and caused a lot of damage.
I think Acetone is used for panel wipe, another potentially dodgy chemical. Most, probably all, of these solvents have very low flash points and extreme care must be taken at all times. I wouldn`t even pick up a small sealed tin without goggles and gloves on. Pre-mixed (i.e by manafacturer) they still possess a risk in the form of thinners and paints etc so please be very careful if using them.

[sleepy0905]

Re-paint is designed so you can fully repaint a car with a paint brush it gives very good results i have used it and you can compound and polish it infact the compounding gets rid of the odd few brush marks infact i painted a wing on a reno 12 with it and everyone though i had got it resprayed.

[joolie]

I did use some cheap black paint for the wheel-hubs last year, came out very well, and shows no signs of falling off.

[Stewart (oily!)]

I used Halfords rE-paint many years ago on my Beetle, it stayed on okay but needs a cool shady place to be painted otherwise it dries too fast for the brushmarks to settle out.
Stewart