[blacksmithmatt]

well, now that my newest van is running good engine wise and all running gubbins are good , its time to treat her to a single colour body,

my van looks terrible i bought is as unfinished project from someone else with a random box of bits , previous owner did some painting /bodywork but mast have put some filler on his and closed his eyes ( it really is terrible i will post pictures to show you!) anyway she is now like primer red , black on the arches and god knows what all over.

so im gonna have a bash at cleaning her up and spraying the rustoleum today if i get that far , weather is good tho!

even if i do a bad job if shes all one colour i will be much happier,

ive gone for ral 6004 blue green will update as i go along
T:

 

[draperg]

looking forward to some pics. Got mine to do soon.

 

[Big Tomm]

Hearing rustoleum in regards to a bus just instantly make me think of a roller, perhaps because all those years ago when I read a tutorial on how to do it they demonstrated on a T25.

I am part way through doing mine in a RAL matte light blue. Not totally convinced by it though.

 

[blacksmithmatt]

i figured ive got a compressor and a cheapo gun plus ill at least give it a try, i did read some posts on another forum about spraying it, ive heard good and bad im a rookie with this spraying so will have a practice on the grill section first , either way its gotta end up looking better than this!

] this is the sort of fine precision filling and painting that all arches, b pillar and windows were covered in

ive already painstakingly cleaned most of it up previously and as the previous owner gave me some black wrap and told me "its good stuff and easy to do " and the van was supposedly ready to be wrapped after, i cleaned up his handywork I painted with black .. tried the wrap, foo ck that! so now its rustoleums attemptT:
i cant complain the van was cheap , however redone engine, turbo, all ball joints driveshafts and was a tdi with abl pump, now its running good i gotta make her pretty.
didnt get as far as id hoped tho , only just wet sanded down most of the van , im not gonna try and do all the door shuts etc, that can come later if need be just make her all the same colour on the outside for now

 

[Big Tomm]

Some people's standards of work is questionable. However a cheap van is always a good place to start. I am sure rustoleum can be sprayed of it is thinned enough. Frustratingly I've been unable to use my gun due to not having a garage big enough for a LWB.

Might have to try and get some photos up.

That window looks different to any others I've seen before, can't figure why.

 

[blacksmithmatt]

well, well see what happens ive read abything from 60paint to 40 white spirit to 80 paint to 20white spirit, also seen people just explaining making it thin enough to dribble for 4 seconds off the end of something before just dripping so i am a bit confused
as i say it was cheap! but really would never buy another mans unfinished project again! random box of bits with bits missing, seriously unsafe!(tie rods cut almost through! loose tie rod ends, loose exhaust, loose engine mounts , loose wheel ing nuts ! loose seats!) it took quite a bit of graft to even make it to the mot station! guy had replaced cracked cv boots , sounds good right? when i tried to turn around to head home the cv joint must have been missing balls or something becaus it just clunked and i lost all drive ! just driveshaft spinning freely!!,had to get farmer to tow me back over the hill only made it about 1/4 mile! i bought the van blind but didnt think it would be that bad it had mot on it!wtf! never again!
anyway enough moaning shes a happy lass now!

yeh i know what you mean apart from the lack of rubber trim i think they are bigger than normal?! probably came off something random who knows!

 

[blacksmithmatt]

also it may be mad im planning to spray her outside with the insects, i could put her in a barn but its literally filled with sawdust so im not sure thats a good idea either,

lets have some pictures bigg tomT:

 

[ktuludays]

Paint in the barn out of the wind and build a make shift spray booth with poly sheeting. Better than your 1st 2 options

 

[blacksmithmatt]

ktululudays ,
you are right! i thought about putting it into the barn but decided against it because the barn isnt actually wide enough for me to have any space at the front and back of the van so i would have to open the doors up and from previous experience are a goddam wind tunnel!
then i was also mega hasty to get some paint on , and i didnt have the poly sheet to make this shelter, nor the time and just went for it outside as the weather was perfect ,, zero wind,, warm sunshine, thought i was laughin!
i even said to my dad look there is no wond at all! then i got spraying about 5 mins in , it started blowing a hooley man! was not even a breeze the whole day! and to make matters worse when i stopped the wind immediately dropped back to nothing!!

anyways yes there are some nice insects like jurrasic park embedded in that first coat, i got too eager thinking it was looking good so splashed on too thick in spots, only about 15 mins later it started to run all over the place!my bad , rookie mistake! wont do it again, still dead happy so far with the rustoleum mixed it about 3/4 paint to 1/4 white spirit, dont think it orange peeled or badly anyway, either way so far one heck of an improvement!

i can only have 3 pictures in this album, is my gallery full should i delete some pictures ?

looks good on the photos but there are some serious runs all over te place!

 

[ktuludays]

Looks much better already

 

[blacksmithmatt]

had abit of a storm last night, RAIN HAS TOTALLY TRASHED IT! also got newspaper embedded in it and its too tackey for me to sand it off dont know what to do now, last night good, this morning fooked!

 

[ktuludays]

had abit of a storm last night, RAIN HAS TOTALLY TRASHED IT! also got newspaper embedded in it and its too tackey for me to sand it off dont know what to do now, last night good, this morning fooked!

What a shiiter, sorry to hear that bud. Best get sanding

 

[blacksmithmatt]

done, sanded all this specks down with 600 grit, now it looks very matt,
going to leave it till tommoro wind should be down a bit , Im moving down to torquay sunday so need to get paint on before then,

the roof went totally matt and there was orange peel in areas the higher up the van the worse it was , on the lower door and sides was absolutely mint i thought, (apart from all the droplet matt bits) any ideas what thats about , temp or wind? or my gun angle?
i cant get the angle right on the rook if i tilt the gun to face the roof directly the paint dribbles out the breather hole !

i figure im going to paint it earlier rather than like yesterday as it was quite late im not sure if the evening wrecked the finish as well as the storm , will post up some pics when im doneT:

 

[blacksmithmatt]

well, moved into the least windy position i could find , then wiped down and sparyed a coat, looked mint!, then had some lunch and sprayed another coat, went all ornage peely on the back doors and one side, in fact its all a bit orange peeley,

ive realised that it looks mint on its first coat after the flatting, the second coat went mad because the first coat was still too tacky to accept it right i think, if i was gonna do this again , i would whack 2 or n3 coats on let it orange peel, wait a day or 2 then flat it back and just spray the final coat, but im out of time now.

rolled it into the barn for safe measure after id painted just in case it rains again tonite!T:this is the good side

and this is the dodgier side and back , im hoping i can flat it down and polish in a while if not ill flat it down after curing and recoat

either way i prefer this to how i started

 

[blacksmithmatt]

just would havew been nice if it all turned out like this bit yesteray

 

[maximus659]

Good effort mate. I am seriously contemplating doing mine. How much paint have you used?

 

[blacksmithmatt]

Good effort mate. I am seriously contemplating doing mine. How much paint have you used?

thanks, its my first bash with this type of thing ! I used the 2.5l tin got 3 coats out of, maybe not thick enough probably should have got more paint, maybe i will do another coat later, and i suppose i mostly started with a green undercoat!