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painting car parts with a brush


trimacar

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OK, this should generate some traffic. On a recent post, someone discussed painting their wheels, and a comment was made about using a brush. A return comment was something like "painting with a brush, now that's lame."

I don't believe it is "lame". In the early days of automotive manufacture, everything was either painted with a brush or, as Ford did fenders, dipped in a vat of paint. An alternate was "daubing" with a rag soaked in paint, evident on a picture I have seen in the Stoddard factory, painting the wood inside seats and backrests.

To me, the method of getting paint on an object is immaterial, it is the result (i.e. how smooth the paint is when dry) that is important.

To accomplish this, one can 1)spray, 2)apply with brush and sand away brush marks (as they did from what, 1895 to 1915?), or 3)apply a high quality paint, with the right consistency, at the right temperature, such that there are no brush marks. I have read an account of wood spoke wheels painted in the sun with Rustoleum, that turned out darn near perfectly, as the heat allowed the paint to flow and dry smooth.

I have used the same technique on a few pieces (mainly mechanical) of the Hupp that I am now restoring, and, if done correctly, you cannot tell it from a spray job. Even if a slight brush mark or two is evident, it is still more original for a 1910 car than a perfect gloss professional paint job. I am sure there is a "doubting Thomas" or two out there now who will laugh at that, but it's true. No offense meant if your name is Thomas!

One example of a product sold that is intended to be brushed, and have smooth results, is the Hirsch engine paint. It has a very aggressive base, however, and will act as paint or primer remover, and is best used over bare metal. Surely I am not the only one who found that out the hard way!

So, how about it, anyone out there using brush techniques in your restoration efforts?

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An old time restorer was looking my 1915 Buick over rather closely at a show last year and said he though it was "Brushed Laquer". It is very hard to tell, but if you look at it in the light just right in several spots on the body, it does appear to have some brush marks.

I have heard that this is the way they were done in the old days, and that it is a "lost art" today.

I helped a friend dismantal a piano built in the 1860's a number of years ago. It had a shine that looked like, if not better than, a clear coat on a modern car. I'm not sure how they done it in 1860, but I was truly impressed.

smile.gif Dandy Dave!

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I agree. With practice, the right paint,brushed can look great, often with no brush marks . I would also add for larger parts the method of roll & tip works very well . I have used this with alkyd enamel,varnish, as well as Awlgrip.

I didn't think it would work too well for the gentleman doing his wheels unless he had a painting partner for the other side . That's how we used to varnish a ships (steering ) wheel .

Ken

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I use brushes quite a bit. They are just another tool in the box and often do a better job than a spray gun. I use them to paint inside doors to get paint down into the corners. I just did the bottom of the Chrysler's top with a brush and rustoleum. Why spray when you could be finished brushing in less time than it would take to mask. Same for inner floors and inside rear 1/4's. Same for engines and trannys. I don't brush when a fine finish is required though.

Let's talk about another dirty little secret. RATTLE CANS. I use them all the time for small things that need a nice quick coat of paint...........Bob

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Guest Skyking

I've done alot of old furniture for my wife using brushes to apply the urethane or varnish which came out looking like glass. The longer the paint takes to dry, the flatter the finish would be. I also used my share of rattle cans for car parts too. Today you can get about any color or finish in cans.

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My father had an old English painter & decorator working for him back in 1962 and this guy had served his apprenticeship brush painting cars in England for one of the larger coach builders. Probably the best painter I have ever seen. He was a house painter at that time and it was always his job to paint the new house doors, particularly the front one. (because first impessions always count)

My father got him to paint a new plywood speedboat we had built and the finish on it was unbelievable. Painted in enamel and looked a mile deep. His secret, apart from the primer surface being sanded to perfection, was to not thin the paint but to heat it on the stove until it was quite warm and then use a well worn paint brush that was rounded on the end so that he did not get any drag marks. Wish he was around today. He could paint my cars anytime.

David

1923 Metallurgique

1931 Rolls Royce Phantom 2 Continental

1940 Ford Coupe

1947 Mercury Coupe

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In the early fifies, my father had a maroon Hudson Terraplane sedan that he bought new in 1937. The car badly needed to be painted. Not having money for a professional paint job, he bought some paint called "Nu Enamel - Leaves no Brush Marks". He took his time and brushed in the finish neatly and when finished, it really looked good. After a few months, it looked even better. It also seemed to hold up well, as the car did not rust as much as most cars of that period.

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Guest elmo39

David i was shown that method of heating the paint back in the sixty's when i was doing my apprenticeship in car painting , the funny thing is my boss was an englishman who also did his time brush painting cars in England .i'll admit it gives a supurb finish , but is a highly dangerous practise, imagine all those highly inflammable fumes around a stove , especially so, back years ago when most if not all the stoves were ether wood or coal fed.

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The Morgan company was still painting some of their cars by brush in the 80s if not later. For some reason they painted the white ones this way even after they bought a spray gun.

A good man with a 3" camel hair brush and old fashioned enamel can do as well as a spray job. It just takes longer.

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I previously posted about my father painting his 1937 Hudson Terraplane with a brush. Prior to that, our family owned the North Side Laundry on Central Avenue in Indianapolis.

Here is a 1932-1934 picture of the fleet of trucks. All were hand-painted with at least 3 coats of while enamel. These were large trucks and always looked spotless, as were washed every morning. Note the little snowman on the side of the trucks. Clean laundry was stored inside the trucks and dirty laundry was put in canvas bags and tied to the top of the trucks. My father is shown to the far left in the picture.

Fred Zwicker

post-48037-14313804796_thumb.jpg

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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Why were you taking apart a piano like that from the 1860's? </div></div>

It was breaking my heart but it had to be moved as the new occupants of a house wanted it gone. It first went to an auction house but no one bid on it. I can see why professional piano movers are a thing of the past. I was just a helper and did my duty as asked. frown.gif Dandy Dave!

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I think I read somewhere they used very, very fine bristled brushes for that laquer paint. Makes some sense, the finer the sand paper, the finer the surface. The finer the paint brush hairs, the smoother the application. jim43

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Guest Bruce Nussman

YES! I have had great success with brush using Rustoluem high gloss black to tuch up 41 Lincoln Continental.

Also used their red paint to brush on engines and brake calipurs on Corvette.

I have seen some old timers brush paint an entire large boat and it looked liked it had been sprayed.

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Well, I guess I'm one of the old timers Bruce. I have worked on large yachts painting them with a brush. It was 120' so if you are painting the hull that's 240' when you do both sides . Humor aside, the comment I would like to make is that brushing is making a come back thanks to the EPA. Brushing puts less into the air.

Ken

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Guest strelnik

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum, but just want to add that a number of people are using the roller method with minimal paint each time to do their cars. They put about 5-6 very coats of finish paint on an unsanded, but primed body, and the finishes which I have seen look pretty good. I believe they rub down the car and them wax after they have put 8 coats on the vehicle in total.

If you Google " 50 dollar paint job ", you get this info.

Thanks and good luck.

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I used Interlux Topsider boat paint for my 13 buick. Most of the body is wood, so using boat paint made much more sense. The hard automotive paint used on the first restoration cracked badly from the body flexing over bumps, driveways, etc.

I did spray it on, but I think it would look just as good when applied with a brush. Many of the boat paints are made to be brushed on and have additives to flatten the finish.

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  • 8 years later...

I’m reserecting this old thread to see if anyone knows of a good quality paint (available in U.S.) that would be suitable for brush painting a car.  I’ve tried searching on coach paint, etc. but all I’m able to turn up are references to Rust-Oleum.  Can a catalyzed enamel be brush painted on?  I don’t want to use anything more toxic than that.

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It is expensive to buy but One Shot sign lettering enamel available in good art stores has a variety of colors and if you use a good quality brush that doesn't shed its hair, then the finish will flow out with nearly no signs of brush marks. This is the stuff that sign painters use to letter trucks and pin stripers use to add stripes. Working in a warm area is best, not in direct sunlight. I believe the fellows that restore high wheel bicycles use this to paint the rims of their bicycles as the rims would be difficult to separate from the spokes for painting and then reassembly. I have used it and it works really well if you take your time and do use a quality brush. I have mentioned this product before on another post some time back. It is an enamel and takes some time to cure, you have to have patience.

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I have done some refinishing on a few boats over the years and used petit paints on most.  The lst I did,  I used epifanes paint.  I did end up thinning it quite a bit to do the bottom of the boat on the trailer on a creeper,  but it came out so smooth you would swear it was sprayed,  wet sanded and buffed.  It really does come out that smooth.  No orange peel to worry about this way either.   I used it on my business sign as well and the only complaint would be that without any wax or later polishing and being exposed to 10 hours a day of sun,  it eventually did fade or haze a bit,  but could have been buffed back out easily.   

I would look into this.  It's a marine paint. 

I have always thought of brushing a car and then just wet sanding and buffing out any flaws later,  but bushed paint doesn't always dry as hard as paint that was sprayed.  More or less just so I could see people stand in disbelief that I did it that way. 

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There are English companies that specialize in making auto enamel for brush application. For some reason they kept  brush painting cars after everyone else moved on to spray, there and in Australia.

 

Another good tip is use good quality yacht paint or boat paint. It is made for brush and roller application.

 

Do a search for $50 paint job, this was quite a thing a few years ago. A Canadian Mopar guy started it after he claimed he painted his 69 Charger for $50 bucks using Canadian Tire Tremclad orange paint, a roller and foam brush. The secret is to thin the paint, apply 2 thin coats, wet sand with 800, apply 2 more coats, wet sand with 600, 2 more coats, wet sand with 1000 polish and wax.

 

Many people tried it, the Australians came up with the idea of using marine paint. You could also use ordinary auto enamel as long as it does not have metallic in it. Sanding louses up the metallic effect.

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I have a friend that restored a 1932 Auburn 8-100A boatail speedster. He sandblasted the chassis and painted the entire chassis with 2 coats of satin black Rustoleum . That same car sold a few years ago for over 300K. It looked great!

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The English still do "coach painting" and there are several companies that sell the appropriate paint. As far as I know, it isn't available in the US. I am a long way from painting my Mitchell, but I am seriously considering this as an option as I've no really good place to spray it and it'll be a cold day in h--l that I pay thousands for a paint job.

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A buddy and myself painted my first car, a 57 DeSoto, with a gallon of EJ Korvett ( a long closed Chicago discount store) black porch and deck enamel and 2 four inch brushes. No sanding, no primer, no taping off the chrome, just two guys being a little crazy. It look great from 20 feet away and even better up close if you really squinted your eyes. Have fun

Dave S 

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1 hour ago, maok said:

Search POR-15

 

In using POR-15 be sure to use the right product. Many of their rust encapsulation paints are UV sensitive and will easily fade or go milky when exposed to sunlight. I've used POR-15 undercar and on underbonnet(hood) parts and these have held up well for 9 years now. I believe they now have products that ARE UV resistant. That said the POR-15 comes up excellently, when brush applied, not super shiney but very shiny. And, as always, the finish is dependent on the preparation and cleanliness put in before any paint is applied

 

Link - https://www.por15.com/

 

Edited by Ozstatman (see edit history)
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Thanks all.  I see the POR-15 two part urethane top coat looks like it would do a nice job.  I wonder if brush painting it requires a forced-air respirator?  There are marine paints too that look like they would do the job.  Color palette is pretty limited though.  

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On December 3, 2017 at 4:44 PM, Willie Wurke said:

Does anyone on here remember that after WWII the craze was " PAINT YOUR CAR WITH A POWDER PUFF" ?

It was a very thin enamel. Most cars were 1930's vintage and pretty shabby so the product had good success!

Yes,I remember my father telling me he painted his '36 Plymouth with a powder puff. This was 1947, and I was too little to remember but he said it looked good.

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I quit spray painting cars back in 1992 and have used brush painting a number of times for touchup purposes. Purists have a cow but it comes down to what you have and the overall picture, the cars I did it to had either rough original or compromised repainted finishes. I used a brush and acrylic enamel on a 32 Cadillac with a failing 60s lacquer job. Definitely not perfect but much improved and corrosion proof.

32 cad - 7.jpg

DSCF1520.JPG

DSCF1522.JPG

DSCF1668.JPG

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Tex you got a good color match on that Caddy fender. If you wet sand and buff it will look like new, you can do that with lacquer easy.

 

I used to work in an ambulance factory. They had fibreglass interior panels that always got gouged during installation. I would touch up the gouges just like you did that fender using matching gel coat. When it was dry I could carefully sand it down with 600 paper, blend and polish it , and you couldn't tell it was ever damaged.

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3 hours ago, TexRiv_63 said:

Purists have a cow

That alone makes brushing fun. I can't do it without smiling.

 

The ones I have seen get their shorts twisted most is the body shop guys. Yeah, they drive around in a nice car it took three tries to make right (they would charge a customer for all three times, too) and cross their legs and their eyes when someone mentions "brush". I have been around the job shop production painters enough to know. I only know one real high level painter and I am meeting him for coffee in a couple of hours. We have discussed brushing, no big deal.

 

The other thing I do that torques them is wipe a car I bought to flip down with kerosene, or any old oil, to make it shine.

 

It is all attitude. Back in the mid-'80's I was driving a '62 Electra 225 six window that I had cut the roof off and made into a pretty convincing convertible, under the story "After me it goes to the junkyard".

I had it at a local show and a friend of mine had just finished a faithful restoration of an AAR Baracuda He said "My stomach is in knots when I drive my car, scared it will be hit, I park in the farthest spots in a parking lot, I am a wreck whenever I get near it."  "And YOU drive around in THAT thing, having a good time and not a care about it. Something is really wrong here!"

 

Well, Jon, nuthin' changed.

Bernie

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In 1957 my brother bought a $95.00 green 1951 Olds 98 Convertible, he wanted it to be red.  We practiced for a few years on the trunk lid with a brush,, not getting a good finish.  Then, when we moved to Florida the house my dad bought had a Electrolux Vacuum Cleaner & spray attachment in the garage.

We painted the old car about twice a year with enamel house paint, and learn to enjoy the shiny stucco like finish. Never painted a car with a brush again after buying a Navy surplus compressor made by Crosley..We painted a lot of car, at the time we were happy with it, but not up to today's standards.

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Ok, I confess, the first car I ever purchased, a 1971 Buick for 25 bucks was twelve different colors, so I undertook my first paint job with rust oleum and a roller......yup. It looked good from 200 feet away. Ok maybe 250. True story. 

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On ‎12‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 9:09 AM, captndan said:

Many of the world’s finest yachts are painted with a brush.  It’s called roll and tip.  Kind of a status thing.  I you can afford it go for it.

 

Several years ago I painted the hull of my 20 ft. Shamrock motorboat using Awlgrip paint applied and "tipped" with a cigar sponge roller.  I made the bad decision of choosing the color of yellow, and found out that it "covered" very poorly.  After 7 coats, the yellow covered the white base very well, and there were no visible roller marks, even from a distance of just a few inches.  I was learning the process (with competent supervision),  while I applied the paint and wet-sanded my mistakes between coats.  After all of that, the final (7th) coat came out flawlessly.  I'm glad of two things:  1.  I had a very good teacher of the process;  2. I wasn't painting a 120 ft. yacht.

 

Here's a link to the Awlgrip site:   http://www.awlgrip.com/awlgrip-home.aspx

 

Cheers,

Grog

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