Bodywork, Paint, Interior, Trim, & Wiring

My paint store is suggesting "Del Fleet Essential" commercial paint, trailers, heavy equip./etc. Urethane enamel with hardner. Drys slowww, but tuff like Imron, without chipping or cracking. To be used everywhere, except outside bodywork. Suggestions ? Thanks, roverman.

"Tremclad"
Ok, so stop laughing already.
It's cheap, it's durable and it's shiny.
It thins down for a spray gun and you can get it in a spray can to fix up the odd boo boo.
What's not to like?

I'm thinking of using regular Rust-0-leum brush on paint. You can thin it with acetone to spray, Simple one step enamel, but pretty tough and easy to touch up and darned cheap to buy. Good for interior and exterior use if you don't mind the limited color selection. And you can get rattle cans in most of the same colors for small parts as well. I'd guess it's similar to what Fred recommends.

Rustoleum/Tremclad is all over the web. Also Tractor and Marine enamel. You can use Penetrol or a compatible hardener(Tractor Supply/Valspar Acrylic Enamel hardener) also. I plan on the Petit EasyPoxy Marine for my Alpine tub. I painted a blue boat white with it 10 years ago and it is still white in a saltwater environment except where it was dragged on the beach. Preparation is the key, plus the Marine paint has UV protection.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2019 01:13PM by mgb260.

Brushable rust-o-leum on the underside, and interior for sure. It's easy to touch up, and if needed, it comes of easily with a wire wheel so you can get back to bare metal to do any welding. It also builds nicely to fill in gaps in the panels and sloppy welds. On the outside, I have had fantastic results with the cheap NAPA store brand paints. I am told they are the same as Sherwinn Williams just with a store brand logo. Pick from the fleet color book as they are cheaper. There is a Kenworth fleet book that has thousands of colors since Kenworth will paint your truck any color you want, and they are all in the book. Stay away from Ford Superperformance White. It is so bright white, it will blind you. I painted the lower half of my BMW 2002 in that white, and it was so reflective that I had to scuff the paint. I went real cheap on my TR8 and used John Deere green, OSHA safety yellow, and a bright pale green.

Out in CA., were more limited on paint choices,as we lead the world for a "smaller" carbon footprint, While Going Broke ! Napa only sells spray cans,(tagging is an industry here)." Delfleet Essential" is $130/gal with reducer and hardner.This seems like a resonable value and should last a full season. Store will sell "flatener", but non-compliant, so I must add. Onward, roverman.

For basic colors with some slight variations it's hard to beat Tractor Supply's tractor paint. Still in the range of about 20-30 bucks a gallon, even for red. Stir in some micro-spheres while you're at it, to help protect "The Environment".

Jim

Ok, just this once, I listened. I bought "Rust Stop" Rustoleum. They didn't have Tremclad, maybe a CA thing ? I'm supprised we're still allowed acetone here. Cheers, roverman.

Art, Tremclad is Canadian Rustoleum. Acetone is fast and will give a flatter finish, Mineral Spirits slow and Xylene somewhere inbetween.

I painted a VW Baja big with the quart can of rust oleum. The paint job looked decent when I finished but I used it off road and that stuff scratches very easily.

Flatter finish is good. "Ruststop" says reduce with acetone , only.

Robbie, If you add a pint of Penetrol or the hardener (Valspar) that Tractor Supply sells it can be a lot more scratch resistant.

Here in Canada you can buy an excellent product called Corrostop. It is a tough polyurethane paint that is made for painting directly on ferrous metals without the need for primer. A number of years ago my friend painted his bike frame with this paint and it has stood up quite welI. I used high gloss black on my frame I just sanded off all the loose rust, and cleaned the frame with brake cleaner and painted it. This paint goes on real nice with a brush and is self leveling. This paint is quite affordable as it only costs $17.00/quart. You thin it with normal paint thinner.

Cheers
Byron

I just used Rustoleum Hammertone finish in the silver color, it thins out with Xylol and it dries very fast and very hard as I used it on my airboat decks and cage. I have used automotive based paints for years and this stuff for the price of $16.00 a qt plus the gal. of Xylol is the ticket. I have been walking all over it with muddy boots and not a scratch or scrape. HD has it, havent checked elsewhere.
P.S. BTW I tripled the reduction to spread it out a little farther and had no ill effects.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2012 02:00PM by flitner.

John, I used the Rustoleum Hammertone silver on a saltwater boat trailer. On top of Rustoleum red primer. Worked very well and looked better than a new galvenized trailer.