No! I bet the air was blue. Why do you think that happened? Was the buffing cloth abrasive? Did you hold it on for too long? I think I would push the bus off a cliff and get the insurance money if that happened to me.
You could say the end result will be a little in your face. I hope I get to the stage soon, where I think this is all worth it... I do wonder sometimes, when I just can't get something right and I'm about to hit it with a hammer.
Now there's a feeling I recognise! It'll be so worth it though when you step back and look at it, knowing it's all your own hard graft. I'm definitely taking notes about painting with rustoleum from yourself and @sANDYbAY, the idea of spending £4k+ on a respray makes me shudder!!
Do it! It might seem daunting but you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I forgot to say, a really good tip to save money and effort; rather than cleaning the rollers every day or chucking them and using new ones. Wrap the used roller in tin foil or clingfilm and put it in the freezer. They will last quite a while without drying out like this. I do it with gloss brushes when I'm decorating so I thought I'd see if it would work with this and it does, really well. Be careful to make sure the roller 'rolls' rather than it staying still and you're just squidging it along. One panel came out completely matt once, and I THINK that was why. I couldn't think I'd done anything else differently. But there are a couple of areas, like between the top of the windows and the roof where you can't roller neatly (unless you take the windows out) and I just squidge the end of the roller along it. It's just the right size and the paint ends up shinier than the rollered bits. I didn't have a clue how long each coat was going to take to dry but even in the middle of winter I was getting a coat on every other day. That was mixed with 20% white spirit, so it was pretty thin though.
There's a technique to using a polishing mop, so you don't burn the paint. Lots of examples on YouTube. Campers are fairly easy to do with their large flat panels. It'll save you lots of elbow grease! You'll have to use progressively finer wet and dry paper to flat first, then polish. Keep up the good work and keep posting.
Yeah, I wouldn't want to do a 'Sandybay ' with the polisher. Thank you for the advice, all is greatly received.
@sANDYbAY probably didn't let the paint harden for long enough. He only left it a week IIRC. Oil based paints take ages to fully harden.
A week ? Try three days. Thinking back it wasn't the polisher that went through the paint, it was me with 2000 grit wet and dry. It worked perfectly on the big flat bit of the panel but I got a bit too enthusiastic on the edges by the headlights.
That's a good excuse to leave it for a few months before I polish it then. Hopefully I'll be able to face sandpaper again by then.
That's the excuse I'm using for leaving mine for a while. I'm thinking two or three years, just to be on the safe side.
Do you know what, there's nothing wrong with being over cautious. I think I'll probably end up doing the same.
Took the back bumper back to bare metal and was able to start painting things in my mum's front room as it was freezing outside. Which wasn't always ideal Next I started on the rear panels . The bus didn't have a drivers side track cover when I got it, and underneath the passengers side cover wasn't much better so it took quite a while getting rid of the rust in all the grooves.
I don't seem to have any photos of the finished panels. Sorry, I'm not going outside now to take any, I'm eating pancakes. Now it was time to tackle the sliding door. Probably the second worst bit after the roof. I thought about farming it out and having it done properly by having the window taken out and welded, and who knew what was under the rough mouldy filler. But in the end I decided to go for it myself. Panel welded onto the bottom of the door
I read a really handy guide on how to get the sliding door off without undoing any bolts or screws. It was a bit heavier than I was expecting so I'd need to be very careful not to scratch it when putting it back on. Got all the old filler off and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting underneath. Just a bit of a step between the old door and the new panel that had been welded on. This is when I discovered fibreglass. Smoothed it over with a bit of filler. Mother's garden was beginning to look like a shanty town as I also had a trailer to work in now. Bye bye cool stripes
Sanded and Kurusted the wheels I had some old chrome hubcaps so I ground them with 40 grit flap discs and sprayed them with etch primer. I now received my first injury. Which is pretty good going I think. The grinder slipped and chewed my finger. Took the cab doors off next. I knew the underneaths weren't great but now I could investigate how bad. Professional diagnosis: Iffy. What a surprise, lots of crumbling filler. I possibly should've got this sorted properly, but I'm in the middle of nowhere and had no way to get them to a body shop so I cracked open the trusty fibreglass again and got on with it. What a lovely job scraping all the mud and gunk out of the door.
Looks like the doors have had a fun life. The outside of the doors weren't too bad so I didn't have to take them back to bare metal, and didn't need too much filler. Fibreglass on the bottom. Here's a little tip, don't use different brands of hardener and resin or you'll be wondering why it's still not dry a week later. Waxoyled all the inside.
A little question please. The rear bulb holders are going green and it won't clean off. Is there some sort of chrome spray I could use to get the reflectiveness back?
