Roller Painting the Delica - military style

[RichD]

After a few weeks of personal debate about what to do about dings, (major) dents, rust spots and scratches on my van, getting a couple of quotes from body shops, and comments galore from various other owners I've decided that the most productive approach is to do my own body repair work and roller paint my van.

My rationale is this: its a utility vehicle. Its going to get more dents, more scratches. My primary concern is protecting it from rust. I know a wee bit about paint prep. I like the military paint scheme. The Land Rover guys have been doing this for years... You can probably already see where I'm going with this.

So I started searching online. I've only found a couple of paint suppliers so far that specialize in the military color scheme:

http://www.paintman.co.uk/paint-colour- ... ies-2.html
http://www.armyjeepparts.com/order_page ... ttom_1.htm

Linkback to related thread: http://www.delica.ca/forum/paint-job-question-6593.html

So the van is going into the workshop in a week or so for some overhaulin' (electrical & alarm system, suspension, insulation/flooring and of course body/paint). This thread is for the latter.

I'll start with prep as this is the most important part. Photos to follow in thread...

[fexlboi]

Right decision! Can't wait to see the whole van covered in military green

[RichD]

Right decision! Can't wait to see the whole van covered in military green

Check out the color palette tool on the landy site I linked. There are some other mil colors that are similarly appealing.

UPDATE: see also this link for Canadian Army colors.

mil-palette.png (8.34 KiB) Viewed 10057 times

[fexlboi]

Arizona Tan and Limestone are great too!

[RichD]

Arizona Tan and Limestone are great too!

Agreed!

arizonatan_lr.JPG (24.05 KiB) Viewed 10017 times

[Profister]

How about something more creative?

[snelson]

I've always thought the military snow camo is wicked.

Just not on a Ferrari

[thedjjack]

I have roller painted two trucks Cherokee and my Willys FC170.

I never regretted either. I used rust paint applied in thin coats using foam rollers. About 6-8 coats in total.

Looks like slightly orange peeled spray
Paint is very thick and resistant to damage
who cares if it gets damaged takes two minutes to touch up

Welcome to the ghetto!

[Blackberry]

7 yrs ago I DIY spray painted (gloss white) the lid of my VW westy with marine enamel (then $20/litre) and it still looks as shiny & clean as the day I did it. Very tough paint and the gloss is awesome. I'd suggest just renting spray gun & compressor and DIY ...or, ya, even just rolling it on:
http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

[FalcoColumbarius]

Be sure to use a paint degreaser.

[fexlboi]

Please no ridiculous poser camo look.

Great link Blackberry. I wish our van would be ready for painting

[RichD]

Lovin the links pics and comments. Keep it comin!

[BCDelica]

When I first met my wife she was driving a very sweet 73 Nova in a light shade of purple.

That sweet car was a rough one that two close friends of hers did some body work in exchange for babysitting, and instructed her on how to roller paint it. She took her time over a week and half, using primer and tops coats, plus wet sanding between coats. Final coat was thinned out and a day following that for buffing touch ups, though the whole car wasn't polished. It did have a fine orange peel effect, but that was only noticeable with close inspection; otherwise it like a prefect satin type finish. Minor scratches were hardly visible after the 3 years she drove it. Firstly she always has been a skilled painter (a can mess up a wall in house) and 24 years ago didn't mind long hours sanding.

That $600 Grandpa's high mileage car was turned into a fine classic ride that always got attention wherever we she went for a few weeks labor and (if I had to guess) $50 bucks.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Traditionally, when painting something such as a door that required "special attention" a painter would start off with a primer ~ followed by a primer of colour for the purpose of building and levelling. Sanding the second (colour) coat of primer until one sees the plain first primer. This would typically be followed by two or three undercoats, which are basically primer and top coat mixed for further sand-ability. By the time you do get to the top coats, of which there would be three typically, you wouldn't thin the paint down with spirits as that would potentially cause flashing and jeopardise the coverage. what you would do is mix in more medium which would retard the "setting-up" time and allow the brush strokes to level out.

Traditionally this medium would be linseed oil ~ but today most "oil based" paints are based on synthetic alkyd. You can find this in a paint store in the form of a product called: Penetrol (by Flood).

In the case of painting your Delica: If you are going with the high gloss, wet look, coach finish that you are going to put on with a brush and roller then the top coat of choice would be a high gloss marine enamel (cut with Penetrol). If you pay due diligence, are serious about putting a fine finish on your Delica then you could give it a deep finish uniqueness that would be the envy of others but that requires hard work and a lot of elbow grease.

One thing to remember about painting is that 80% is prep and 20% painting. The primer is thee most important coat as the bond of any top coat is only as good as the primer ~ if the primer falls off ~ so does everything else. Get a good degreaser, wear gloves and glasses. When sanding wear a mask.

Sanding serves three purposes: levelling the paint surface; polishing the finish of a paint job; but most importantly it "keys" the surface, providing an anchor for the paint to adhere to. Sand between coats.

If you are going for the "camo look" then consider this: Camouflage is designed to obscure the vehicle by two means ~ one is by colour, the other is by obscuring the shape of the vehicle. In nature there are very few square angles and a vehicle will stand out because of it's square corners, especially from the air. Your pattern must obscure the corners of your Delica. As far as colours go you must ask yourself where you plan to be hiding your Delica. You could go with traditional camouflage colours and just pick a country or you could get foliage samples of wherever in BC you wish to hide and get them matched at the paint store. For camouflage you want to use a flat finish and here is why: With high gloss the base pigment is ground very finely and when light reflects, it does so in one direction, which is why it appears glossy; with flat the base pigment is course, causing the light to reflect in every direction. So when the sun hits a glossy vehicle the flash is more likely to be seen, where with flat there is less chance of your vehicle being seen because of the light being diffused.

Falco.

[RichD]

Great posts! Couple of things:

I am not aiming for a body shop quality gloss finish. I want a flat/matte finish, in solid color. Otherwise I'd start working on setting up a spray booth in my shop.

My aim is to clean up the dents, scratches, and rust spots, and then do a very good job priming and sanding the surface into shape. As Falco says, prep is everything - not because I want a sexy bumpless paintjob but because I want paint to stick to my rust-free van.