two different rustoleum types?

OK, I've been wanting to paint the datsun replica with something that's cheap and readily available anywhere. Better yet if I can get it off the shelf and it doesn't require any color/tint mixing. This is the look I want to imitate.

This means I need to find a dark brown and a warm tan that are compatible with each other....I used a paint brush to cover some of the tubes that will be behind the firewall[*] with rustoleum professional in Leather Brown. It is a nice deep chocolate color that I'm very happy with. The added bonus is that rustoleum offers this color as one of their "Professional" paints, and that means I can use Dr. Hess's painting method with it.

Unfortunately, the tan is proving to be more difficult. I the closest thing that Lowe's had was Rustoleum Professional in Almond. I got a pint to play with and it is WAY too light....it looks like cream. The place I buy my steel carries "RUST-OLEUM 865 DUNES TAN", which sounds more promising.

Two questions for you guys:
1) Can I use the same proportions of mineral spirits for the two types if I shoot part of the car in Rustoleum and part of it in Rustoleum Professional?
2) Can I put one on top of the other (i.e. like a chocolate brown stripe along the top of a tan door)
3) have any of you used the "dunes tan" color, and can you post pictures of it? Before buying and using it, I'd like to see how similar the color is to the photo above.

[*] - I figured that since they are out of sight, that was a good spot to test paints on.

Yeah, I was about to say the top half of the Wartburg was in the Rustoleum Almond, much lighter than your pic.

They should both be compatible but honestly it would be best to do a test panel to be sure.

I would be concerned that the thinning agent in the top color might soften up the base color and cause sags or runs, but with enough drying time in between that might not be an issue.

JThw8 wrote: Yeah, I was about to say the top half of the Wartburg was in the Rustoleum Almond, much lighter than your pic.

Wow, no kidding

The wartburg turned out nice, but that's definitely not the shade I'm going for. I want to, if possible, give the impression that I took the tan/brown datsun out of a museum and souped it up....thus the similar colors.

Good point about the thinner messing it up the underlying coat.. I may have to mask off and brush the leather brown stripe so I don't thin the paint. (or, use a rattle can of leather brown.) When I have fenders fabricated (probably post-challenge[*]) I could spray them leather brown while they are off the body and THEN install them.

[*] - assuming I can make it to the challenge

can you just mix your Leather brown with the Almond to get the proper hue?

I've thought of that, and might resort to it if necessary.

What I'm hoping for, however, is an off the shelf paint with no necessary mixing to adjust the hue/tint. I plan to smash traffic cones with this car, and an off-the-shelf color would be make touch ups really easy.

yes... but if you knew the exact mix you used.... say 50/50.. touchups would not be that hard

mad_machine wrote: yes... but if you knew the exact mix you used.... say 50/50.. touchups would not be that hard

Mixing paint is WAY harder then that. Trust me.

Javelin wrote:

mad_machine wrote: yes... but if you knew the exact mix you used.... say 50/50.. touchups would not be that hard

Mixing paint is WAY harder then that. Trust me.

Mixing more than you need and saving the leftover is hard?

turbojunker wrote: Mixing more than you need and saving the leftover is hard?

That's do-able, but not my first choice. I already have packrat tendencies, and don't need to encourage them. (I still have red paint from my 1980 corolla liftback, which I haven't owned since....probably around 1989.)

turbojunker wrote:

Javelin wrote:

mad_machine wrote: yes... but if you knew the exact mix you used.... say 50/50.. touchups would not be that hard

Mixing paint is WAY harder then that. Trust me.

Mixing more than you need and saving the leftover is hard?

You have to ensure that both colors are fully and properly mixed before combining, and even then you can't ensure that you got the right mix of pigments. Then you have make sure the new color is mixed thoroughly enough to not have any spots of one color or the other. And if you do save any, because it will be impossible to match, the paint will probably go bad.

Maybe it was easier back in the oil-based days, but in the new modern water-based paint days it sucks. Even on a super-small scale.

The two Rustoleums, professional and whatever, should be compatible and will probably thin about the same. I mostly stick with Professional, but then I mostly use BRG (AKA "Hunter Green") or Toyota Red ("Regal Red") Rustoleum Pro. I would second the coupon first, just to be sure. The stuff is cheap enough that experimenting is no big deal, unlike $100+/gallon auto paints. When I shot my car hauler trailer Toyota Red, I didn't bother to thin it at all, just shot it on with my $10 HF HVLP gun and it turned out pretty good, actually. Saw that gun on sale for $15 a couple days ago.

Also, I have found that lacquer thinner works best for paint gun cleanup, especially the final cleanup. I run some "paint thinner" (mineral spirit based) through the gun first and when it's almost clean, switch over to cheap (Lowes, not the automotive) lacquer thinner. That stuff might work well for thinning too, I just never experimented with that.

Dr. Hess wrote: When I shot my car hauler trailer Toyota Red, I didn't bother to thin it at all, just shot it on with my $10 HF HVLP gun and it turned out pretty good, actually. Saw that gun on sale for $15 a couple days ago.

This one? http://www.harborfreight.com/20-oz-high-volume-low-pressure-gravity-feed-spray-gun-47016.html

Yeah, that's it. It rocks. I have been tempted to get another one just for the hell of it, but I am having trouble justifying the fifteen bucks, as the one I have is just fine. Get the inexpensive stand for it too.

I've noticed the colors on the Rustoleum web site tend to look darker than they really are. I thought "smoke gray" would be perfect for the Celica, but google turned up pictures of cars people had painted with smoke grey and they looked totally different than I imagined. Much lighter.

I'm thinking about mixing as well. But that's so far off right now I haven't put a lot more thought into it.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: I've noticed the colors on the Rustoleum web site tend to look darker than they really are.

That's probably true. I just made a trip to my steel vendor where I purchased the "Dunes Tan" color. Here's a photo showing all three colors together:
Dunes Tan - Leather Brown - Almond and another of the Dunes Tan and the Almond side by side Those photos are both wet paint, thrown on with a brush, so the dry colors probably differ a bit. Still, the pictures nicely illustrate the difference in the two colors, and the Dunes Tan is clearly a lot closer to the look I'm trying for.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: I'm thinking about mixing as well. But that's so far off right now I haven't put a lot more thought into it.

I'd say don't mix if you don't have to. Take the easy route.....there are enough complicated/hard things in this hobby to worry about without adding further complications to it.