This car was painted to a showroom finish with $50 of materials.

A little bit of red-neck comes to NYC
Frustrated by how meticulous you need to be with the spray method, I have spent the last few days researching online how to paint a car (given there’s more conversation on the subject than painting a scoot.)

Yesterday I unearthed the phenomenon loosely known as The $50 Paint Job, or The Poor Man’s Paint Job. The concept is that it’s possible to get a showroom finish on a car using nothing but layers of Rust-oleum paint watered down with mineral spirits and a lot of elbow grease.

The idea was originally posted by Moparts.org forum member 69chargeryeehaa in answer to the question, “how do I get a paint-job done for less than $4000?” 69 had painted a Charger (great car) a number of years previously with several thinned-down layers of Rust-oleum applied with a paint roller, with generous wet-sanding between layers, finally finishing up with a thorough turtle-wax buffing to bring the paint to a shine. The big secret apparently being Rust-oleum’s ability to “self-level” to a glassy finish making the roller or brush marks disappear.

More importantly, 69 posted a photo of the finished result which flawed forum members and ignited discussion and experimentation.

Inspired by 69 many forum members and followers went on to have equally successful results. One particularly great example is “Rickwrench’s” Corvair. Even better, Rick has been able to demonstrate that the paint has held for three years and counting.

The hood of Rick's corvair, half buffed, one of the secrets to the $50 paint-job.

What interests me most about this method and its potential for a scoot paint job is the following:

• I’m really struggling with not having a professional spray booth and I haven’t even made it to the body yet.
• The fumes are killing me.
• I’m much more comfortable with a roller and/or brush than a paint-gun or spray can.
• This method would allow me to continue to approach the bike piecemeal, e.g. cowls, then fender, then headset, then main body.
• This is something I could do on the street or in my front yard when it comes to painting the main body of the scoot.
• This method might not require dropping the engine out of the bike.

Inspired, I ran out to Home Depot last night and picked up a can of Rust-oleum Signal Red, a can of 100% (odorless) mineral spirits and some high-density foam mini rollers. I’ll post photos shortly but two coats of the mix (one last night, one this morning) covered the cowls nicely (and the plastic horn cover which I have also now removed.) The true test will be in the wet sanding which comes next.

The method is detailed much better elsewhere, but in total it should be:

• 2 thin coats of the Rust-oleum/mineral spirits (mixed 50/50). Waiting for the first coat to dry before applying the second.
• Wet-sand to flat with 600 grit paper.
• Another 2 coats of the mix.
• Wet-sand with a finer 1000 grit paper.
• Another 2 coats.
• Wet-sand with a finer-still 1500 grit paper.
• Shine and buff with Turtle Wax or polishing compound and a lot of elbow-grease.

In the next update I’ll share this method in progress. Who knows, perhaps I’ll have the first scoot painted with the $50 method.

Resources:

• The original forum discussion
• Rick’s Corvair
• A gallery of other Rust-oleum experiments
• The step-by-step method
• Hot Rod Magazine’s step-by-step trial
• Actionace’s YouTube videos (These are particularly applicable, because it’s the method done on a motorcycle.)
  

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