Lets talk paint and related products

Back in my youth I worked at an airplane paint shop doing stripping and prep on helicopters and small planes. I never actually painted but I watched the process so I know enough to be dangerous. Our shop (being aviation) used DuPont Imron and that paint is crazy durable, but its also not cheap. We shot a few employees cars with Imron and it stood up well over time so I'm inclined to stick with what I know when I decide to paint the Jeep.

What else have you used and what do you recommend? Remember that a picture speaks a thousand words.

:uwop:

 

Is Imron even available anymore? I was on the 2A site a few days ago and it sounded like you can't get it now.

 

I was going to ask the same question. I know in our area it's unavailable due to isocyanates and other nasty things. Our body shop folks laughed last time I mentioned it because it's such old technology.
There are much better and safer products out there now and hopefully the folks with more intimate experience will chime in. Some of our members have used Tractor Supply paint with good results.

 

For a jeep single stage. Base coat clear coat is way too shiny in my opinion. And I honestly think it scratches easier than single stage
Of course I'm a fan of OD vehicles so gillipsie is hard to beat. In michigan you can buy it at jungle Jim's in Clare and avoid
All the crazy haz mat shipping charges

 

Valspar tractor paint is awful durable, and has no shine, and no metallic, quite fitting on an old Jeep, IMHO.

My old '67 GTX was painted with Imron, loved that finish and durability also.

 

Yeah its available. My cousin just bought some online for his GPW, and I'm still on the commercial account for that old air plane shop I used to work for so I used to be able source it from my local commercial paint store. You can also find it as NOS from government auctions if you like green or tan. Imron is nasty stuff health wise, but good stuff usually is.

 

I used Rustoleum rattlecans. I like green and it worked for me.

 

this is what old school imron looks like

It IS NOT available and has NOT been available since the mid 90s. Dupont then changed the formula twice since then and the product is no longer the same. It used to be available in mexico but no longer. You can still buy some old stock on line but the Dupont dealer says it is no longer available. I went there looking for some to touch up, but nothing doing.

All car paint has isocyananates in the hardener. Its what make the paint bad. once it cures it is inert though. You can get the clear mixed in with most paint and make it a single stage to shoot it on. I like that myself because its what I did when I worked in the paint shop for a shop that made parts for boeing, mcdonnal douglas etc. been a while.

I got 2 gallons for free that was leftover from the early/mid 70s. When i needed more paint I went to dupont. They gave me a midrange car paint mixed in single stage because IMRON is unavailable. WOW, that newer paint was better in every respect than that old imron . easier to mix, shoot and lay flat. more gloss and over time, more flexible and less prone to chipping. Imron was designed as a coating for food grade areas, floors and industrial areas. Most solvents and acids have little effect on it. It was not designed as a car paint and isn't really good for it. The original stuff needed to be thinned at least 30% and even then out of my pressure pot I was pushing it up the fluid lines at almost 60 lbs. So much air to get it to fan out. didn't want to lay flat, paint is really hard and brittle. I can't imagine cutting and buffing it. If it wasn't free I would never have used it.

Any midrange modern auto paint will be worlds better in the application, buffing and ease of use.

 

Imron unavailable? Maybe to your average consumer, maybe that is true (I have no idea). But here in California (which is often more strict than most other states) if your were a commercial painter and your shop has grandfathered EPA rights you can still obtain Imron. The formula might have changed but it is still available to the best of my knowledge; although truth be told its been several years since I purchased any so maybe things have changed again.

 

I used some JD Yellow from tractor supply. Not shiney but I wasn't really looking for shine only a strong paint.I am a sorry painter and so is my dad so I can only say it hasn't bubbled and it is pretty darn tough. Ran the Jeep against a small tree and it made minor scratches. Looks alright to me but everyone has their opinions.
Forgot that I used hardener too. About 100 bucks on paint and hardener

 

I sprayed mine with Tractor Supply paint too, with their hardener. Oliver green. Shine is decent, looking forward to seeing how it holds up:

 

Waterborn paints do not have isocyanates and neither do some other paints. Which is the reason they are being phased in.
Regarding Imron, it's a pain to lay down correctly for the novice and not readily available, and is dangerous. I can get cyanide based injector cleaners but doesn't mean I should or want to use them.
Look into more modern products that are less dangerous, more readily available, easier to shoot, and will be available down the road when you may need to repair/touch up. Even if you can gat the paint, doesn't mean you can get the reducer/thinner/hardeners down the road.
I recently had to get rid of a gallon of paint that was a beautiful medium blue metallic with platinum pearl because I couldn't get the necessary solvents to shoot it.
But, it's your Jeep, you've obviously made up your mind, so I don't understand why you are really asking?

 

I've done a couple of cars via the "one day wonder" route. I did the prep and paid to have the paint applied at a one-day type shop.

I've also sprayed a replacement hatchback door for my VW. The car is base-clear, and I shot a no-name black base matched to the VW (repackaged Sherwin-Williams I think) and Southern Polyurethanes clear. It turned out fine - looks amateurish at close range, but it's matching black, shiny and does not have any rust holes. The car is mechanically solid but has some rust pops and rust in the rockers and fender edges. If I fix it, I'll probably shoot the whole car with single-stage black from Kirker.





The Kirker paints are very popular with the hot rod guys. Kirker offers a only a few dozen colors, but the paint is said to be of high quality. Look here - http://www.smartshoppersinc.com/colorchart.html - and you can get a color card here - http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/kirker-paint-sample-color-chips-p-12659.aspx

This is a great forum, but if you are serious about painting your Jeep yourself, I'd suggest you join and post here - https://www.autobody101.com/forums/ - they helped me a lot with my painting decisions. However, you aren't going to get much encouragement for rattle can paint jobs and such there...

 

Pretty much this
Back in the 90s we had a paint spec for DTM waterborne primers and topcoat on steel. That stuff was awful. It would rust till the water flashed out. I would set the paint booth to 100 degrees to mitigate the rust as best as possible. Regarding the new paints, they are just plain better. I use a lot of Sherwin Williams Dimension line of products. Lower to mid range fleet paint. Cheap and available. Works really excellent for tools. I had a set of cabinets that a customer wanted to be painted. I used that stuff and hand buffed the doors. looked awesome. The DTM water based stuff is still terrible from my experience. Paint jumped right off a set of outdoor restaurant tables. used the D/A to bare metal, used their primer, followed their instructions explicitly. Called the regional sales rep on it. Cost me money and a lot of time. I KNOW the real commercial stuff now is good, but i bet there are specific parameters that must be followed to make it so.

As far as the alkyd, i assume, tractor paint, that stuff can be every bit at good as car paint for a jeep. It does not require the safety aspect to such a degree as the auto paint stuff, the thinners are readily available and its much cheaper. We painted all our trucks and tractors an the farm with it and it was great. I painted one of my jeeps with rustoleum industrial paint that you get at home depot. It was just as good as the IMRON on my jeep and readily available. It was also 45 bucks a gallon.

You will see that you can get IMRON, but not the hardener or maybe the reducer for the specific iteration of that product line. Free was OK. I would not have paid for it.

 

The early waterborne stuff was terrible. It is a way different product now but you have to follow the procedures to the letter. Our body shop program is a training center for the stuff and it works very well, if applied correctly. I have never shot the stuff but my neighbors (body shop) do almost daily.

 

I knew this was the direction of the waterborne stuff in the 90's. Boeing had a spec out for it because they had to for environmental reasons. We got the contract and therefore had to use it. The paint manufacturers just hadn't caught up to the changing industry standards being set out then. We used a LOT of MEK to thin paint and clean parts with. When we cleaned parts we were offered no respirators, no gloves, no outside air full face masks, nothing. I quit when my long hair all broke off and my face had chemical burns that didn't fully go away for a year afterwards. I wore tyveks and a spray sock with a 3M half mask, but that was just not enough. So even though the waterborne stuff sucked as a paint, it at least wasn't killing me.

 

Check out TCP Global. Used both of their own brand single stage urethane and acrylic enamel . I had pretty good luck with both. Way , way cheaper than the name brand stuff.

 

Got a friend down here that buys a pallet load of Gillespie every spring, so I can get it from him and avoid the HazMat fees.

I plan on doing my M38a1 in 34052 USMC Lusterless Forest Green, and my M880 with 34094 "383" CARC green.