Painting a car with household emulsion?

[spoodler]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, but I'd doubt its relevance to the followers of "Bodywork and detailing".

As per title...
Has anyone on here painted a car with household emulsion? If so, I'd be interested in your experience...

Anyone tried to remove it to carry out a decent job afterwards?

Cheers.




To add a bit of context... I am hoping to have my old van ready for an event in about six weeks time. In less than a fortnight, I have surgery, after that there will be a period of about a month recuperating (and not being allowed in the garage doing grubby work). There is no point in a decent paint job as the bodywork isn't finished, plus it's too damp in my garage at the moment anyway. I have some quality English Heritage red emulsion...

Edited by spoodler on Wednesday 22 February 15:33

Edited by spoodler on Wednesday 22 February 15:34

[Louis Balfour]

spoodler said:

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, but I'd doubt its relevance to the followers of "Bodywork and detailing".

As per title...
Has anyone on here painted a car with household emulsion? If so, I'd be interested in your experience...

Anyone tried to remove it to carry out a decent job afterwards?

Cheers.

I once owned a Mini that had been painted with magnolia household emulsion and a roller. I didn't do it myself. It was remarkably robust, though.

It also had white Weller wheels, a 6ft CB aerial and a red heartbeat line along the sides. It was nothing if not eye catching and the local police would often stop me to compliment me on owning such a unique motor car.

I cannot comment on the second part of your question, because I sold it whilst it was still in magnolia. To an Irish chap, who probably liked dags.

[swisstoni]

Sounds like the worst paint job since this

[spoodler]

Louis Balfour said:

spoodler said:

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, but I'd doubt its relevance to the followers of "Bodywork and detailing".

As per title...
Has anyone on here painted a car with household emulsion? If so, I'd be interested in your experience...

Anyone tried to remove it to carry out a decent job afterwards?

Cheers.

I once owned a Mini that had been painted with magnolia household emulsion and a roller. I didn't do it myself. It was remarkably robust, though.

It also had white Weller wheels, a 6ft CB aerial and a red heartbeat line along the sides. It was nothing if not eye catching and the local police would often stop me to compliment me on owning such a unique motor car.

I cannot comment on the second part of your question, because I sold it whilst it was still in magnolia. To an Irish chap, who probably liked dags.

I think the previous owner of your Mini may well have sold me a Triumph Vitesse many moons back... By then he'd graduated to household gloss... and, "Yes" the local constabulary did find it a remarkably interesting car with its red stripe and wooden bumpers.

[Truckosaurus]

Have a look at the 'HubNut' youtube channel where he hand painted his Reliant Fox pickup.

It was a nice bright blue colour, but not sure what sort of paint it was.

(I've just googled it...)

[SkodaIan]

Years ago, I remember the painter and decorator who often did work on my parents house trying to tart up his Maestro van with some decorators caulk and the end of a tin of emulsion he had spare.
It covered up the rust, but didn't look very good......

Although it will look rubbish, it will still be hard to get all of the emulsion off before doing the job properly with real car paint. Better option would be to just use the van unpainted and then clean it up again afterwards.

[Nickbrapp]

It would involve buying the stuff but you could use plasti dip, it goes on with a roller and then peels off in a big sheet like vinyl does.

[TwistingMyMelon]

Years ago I was at my grandparents and my dad and I realised my grandad (who did 0 DIY) had covered up the bumper scrapes on his white Rover 600 with White emulsion!!

Er well it looked white ....

[JuniorD]

I would recommend you first check whether doing so will void your van insurance, esp, if you're with AXA

[spoodler]

Truckosaurus said:

Have a look at the 'HubNut' youtube channel where he hand painted his Reliant Fox pickup.

It was a nice bright blue colour, but not sure what sort of paint it was.

(I've just googled it...)

Cheers for that, I did Google but most related to gloss paint, not emulsion.

I have brush painted/roller painted vehicles in the past, and had great results, but have used coach enamel and similar.

[spoodler]

JuniorD said:

I would recommend you first check whether doing so will void your van insurance, esp, if you're with AXA

Ha... I've seen that thread, eye opener. After what's been done to my van (change of wheels, lights, dash, seats, steering, engine, transmission, bodywork), I doubt there is anything left I could do that would void the insurance... Thankful for specialist insurers.

[ingenieur]

Emulsion is the wrong kind of paint as it's water soluble even after curing. So if left out in the rain the paint will eventually wash off.

However, household paint can be used effectively to paint cars as long as you choose oil based traditional gloss. Though with the cost of DIY materials as they are today you might as well just buy the correct automotive paint instead of household gloss.

The quality of the finish obtained with automotive paint is all about the application method. Assuming of course you start with a properly prepared panel in the first instance.

If you spray it on you get an instantly good looking finish which can be further cut and polished to get up to show standard. A roller is probably the worst choice as the dimples it leaves have less chance of flattening compared with the streaks left by a fine paint brush.

Historically before spray painting was the primary method coach builders would paint their bodies (of the cars they made) with gloss using a brush. They would then polish the paint back to get the final streak free finish.

[Bestle]

Would you not be better off DIY'ing a wrap? Would be much easier to remove when it's ready to be painted.

[covmutley]

Tekaloid coach paint, which is brush on. Ive never used it, but was reserching for interior paint and lots of threads on here recommending it if you have a search.

Edited by covmutley on Wednesday 22 February 17:02

[gshughes]

Emulsion is water soluble, so not ideal. Gloss is not water soluble so would be a better choice I think.

[spoodler]

ingenieur said:

Emulsion is the wrong kind of paint as it's water soluble even after curing. So if left out in the rain the paint will eventually wash off.

However, household paint can be used effectively to paint cars as long as you choose oil based traditional gloss. Though with the cost of DIY materials as they are today you might as well just buy the correct automotive paint instead of household gloss.

The quality of the finish obtained with automotive paint is all about the application method. Assuming of course you start with a properly prepared panel in the first instance.

If you spray it on you get an instantly good looking finish which can be further cut and polished to get up to show standard. A roller is probably the worst choice as the dimples it leaves have less chance of flattening compared with the streaks left by a fine paint brush.

Historically before spray painting was the primary method coach builders would paint their bodies (of the cars they made) with gloss using a brush. They would then polish the paint back to get the final streak free finish.

Thanks, I've properly restored and painted vehicles previously and pretty much agree with your comments. I've cut back and polished brushed enamel to a glass like finish. A mate of mine restores horse drawn carriages and all are brushed, the finish is superb.
I've also used emulsion to repaint the wheels on a classic, the satin magnolia was the closest match I could find to factory, at the time. However, I don't recall how well it lasted, or how easy it was to remove when the time came to do the job properly.

[Wacky Racer]

Emulsion paint is not as durable as oil based paint.

Really intended for house ceilings and walls, it washes off with water when cleaning brushes off though.

[swanseaboydan]

I used hammerite on one of my motorbikes once - looked awesome - I did it black with a silver stripe

[Pflanzgarten]

I can imagine parking it up and having a faint outline of it after a few weeks rain on your drive

[spoodler]

In case anyone is interested... and apologies to those of you into detailing (you'll no doubt have nightmares now).
The van in question - the matt black is looking scruffy, and he was mauled by a camper van on a narrow lane (I've since repaired the damage). Absolutely no chance of doing the job properly, a repair is needed to the windscreen pillar, plus there are various small areas that would need attention. Also, because of the impending surgery... just sat here biding time and wondering about giving it a splash of colour before I'm confined to the sofa for a month...
Chances are, I'll just carry on sorting a few of the smaller bits and bobs that can be brought indoors.
I think I'll probably have to accept that I've run out of time.

Edited by spoodler on Wednesday 22 February 17:17