brushable body color paint

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Robert Bondi
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brushable body color paint

Post by Robert Bondi »

I was just wondering what other people do for body color paint solutions? The application which occurs frequently
for me is engine bay, under the car, frame rails, etc....where the goal is to put on body color and protect from rust. This isn't the car exterior, so it doesn't need to be spray-on and glossy beautiful; however, the application area tends to be larger than jobs for a 1 or 2 oz touch up bottle. I also don't want to spend hours masking off areas from overspray for these types of applications.

On my Polaris 530i, Rustoleum silver with a 1" brush works well for these applications. My restoration project is Fjord Blau - not a common color, so the Rustoleum solution doesn't work.

I've bought both sprayable and touch up paint products from https://www.paintscratch.com/ over the years. Paint ready to spray is too thin to brush on. I ran this question by their customer service, but it seems to be beneath them to answer questions about brushing on their paint. I also can't get anyone there on a phone thanks to COVID-19 and email-only customer service responses only produce unhelpful one sentence replies.
Robert
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77 Euro 528
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maybeillbuyit
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by maybeillbuyit »

I recently had custom spray paint cans mixed by local auto parts place. They sell Spraymax paint. I used it to repaint the inner fender and new battery tray in the engine bay after careful masking. I have also used Small cans of Rustoleum brushable paint to mix up a color that closely matches my Chamonix car. It works well but the Fiord would be impossible to make as they don't have a blue as far as I know. Maybe theres a brushable premixed paint already out on the market that matches the Fjord? Not sure. I have lots of surface rust areas on my car so I'm in the same boat as you. i just want to cover up little areas to stop the rust spreading.
Maybe theres a way to tint white Rustoleum or similar paint. I just did a google and found a few possible options
1977 530i another project
1979 635csi Euro "project"
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Mike W.
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Mike W. »

If you can get oil based paints where you are the local hardware store may be able to help. The one here in town seems to mix stuff and some of their metal paints even come in a "base" not a color. Rustoleum or similar.

I know you specifically mentioned brushing, but a compressorless option is the Preval system. It's a great option for small jobs, although it may still be too large for what you are mentioning. Just put the paint in the jar, thinned of course, and spray it on.

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Mike W.



1980 528i, 3.5 euro, 5 speed conversion
1981 528i, 3.6, Recaros and more. Project
1998 328is, quick and efficient, but not satisfying
2000 528iit, Vacation mobile/wife's grocery getter
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Robert Bondi
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Robert Bondi »

Hey guys,
I appreciate the thoughts....

Yeah, my own searching uncovered the possibility of tinting Rustoleum, although that service sounded
discontinued. I'll need to look a bit further there.

That's a good idea on color matching at a local HW store. I always thought if was a latex-only service,
but definitely worth asking. I bet metallics can be tricky. I wonder what the base color would be - perhaps silver.
Fjord blau really does seem like silver with a touch of blue.

Preval: Oh yeah, that's a great product. I've been using that since 2015 on larger areas where I really
want it to look nice, but I still leave exterior areas to a professional job. I spent a crazy amount of time on the inside
of the hood on the 528 and eventually did Preval spray over it after a thorough POR-15 treatment of rust areas.
While the Preval atomized droplets are heavier and don't go as far as a compressor system or even spray cans, I still find I'm doing hours of masking... and for good reason.

As you might imagine, the hood inside is fairly easy as far as masking; I basically just covered the whole engine bay in plastic. A small brush is so nice though on all those little nooks and crannies where you can just reach your hand, but you wouldn't dare spray into it.
Robert
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Mike W.
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Mike W. »

Since you're trying to get a close match with, have you gone to a auto paint store and tried buying a pint of single stage the right color. Sure, it's meant to be sprayed, but you could always brush it on. Brushing metallic is bound to be less than perfect, but for under the hood it shouldn't be a problem. Here in Calif an end user can't buy auto paint in most of the state, although I'm just outside of the restrictions, but in TX I wouldn't think it would be a problem.
Mike W.



1980 528i, 3.5 euro, 5 speed conversion
1981 528i, 3.6, Recaros and more. Project
1998 328is, quick and efficient, but not satisfying
2000 528iit, Vacation mobile/wife's grocery getter
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528i-1981
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by 528i-1981 »

Mike W. wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:18 pm Here in Calif an end user can't buy auto paint in most of the state
Wow.
(oo=00=oo) Eric
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by HB528i »

I can buy it here in Orange County.
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Robert Bondi
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Robert Bondi »

Mike W. wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 12:18 pm Since you're trying to get a close match with, have you gone to a auto paint store and tried buying a pint of single stage the right color. Sure, it's meant to be sprayed, but you could always brush it on. Brushing metallic is bound to be less than perfect, but for under the hood it shouldn't be a problem. Here in Calif an end user can't buy auto paint in most of the state, although I'm just outside of the restrictions, but in TX I wouldn't think it would be a problem.
Good question. Yes, I've sourced auto paint from two different places for use with Preval. I also tried to brush on both of those paints. The problem is that brush application tends to dissolve whatever is already on the surface...primer, previous paint, a first coat of the auto paint, etc...The problem is likely caused by the solvent-heavy composition and thin nature of the paint straight out of the can. Attempting to brush it on results in a mess of spreading around thin paint with very little pigment. Friction from the brush is a problem. Perhaps some way to roll it on would work, but that leads back to large open surfaces again that could be sprayed anyway. It would also be a problem finding a roller that would tolerate the solvent content. I'm pretty sure foam brushes would also be dissolved by the paint, so I stick with regular bristle brushes. Maybe a real high end bristle brush with extremely fine silky bristles would help, but it's just a guess.

Trying a local hardware store to color match an oil-based paint intended for metal is at the top of my list to try next. Rustoleum is an oil-based paint.

This is a much tougher problem than it should be.
Robert
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528i-1981
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by 528i-1981 »

This may be a bone-headed suggestion, but could you allow some of the volatile solvents in the spray-on formulation to evaporate before brushing on? Maybe do a test by allowing a sample of spray-on paint to achieve a good brush-on consistency before application.
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Robert Bondi
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Robert Bondi »

Yeah, I thought about the thicken by evaporation strategy, but was really only going to try it as a last resort.

I checked in the paint dept. area on my last trip to Home Depot. It actually sounded pretty doable where a quart or larger of a
oil base PPG silver would be used for the color match. I'll need to prepare a sample with the sprayable Fjord Blau
I have and give it a try for color match. I'll report back on the outcome.

Robert
Robert
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Robert Bondi
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Robert Bondi »

Update: Local color matching for a brushable paint is proving to be difficult when I actually started going to places
with my sample. It turns out while Home Depot does mix color on-site using a base silver PPG for metallic finishes, it's not a color-match service, but instead picking from a catalog selection of about 40 programmed colors. I've also tried Lowes, PPG, and Ace Hardware. Color matching a sample in a metallic seems be be the real hang-up.

The local NAPA that handles paint on site is another option I might try.

As a desperation attempt, my next next move is actually going to be to start with a can of Rustoleum Aluminum (silver) and
a Rustoleum blue. I'll try my hand at a color match by using a pipette to just barely tint the silver with blue. That's what Fjord Blau looks like: silver with just a touch of blue. With two 0.5 pint cans, this is only a $25 experiment. I'll report back with the results.
Robert
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Mike W.
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Mike W. »

In a FWIW, I recently saw, I think on Mye28 although I can't find it at the moment, something that said the trunk and engine areas were done with non metallic paint. Same color as the body, but simply non metallic. And in my minds eye that seems right. Also you can buy metallic powder if you need to turn plain into metallic.
Mike W.



1980 528i, 3.5 euro, 5 speed conversion
1981 528i, 3.6, Recaros and more. Project
1998 328is, quick and efficient, but not satisfying
2000 528iit, Vacation mobile/wife's grocery getter
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by canada karl »

In a related paint matter. I'm trying to match the color of a replaced rear fender to the rest of the car using the correct spray can code. I know this is very difficult due to 44 years of fading on the original paint job but i would like to get close anyway. It's sort of a bronze copper color. Seems to me that the original paint job loses it's "metallic" look over the years so I might get a better match going with non metallic?
Do all paint codes come in a base and a metallic? Is the metallic aspect added to the paint?
1976 530i. BMW 59 Triumph TR3A(rolling resto). 67 Triumph TR4A(salvageable). 86 900S Winter car
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Robert Bondi
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Re: brushable body color paint

Post by Robert Bondi »

Mike W. wrote: Sun Jul 04, 2021 12:22 pm In a FWIW, I recently saw, I think on Mye28 although I can't find it at the moment, something that said the trunk and engine areas were done with non metallic paint. Same color as the body, but simply non metallic. And in my minds eye that seems right. Also you can buy metallic powder if you need to turn plain into metallic.
Interesting. Thanks, Mike. I'll take a closer look next time i'm out there. Further evidence of less importance on exact matching when doing these less visible areas....
Robert
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