How to hand paint a landy(with pictures)

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landrover11019

Active Member
Posts
850
Location
essex
As it comes up alot on here about how to hand paint a landy, I thought I would show you how I do it.
I'm not for 1 minute saying i'm an expert, i'm just going to show you what works for me.

My landy before;

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Depending on the condition of your paint, there are several ways of rubbing it down and prepareing it for painting. If your paint is basically in good condition but very faded, a medium scotchbrite will probably be good enough. A scotchbrite is just like the scouring pads you use for washing up, only bigger and avalible in fine, medium and corse.
The first thing you need to do is strip the outside of your landy, lights, bullbars,spotlights, decals etc etc.
I find the best way of removeing decals is to pour boiling water on them first as this softens the adhesive and then slowly peel them off. Any residue can then be removed useing white spirit.

Once you have rubbed down your paint you are left with something looking like this;
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Make sure you pay special attention to where the panels meet and get your rubbing down paper into the joints;
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When your happy with your rubbing down, give the whole landy a good wash and jetwash, it's very important to remove all the dust. Leave over night to dry.
I always take the bonnet of for painting as I find it easier.
The next thing is what paint to use, I always use synthetic as it does not react with existing paint. My local car paint shop mix any colour I want in synthectic and I always buy from them unless i'm doing a military colour, then I use this guy;
SNV30338.jpg

I use a satin/egshell finish as it is easier to clean, whatever you do, don't use matt finish, it really shows the dirt and is a git to keep clean. 5 litres of NATO light stone cost me £40 plus VAT. I also ordered from the same guy 3 500ml satin finish NATO green aerosols for my cammo finish, the whole lot came to £90 inc postage and was delivered the next day.

What do you need to paint with?
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A 4inch gloss roller and 2 short pile gloss rollers, good quality half inch and 1 inch paint brushes. I use hamilton brushes as I find they give an excellent finish, don't use cheepo brushes, the hairs fall out and the paint retention is crap. Good brushes will last a long time and will give a good finish. You will also need white spirit and some clean cotton rags.
When I buy a new tin of paint, I store it upside down in the airing cupboard over night, this makes it easier to stir well and apply. Cold paint is hard to stir and hard to work with.
When you are ready to paint, wipe the whole landy over with a clean cloth and some white spirit to get rid of any dust/grease that may still be on the landy.
I start with the rear n/s panel 1st and paint the fiddly bits and the bits I can't get at with the roller first.
When useing the roller, I start with horizontal strokes 1st;
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I then finsh with light vertical strokes;
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Do 1 panael at a time and take your time, don't rush.
Make sure you work the paint right into the panel joints;
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When I paint the winscreen surround, I paint right upto the rubber, I find it helps keep the winscreen rubber waterproof;
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When the paint is dry I then paint the rubber black with a small artists brush;
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When you paint the vent flaps, make sure you leave them open or the paints will stick them shut!!(found that out the hard way)
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A picture of a painted and unpainted panel;
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Don't for get to paint your wheels as well, I use a small artists brush for the edges;
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Whilst the wheels are off, give the hubs a coat of paint as well;
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I gave my landy 2 coats of paint, leaveing a day between coats and used 2.5 litres of paint.

The finished job;

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Some others I have done in the past.
rambo002.jpg

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Hope this helps someone when it comes to painting thier landy!!!!

Richard
 
nice, im going to be doing mine in the next couple of weekends i think. think il go for really really dark gloss green, then wheels and other bits black. is the last pic of the green series done with just gloss and some polish, or have you lacquered it?

when i was in the local paint suppliers place, the guy said if i paint with a roller, it introduces air into the paint, so i should run back over lightly with a brush? ever heard of that?

cheers
karl
 
Deep bronze green is the last one, just polished with car polish when it was dry.
Never heard of air getting into the paint via a roller.
 
I tried the mini rollers, starting on the roof, and it didn't work well for me, it was creating a lot of bubbles. I switched to brush on the sides, and, well... that didn't work well either. I discovered too late that the Tekaloid paint I used really does need some thinning, despite advice to the contrary.

Now I have a truck that is all one color (well, two if you count the white roof), but has a lot of runs and varying levels of finish from matte to gloss. I've tried wet sanding it but the thickness of the paint is so inconsistent that it ends up rubbing through in spots before the thick runs are smoothed down.

I'm wishing that instead of marine blue, I had followed my initial plan and painted it NATO sand in matte or satin.

I also learned later that I could have bought the paint in spray cans. It would have been a bit more money, but I could have done a much better job spraying, and the finish would have been consistent enough to polish.

Live and learn.
 
mini rollers foam one s leave bubbles try the mohair ones but make sure you wash them well first.Most of the decorators use foam to get paint on then brush to lay off(when time is short) but when doing work for themselves they use mohair.I'm going to look into a product it's made by jotun paints can be mixed to most colours bs/ral it's used on shipping containers and exterior metal work.From wat i no so far would be great on chassis and think it wuld be ok for body work but need more info first.
 
Hello,

can I just ask how well roller-applied nato green stands up to jet-washing?

Thanks :)

I've used the petrol jet washers at frickley on mine and it didn't take the nato off. It took the paint off that was on when I got it though so by my calculations nato is harder wearing than normal paint... but that was obvious.
 
has as much to do with how well the prep work is done , light wet and dry flatting or a good key with coarser grade .
 
I'm in abit of a situation... Well not really but, the prev owner 'got it ready for a camo paint job' but it looks to me like he has got a tin of the ****test paint he could find then just slapped it straight on with a brush.. Some areas are peeling off, some areas arnt covered very well at all, some have quite a good finish.

I was going to just go round it with a sander, then use a lighter paper to key it abit. You recOn that should be ok? Or will I have to go right back to metal and prime it? Il only have a weekend, 3 days max to do it in! :-(
 
I'm in abit of a situation... Well not really but, the prev owner 'got it ready for a camo paint job' but it looks to me like he has got a tin of the ****test paint he could find then just slapped it straight on with a brush.. Some areas are peeling off, some areas arnt covered very well at all, some have quite a good finish.

I was going to just go round it with a sander, then use a lighter paper to key it abit. You recOn that should be ok? Or will I have to go right back to metal and prime it? Il only have a weekend, 3 days max to do it in! :-(

No need to go back to bare metal, if it's really rough use some sandpaper to get it smoothish and then go over the whole lot with some medium wet and dry to key or 'flat' it.
 
Dont see the point in doing half a job ???? if your going to sand it all back , why not pick up a spray gun and get a much better finish and will not only look better but will last longer?

Everyone does things different i supose but i would be ****ed off if someone painted my landy with a roller and hand brush but thats me!!!
 
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