How to rollerpaint your van (under £100!)
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- Опубликовано: 22 май 2020
- We roller-painted our entire van for under £100. We sand our entire campervan down, and roller painted our campervan instead of spray painting the van. We show you our journey of roller painting our van conversion and show you the tricks and tips we learnt by roller painting our van build.
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#rollerpaintingavan #rollerpaint #vanconversion
![Roller painting Vivaro campervan using Coach paint [DIY on Budget]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qZFxtKMuCGE/mqdefault.jpg)
I can’t say enough about your patience and outlook on this project. Amazing, and congratulations!
Thank you so much 😀
Guys don't understand why you don't have more views, really like your videos, they are so informative.
Thank you, glad you find them helpful 😊
Amazing job you guys, I love the new colour and it looks amazing 😊
Thanks so much Sue :)
At first I was thinking, umm no no no, but finish product, I'm amazed, good job.
Thanks, we are still very happy with the result.
The base coat did look rather dramatic 😂 - but that's how it's supposed to look as we did a very thin coat
Great video guys! I've seen this video pop up a few times but never watched it, great job! I've done 2 vans, each with about 3-4 coats but we did a 4:1 ratio and yes I recommend the micro fibre rollers any day over the foam ones 👍
Yeah we did a second painting run after this video a year later to change it to Matt and only used the fibre rollers - the result is much cleaner and we think the effect is much better 😎
@@FreedomStrider awesome! Yes it looked very tidy at the creator meet!
Awesome job! I’m thinking of doing my van so this was very helpful 👍
Awesome!! 🙃
You guys!!!! This looks a thousand times better than I thought it would. The colour is stunning and the finish is perfect! So proud of you. It looked like super hard work. I vote for no more additional paintwork though. It looks perfect the way it is! xx
😊 Thanks! We are so happy with the finish and quite surprised that it looks that good. And we are loving the colout more and more. It was such a workout - neither of us had felt more tired (not even after 100K step challenge) 😂 xx
Your effort and patience was great and finally, you got the result wonderful just wonderful , everything did amazingly stay safe
Thanks so much 😊 - stay safe too
@@FreedomStrider You are welcome and should be connecting for more strong connections
That looks great after all, now you made me think because I want to get a van to convert like yours. There's a van that suits in my budget that I really like but its in white, but I don't like white. Now you gave me an idea how to change the colour in cheaper way. Thanks
We never wanted white, we wanted a dark colour van, but when researching vans to buy, black or dark vans were very rare. So, we always had the idea to change the colour, but it was only after we got the van that roller painting occurred to us and it was such a relief to have that flexibility. We definitely recommend it - it is difficult to get factory finish with rollers (it takes skill handling the rollers) - and our finish would classify as 'quirky' 😂, but that was our aim so it worked for us.
Great job and such hard work. Like Fredrik I think that keeping it plain without embellishments is the best option and far more elegant.
Cheers! We love the results... Still might do something extra but like you said it is elegant plain so whatever we do it shouldn't lose it... So we are not settled on anything 😊
I love the colour! And the dripping candle wax idea sounds interesting! 👍
It sounds interesting to us as well - we might do a tester, maybe on the back doors or something, and see what it looks like. 😎
Have fun with your van. And the music at last is fantastic ( 11:53 ) CONGRATS
Cheers! 👍😀
This is very cool; absolutely love the colour choice.
Thanks 😀
Wow !!!! Looks great guys👍🏻
Thanks, we love the look 🙂
🤩Good job. Amazing colour!
Thanks, we are really happy with how it turned out. 😊
Love the colour, you two are a pair of stars, if my wife see's this I know she is going to want me to do the same
Thanks Steve, we totally recommend it - it was not easy but roller painting was more enjoyable for us than spray painting - and the finish is great too. A more experienced hand can get it even better. 😀
Thank you guys for this ☺️
😊
Amazing results!!!!
Cheers!
Thank you soo much guys.
You're welcome 😄
Such a huge job! Well done 👍
Thank you! 👍 🙂
Beautifully done! 🙌🏼
Thanks!! 😊
Great job you two. Niiiiiiiiiice. I'm gonna embark on a similar project soon.
It was totally worth it - we love the result 😀 - the best piece of advice we have is to be patient... and take some pain killers after day 1 😂
Well done! I love to protect my Crafter’s paint, what you did is a nightmare for me at first but I gave you a thumbs up cuz you guys do whatever you believe and you are not materialistic. By the way I’m having the exact VW Crafter in Germany since last month and wanna build it with money I’ll get from selling out of my first motor home. I do travel to do LED & Solarpanel marketing and been living the whole 2017 in my motor home.
Thanks so much. 😊 And I can understand how conflicting roller painting a vehicle can be - I mean, we love the result and we would do it again, but it wasn't a fast decision. I think when it came down to it, we just felt quite relieved that at least one part of the conversion can be a little more carefree and that the style of finish we got is what we wanted. Definitely, if we wanted smooth, roller painting is not the best option 😀 👍
Freedom Strider by the way do you know what is the worth in van life? Water shortage! You’ll never get it till you are stocked with no water!!! Don’t ever think people are so kind to let you get some water even if you pay!! It happened to me all the time with my 80 Liter freshwater tank. In my new van build I’ll going with three fresh water tanks up to 600-700 Liters! BUT I’ll just feel up according my experience in different area! Like places I know I can easily get water I’ll feel less but when I’m in a place which have to drive long long to get water I’ll just feel up more! And don’t worry about the crafter’s ability it will be fine. You’ll thank me later. Keep up the good job
Thanks for the tip. Personally, I don't know how comfortable we'll feel eve trying to ask people for water, our neighbours don't even like to lend us a pair of pliers for 2 mins. But I can imagine the water issue when more remote. With our weight limit at the moment, anything over 200L, we wouldn't have the weight capacity for. But it is certainly a section of the build to think on more. Thanks 😀
Well done, team! There were a few moments that you looked a tad stressed...🤯 I bet you love painting after 5No coats. I have to say, the roller painting turned much better than I expected when you mentioned it.
The colour is lovely. I can't imagine melted candle but I am most definitely up for adding a small character "feature" (maybe in orange 😁🧡)
Coat 4 stressed me out because of the big roller, the rest of the time I was pretty chill - minus the muscle and rib pain 😂... and NO ORANGE. 😝
@@FreedomStrider I don't know what you have against orange...
Even without orange the van looks great
Orange doesn't go with the bluey grey green!! :P
Came out good! I rollered my van, never again, way too patchy and stressful haha
I can see how it can easily become stressful before we started we made a deal that it was going to take however long it was going to take and that we will work with however it turns out. We tried to limit our expectations because we would have stressed too - and we got lucky with the weather so it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. 😄
I was very worried after the first coat! I was thinking omg what have they done? To be fair, it's turned out incredibly well. Lots of hand painted vans have flat or inconsistent shaded area's, this looks really really good. Great tenacity, your hard work was thoroughly rewarded. Well done guys! 👍
Thank you! 😊The only thing we'd say is to go with a matt paint instead of gloss/satin - we repainted the van in the same colour, but matt about a year after and it turned out even better than this. 👍
@@FreedomStrider thanks guys really good tip to know. I think your sanding inbetween coats really helped with the finish. Incidentally, can you remember what grit sand paper you used?
400 - 800 ( I think) 😊
If anything, try random flicks of paint from a loaded brush. I would do one corner to corner rear doors. Follow this with more flicks around the sides and front bonnet. Good luck👍
Great idea! Might try it - though I should do some test first 😀
After the first coat I though oh no 🤦♂️ what have you done but with more coats the coverage got better. In the final shots it’s looks good and colour choice is nice. I vote not to go with candle drips. Just some nice black vinyl decals or your logo across the side
It's all about patience, the first coat was always meant to be thin, actually, it should have been thinner, I was just inexperienced with the foam rollers. We love the colour, it's like a chameleon, and is perfect for wild camping. The result was what we were aiming for so we'll definitely do it again. Vinyl is an option... probably not black, I want them almost watermark like - invisible until the light hits it a certain way... we'll see, we are still thinking over it. 🤔😀
What type of roller would you of used greg?
No leave it , looks great 👍
😀👍 Cheers!
Loving the colour !! Not sure a 'melted candle' look would go down well though. :)
Honestly, we are loving the colour more and more each day, it is quite the chameleon! And we are still pondering on the melting candle look, or maybe something else cool 😉
Damaged Goodz I think it’s gonna be warm in there with that dark colour
We're working on the insulation and relectix now as we speak :) + who doesn;t like a sauna? 😉
Nice job!
Thanks! ☺️👍
Well done! 👍 My van is white which is brilliant on a number of points. White is stealthy. White is very cool in the summer, but I always fancied a pale blue with fake rust effects in brown & and orange shades. These effects would be in all the usual rust spots. My other idea was a camouflage design of green, brown and a kind rust red. I've never heard or seen a dripping wax design... but whatever floats your boat. Like I say, really like the light blue/duck egg blue with rust accents. When you said you were rollering your van, I THOUGH YOU'D USE RAPTOR paint, it's VERY hard-wearing. I think the paint was breaking you your foam rollers down, as in dissolving the foam.. I would rattle can a clear coat when you've finished painting. I totally agree with dispelling this myth that it must be a factory finish.👍🍷
The paint we used was military-grade vehicle paint, and white spirit based so the rollers should have 'theoretically' worked, but what you said could be true. We also think it might have been the amount of pressure we were putting on them to spread the paint around as where they were breaking was where there was the most pressure put on them.
We called the paint company to ask them about the clear coat; they said that this paint doesn't need it, just to let it dry naturally for up to a week without getting wet (which thankfully, it survived!)
We chose to go forest stealthy rather than city stealthy, hence the greeny/bluey/grey result (depending on the sunlight angle, it can be all 3!). We debated this stealth factor for a long while, but in the end we ended up getting tired of the grey colour that the van was; it kept merging with the sky in this country, which makes for really dull thumbnails! 😂
We've never head of raptor paint before, but its something to look into for future builds 😄
If its a crafter or sprinter just paint it, the rust spots will come quick enough by themselves!
@@inventor1v 😂😂😂😂😂👍 Mine a is galvanised Citroen Relay and I've seen plenty of old style and I've not seen any rust on them, so I am hopeful.👍
Great job 👏🏻
Thanks ☺️
Thanks for this great video! I'm just about to start painting my LWB sprinter with a matte nato green paint (same type of paint you used). Could you tell me how much paint you used? So far I have 5ltr of green and 2.5ltr of black. Hopefully that will be enough but I'd rather buy more now if necessary due to the long delivery times. Once I've started I can't stop until its done!
We ended up buying 2x 5L tins, and did 5 full coats (well only 2 on the roof) and we had some leftover too. So with some thinning 7.5L might just be enough 😎 👍
I painted my VW Bus with a roller and brush, it turned out good. What I did was tape the new roller with masking tape . So that when I pulled the tape off all the loose fibers came off with the tape. Not on the bus in the paint.
That's genius 😎 we'll be using this masking tape trick next time.
That's awesome..its what I want to do with mine
It's a great option for an adventure vehicle and to be honest, I think every future vehicle I own will be roller painted 😉
Nice job guys
Thanks 😊
I think it looks great as it is, because the more stuff you add to the outside the harder it is to really look like a normal van (being stealthy in cities). My thoughts are that you leave it like this. 🤔😊
Very true, which is why we are still pondering it, we really want to make the van our own but the stealthy-ish aspect is a huge influence on what we do. We love that we painted it like this and love the colour as it becomes very nondescript, almost black and night, melting into its surroundings 😎
@@FreedomStrider yeah i though that as well. I really like the color. At night the add-ons wouldn't be a problem but when it's day with dripps or stickers it stands out more. This color can look like a ups or some company van and not a camper van.
We've actually noticed our colour is very similar to the Amazon Prime vans that keep driving by our house delivering us the van build stuff that we order :D Maybe we can disguise ourselves as an amazon van...noone will chase us away then. 😄
Great colour and perseverance. Perhaps, like others I could recommend some decals trees, compass black and/or white would look good. What brand of paint did you use? And did you change the mix of the paint for later layers, at all? Initially seemed very funny, but then better later? How was the paintwork finished? Any high grade sanding and polishing? Thanks (ford transit long wheelbase to paint).
I meant runny, not funny. Well the natural comedy did come through too. Well done.
Thanks we are really happy with the results 😀
We used Military Vehicle paint form paints4trade. We did play with the paint mix, it was trial and error, but the basecoat was 3:1, the 2nd and 3rd 4:1 and the final 2 were 5:1 mix. I think I might start with 4:1 next time - but the important thing is that the basecoat was the thinest.
We did sand between each coat, but I think we could have been braver and sanded abit more. The company were we got the paint said the this paint doesn't require a special finish, so haven't applied clearcoat or any extra polish. We were abit concerned about that but the paint has held up really well.
Hi, hard work but how satisfying to peel the tape at the end 🤓. Unconventional to be sure but isn’t Van life also unconventional? I’d love to see periodic updates on how the paint has stood the test of time (and off the beaten track travel).
Well a year later the paint is still holding up just fine, it has scratches and such from normal use but that hasn't chopped the main or anything. Any places where it was really hard to sand well is the only places where there's any sign of the paint loosening 😎
Are there repercussions from DVLA or insurance from changing the colour? Curious if this affects paperwork stuff with title etc? Great video!
With the DVLA, you have to fill in the colour change of your V5C form, you tick a box and state the new colour, and mail it off to DVLA. It's free apart from the stamp. In terms of insurance...no the insurer don;t know the colour, they work off the DVLA I think.
Great work! Did you sand everything in between coats or just the areas where the roller's "fluff" came off onto the van?
In the beginning we were too timid and just light sanded the fluff areas but in the later coats we bravely sanded all the paint between coats - this worked alot better and if we were to paint it all again we would sand everything between each coat
We weren't going for a smooth finish but if you were trying to replicate a factory smooth finish with rollerpainting, then sanding in between each coat is necceassy 👍
Freedom Strider Awesome!! Thank you for the reply, I’m going to give it a go this weekend
Freedom Strider What did you use the acetone and isopropyl alcohol for?
We used them for the initial clean - the isopropyl for any surface grease and the acetone was the only thing that removed the glue marks from the previous owner's stickers.
Good job ❤❤
This is exactly how I painted my Mercedes S Class and my VW LT35 that I live in... I used 5 litres of Miltary RAF Blue/Grey Enamelled.
How did the paint hold up against the elements over the years? It feels pretty sturdy stuff, and it ins't chipping or anything so feels like it will last a while.
@@FreedomStrider Well what I do is keep flattening it back if theres a scratch and repainting parts and let it build up a bit, I don't like perfect paint anyway. When folk see a ratty S class covered in dust and looks used in the car park they know that its driven hard with zero fawks and they either love it or hate it. I'll admit I do like ratty rusty cars anyway. The whole Body shop resprays and perfect paint and shiny don't appeal to me at all. Plus the bonus is a nice time served oxide finish.
Im three months pregnant and I plan on switching to van life ❤. I have 6 months to get a license, buy a van and start building it.
I dont plan om finishing it fully till after the baby. I just want to get the outside done, the bed build, have it insulated (I wont need the ac during the winter, I can wait till Spring to do that) and main furniture built. Decor can wait till I buy an PO box at the UPS store ❤.
That's a great plan... 😃❤️ Congratulations on the baby. We would love to see the layout you go with.
@@FreedomStrider Thank you! And I plan on creating a youtube channel once I start.
First start is moving back to my home state bc jobs pay more and there is no shopping tax (NH).
I have found a few older vans (between 2012-2016) that I have contacted.
Hey, great video... I'm about to paint my van with the same paint.. I'm wondering why you decided to thin the paint out? It says on the website to do that if you're spray painting, other videos I've seen, they tend to just whack it on in one or 2 coats? Thanks!
I called the company and they advised me to experiment with thinning the paint - they said to thin it more if I'm spray painting but to still thin it with roller painting.
From my experiments, the paint is already pretty runny so just whacking it on would work.
I would still recommend thinning the base coat at a 4:1 ratio (just to get a stable paintable surface that dries faster), then you can go undiluted.
Either way patience is most of what you need for this job 😉
@@FreedomStrider Ah I see.. that makes sense...
I've been too afraid to give it a go, but this heatwave is perfect!
Thanks
Great job! I didn't think it was going to work out half way through the video lol. But it looks good at the end. I only didn't really like the color at first, but then at the end it looked really good. Good work you two! Could you give me the paint code for that color? I think I'll paint my van the same color.
Thanks, we really love how the colour came out, each layer made it pop more than the last 🙂 We went with this paint: ebay.us/MjIhUz - The colour name was RAF Blue Grey, but there isn't any HEX colour code I can find but the company (Paints4Trade) might be able to provide it if you email them 👍
@@FreedomStrider Awesome! Thank you very much for the information. :)
How did you get rid of the dust after sanding? Or did you just leave it and paint over it?
We used microfiber cloths on the whole van (with white spirit) to remove as much dust as possible. Of course, you can't really remove all of it, but removing what you can is still better than none. 👍😉
Looks great 👍
You’re brave to try this ‘
Yes I think you should use some orange 🍊 on the van somewhere.
👍 Thanks 🙏
Thanks 😊
We'll think about spicing up the colour as we get into the swing of vanlife
Wow good job. What kind of paint did you use. Cheers. New subscriber
Thanks, we used military vehicle paint... from paints4trade, RAF blue grey (link is in the description)
Note: Matt looks better than glossy when roller painted... unless you are an absolute ninja with a roller.
@@FreedomStrider cheers m8
Weldone guys.
This is my favorite paint a van video.
5 coats Jeasus ?
Most videos on you tube get away with 2 coats which i bet is a lie.
My dark blue van is all prepared for painting , now just waiting for rain to stop.
Did you have to wait 24 hours before coats ?
Thanks for proving that foam rollers are rubbish as i was supposed to use them.
Thanks, it was quite an experience. ☺️
We waited 4 hours between coats - that's what our paint instructions said, so follow your own bucket.
The weather was the biggest problem with ours, we had to wait for a 3-4 day clear weather gap - with no frost or rain. But then the clear sunny sky does dry the paint faster so you have less time to spread the paint evenly before it becomes sticky. That's why the foam rollers were even worse for this job - they absorbed so much paint that I had to run up and down to get all the running streaks.
Conclusion: furry small rollers, clear skies and patience.
Sanding between coats helped a lot 👍
@@FreedomStrider Thank you again
How many short haired rollers to buy to paint whole van ?
I mean how many will break or tear ?
That's a hard one 😂 I went through 15-20 rollers (but most were foam) so I would say just buy a pack of 10-ish (they don't need to be expensive)
Note: when you start a new roller, the first few strokes will release some fluff. Best to have a tester surface to start the roller on and then continue on the van.
hi like the color and your van .can you pleas tell my how many liters did you need!
Thanks 😊
We used 7.5L -ish for 5 coats.
5L was enough for 3 coats on the 2 sides and the front ( bonnet) and 2 coats on the roof and back doors. We decided that a few more coats will make it look better and 2-3 coats still showed a little bit of the silver (looked like worn jeans).
@@FreedomStrider thans for the info do you choose the matt satin or the gloss ? thanks
We got gloss, but would probably favour the matt tones - they are much easier to blend. 😀👍
I've been looking on the military paint website. Was looking to get The RAF blue/grey paint myself.
The colour on the website looks very dark, but your van is quite blue. Lighter than you were expecting?
No, the RAF Blue grey changes its hue depending on the light. At nighttime it's almost black, a very dark colour, but in direct sunlight it can almost look loss green but an overcast day, it looks like a deep slate blue. We recorded the ending on a very sunny clear day, hence why it looks quite light in hue. 👍
@@FreedomStrider did you choose, gloss, satin or matt?
We used gloss for this coat 👍
Hi what sort of paint did you use please as doing mine at the weekend
We used Military Paint (colour RAF Grey Blue, link: ebay.to/3d0oxzs)
There is a delivery time on it, but this is what we used, all the best for painting 😊
@@FreedomStrider did you use matt, satin or gloss
Gloss, though matt would be easier to roll neater as the strokes are harder to see.
@@FreedomStrider thanks for the answer :)
Hi.
I've an old citroen relay I would like to do.
Could you tell me please what type of paint do you use.
Thank you
Paints4trade RAF Blue grey - military vehicle paint 🙂👍
You could have bought some cheap rattle cans and easily got a similar / better finish, it would have been quicker too.
It's the wrong type of van to RAT so I'd leave it alone.
I'm watching because I've just bought a tatty Ducato, spraying is awkward where I live due to potential over spray and nearby vehicles, hence why I am considering rolling. I don't really want to have to do 4 or 5 coats, with cans often 1 coat is enough and I've never needed more than 2. My mate did his with a brush and it doesn't look too bad.
Either way I need the whole thing done in a day.
Personally I would have left your van well alone as the paint was ok. My vans have all had masses of chips, dents and rust spots so something needed doing.
You may not need to do as many coats as we did - we needed them mainly because we went from a very light colour to a very dark one. Also, you can apply it thicker (we did thin it a bit too), though it will be harder to control drips.
Rattle cans are spray paint bottles right? Wouldn't you need quite a few of them for a whole van - they can get really expensive... unless you mean refillable ones?
You can definitely have 1 coat done in a day, as long as your surface has been cleaned and prepped before hand.
No melting candle finish! I was surprised at the end finish. Alloys and sun visor
Cheers! :)
How well has the paint held up?
Really well, after nearly 2 years now, there's been no fading or bubbling, even with the 'wear and tear' scratches and chips from regular driving. 👌
nice guys well done love it i to dont like factory finnish
Thanks! We love how it turned out and the level of creativity this method allows for.😊
I turned 74 the other day...and one thing that I learned a long time ago is.....
*If it ain't Broke....DON'T FIX IT !*
Leave your paint job as it is !
Liked/Subscribed !
Luckily, it was broken 😉
do you know what the different s is between matt and satin paint
Yes, we have repaited ours matt at the moment. The matt turned out better roller painted than the glossy satin. The more glossy the paint is the harder it is to hide the roller marks. When you roller the paint, depending on the direction you go, the light can hit sections differently, but the matt doesn't show that as much or at all.
The matt looks softer and smother like a wrap.
On the community tab - there is a picture of the van in matt - you can compare it with the satin results in the video.
Where did you get the paint from.i want to roller paint my Merc sprinter it's rusty I would love to do this
We got it from a company called paints4trade (here's a link to their eBay store: ebay.us/MjIhUz)
They have a fair few colours to choose from 👍 ours was RAF Blue Grey
@@FreedomStrider thanks I've bought the paint off the same company
Do you guys know a place where i can buy the paint you guys used in the EU?🙃
There's a link in the video description to the paint we bought, they are a UK company but might be able to shop to the EU 👍
what is the colour you got? olive or nato?
Niether actually the colour was "RAF Blue Grey" - it's a great colour you can't really define the shade entirely 👍
Nice job , but your van was perfect , why did you paint it ?
Sam does not look impressed with the melting candle effect :D - I'd say just go for some perhaps black decals like tree's and forests.
Sam just thinks that I'm a bit weird - he's used to it by now...he knows to just go along with it 😂
I don't know about black, I was thinking maybe using the same colour or a very similar hue to create texture, that is under certain angles and completely invisible at night just to maintain a level of stealthiness, most likely in the wilderness, not in the city :)
@@FreedomStrider What was the gloss and colour you went with in the end?
We went with Military Vehicle paint - RAF Blue/Grey Glossy (from paints4trade)
Hi guys. Admire you for sticking at it. Id say dont make the van look too 'interesting'. It might attract unwanted attention from the police in some countries, if they feel you could be a bit dodgy. Stay safe. 😆
Yeah...balance is good, its what stopped us from painting the hole van bright green, orange...well you can imagine. Perspective is key, that's why we went with a chameleon stealthy green/blue/grey colour instead.
Do you need to add clear coat again after roller painting?
For the paint we used, no, but if you use a different type, always check with the paint supplier. 😊
What kind of paint color is that
RAF blue grey
How’s the paint holding up now?
Really well, looking really good 🙂👍
I’ve recently bought military paint for my van and am trying to convince my partner to help start the painting job. He is convinced that if we paint now when it’s cold then the paint won’t stick, so I showed him your video (great paint job and vid btw) because you’ve painted in the colder months. He’s now asking how well the paint has lasted on the van and if the cold affected the drying time/ quality of finish?
Although we painted our van in March, it was actually rather warm (10-16C in the day, and down to 5C at night). Ideally, that is the limit for the temperatures you should be aiming for (no less than 5C for drying). We were actually in your situation last year, we bought the paint around this time last year and it sat in the cupboard over the winter - we kept checking the weather report (but it's the UK...so yeah it took a few months).
Also, the surface preparation takes a while, cleaning, sanding, masking and removing plastic panels would probably take 2 days, so daylight is an issue too. Depending on how many coats you are going for we would estimate the whole prep and painting process will take 3 - 7 days. Plan for a coat per day.
For right now, with the temperatures being close to 0C (day and night) we'd advise against it right now. There must be no frost, fog or rain when you're painting and leaving it to dry, and it needs to always be over 5C.
Our paint has lasted well, there are no problems. Some of the areas are quite hard to sand (curves etc...) and in those areas, there may be minor chipping (thankfully it is easily fixable). So we would also advise that you bravely sand the clear coat for the first coat, so that it sticks really well. And then sand between each coat, if you are going for a smoother finish, if not then freestyle it is. 😀👍
It's a really great experience, but it is a tough job and it can get really stressful if the weather is rushing us and we can't feel our fingers. So keep an eye on the weather and when the next heatwave hits, then jump right on it - flexibility is key. Good luck, let us know how it turns out. 😊👍
Hi 👋🏼 it’s been a year since this was uploaded. Do you have an update on how the paint has held up?
The paint is holding great, we are really happy with it. The best tip to get roller painting right is sanding - sand well before or the paint won't stick and sand between coats to smooth over drips and other bits.
Thinking of trying this myself. I have to say the first coat look very thin. Was there a reason for this? thx
Well, the military vehicle paint was thin, to begin with, and we thinned it down more - the first coat was 1:3 ratio thinner: paint (all the other coats were 1:4 and 1:5 ratio). Whether you roller paint or spraypaint your vehicle, it is recommended that you do thin coats anyway and layer them, that gives you time to sand between the coats. Also, we were going from a light colour to a very dark colour on a very sunny day, so you could tell the differencece drastically. 👍😊 By the 3rd coat, the colour was completely opaque, and we did 5 coats in the end.
@@FreedomStrider Thanks for the advice. 👍
Hello how much paint did you use please
We used around 1.5 tins of paint, so around 7.5L and that was for 5 coats
@@FreedomStrider thank you!
Did u wipe the dust off after sanding? 😟
Yes, yes we did (it took a while) 👍🙂
Lovely but how does it look 3 years later?
We repainted it with the same colour (but matt finish) a year after this video as we wanted it matt, which shows the roller marks and imperfections much less.
So 2 years later this still still going strong, a little sun faded and filled with scratches (as to be expected we are an adventure van) but no rust :)
It also is slightly peeling away at some of the hard to sand areas like around the rubber seals, so sand everywhere before painting 👍
@@FreedomStrider thanks for your feedback and Intel... 😊
NO!!! to the drips. You did a lot of hard work.
Thanks! 👍🙂
is it matt or gloss paint
That's gloss 👍🙂 - though we might chage it to matt later. Matt is easeir to apply evenly with rollers.
@@FreedomStrider ok thanks .i,m going to do my van , might do it in matt then ...cheers Terry
An airless sprayer would be a lot easier,quicker,and better finnish.
Roller painting was easy for us, took a bit of time to be sure but any scratches can easily be fixed with a roller just like that
did you thin the paint down? would cover better
The paint was already quite thin. The first coat was the thinnest, 3:1 but after that it was 4:1 and then 5:1 as the coats went on and by the 4th coat it went on really well :). I think just more experience handling a roller would sort any of the imperfections we got. By coat 5 we were good, but a few stuff from coat 1 (the newbie coat) remained... ooh well, we know what to do for the next van.
@@FreedomStrider aww ok it looks good
Is that normal auto paint?
It is Military Vehicle Paint - white spirit based (not sure if that is normal) 😊
I know its a bit late now, but you should have gone and bought a cheap electric paint guns. The ones they use to spray fence panels with.
Maybe it would have been an interesting experiment, but we honestly wanted to roller painting effect. If smoothness is what we were going for, then roller painting would not be the way, but we are happy with our choice 🙂 Thanks for the tip.
I wouldn't have pot so much thinners in it, it would have covered better then
The first coat was the thinnest, 3:1 but after that it was 4:1 and then 5:1 as the coats went on and by the 4th coat it went on really well :) We probably could have started with the 5:1 on the 2nd coat, but we were advised to put the first coat on quite thinly.
@@FreedomStrider looking good though and saved you a few grand 👍
It sure did, we got a few quotes out of interest about wrapping or getting it spray painted, they ranged from £2k - £4k!!!! And then upto £6k for a different colour! :o Luckily we can now afford our heating instead.
This is going to be a baking oven in sun when temperatures are high much more than a white van would be.
Quite likely, though it's going to be an oven an either way, I think 😂... if it gets dire we can always repaint it any colour we fancy
Hi guys,
How much money did you spent on this part if it is not a secret?
We spent about £100 on paint, £20 on rollers and £10 on white spirit (give or take £130-£150). 🙂👍
kendi rengi gayet güzeldi.
We prefer the new colour ☺️
No melting candle, please.
😊👍
Electric spray gun would have been beter than a roller £30 to £40 from DIY store, paint would have gone further too
Maybe it would have been an interesting experiment, but we honestly wanted to roller painting effect. If smoothness is what we were going for, then roller painting would not be the way, but we are happy with our choice 🙂
Yes, add lots of special affects on your paint work
We're thinking about designs ;)
Is that auto paint?
Yes - it is for vehicles. It is quite thin in the can already, so didn't need to thin it too much.
@@FreedomStrider thank you very much! Sorry for asking the same question twice the first one send error when sending but it looks like it went thru lol
How to devalue ur van. Which looked like it already had a decent paint job 😅
Nah, we love it :)
Regardless of your own opinions on quality of finish, I don’t think you highlighted that there is no coming back from this method. Unless you spend £4K to restore... you could have wrapped it for £300 worth of product and had better finish. Kept off cuts and patch as required, then rip off if needed. Also no information on informing DVLA of the colour change.. each to their own I guess
Yes of course, no coming back from this without alot of work 😂
We asked around about wrapped they were just as expensive as a paint job, around £3-5k since it's such a big van and we liked the idea of paint more because it's easier to minipulate and the resident artist likes the medium better for future work on the van 😊
Freedom Strider No doubting A for Effort, that’s not in question only warning people who don’t realise that sanding their original paint work is a bold move.. effecting both resale and marketability.
If this was a "How to" video then you should be sharing what grit sand paper you use, the make of the paint you are using.. there is so much information missing here, this is not good for beginners to watch and copy
This video is about me figuring out how to roller paint a vehicle, less so a guide for people to copy. I can see where the ambiguity in the title can confuse people - we used 400-1000grit sandpaper and military vehicle paint from Paints4Trade 👍
It'll just look like paints runs you didn't fix!
Only if we leave a few drips - intentional chaos can be very effective when done with care. 😉
no way
cool
How Cars get a paintjob 100years ago
If it ain't broke don't fix it!
cool. but why not just leave the original silver paint job? it looked fine.
It did look fine but we weren't happy with the silver really, in this country the colour kept merging with the sky, and also there were some areas we attempted to fix (some small rust patches) and our repair job wasn't great and it stuck out>
When we were looking for a van, we did have our hearts set on a black one but they are very hard to find. This one just happened to pop up and we thought we'd deal with the colour issue later... 😉
Right I'm sorry but you know you were always going to get 1 negative comment, I love what your doing the detail you go into is very good and up to now every thing has been to a very good quality but that is horrendous I can't belive you have done this to your van, I've been looking forward to seeing this since I noticed a couple of weeks ago, I get you don't like factory look and neither do I to be honest, you could have done much better for for 600 pounds with raptor paint or something along that line, I've seen some novice jobs work amazing with that, I know your not going to sell your van but you've probably knocked 1000s off in value, the lumps and bums look so bad, if I were you if you have any more paint I'd give it more coats then get a little electrical DA sander wet n dry the lot with cutting compound a d it will improve it no end, I hope the next job is back to your normal standard, keep it up, this is my opinion hope it doesn't cause offence like I said before you have been so good uptil now.
Hi Neil, don't worry you haven't cause us offence - we know how sensitive everyone is about how things look. We can't agree with your opinion because we love the result. I don't know which part of the quality disturbs you, exactly, if it's the finish - that turned out as we wanted - if its' our prep and the roller technique, I could understand more as we are new to this and it's all an experiment. By coat 4-5 I had gotten the hang of it more.
We hadn't heard of raptor paint until know, can't say if we would have used it, but could be interesting for future. Though £600 on aesthetics, at this time would have been unreasonable, we would have rather gotten another battery. The paint we used was Military Vehicle Paint from paints4trade, so as far as we are aware it is suitable for the job. And as you pointed out, the value of the van doesn't matter to us.
Since we had 16 hours of footage to compress into 15 mins, there is a lot we missed. We did sand between each coat to remove things we didn't like. We were a bit cautious to begin with but improved with each coat. By the 5th coat the lumps and bumps had been largely taken care of. Plus we can't actually see any bumps on the final pans at the end of the video. A lot of the instructional detail was excluded, largely due to the experimental nature of the task and because this was one of the tasks that we could allow ourselves to not prioritize given the magnitude of what we are attempting with every other part of the build.
Whether we'll do more coats or art on the van is yet to be determined. Though, since I'm an artist, and I see the van as a blank canvas, for us to express ourselves in whatever way comes to us. My perspective on what looks good and what a vehicle should look like is very diverse from the norm. So more work is likely, but getting it smooth was not the aim...
Sorry you were disappointed.
@@FreedomStrider good I'm glad because I genuinely like what your doing (mostly ha :-)) and totally agree it's better to be different but personally that close up putti g the plates back on would give me anxiety, I have seen people do roller jobs before and sand with a machine sanding with a piece in your hand without blocking wouldn't key correctly you could see where the sandpaper had been rubbed inconsistently after keying it should be an even appearance so I hope it sticks OK but been mod quality it should be OK and you were very brave taking it on that was not a job for the faint hearted ha, one of my mates is in royal engineers and belive it or not that was a punishment for him if he ever messed up he had to go paint his wagon. I'd like to see some artwork on there iv seen some lovely murals on some vans which I'd like to try but frankly I'm not good enough ha, and for another controversial comment that melting wax thing sounded goot as long as the runs were thick and defined. Thanks again for the video's just keep em coming ha.
It can’t be art it has a purpose, sorry it’s not good from someone with a sprinter thinking of spraying it.
That is a matter of opinion, art is subjective, and after having my roller painted van for over 2 years I would make the same choice again and again.
Let's take a van that's looks to have a perfect finnish,and ruin it!!
'Perfect' is subjective, there were some patches that needed fixing and we much prefer the finish now than the previous one :)
Your pressing too hard on your roller that’s why it it rips on the ends
Yes, I would agree that the pressure ripped them, but, if I wasn't pressing the paint refused to spread thinly enough. Because it was a hot week the paint also started drying really fast. So something in the technique was not balanced - maybe thinning the paint more would mean less pressure is need... not sure. 🙂
Freedom Strider if you roll the roller on the ribbed. Flat part of the roller tray to get a even coat on the roller then you get the same even coat on what ever your painting be it a van or a wall or ceiling in a house I have painted army vehicles on and off for over 25 years and they have not always been sprayed they have been painted with a roller and a brush if you use a martock short haired roller or any other short haired roller
It's a shame we started the process with foam rollers, we did notice the hair rollers did better - the coats were more even. Good tips, we'll take them into account next time. 😀👍
Why on earth did you thin your paint down. Did you not realise that you only had to do this if you were using a spray gun. You do not water it down thats just awful
Actually the instructions with this paint stated that thinning it (especially for the first coat) is advisable - for roller painting. And after using the paint I would recommend thinning it at a 4:1 ratio (when painting at 20 degrees + heat). Then to reduce the thinner with each additional coat.
After doing the research and speaking professional advice, you do need to thin paint for spray painting, but you would have to do it a lot more.
@@FreedomStrider we've painted multiple vans with this paint and you can do it in one or two coats not thinned down. Clearly whoever has told you this or the paint you've but isn't the right quality as we've just painted our current van with rollers in 1 day and the can has a perfect finish. Oh and whoever suggested the underfloor heating set up that you have should be be put out of business. You can get a 12 volt underfloor film which cost about £40 delivered comes with a thermostat and can be fitted in minutes. I really hope you don't get any leaks. I'm worried that water pipes under your floor in a van is extremely risky but best of luck.