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Using house paint. on HMMWV

Sparo2

Member
151
7
18
Location
SoCali
Good morning,

Has anyone ever tried painting there HMMWV, or any other car with house paint. I figured it would be much cheaper than automotive paint and a lot more forgiving when laying it down. I was thinking of buying two gallons of Behr exterior paint/primer. Then reducing it so that I'm able to spray it from
my HVLP gun.

Your thoughts...
 

Carrera911

Active member
138
31
28
Location
Cumming, Georgia
All kinds of people on here have used behr exterior. It certainly isn't as durable as real paint or the carc already on your truck. I off road my truck a lot and the behr wouldn't last long at all. That being said I've painted brush guards and touch ups on trucks for sale as well as my stereo box. I use a 30 dollar amazon hvlp gun. Mix the paint with water to get a thick cream consistency. I have to run it at 100 psi to get any good coverage so I took off the gun's regulator. Usually use about 5 coats with increasing thickness each coat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

porkysplace

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
9,604
1,493
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Location
mid- michigan
Good morning,

Has anyone ever tried painting there HMMWV, or any other car with house paint. I figured it would be much cheaper than automotive paint and a lot more forgiving when laying it down. I was thinking of buying two gallons of Behr exterior paint/primer. Then reducing it so that I'm able to spray it from
my HVLP gun.

Your thoughts...
[h=3]Behr Paint Jobs- Show me your MV's[/h] [h=3]Removing house paint over CARC[/h]
[h=1]What is the Most Durable Paint?[/h]
[h=3]Exterior Latex/Acrylic House Paints[/h]
[h=3]Rusty Primer and Behr Paint over existing paint.. [/h] [h=3]Behr paint test.[/h]
[h=3]Behr long-term durability and painting over CARC [/h]
[h=3]Behr Tan codes and General Painting Questions[/h] [h=3]Behr Paint. Time between coats?[/h]
[h=3]A note on Latex "house paints".[/h]
 

TOBASH

Father, Surgeon, Cantankerous Grouch
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I am against it for many reasons. This paint is absolutely not ever meant to be used on the motor vehicle. It will crack, it will prematurely age and fade, and I think it is a horrible idea.

Before BLK HMMWV says it, this would be the essence of Bubbafication.

There are those who speak of Behr paint, but I just don't like it.

Please take a moment to look up proper ways to paint a vehicle before pursuing this really bad idea.

I am speaking as a car buff, and is a former classic automobile restoration professional.

Car paint is car paint and house paint his house paint. They are chemically and physically tremendously different.

I can't say enough times how bad an idea this is.

T
 

98G

Former SSG
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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AZ/KS/MO/OK/NM/NE, varies by the day...
Things to think about when chosen paint -

What do you want it to do?

1) look good. The housepaint does that.

2) ease of application. The house paint does that.

3) resist sun damage. The house paint does this very well.

4) resist scratching. The house paint fails here.

5) ease of touchup. Check

6) rust prevention really isnt an issue for you guys...

7) cracking is a bigger issue on the hmmwv than on other (steel) vehicles.

These aren't show quality maseratis. The behr housepaint has a history of being fine on other MVs.

For trucks with intact but faded CARC, I actually like rustoleum rattlecan, for reasons 1, 2, and 5 above...
 

TOBASH

Father, Surgeon, Cantankerous Grouch
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98G;2006406 For trucks with intact but faded CARC said:
Rustoleum isn't typically the same formulation as house paint. It is an intermediary meant for application to metal surfaces... hence the name including "rust".

There are entire forums regarding rattlecan paint jobs.

If you want to go that way... then why not get rattlecans filled with proper primer and paint? That's what many people do, and it is in actuality proper paint. Or get small amounts of CARC to quickly mix and spray with the proper rentable spray equipment.

Do it right and it will last 30 years (like the original paint on my rig). Do it wrong and you get to b-tch and moan for the rest of your ownership AND you get less when you re-sell it.

All depends on what you want.

I guess I side with the Anti-Bubbafication League on this.

YMMV,

T

EDIT - Before you do anything, look up JuanPrado and his thread. He washed his truck with proper solutions and it now looks like it has brand new paint and cloth doors. Make sure you really need to paint.
 
Last edited:

Lawdog734

Active member
265
94
28
Location
Colbert, GA
To each their own I suppose, I can think of a few single spaced notebook pages worth of other things more "bubbafied" than house paint, especially if you maintain the correct colors. People have been doing this for years and it seems to have held up just fine for many folks. Will it last as long as CARC? Probably not. It could fade, but so does CARC. I've offroaded my truck through many of tight trails through North GA and it seems to be holding up and cleaning just fine.

Call me Bubba if you want, but where do you cross the line for bubbafication? Who determines when it's been bubbafied away from the original configuration? Is adding 12v ports to charge cell phones bubba? How about drilling holes in a soft top to turn it into a slantback? How about removing the original type of batteries and putting in red-tops? You can see the list can get rather lengthy for what will take you away from "original" and on the road to "bubba". At the end of the day, the only person that needs to be happy about their decision is the owner of the vehicle.
 

Sintorion

Member
286
13
18
Location
Fla
I was recently in the same dilemma. I caved and went with the Sherwin Williams type 2 CARC. It was an exact match in color and luster. It did cost more than the house paint, but $50 in the big scheme of things really didn't matter. I just couldn't bring my ego to allowing house paint on a vehicle. In reality, it could be the very same material, but the slightest flake or crack I would kick my self for having done so. Now it will crack and flake and I will think it is perfectly normal since it is the correct paint and I won't give it a second thought.
 

jake-cutter

Member
297
13
18
Location
League City, Texas
I always recommend Sherwin Williams CARC. If you can't get it locally, they even ship it. It gives the same texture and you get all the benefits. Just by a cheap primer gun that has a 2.0 tip and water down if needed to get the spray pattern you need.
 

bigmike

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Dixon CA.
Per Sherwin Williams, water based CARC even without the CARC-part isn't the same as water based house paint. It's an epoxy versus Urethane difference.
 

doghead

4 Star General /Moderator
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Possibly!

I have about 12 gallons of the good stuff...
 

hplacess

Member
37
7
8
Location
Faciststateof, NJ
I am against it for many reasons. This paint is absolutely not ever meant to be used on the motor vehicle. It will crack, it will prematurely age and fade, and I think it is a horrible idea.

Before BLK HMMWV says it, this would be the essence of Bubbafication.

There are those who speak of Behr paint, but I just don't like it.

Please take a moment to look up proper ways to paint a vehicle before pursuing this really bad idea.

I am speaking as a car buff, and is a former classic automobile restoration professional.

Car paint is car paint and house paint his house paint. They are chemically and physically tremendously different.

I can't say enough times how bad an idea this is.

T
Do you have first hand experience with the use of Behr paint on military vehicles? Not busting you, just wondering if your opinion is based on first hand experience.

oh, rest assured that this is America, so no one will ever make you paint a vehicle with Behr. :)


Let me share a story.

I had purchased a 1977 chevy stepside pickup truck for around $5,000. Got it shipped from California. I priced paint jobs and they were all $1,000s of dollars - most estimates cost more than the truck cost. I was not looking for a show car paint job, but a daily driver, so I looked at other options.

I found the famous 'paint your car using a roller for $50' threads and looked at some of the outcomes - many were impressive.
But, on many forums there were people that said that such an approach was a bad idea, stupid, crazy, etc.

So, after a lot of research I made up my own mind. I purchased paint (not auto, not house, but something in between). Sanded the old paint, primed it, masked it, rolled it, sanded the new paint after a period of time passed, buffed it, sealed it - not a single person who has seen it believes it was rolled and that I did it for $500 of materials. 4 years later looks like I did it yesterday.

will it win a car show? no.

if you look close long enough can you find defects? yes.

is it as a good as a $5,000+ paint job. no.

does it look many times better than when I first got it? definitely.

is it driver quality? absolutely.

if I had to do it all over again, would I. yes

am I happy with it? yes

would I recommend it? yes


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I recently purchased 2 m101a2s. They are in good condition, but I am thinking of painting them.

Do I need a museum quality paint job? no

Do I want the paint job to look good and have a decent amount of durability? yes.

Do I want to be able to maintain it and touch it up as time goes by? yes.

am I considering using Behr based upon all of my research - including first hand experience shared by posters on Steel Soldiers? yes.
 
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Coffey1

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Gray Court SC
IMG_20150817_070240_172.jpg
Both of these are house paint and they also we're two year old paint jobs.
And also lost no money on them.
 
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