Troop Seat Paint

[Barrman]

I painted my troop seats yesterday. They took almost 2/3's of a gallon of paint to do two coats on both sides of everything. That is more than the entire inside and outside of my M35 cab. I will post a picture once I get them mounted and since we have severe t-storms going on right now, that might be a day or so away.

Anyway, just wanted to warn people how much paint these things suck up getting all the little nooks and crannies.

[k8icu]

And those are plastic seats (fiberglass) I bet wood sucks up even more.

[porkchop]

Wow! Mine took less than half a gallon. Mine are wood. Are you thinning your paint?

[DAVEJ]

Wow! Mine took less than half a gallon. Mine are wood. Are you thinning your paint?

And use a primer sealer on the wood.

[Barrman]

That gallon I finished off was the 9th I have gone through in the last 2 years. The first batch mixed from 6 of those gallons at 2:1 came out glossy and runny. I shake and shake the cans before mixing, stir the paint before pouring and mix just a little less than 2:1, say 18 ounces paint and 8 ounces xylene. Yet, it still comes out glossy on that first batch.

This can was no exception. I tested on something small like a holder full of fasteners and it was runny. I was painting M35 fenders or hood at the time and didn't want to waste 24 ounces of paint from a very full cup. So, I just dumped it all back into the gallon and stirred/shook it up again and went with a 3:1 or less mixture.

The first coat on the back of the troop seats was mixed 3:1, but it used up an entire cup. The second coat on the back was also mixed 3:1, but I had about 8 ounces left in the gun since Colton did the entire first coat on one of the seats and he misses a lot. I dumped that 8 ounces back in the can. Since I didn't know the ratio of the 30-40 ounces left in the can, I just added 2-3 ounces of Xylene to each cup and finished off the gallon that way.

To answer your question Bryant, Yes and No!

[sermis]

I did 3 coats on mine before they looked ok.

[porkchop]

I was thinning mine and found that it was to runny so now I don't mix at all. It lays down better and coats great. No problems spraying either. By doing this I found what would take me two coats ended up needing only one.

[fisherman]

I came to the same conclusion Porkchop, I do however like it best thinned at about 5 to 10 percent. Better coverage, better sheen, less coats. I usually do at least 2 but some stuff has 4 coats. I think it definatly looks better the less you thin it. I brushed my troop seats with 3 coats straight from the can. They look sprayed, no brush marks.

[Binford]

No kidding they do! I had no idea they weren't sprayed until I just read that!

[k8icu]

But Fisherman has an advantage over us regular guys when it comes to painting and not leaving brush marks.... I've used the Gillispie right from the can to do little touch up spots and I still get little brush marks. I like to thin the paint 3 parts paint to one part thinner or three quarters of a spray gun can paint and 1/4 thinner. Seems to work very well that way.