Wattyl Aqua Trim Gloss To Perk Up My Beloved Sigma!

[AQUAR]

My old Sigma was really looking a lot like a rust bucket in camouflage.

Over the years the horizontals gradually became a lovely brown patina with patches of oxidised OEM colour, cold galv and other assorted primers.

So, encouraged by some very interesting paint threads on AMC (like Mad Max's DIY paint a car project) I decided to give the old car a bit of make over.

The car is worth just a few cents and so I aimed for a "matching" paint job.
So to be sure - don't bother with comments about the "perfectionist" approach.

The make over:

First job was to clean the rust bucket with detergent and a scrubbing dishwashing sponge. This step is crucial and removes all the wax, tar, dirt, loose paint etc in readiness for priming.

Second job was to prime the areas to be painted. Because of the cold galv and other primers already used in various places, I selected a water based metal primer (as it needs to work on all surfaces - never use an alkalyd on zinc, been there before!).

Third job was to paint it with a good quality acrylic enamel paint. I used Wattyl Aqua Trim Gloss.

Now I used a brush to cut into all the edges/nooks and a roller for the large areas (DIY on a budget!).
Everything got 3 or 4 coats including the primer. Did the job outside and without bothering to shield anything.

The result is definetely a good, amateurish, textured, glossy finish that looks heaps, heaps better than before the DYI.
Just don't stand too close! Best of all I spend only $45 on the whole project and about 3 man days of labour.

Anyone want a picture?

Now here is a couple of questions for the experts viz,
Should I wax/seal this paint ones its "cured"?
Any guesses how long it might take to cure/harden?