I'm looking for a heavy duty paint to bathe my outback sport in to cover up the bubbling rust, 10,000 door dings from the thoughtful people of st. cloud and the scuff from a taxi cab that hit and run on my car awhile back. The idea is something that looks half decent that will tolerate the door bashing my car is regularly subjected to. I know it won't stop the rust (definitively will make it worse) I'm just trying to prevent the rust from forming in anymore places. I'm hoping for something at least semi gloss. possibly white and black to keep the outback sport theme. preferably something that doesn't have to be sprayed with a gun
POR 15 would be good for the rust spots, but not good for covering a whole vehicle. It doesn't hold up well to UV well and is made as an "under coat", they have a special UV blend, its silver, haven't worked with it much, but I cant imagine it would do well for what the OP wants.
Well, once rust is already formed no form of paint is going to prevent it from spreading. If it's already loaded with quite a few dents/scrapes/rust/whatnot new paint isnt going to necessarily improve the appearance. The only kind of "durable" paint that might help you avoid future scratches would be something textured but unless you nerf pad it dents will still happen. Id say if youre going to go as far as spraying the whole car you may as well try to sand or grind out the rust areas and scratches that are down to metal. You'll have to scuff every panel down to prep it anyway. That said, spies hecker has is a mid grade pretty inexpensive line that can be bought online, or dupont can be purchased from napa or welle. Just make sure to buy the same brand of primer, paint, and clear to avoid contamination. I know you said you didnt want to use a spray gun but walmart actually sells a pretty decent hvlp top feed thats a Sata knock off for $28 and if you spray a panel at a time you could get away with using a small compressor.
That is what I thought too, but the wild man up in Duluth <whose name escapes me> did bumper and fenders on that truck he has and had good thing to say about it. Durability and standing up to the Sun. But they do only see the Sun for a month or two up there.
any chip-coat. line-x, rhino liner, etc. makes it look badass as fuuuuuuuck too. doo eet. then lift it, add bull bars front and rear, a roof rack with floodlights, knobby tires, and a machine gun turret. only half kidding.
good thing I'm only half way there then still ordering some parts but I've been designing my bull bars for awhile now.
Place Impreza upside down in a pickup bed and compare the size. Looks like Rhino Liner brand is available only by select installers. Rustoleum brand Truck Bed Coating is about $62 per gallon and covers 140 to 160 square feet. Don't forget to subtract window square footage.
If I was going to pay for a coating I'd just go balls-out and do Line-X. Everything I've seen has shown it to be the most durable. Also, it's only available from certain shops, think it's only shops certified by Line-X.
