Rustoleum oil base paint

Thanks for sharing your details for success Jim. This could help others with the fear of painting.

I have painted bare trailer frames with Rustoleum. The trailer frame tongue's that were exposed to the sun's UV rays chalked in one year in the Southern California sun. It lays down nice, with acetone as a reducer. The last gallon of black I purchased was under $70.00, and the acetone was a little over $20/gallon.

I have had the same chalking problem with powder coated parts that have been stored exposed to the So. Cal. sun. The powder coating lasted about two years on my Spartan parts.

I painted my Marvel steel window frames, and my plastic Dometic air conditioner cover with silver "single stage" automotive quality paint, and it still looks like new after six years in the same So. Cal. sun exposure.

Painting and adhesion are all about surface preparation. How long it holds up is based on exposure, and the chemicals that make up the paint.

John Palmer

Thanks Jim for posting. Is this the paint you are talking about?

It comes in a very nice white and blue that are exactly the colors I'm looking for.


This color is called Safety Blue which is what I was thinking of for below the z stripe.

Thanks Jim. I'm in Canada and it seems the regular Rustoleum oil paint isn't available here. The Rustoleum High Performance, Low VOC paint pictured above is available here through specially suppliers but is very pricey at over $200 a gallon.

At that price, the cost of epoxy primer and single stage automotive paint doesn't look quite so bad so I guess I'll be going that route.

Unfortunately, in Canada, Amazon.ca only offers gloss black for $49 a quart. Rusto sells a product here called Tremclad but it's not very durable. I checked the Safety data sheets and the Tremclad has a completely different chemical composition compared to the Rusto oil base paint. 

My local body shop guy offered to supply me PPG primer and paint but the price worked out to over $800 Cdn. + 13% tax.

I have been speaking with a local industrial supplier and they told me Rustoleum discontinued a few colors in the V7400 High Performance line that they are clearing out at 75% off. One color I really like is called Marlin Blue so I ordered a gallon of it for $51. I'm going to experiment with it on my old siding panels and if it sprays well I'll use it for below the Z stripe and splurge on a gallon of white for the rest.