I THOUGHT I'D SAVE SOME MONEY AND PAINT THE GARAGE FLOOR MYSELF...

Well, I bought the epoxy paint, rollers (ooh, went with the 18 incher this timer), rented a walk-behind orbital sander (really bad-a$$), a few clear epoxy cans, sand paper for the rough stuff for my grinder and all the odds and ends. Yeah I do this myself because I enjoy doing things with my own hands, and it's an added bonus when you save money too. The trouble all started when I needed additional rollers and more epoxy.

On the way back from the hardware store the ASR light came on. Strange. I think it may have been triggered as I came out of the parking lot the car slipped a tad as I accelerated to fit in with traffic, nothing crazy. As I proceeded home down the street that leeds towards my subdivision, I noticed when I took my foot off the accelerator the ASR light would go off. As I accelerated it would come on. I toyed with this a little as I drove seeing if it would stay off. I look up from the tach and a cop has its lights on and is attempting a 180 to fall in behind me. I look down at the speedo, 30 over. Uh-oh! I whip around and pull in right behind her with a sharp turn. She comes around and behind me. I put my hands on the steering wheel and await her arrival. We dispense with the formalities and get down to excuses: my ASR this, my ASR that, I never, I, I, I. Oh well, she was a real gem and great lady.

She seemed puzzled by my not caring to much that I was getting a ticket. The reality was I don't mind getting a ticket for being a little heavy with the pedal, but I wasn't even consciously speeding--no joy here, folks. Oh well, drive a red Ferrari and you are in the sights. No driver's ed for me, that's for sure given the violation. I'll be pleading no-contest and going for deferred adjudication. She did appease me by peeking in the driver's side window and observed my ASR. She did say it was the pretties car she's ever pulled over. Can I get an award please? I haven't had a ticket in so long I can't even remember--now I'll remember for a long time.

The garage floor better look damn good, it just got a LOT more expensive. I'll post pics when I'm done. Bummed

 

57 in a 30. Driver's ed is good for up to 20 over the speed limit so I missed it by 7 mph. I'll be searching the threads for either hardwiring my Valentine, or installing another less CONSPICUOUS radar detector. I love my Valnetine but the damn thing is a conspicuous brick on the windshield, even up high. I'm taking donations for the fine. Don't worry, I won't hold my breath~

 

Bob the floor (3/4 of it) turned out great. I saved one bay of four to park the Ferrari, and planned on rotating the car into the other slots as they dried. Sounded great until it rained last night. I was too tired to pull the car in and left it outside the garage and it got rained on for several hours. I don't care about the rain, but now I can't pull it in as all the water is going to run off and onto my floor. So the car sits outside--kind of ironic, really. I'm doing all this work in the garage to make the care more comfortable and it gets left outside. I laid two layers of epoxy and four light layers of clear epoxy. The trick to these floors is pretty simple; preparation, preparation and several clear-coats. You see, you want to protect the paint from ever touching the tires. The more clear-coat, the more protection.

I hear ya' Tony, that ASR is a bunch of BS. It's off now, after I got my ticket of course. I lost traction on one wheel pulling out of the parking lot.

 

They always peel, but it's my own fault because I get lazy. What I mean is that you should put another clear coat every year to protect the paint itself. Sure some never do it an it never peels--they SAY. It will not peel if you install it patiently and diligently, AND, put the clear coat down. You see the clear coat is what gets worn down by the UV rays, hot tires and the sheer weight of the car on the rubber.

Sanding with the walk behind sander takes all of a hour with 60 grit paper. Learning to use it is a pain in the ass. I'll give you a quick lesson: while the handlebars (that's what I call them) are in your hand and the machine is running, lift the bar gently and the machine will begin to move to your right. The harder you lift, the faster it will move to your right. If you're not careful, it will swing around you and take you down hard and fast--so gentle is the key. Push down and it moves to your left. Again, the harder you push down the faster it moves to your left. You see the device moves clockwise at appx 1500 rpm so any movement on your part will cause it to respond very fast. It hit me in the nuts once and that's all it took for me to figure it out fast. Floating it between the left and right will allow you to move it around like butter on some hot pancakes.

This process of sanding the old isn't to remove all of the old paint, but to remove the loose paint, roughen up what remains and smooth the areas between paint and no paint (where it has chipped). Once your done with that, scrub it with soap and water, let it dry, then lay it on. You should lay it on in thin layers; layering it is best. I'm lazy so I just slop it on nice and heavy, two coats. Then I lay the clear coat in slow easy layers, four this time.

I use water based product as it cleans up easily. Also, only use like products; water based on water based, not water based on oil based. Also, make sure you put some of the included sand aggregate in the clear coat or you WILL be getting intimate with your garage floor many times, unintentionally of course. Yeah the sand takes off a little bit of the shine but I hate hitting the deck after a hard day at the office, or while crawling out of my Ferrari. Trust me, use it. They always advertise it with no aggregate to show you how shiny it can be, but what they don't show you is the wife slapping the husband after she drops the groceries in the garage after beefing it.

When it peels up in chunks the size of pizzas I'll post the pics. I'm a humble guy, if it f-ups, you'll be the first to know.

I'll go out and take some pics now and post them up shortly.

Cheers!

 

Great! Thanks for the tip. It's irritating to have that light blinking every few seconds once it trips.

Cheers~

 

Yeah I almost bought that myself. My buddy did and I helped him apply it after we sanded, degreased, washed, rinsed dried, blah-blah-blah. The darn stuff still pealed where the tires stick. I'm telling you, you must clear coat it effectively, let it dry thoroughly and even then, you should put paper down to give the paint enough time to dry (2 weeks is what I recommend). What? Two weeks. The container says 72hrs. Yeah, well you want it to cure through and through. In fact, I may even put another layer down just for grins. The wife is already pssd I'm making her park outside. I can't get in any more trouble so what the hey! I'm going to spray the next coating on to see how it lays. I may drop another thread so no one misses the pics. I feel as if I ripped everybody off not posting it during the process. I'll hop to it. I'm just tired as hell with all the traveling and the last thing on my mind is pics. Coming soon.

 

Sorry for the delay but I've had to put several coats of clearcoat on to give it more protection. Having a four car garage really sucks up the paint, let me tell you. I am very pleased with the results, up until the damn cat ran across the floor and left paw prints. Oh well, what are you going to do? Kitty's paws will live on...

Okay, the first picture is of the floor as it has peeled, and believe me, there are much worse areas than this. I sanded them down with a walk-behind sander then sanded the toughies with a rotary sander to get them smooth. Then you can see the after, and the before and after as I had to do it in sections. I would say I used three paint kits (three gallons) and five gallons of clear-coat. I have a ton of the chips but hate using them as I can't ever find a screw when I drop it on the floor with all those dang chips.

Then you can see the pics of the whole garage with the paint still drying in the first bays (where the car isn't parked). I took special precautions to protect the floor from the F tires as I plan to do the headlights and brakes here in the next couple of days. There is two pieces of thick brown painting paper down and a one inch thick piece of compression foam for the rears. The front tires will be jacked up tomorrow so I'll have to take even more precautions. It takes at least a week for this stuff to throughly dry, no matter what they tell you. It doesn't help that the temperature has been in the 30-40's over the last week really compounding the drying situation. I added a heater to the garage as I hate the cold (relatively speaking my northern friends). I also purchased a kerosine heater for the wife's warehouse that I have hijacked to help dry the paint. Man can that thing heat. I put that in there and the humidity drops to almost zero. The drier it is, the faster it dries as it helps suck the oxygen out of the paint to help it cure.

Oh, I forgot to add the aggregate (very tiny sand particles) to the clear coat on the final coat to the last bay so I had to do it again. Oh well. It really only takes about twenty minutes to lay the clear coat to a two car garage from start to finish (after the paint has gone down).

Shoot away with questions...

Note: I am not affiliated with any company...

Cheers~
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Forgot the fire breathing heater and others...
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I'll get a picture of the paw prints. All that time sanding and filling, painting and clear-coating, to be foiled by a cat. The kids love the prints so I guess I'll live with them.

I purchased the paint from Sam's Wholesale Club (available on-line ONLY). You can buy extra clear-coat at Lowes (Quickcrete brand). In fact, I believe Lowes carries the same tan I used, but of course Sam's is generically labeled so you don't know who sells it to them. If I knew about the Quickcrete, I probably would have bought it. They also carry the Rustoleum brand but that stuff peels up in sheets--avoid it. Quickcrete's clear-coat is a two part epoxy, unlike others.

Oh, Lowes can also custom make almost any color you like (in the Quickcrete brand). Apparently they can mix in other colors to the base color so you can pick and choose from a template of some twenty colors. Some were pretty damn cool too. I think it's the route to go. Again, go heavy on the clear-coat--at least two coats to protect the base color. Also, add the sand as you'll need it. I didn't put in the mix at the last house's garage I painted and I fell so many times I lost count--everytime the floor is wet, you're going down! The small sand particles are a life saver.

 

Meet "Miss Molly", the garage paw-print culprit.
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Oh, I wanted to add the brown paper I put down didn't stick at all. Also that foam certainly helped too, I'm sure. It's been over a week and I plan to bring the wife's suv in tomorrow.

I went to Costco last night and bought these 3x5 rubber backed outdoor rugs. They are half an inch thick and shouldn't move about on the painted surface. The sheer weight of that suv is a problem with any floor so I've decided to take some defensive measures. I bought 8 of them to cover the area on which she parks that beast. For some reason all kinds of crap falls off that car; mud, water, birds, skunks, you name it. I don't know where she goes or what she runs over, but it all comes home with her. I suggest this as it may save you some grief later on. I'll post a pic later...