I Painted Our Van *Light Green* With a Roller

I painted our Citroen Jumpy van with a roller, in three days, for less than 30 euros!

75cl can of acrylic lacquer

1 bottle of thinner

1 short hair painting roller

1 Painting tray

1 Brush

Sandpaper

Sander (optional)

Mask tape

Carnauba wax

For the step-by-step watch the video at the top of the page ;)

The first step of the process was sanding the entire van to remove the rust and prepare the surface to receive the new paint. I started by sanding with 220 grit sandpaper and then I sanded all the corners by hand.

After removing the license plate and other small parts, I cleaned the entire van with some thinner to remove any grease and impurities.

Then I protected all the places on the van that I didn't want to paint with mask tape. This is one of the most important steps in the process to get a good result, it was also the step that maybe took me the longest but it was definitely worth it.

Finally, I started to paint, using a greenish gray acrylic lacquer and a short hair roller.

I started by painting the roof and then all the sides and I was immediately pleasantly surprised with the result of the first coat.

After I touched up the places where the roller didn't get with a brush and after the paint had dried I sanded the entire van again, this time with an even finer sandpaper so that the second coat would adhere better and to loosen the dust and small insects that had got stuck in the paint.

Meanwhile, with a matte black spray paint, I painted some details black.

After wiping the dust with a cloth, I applied the second coat all over the van and surprisingly the 75cl can I had bought was just enough.

Then came the best and more satisfying part of this project, which was removing the mask tape.

After cleaning any glue remaining and some splashes of paint with thinner, I washed all the glasses and the bumpers and then I applied a carnauba wax blend on the bumpers to hydrate them and make their black color pop.

Finally, I reinstalled the license plate and glued the logos back into place.

I was really happy with the result, for less than 30 euros, with very little experience in painting and with basic tools, I gave our van a new color which will also make it last longer as the rust was already taking over.

I probably wouldn't have done it if it was a new van, but I think if you have a van or an older car and the paint is getting ugly it's worth a try, it's not a 100% professional result but I think it turned out pretty good.