Challenge car painting recommendations

I plan to paint my mini cooper potential challenge car. 
 

1. Prep recommendations the car has a lot of peeling clear coat. What is the best way to deal with this? Sand paper dry, wet sand, scotch bright pad? 
 

2.  What paint to use? My initial plan is to use rustoluem seems like people have good luck spraying it mixed with hardener and mineral spirits? Any one have a recommended ratio? 
 

3. Any guess on how much paint I will need? 
 

Here are some pictures that show the pealing clear coat. 
 

I find rustoleum only works well on car when mixed with a hardener. I've had good experience with the Tractor Supply "Majic" brand of enamel hardener. I mix Rustoleum:thinner:hardener in a 8:4:1 ratio and spray with HVLP through a 1.4mm tip, mid-20's PSI. I like the more expensive harbor freight paint gun, I think it's almost $100 now, but make sure to pull out the plastic strainer from the cup and throw it away. Clean after every session. That means taking the gun fully apart and using brushes in every bore with acetone or thinner. Also buy the cleaning brushes, a box of the cone filter/strainers, and the cone filter stand. 100% worth it. 

Paintforcars.com is another good Challenge-friendly alternative if you want something nicer. I painted my challenge car top half with their single-stage acrylic enamel, and other half with rustoleum using the method above. I think you could do it with 1 full gallon to get a solid coat or two. I sand to 600 or so before paint. 

*Not a professional, just a cheapass who builds Challenge cars, giving bad advice on the internet.

Here's some thorough documentation of my first Challenge car paint job: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/datsaniti-1980-datsun-210-wagon-vq35-swap-2018-cha/138776/page19/

In reply to maschinenbau :

Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for. 

I quickly painted my racecar with Rustoleum(unthinnned and unhardened trackside paintjob) and it never completely dried even a month later. I could still put a fingernail into it! I assume it hardens fully when you spray it and use hardener.

I'll go in with what others have said, I Rust-Oleum rattle bombed an e30 when I was in college, it stayed soft for ages. 

Here's a picture of it. 

(If Dherr reads this, yup, it's the one you sold me)

Yeah and i remember when i was going to buy it from you but couldn't make it work. That was ages ago. 
 

Anyway I used paintforcars.com's cheapest urethane on my 240z and it was definitely hard and damage resistant

In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :

The hood has a ton of clearcoat damage. 
The roof has some. 
The trunk has a lot on the trim piece and only tiny bits on the trunk lid itself. 
The body just some slight spots.

You have not asked...but here is what I would do for "Challenge reasons"

1. Find a used red hood.  Seems that you have an S w/HID headlamps.  Car-part says that non-HID is a different hood.  Really?  
It also says that a R&A Salvage in Findlay has a black hood in non-HID.  I'd go look at what the difference to the real hood is.  No price given on this black hood but East Side Auto Parts in Toledo shows a red non-HID hood for $275.  Nothing good currently shown in HID hoods but I'd recommend keeping an eye out.  

You could go black hood that then gives you a car that starts black and morphs into red at the checkered flag.  My preference would probably be a better red hood.  Pay $275 and sell or FMV your "bad" hood.  For Challenge purposes, that might get you a red hood for $0.  

Roof, I would paint or vinyl to white or black.  Both common Mini roof colors.  It wont require much since most all of it is glass.

For the trunk trim, I would paint black.   

This then just leaves a few body spots and a few trunk spots.  I would cover these with some geometric shape or round poka-dot vinyl.  Cover the spots then add just enough more to make it appear to be an intentional, random pattern.

Maybe not this much but photo as a sample:

Any automotive paint suppliers nearby? Ask if they have any screw up paint. A mix of paint that no one wants is just taking up space on their shelves. 

What about colored plasti-dip?  Smooth down the edges of the peeling clear and then shoot away

I'd be wet sanding the offending areas and shooting them with clear coat. A stock MINI isn't going to garner a high concourse score anyway, so do what's easiest and go have fun.

I appreciate all the input. I do like the idea of a all black roof. 
 

I am going to think on it a little bit more about the black front end fading through the checkered flag then red rear half. 
 

Part of this is I don't really like the red that much, and also wanting to try to paint something that is low risk if it gets screwed up. 
 

I was looking at rustoleum smoke gray because I think that is a similar color to my truck. 
 

i had a black 94 probe gt with peeling and flaking clear coat.  i used a razor blade to lift and remove any flaking clear until all that was left was properly adhered. then wet-sanded the edges and clear-less areas with 400 before shooting rattle-can clear.  let it set a few days, then wet sanded up to 2000 before polishing.  repaired areas were nearly undetectable, and it cost me about $25 in sandpaper and clear.  for challenge budget, sandpaper is a tool, so only the clear goes into the budget.

I have found that the Martin Seynour (sp) single stage paint from NAPA goes down well and is inexpensive. Maybe not Challenge inexpensive, but it's worth pricing out compared to the other options.

For those saying to spray rustoleum with a HF spray gun, is that possible with a 5 gal compressor? And is a dryer or anything else required for that method?

Used to be you could buy Kerker (sp) gallons and supply kits on Ebay. I think the vendor was Price Saver Club or something. It was a good value.

Hoppps said:

For those saying to spray rustoleum with a HF spray gun, is that possible with a 5 gal compressor? And is a dryer or anything else required for that method?

I've done it with a 30 gallon with a water separator on the outlet and it ran constantly the whole time to keep up. Not sure a 5 gallon would work out well.