If no one says "why yes, I have, and yes it is", I'm going to do the experiment on some scrap first.  But if it's been done with success, I have a plane that I can paint and save money on, too.

Has anyone tried Rustoleum Protective Enamel from a regular ol' can, and if so, is it fuel proof?

The reason I ask is that the Rustoleum website implies that you can spray it from a gun, and I have seen web sites from down-on-their-luck guys who have painted entire cars with it.  I figure that I can paint about four times as much airplane per dollar with regular-ol'-can Rustoleum as with the rattle-can stuff, and maybe even have a chance at doing a better job since I'll have more control over viscosity and spray pattern.

(And for Randy and Mark, and any other "use the whole system" guys, here's something to chew on: Rustoleum's recommended thinner for spraying from a gun is plain old acetone.  I'm not sure if this is because they know that their paint is a horror that can't be made worse by using the 'wrong' thinner, or if using the "system" is really going to lead to success in this case.  Thinking about it too hard makes parts of my brain twist into knots -- thin enamel with acetone?  But that's what they say).

Maybe 'cause it's not "enamel"?  Or at least not the stuff Grandpa used to paint the kitchen with.

What?  No, no -- they call it enamel, and they're a company that sells lots of stuff to consumers, so they just have to be trustworthy.

Really.

In fact, as soon as that bridge arrives -- the one that I just bought from the nice fellow from New York City -- I was going to paint it with Rustoleum.

I use brushed-on Rustoleum on all of my planes.  I don't have a shop, and do all my building in the living room, so dope is out of the question.  I won't get a lot of appearance points, but done carefully, it turns out pretty good.  It seems to be pretty fuel proof so far!

A tight-was engineer. Go figure.

Tim, a couple thoughts,,
one consideration is the expectation of the manufacture,, perhaps they dont expect someone to use this product to achieve a concourse finish,, you know they typically dont judge lawn chairs for appearance,,

another thought would be to ( yeah your going to crap when I say this,,) try some enamal reducer since it is a much slower thinner, and MAY allow better flow.. I would bet that there is a rustoleum enamal reducer,,

I've been thinking of trying enamel reducer even if Rustoleum doesn't recommend it.  The Rustoleum site doesn't seem to mention it, but maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.  If acetone comes close enough, and doesn't mess up the fuel proof, then I won't be feeling really anxious about trying alternatives, though.

As long as I can get this looking as good as -- or even close to as good as -- a rattle-can finish, then I'll be happy.  I'll start working on really good finishes when I can fly a plane for a whole year without a serious crash.

That is all good wisdom sir,, and since the Rustoleum is not a " premium finish material" I wont bust your chops to bad about using non system components,, LOL