A Noobâs Guide To Cooler Painting!
Sure there are plenty of guides and how-tos all over the internet but I feel like these are written by people who have 20+ coolers under their belt. As a newbie to cooler painting I feel as though I should share my dos and DONâTs of painting a cooler through steps and personal experience. I hope this helps those who may be new to cooler painting as well as those who do have 20+ coolers under their belts.
Step One: Know who you are painting the cooler for. Yes this step may seem obvious at first but you want to make sure you make something they truly love! So donât be afraid to ask friends, loved ones, (possible stalking), or even the person you are painting the cooler for what they like.
Personal Experience: I made a cooler for formal for a guy that I am not romantically involved with so I strait up asked him what he likes and was told: his school, his fraternity, Batman, Game of Thrones, and Honey Jack Daniels.Â
Step Two: PICK A COOLER (duh). Well maybe not so duh. What coolers are the best? Is there a certain brand I should buy? Ect, ect... From guides and my experience not every cooler is created equally. Wheels, deep ridges, logos all over the cooler, size, and even that weird texture all over the cooler can make it or break it. Pick a cooler with no wheels or deep ridges/logos as these will be either A.) to hard to get rid of OR B.) will cause you hard paint job to become chipped rather quickly! Â Also size can be a hard work breaker, not for you, but for you date. I know from after formal that most guys expect a large cooler (to hold all the handles of liquor and beer) and a tiny cooler may not be what your date was expecting.Â
Personal Experience: The cooler I first tried to use was an old one I had no use for any more. Deep ridges, huge logos, and a really rough texture made filling in a pain in the butt! But I was stubborn and tried to keep filling in never ending ridges. (Ugh!). With a bust I went to Wal-Mart and bought a semi-smooth Igloo cooler, with no wheels, or anything fancy, and retraced my steps.
1x Igloo Cooler:Â http://www.walmart.com/ip/Igloo-48-Quart-Breeze-Ice-Chest/23735484
Step Three (Optional): I only say optional because some people may not want to fill in the logos and rather incorporate the logo into their cooler design. If filling in is your future keep in mind there are SO many products that you can do this with. Plaster, Bondo, and Caulk, each with their positives and negatives. Plaster is cheap, but hard to keep clean and in one spot. Bondo is the best for filling in logos but a little more on the pricey side and can chip/crack later down the road. Caulk is also great for filling in and cheap, however picking the right caulk can be hard and if not filled in enough air will escape and leave divots in your hard work. If you are unsure of what filling substance to use make sure it says something along the lines of: Binds to plastic or works with plastic. When filling in the logos WAIT A DAY BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE!! This will set the substance that you picked and will let you know if you need to add more.Â
Personal Experience: I choose to go with the caulk option mostly to test it out. I had not seen others who used this cheap method to fill in a cooler so I wanted to try it out. I had first tried with the ridged cooler and found it to be a hassle and could not properly fill in the divots or logo. After I bought the Igloo cooler it seemed more like a breeze to fill in (mostly because it was only one spot to fill). I just squeeze out the contents of the tube (with a caulk gun) onto the logo and used an old rewards car (from Dickâs Sporting Goods) to smooth and push the calk into the logo. The caulk did start to build up and form a mound but I wasnât worried, the next and MOST important step will take care of that.Â
1x DAP Fast Dry Acrylic Latex Caulk Plus Silicone (white)
1x Rewards card (for smoothing the filling)
Step Four (SO NOT OPTIONAL):Â Once you have waited a day for all of your filling to cure it is time to sand that hunk of plastic smooth. This step is not to be taken lightly as this step will save your hard work later down the road. You need to get that box of plastic smooth as a babies bottom (not joking). This step is to get rid of all that waxy coating that cooler companies put on to keep their coolers lasting longer. Donât think your cooler has that wax? Wrong! Sand, sand, sand!!! Take that cooler outside and sand!!! You will need a day or two to get all the sides (top and bottom too) smooth. You can sand in two ways by hand or with an electric sander. For the love of you hands, sanity, and for time I highly suggest going with an electric sander. This will not only make your work quick but also give your cooler a more uniformed sanding that will save your paint from chipping. When picking out your sandpaper I suggest a medium grit like 120 when used with an electric sander. Â
Personal Experience: I attempted to hand sand my cooler and got deep scratches from a medium grit sandpaper and not enough sanding from a fine grit. However thanks to my fiance I was able to borrow his hand sander and sanding the plastic and caulk down smooth was a breeze. I will say that when I sanded down the caulk it would ball up but not effect the filling in any way, just be careful with whatever filling you desired to use. It took me about six hours to sand the entire cooler smooth.
1x pack of 3M Pro Grade Precision 120 Grit Sanding Sheets
1x Hand held electric sander
Step Five: So you got that cooler smooth? Good! That is honestly the hardest part and now onto the fun stuff. First clean that cooler! Use a hose and cleaner to get all that sanding dust off and out of the cooler. Yes that dust gets everywhere! Once its all clean and DRY time to prime it. No you canât skip this step either, its important to making your paint stick really well to your cooler. You can do this (again) in several ways, with spray paint meant for plastic, spray with spray primers, or get it done by a body shop. Which ever option you choose spray the sides of the cooler first with a 50% cover then when dry go all out. This simple trick will help the primer stick better to you cooler.Â
Personal Experience: I will admit when I first started this project I said âFudge that Iâm not sanding! Iâll just use primer and make it all super smooth!â How wrong I was but kinda right. The primer by its self will not smooth out your cooler in any way, even if you do use something that claims âFills in cracksâ. However the coats of primer were an excellent gauge to tell me when a spot on my cooler was smooth when sanding. All I had to do was sand down an area until I didnât see anymore grey from the primer. Once all sanded smooth and clean I used an automotive primer (again) on my cooler, just a can I bought from AutoZone. A suggestion from my car enthusiast fiance due the fact the nozzle is a much better quality than any rattle can you can find on the shelf. I also know this from experience when I tried to use a rattle can plastic primer I bought from Lowes. After the primer dried I noticed that the primer had not come out as smooth as needed. I proceeded to wet sand (BY HAND!) with a fine grit sandpaper (600 grit). Wet sanding is when you use a fine grit sandpaper and dunk it into water then sand. When using this technique make sure your paper is soaking wet as the water is helping you double the fineness of your sandpaper grit. Also a very light hand is needed as you are only trying to smooth out paint bumps and not a plastic cooler. Once the primer is smooth and DRY, I then used an Adhesion Promoter (another suggestion from my fiance) which is to help your paints stick better to the primer! Woop woop! When using this product again use the 50% technique followed by one to three coats. You really wonât need to use more than that.Â
1x Can of Dupli-Color Automotive Primer Filler
1x Can of Dupli-Color Automotive Primer Adhesion Promoter
1x pack of 3M Pro Grade Precision 600 Grit Sanding Sheets
Step Six (ish): I only say six-ish because you can really do this step whenever you have down time because you are planing your designs! Thats right you gotta plan out those sides! This is when you put into play step one (knowing who you are painting a cooler for). Keeping in mind the size of the cooler, if you want borders to better blend in each side, and your own artistic talent. Paper, pencils, and lots of erasers are your best friend.
Personal Experience: I claim myself as an amateur graphic artist (due to no real teaching other than my own) which allowed me to plan out each side of my cooler. I measured my sides of my cooler and made a template to scale in a program called InkScape. I used images off the internet as well as lots of fonts to come up with the best design for my date. Couple days later I had my design and got it approved by the guy. My date wasnât one for surprises so I made sure I kept him updated before I began painting. Here is the design I made in Inkscape:
Paper, Pencils, Erasers, sketching stuffs
Step Seven:Â Time to get painting! Well nothing to creative yet. You got to put down your base coat, the color you are going to see the most. Put down as many coats as are needed to get the color you desire. When painting your sides make sure you get just a little bit of the undersides. Use a small box or a shoe box to prop up your cooler just to make your cooler look neater from an antâs point of view.Â
Personal Experience: I will suggest that for the base colors you go out and buy each color, that way if you mess up down the road you can go back over with that color and touch it up. I mixed my gray and when I needed to fix it I could not mix back the right color. I taped off my side for the length of each of my sides. You may have to tape several times to get crisp smooth lines for your base coat if you are not using borders. When peeling up the tape to paint another side be careful as the tape can peel up your paint. I did not have this happen to me but it is nice to have a forewarning.Â
Acrylic paints (various colors and brands)
Step Eight: Once you have your designs time to trace them onto the cooler! Use white tissue paper to trace your to scale images on the cooler. You can use a bright computer screen, printed out images, or use a light table. Just lay your tissue paper down on the image you want and start coping with a pencil. Then when your image is perfect take masking tape or painters tape and tape them to the cooler so they donât move. This should go without saying but make sure your base color of paint is dry before you tape on your images. I waited a day. Then use something to trace the image one the tissue paper to the cooler. You can also freehand on the cooler but not everyone is great at free handing.Â
Personal Experience: Since I did my images on the computer I had to break up the sides so they would fit onto an 8 by 11 piece of paper. Which was a lot harder than I thought. When I got all my pieces taped together (8 pieces for the large sides and 4 for the small sides) I laid out white tissue paper and traced over the large images in pencil. Then I taped one piece of tissue paper at a time to the cooler and traced with a Sharpie. For the love of your sanded piece of plastic do not do this! For some reason Mod Podge brings out the sharpie from under your paint! A Sharpie I feel is best for darker sides however for lighter sides your hard work will end up looking like this:
Ugly ugly Sharpie right through my white paint. I was POed. I did end up using a different kind of marker for my Honey Jack side, a black marker pen by Staedtler. The marker didnât come though on this side however you can still see my big black Sharpie lines on the border lines:Â
I read up on what others had used and many said Sharpies and other various permanent markers as well as a few who said they used pencils to trace ONTO the cooler. All I can think is that the brand who I bought the white paint from was cheap but I am unsure. I will be trying different techniques with the next cooler.
Marker (NOT A SHARPIE PLEASE!)
Step Nine: Its finally the step you have been waiting for! Time to paint those designs on! If you traced on you designs then its like coloring in a coloring book but also trying to color up your line work. I suggest painting the cooler somewhere where you donât mind getting paint everywhere as it will get everywhere and you wonât know how. I suggest working from the top left corner then working down if you are right handed like me. This way you wonât drag your hand through the paint. I would recommend you paint the cooler one side at a time to give the side time to try in case you need another coat. Also experiment with different brushes by which I mean try using tools that are not really meant for painting. I used an old felt tip shirt marker to paint over 75 percent of the cooler. I found myself needing a stiffer brush and the long felt tip was perfect! I also used a toothpick that I had chewed on for smaller details as well as normal toothpicks. I get that people may not be super artistically inclined but there is a way around smaller details, such as bribing artistic people with food, using black mail, or Mod Podging high quality images on (But donât do this until the next step!!!). Once everything is the way you want it let it dry for a day. I know the paint wonât take that long to dry but you donât want the next step to mess up your beautiful art work! Â
Personal Experience: I personally I am not a fan of Mod Poged images a cooler which did not allow me to add the dragon eggs from Game of Thrones onto the cooler. But as I said earlier I did paint most of the cooler not with brushes but with a felt tip marker. The felt tip gave me more control over the brush strokes and allowed me to add finer details than my smallest paintbrush. I did need assistance in the form of a paint pen from time to time. The fine paint marker was a perfect tool to outline letters to make them crisp as paint can be. I do suggest you get to know your paint pen better before you touch down on the cooler. Like how much paint comes out when you push down? Does it run badly? And other questions that could effect your coolers outcome. Oh and if you have long hair PUT IT UP! You will end up dragging it through your paint which is a hassle to clean up.Â
Paint pen in various colors
Painting tools (brushes, Marker, toothpick, ect.)
Step Ten: Time to REALLLLLLY seal that cooler. I may have gone a bit excessive with sealing my cooler but man it worked out so well! Sealing your cooler at first is a pain staking process but gets easier as you keep going. Let me break it down for you.
STEP TEN (A): Once your paint is COMPLETELY dry break out the Mod Podge! This is the step you place down the images (if any) to you cooler. Get a clean bush and place down thin coats of the Mod Podge. How thin? You want that stuff to go on as clear as you can. Thin coats will allow for your Mod Podge to dry quicker and wonât cause that gumminess you get from think coats. So what Mod Podge is the best? That is up to you. I used the Out Door (Green Label) due to its property of being water resistant but others prefer the normal or even the spray styles. Its up to you but keep in mind the spray gets very messy. Two to three coats should be good and make sure you cover a bit of the bottom as well!
STEP TEN (B): Once your Podge is dry time to seal even more! Get another CLEAN brush and some Polycrylic sealer. Polycrylic will give your cooler a hard protective coat! The stuff dries pretty quickly too so a bonus! In my opinion there is was never to many coats of this stuff. I ended up doing about 8 THIN coats of this stuff just to be sure as I have no desire for the cooler to chip. I did four coats at night and another four when I woke up. Make sure you also get a little bit of the bottom with this stuff. However the downside to Polycrylic is the stuff IS NOT WATERPROOF! Which brings up to the next sub step.
STEP TEN (C): We gotta make sure the cooler can withstand anything thrown at it, like Naddy Light, Patron, Moscato, ect. Thanks to Urethane we can! Get another CLEAN brush and a can of Urethane and place down one to two LIGHT coats. Make sure you get a little bit of the bottom again.Â
STEP 10 (D): Time to seal yet again! This time with an rattle can sealer. Get that stuff on good using the 50% first then cover the whole thing. I ended up using almost a full can just cause I was paranoid about chipping. But make sure you spray it good and get the entire bottom too!
STEP TEN (E) (Optional): If you live in a really humid area like I am then you probably donât have a a really smooth clear coat. Never fear! Wet Sanding is here! Use your super fine grit sanding paper (600 grit) with lots of water and lightly drag you paper over your sealed cooler. Try not to use any pressure. That all your really need to do!
1x Jar of Outdoor Mod Podge
1x Can of Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish
1x Can of Minwax Pro Series Spar UrethaneÂ
1x Can of Rust-oleum Satin Clear Enamel
3x NEW foam brushes (make sure they can fit in your jars)
OPTIONAL:Â 1x pack of 3M Pro Grade Precision 600 Grit Sanding Sheets
STEP 11 (DO NOT SKIP!): CELEBRATE! You did it! Open that beer or bottle of wine and chill out! Those paints and newspaper can wait to be picked up. Now its you time. Take plenty of pictures to remember the good times and of course the not so good times. Congratulations on your wonderful cooler!
I hope this guide helps those looking to take on a cooler project (veteran or novice). My cooler went to Myrtle Beach and back with no chipping or scratches so even though it wasnât the prettiest cooler I am pleased it survived the weekend with no chips! I hope it stays that way for at least a few months. I know that chipping is inevitable but I just hopes it lasts a long time!Â
When taking on a project like this give yourself two to three weeks to complete. That way you donât find yourself in a rush and your art coming out crappy. Happy painting!
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