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I went my first Drive-In Movie for the summer season this past weekend. As I sat there waiting for the show to start I started contemplating that big screen. Who paints that sucker? Do you use a special type of paint? Is the screen coated with anything to help protected it from the elements? Are they painted or just replaced? Hmmm, who's got the answers? Will I have to go through the summer not knowing the answers to these pressing questions?

At the Grandview Drive-In where I worked 1967-1970, we had a 42 x 100 foot screen, made of metal panels on a steel framework. Usually painted it in May every few years by a professional painting firm (scaffolds and ropes from tie-ons at the top of the screen), using a flat white house paint. For the first few months of summer, that screen looked great, then the rust and streaks started peaking through.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Customer Technical Services
Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 585-477-5325 Cell: 585-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

I'll chime in here. Actually something I do know something about.

My drive-in screen was delivered to the construction site about two weeks ago. It came in on one BIG truck. Once erected (hopefully next week), it will recieve a new coat of paint, as the surface is just prepped at the factory.

I got a call from our screen contractor to go out to the job site and get his tools, and the cans and buckets of "SCREEN PAINT", and take them back to the house to make sure they don't "wander off" until he gets back.

His paint cans and buckets are labeled and say that the paint was specially formulated for drive-in screens. I know it has a latex base to it.

Most drive-in screens will need to be re-painted about once every ten years or so, depending on weather conditions, vandalism, etc.

Here are some recommended paints used by drive-in owners that have yeilded the best results for screen painting.

** Kelly-Moore 1240-121 exterior latex.

** Pittsburgh Paints Super White Exterior Latex.
As a primer, Pittsburgh snow-white primer.
*For ferrous or non-ferrous metals (such as galvanized) use Pitt-Tech 90-712
primer, which is white. Don't use if screen is wood.

*For wood and most other material, use Seal Grip 17-21 Primer, also white.
For wood in bad condition, use Pemanizer Plus 77-102. It goes on white &
dries clear.

Hope this helps..

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Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Lebanon, Tennessee

Stardust Drive-In Theatre
Watertown, Tennessee

The Kelly-Moore paint is the screen at the Skyline drive-in (Shelton, Wash.) was repainted with.

Here in the Northwest moss is a real problem. Our scren was pressure washed with bleach mixed in to kill the moss already on the screen. The screen was primed then painted with the Kelly-Moore paint (with a moss inhibitor mixed in it).

Be carefull with using bleach as a deterent to moss or removing moss.

I had a really bad problem with a mossy-mold-like subtance that grew on the north side of our previous house about 2 years ago.

I found out that bleach does nothing to moss and mold but bleach the color out of it, and the active mold and moss remains. You really have to scrub it and treat it with a specially formulated moss remover to effectively get rid of it.