I couldn't find all the answers i was looking for, but i did search. I'm considering painting my car black from the color it is now, i think what i've got currently is Russet Metallic, but i'm not sure, it's kind of an orange/copper/brown color. What all am i going to have to do to get fairly nice looking paint? It's not a show car, but i don't want runs or orange peel or fisheyes or anything. I was thinking that i need to take the car down to bare metal, hammer out any dings, go over them with bondo, sand and then spot putty or glazing compound and sand again, then primer the whole car, then sand again then put on a base coat, sand that and finish up with clear coat. Pretty basic procedure i guess. What i want to know is how many coats of what do i put on? What grits do i use and when do i sand/wetsand? I've heard to stick with all one brand, but i dunno what paint brands are good, i've only heard of ppg and dupont, but they've got lots of products and lines, so does that mean i can use any dupont primer with anything in their chroma series? Can i mix a chromalusion base with a chromapremier clear coat? What the hell's the difference besides the price? Is there anything good or bad about using dupont or ppg's factory packaged black's or white's? What kinda strategy do i use to paint the car, i know your supposed to overlap 50% or so and stay 8-10 inches from the car, but surely that doesn't mean i should go around the car and spiral paint until i get to the bottom, so do i go panel by panel or what? What about dust and such, my shop is pretty clean, but there's no doubt i've got some dust in the air, how bad is that gonna mess everything up? Is the procedure a whole lot different for a fiberglass hood? I'm sorry i have so many questions, but the 7000 i was quoted by one shop (the most expensive in town) and 2250 from the second best is more than i feel like spending, it doesn't look like it's that hard to do but i've never done anything of this scale before. My friend's mom said she has a real nice hvlp gun i can use, so i think i'm set there, but that brings me to another question, how long do i have to refill the hopper deal when i run out, and is it going to spit and sputter when it runs out?

thanks in advance

 

Painting a car is soo much fun. I did my car almost a year ago, it was the my first time painitng a car and doing body work. I dont know much about the paint since I use a 1 stage paint called NASON which is made by Dupont.This paint doesnt require clearcoat, which I needed since I live on a farm here in Arkansas. All together the paint costed me 350 dollars.As for spraying the car I did it a panel at a time I started off at the top and worked my way down to the bottom, except for the hood and roof. I did half and half, did the driver side and then went over to the pass side and finished it off. I sprayed paint lightly on and let it get tacky and went over it again with a heavier coat. I did that until the panel was a solid color. Make sure you dont get to close or spray in one spot or you'll get a run in the paint.I strongly suggest you go and get a junk yard panel of some sort and test try before you really paint your car. My hvlp gun didnt sputter or spray globs of paint when it ran out, it sprays like normal and then the paint stops coming out but air still does even though you've ran out of paint. If the bucket is clear you should be able to look at it and tell if you need to add more paint into it or not. The way I painted my car was in 3 seperate stages first I took off my rear hatch and put it up on saw horses, I opened my doors, took of the front fenders, and poped my hood up where it wasnt lacthed down and unbolted it to get the fenders off. I painted all of that and let it dry.The next day I then got my ground effects,mirrors,and I did my tail lights too. Painted them and let them dry over night. Then I did my urathane bumpers and spoiler, I saved them for last since you need to add a flexing agent for urathane parts. It allows the paint to expand and contract so it wont crack when the bumpers expand and contract due to heat. I put the stuff in both my primer and paint. I let them dry and the next day I wet sanded every thing and then buffed it out and bolted everything back on and was finished. I have no idea on how big your shop is but the one I used was only big enough to get my car into, I think it was 20 X 20 but it was tiny in there. I hope i've helped some.

 

i live on a farm in illinois so i've got the same kind of concerns, how much sanding did you do to yours? my shop is 40x60 so i've got plenty of room to work if i clean it out. Your car looks amazing man. With the NASON, even though it doesn't require clearcoat, can you still put clearcoat on without adverse affects? How well is the stuff wearing? any problems with it peeling or anything? How long did it take you all together?

 

got any close up pics? how glossy is it? does it look like a new car's paint? how does the flexing agent work?

 

I have no idea about putting clearcoat on 1 stage paint, but you should be able to ask your paint dealer. I sanded my car down to bare metal "8 layers of paint was on the car" and I found some consedirable damage on my drivers side rear quarter and door. But you can get paint that goes over paint, I think its called sealer or something like that. The paint still looks like new, the only flaws on my paint are 14 scratches on my rear bumper and some cracks to my pass tail light, and from when the freakin stupid road dept decided to put tar and gravel for the main road. The first vehicle I just had to meet was a 18 wheeler not going the 35 mph limit in the construction zone, and showered my car down with gravel and put 2 small chips on my lower spoiler, 3 tiny chips on my hood, 3 small chips on my driver fender. Other than that I've had no problems with the paint. All together it took me 4 days of painting parts"I wish I had a big enough shop to everything at once" or 1 hour of total painting. The flex agent is needed to prevent the paint from spider webing<the paint cracks and looks like a spider web>. The urathane bumpers and lower spoiler expand and crontract when they get hot or cold and the paint has to be able to do the same. I put the additive in my primer and paint.If done correctly the paint should look like it was done with clear, when I took my car out to a local gas station I had lots of compliments on my paint, and that was before I wetsanded the car and buffed the paint out. Make sure you drain any water in your air tank, you dont want that in the paint.
Heres a pic of the car after I painted it, but not wetsanded.I had the paint perfect before the owner of the shop opened up the door to shop and some dust fell onto my hood.

 

Heres the only close up pic I have of my paint. This is after I wetsanded and polished my paint and thats me. You should have seen the dents in that sail panel. It looked like somebody shot the thing up with a bb gun or something.

 

it does look damn sharp, i was thinking if i can use a 1 coat deal like you did and put a few layers of clear over it, i'd have a little better protection from chips and such...awesome job though, and thanks alot man...now i just gotta decide if i really wanna paint it black...there's alotta black ones running around...

 

well first i just gotta say if you want to put clear on it, you might as well just use the base/clear system instead of trying to put clear over single stage paint. It is a better paint and will last longer. if you are going to be using a HVLP gun then you don't need to worry about the gun sputtering or whatever else when you run out of paint, it will just simply run out. As long you have the gun set up right you shouldn't have any problems. Also it would be better if you were to paint all the panels at once to assure that you get a better color match. You will have plenty of time to mix up more paint if you run out. The most important thing when painting a car to save you work done the road is prep work. Make sure the car is prepped right and that you shop is as clean as possible. Mop the floors before you start, wipe the walls down, do everything you can or you will end up with a lot of dirt nibs in the paint. And no paint job is perfect, I don't care how good you are there is going to be orange peel somewhere, runs, dirt nibs, whatever it may be. But those can all be fixed. Paint the car from top to bottom, basically just work from panel to panel. Stripping your can down to bare metal can be a lot of work, a lot more than you make think especially if its been repainted a few times. And if you do that then it would be a good idea if you metal conditioner or self-etching primer on the car to protect the bare metal. Are you going to paint the jambs, engine bay, etc? Product choice is all a matter of opinion, dupont, sikkens, PPG, its just personal preference, as long as you get some good quality paint you shouldn't have any problems. Some products say you need to use their clear if you use their base and so on, but thats usually not a problem either. Painting strategy is just something you will have to learn, everyone has a different style, get something to practice on and just find whats comfortable for you. If your doing a fiberglass hood all i can say is to get some high build primer and shoot it a few times and then block sand it to try and get it smooth, if its a good quality hood, hopefully you won't have too many issues.

 

Do not clear over single stage paint. The hardner used in these paints take 1 week to 1 month to cure totally. They are tack free in an hour however. If you clear you will seal the paint and it will not be able to cure. I have attached a BBS forum for you guys to look at....I have learned so much from these guys.

http://www.autobodystore.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?index



Brian

 

Brian, thats a very informative site. I took a quick look and already picked up a few good tips

 

Yeah I love it. I am restoring a 89 IROC and wanted to paint it myself. I started reading their problems and ideas and next thing I knew I have almost all my body work done and bumpers ready to paint.


I have also purchased a video from Len the guy who runs www.autobodystore.com and sponsers the board. It tell you everything and is good enough to teach even me how to paint. He has excelent prices on supplys.

Brian