Ward

iTrader: (1)

My friend and I are going to be painting his car pretty soon, so we're trying to find out as much information on it as possible. I have done a few cars in the past, but only with lacquer. I have not had any experience with any other type of paint. Lacquer seems to be pretty easy to do at home, because if you mess up, you can easily re-sand it and re-spray it. What other types of paints have you guys had experience with? Enamels? We will be painting in his garage after we convert it to a makeshift paint booth. We don't have any way to heat the garage, or de-humidify it, so we'll have to wait for a nice warm and not humid day. Any info you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

The quick and easy way alot of guys are shooting are the 1 step paints-acrylic enamel, where you mix the paint, reducer, and hardner all at once and shoot. You usually apply the first mist coat, wait for it to tack, apply a second coat with the mix the same and this time make sure coverage is complete, then on the last coat you mix in more hardner than is called for-this is where you get the gloss like in a base/clear paint. Upside-if you know what your doing, you save alot of work because you don't have to color sand the car as many times as with base/clear or laquer. Downside-if you screw up it is'nt as easy to fix and harder to blend back in. I don't think very many people use laquer anymore because of the amount of work involved to get the finished product as good as with a 1 step or base/clear plus it just does'nt offer the ease of maintenance of the newer stuff. I and I'm sure many others will agree you'll have a much better finished product by base/clear. It's definately more work as far as the hand sanding/buffing/glazing is concerned, but if you screw up the paint as with laquer you can fix it and it won't be noticable in the finished product. Same with the clear coat. Just be sure to match your reducer to the ambient temp that you will be actually shooting the paint at. A couple buddies of mine try to do everything themselves-and it's cost them lots of coin to make it right in the end-but they were having problems with orange peel and fish eyes so they got away with using a hotter reducer on 1 job and I think by luck they did'nt get fisheyes/orangepeel. They tried it again this winter on a 2002 rebuild blazewr he bought the garage was at 65-70 degrees cause the windows were open trying to vent and the reducer was 90 degree. The paint was alright cause they shot it when the shop was good and warm, but the first coat of clear LITERALLY ran from the top of the roof to the bottom of the rockers-15minutes later and it still was sagging in other spots. They waited awahile and used some cooler reducer and the 5th coat of clear later they hid some of the screw ups, but the big thing was it did not run or sag. Also-DO NOT use flex additive. Body shops all around have been told not to use it for one because it causes a "yellowing" of the part, alot of times it will orange peel, and the biggest kick in the pants is it "dries" itself out of the plastic part after about 30 days anyways. The guy who just painted my car went into great detail about the flex additive because I questioned him if he used it since my bird has the plastic bumpers and he's the one that's informed me of that info. He's been doing it for over 40yrs and turns out the sweetest jobs, so I took his suggestion of not using it and it's only been about a month since I got it back, but everything is still holding up.

Ward

iTrader: (1)

I definitely dont mind a little work, like is required with lacquer, but I wouldnt mind trying a base/clear job. What all is required for a job like this? Do you wait until the color coat is completely dry before spraying clear? Also, I was under the impression that you need a good booth to spray base/clear, one that can heat up to bake the paint on.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

The 3 cars I've personally painted-I'm not a pro by a long shot- were all out of the garage. Once you have the base sprayed on the car, you gotta let it dry. This will one give you an oportunity to look over any areas that might need fixing/touching up, and 2 you have to scuff the paint before applying the clear coat-giving it something to adhere to. I want ot say I used like a 1000grit to scuff, but it's been so long since I've done it you might want to check on that or maybe somebody here can jump in. Then a complete wash down-again. Then once you start applying the clear, I usually waited about 15min between coats-I used to touch the clear on the paper covering the openings and as soon as it was tacky, I'd I lay the next coat on. The only places that bake are pro shops cause they don't make money if the car sits in the shop for a week, by baking they car paint/buff the same day or the next and run it out the door. You already know that having a clean shop is key when painting. The day before ny guy shot mine, he literally rolled everything out of the back and sprayed the ceiling,walls, windows, doors everything trying to keep the dust to a minimum. It still had a little dust in the clear, but after he buffed and then glazed it took it all out. About the only way to really not get dirt is to have a down draft booth like the big shops have-a big ole steel plate which sucks down into the "vaccum" not allowing the overspray "mist" that everybodies so used to seeing and it takes the dust down as well before they even shoot. Even the best places get a blemish here or there, but they do this day in and day out, so ridding the defect just comes with the territory. I've always heard prep work is key and the hardest part of a piant job-after watching this guy and his helper take 8hrs to mask off my car I now see why. I literally had NO overspray anywhere. I've never seen or heard of this until I picked my car up and looked it all over, I'm just fortuate to have this guy trade work for work. I took a little extra time doing his project for him, and it payed back by him reciprocating.