Can anyone tell me what the best way to go to paint my firebird! Looking to get any tips. I plan on doing a daytona blue with the ground effects in silver. Now my question is how do I get a professional looking paint job with out the experience. For example: what steps need to be taken, sand, primer, base coat etc. How many coats of paint do I use and the clear coat. Also my choices in daytona blue are: which one is better?

1)Daytona Blue Pearl acrylic enamel
2)Daytona Blue Pearl acrylic lacquer
3)Daytona Blue Pearl acrylic urethane

Any help and tips are greatly aprreciated!

 

If you don;t have experience, I will tell you right now to use the acrylic urethane paint. It can be wet sanded and buffed out a LOT easier than the enamel and laquer paints don't like wax. As far as tips, make sure you do the prep work properly. The best paint job will directly result from the prep work. For example, if you have a dent or wavy area, once you think you have it smooth, mist a light coat of rattle can black paint, laquer quick drying is fine for this, over the area and block sand it. Once that paint is misted on you will see any imperfections or spots you missed once you start with the block sander. Also, a paint stick works pretty good in a lot of spots where there is a contour to the car. It flat sands the areas without burning through the paint/primer so quick on the edges. Speaking of edges, make sure you stay away from them for the most part.

Once you are laying primers and paints, don't go to the edge...just near enough to it in your final sanding and wet sanding/buffing/polishing. All you'll do is burn through the paint quickly and possibly chip it off causing you to have to redo the area.

When painting, you probably want to use a gravity feed paint gun as they are easier to use especially for a beginner. Getting the air flow and paint flow spray mixture set is important, so use a flat piece of cardboard or something to test spray for a bit with the primer to get the flow and feel of the gun before hitting the car. Same with the paint, as it will probably be thinner and lay differently than the primer. Just don't waste a ton of paint doing this...a few shots/lines will suffice to get the idea and make sure it's not laying too thick or thin. Too much air and not enough paint will cause it to lay dry and it won't have the gloss to it and orange peel will be more prevalent. Wet sanding and buffing can be done though to fix most of that stuff, but you have to have plenty of paint so you don't burn through to the primer. Basically, you want to be right on the edge of running the paint.

Spraying clear is more difficult than a single stage, but is probably better to do if you want top tackle it. It's a better paint in my opinion and will last longer. Besides, you'll probably have a pretty good idea of how the paint is flowing by the time you are clearing so it should be easier to lay down everywhere and right. You'll have a rhythm.

One thing I found is the paints will usually have instructions on how to spray and use them. Follow them and you're in pretty good shape for the most part. When painting, once the paint is tacky, you can lay another coat. If you plan on wet sanding and buffing, you'll want a good three coats.

I can't really think of too much else without writing a novel here. Others on here have a lot of paint experience that will add a ton to this I'm sure and have better advice. This is just what I found when I was painting and gathered from those around me that have painted or are painters. I basically asked lots of questions until I felt more comfortable. The paint shop will usually be able to give some advice too if you have questions. Luckily I had a few people I know that are painters for a living to help me with questions when they arose. Good luck and the key is to just take your time and do it right. You won't regret the extra time spent in the long run.

 

go to half.com or your local book store and pick up the book "how to paint your own car" in my opinion this will be one of the best resorces of information. they cover everything from prep work and tools, all the way to buffing and rubbing out the clear. might end up being a huge time and money saver in the long run.

 

Awesome response. Good, solid information.

 

another bit of info, My buddy and I restored a 84 SE TA for a guy and broke almost every rule that anyone has about painting basecoat clearcoat.

if you don't get the base coat cleared right away it will be fine. We went about 30 days before we cleared the doors and they turned out perfect. We just lightly wet sanded them with 2000 grit and then cleared them. We even got primer on the base coat and just wet sanded it off and went on.

The clear turned out hazy and rough but we wetsanded it and this is how it looks today.

We had to sand every coat of base and clear becuase of dust. It took us forever.

This car was ready for the crusher before we got our hands on it. It looks awesome. We did a complete color change.

 

This was our first job and we are by no means professionals. IF we can do it you can too. We used a gravity gun and two small compressors hook together and this is how the job turned out. We did have our problems but it all worked out. Feel free to pm me with any questions you might have. You can get so much more from someone else than a book. First hand experience.

 

thanks to all who replied with their tips im starting to get a good idea on how to go about this, one more thing what about the bumpers and gfx there not metal like the rest of the car should these items be treated any different when painting.

thanks

 

They have an additive "flex agent" that is supposidly flexible for parts like that. However, the flex agent eventually cures to a hardened state over time too and will still crack if pushed or stretched like on a poly bumper. I decided not to add any flex agent to my paint and just primed and painted them the same as the rest of the car. The same rules apply as far as scuffing the surface, leveling and smoothing ripples and waves as on the body of the car. You just don't want to push hard and flex the parts as they will flex and move easier than your metal body obviously. Fill scratches and nicks, etc. like you would on the body and sand with the same grit paper at the end before laying primer and paint. You'll just want to be sure to stay off the bumpers to avoid cracking them in the future.

 

 

Buy the best spray gun you can afford! And use the flex agent when spraying the bumper covers.

 

it made no difference wether we used the flex agent or not. The bumpers were the first things we painted and we didn't get to paint the car for about 4 months later and the bumpers never cracked even with them sitting in the hot July sun for a couple of days to cure them. The bumper twisted a bunch with no problems. Don't waste the money. A proffesional painter told me the same thing.

 

the biggest work is in the prepping, before you spray ANYTHING make sure you scuffed it......for the best results pull and smooth all your dents, primer....let that dry for 24 hrs....... spray a guide coat,block sand as much of your primer as you can get to with the sanding block......i use 180 grit when blocking........spray another coat of primer, wait 24 hours then wet sand ALL of it with a spounge so you dont leave finger marks where you sanded...400 on the rough spots....then 600 over all of that......then your ready for base
MAKE SURE EVERY THING IS AS CLEAN AS POSSIBLE.....then go over it with a tack cloth really good spray the base on dry, just enough so it looks like you painted it flat blue when the paint is still wet......get every part on the car blue looking.....let that dry for 15-20 minutes retack everything
Now on to clear coat.....spray it on wet.....dont go over anything twice in one spray period......this will cut down on runs.....wait about 30 minutes then spray another good coat on (its ok if you run on the second spray period it will buff out) You may want to put 3 or four coats on if you have a bunch of runs.....this will prevent breaking thru when u are wet sanding the car and getting ready for buffing...............There WILL most definatly be trash in the paint....this is unpreventable, but a good wetsanding and buffing will get most of it out

if i missed anything let me know......oh yeah buy PPG deltron base and clear

 

Don't waste the money? It's like $5 a can and it does work. After time with expanding and contracting you could see small cracks develop. Go to a bone yard and look at the door moldings. You will see a lot of them with fine cracks because most of the time they're sprayed with the same paint as door which has no flex agent. I am no "professional" and I am not going to ague, but if you look at your mixing cup after the paint has dried, the paint will peal right off after slight squeeze and it will look clean and new. The paint in the mixing cup with the flex agent won't peal off at all, no matter how much you squeeze it. The agent keeps the paint flexible and adds adheision promotion. The mixing cup test was proof for me. And like I said, it's $5 a can and you will only use about a 1/3 of it.

 

I would say if it's that cheap and doesn't throw you off by adding another number to the equation, then why not. I don't have anything bad to say about it, I just didn't want to deal with it and over time it starts to lose that flexibility is all. It will initially work well. But nothing is going to keep that paint flexible to bending and expansion and contraction forever. The fact that it takes months for the paint to fully cure to a hard shell keeps it flexible enough not to crack early on even without the additive. But the additive will give you some more time. Unfortunately, over a period of years, it will inevitably crack again. Your best bet would be fiberglass replacement parts if you want it less likely to expand, contract, and bend when any pressure is put on it causing the paint to crack. Better yet, don't lean on or sit on the cars bumpers and hit curbs with the ground effects :-p Either way you decide, it will work. Ultimately, the prep is the most important part of all this.

 

the reason the paint doesnt stick to the mixing cup is because it is slick plastic......if you went inside the cup with scotch brite real well it would achieve the same affect as adding flex agent