My car was painted back in 1994 with ppg dar4357-blue, paint. I've found this out from previous owner, I believe it was a acrylic enamel paint. I want to know what prep work I need to do to paint over this with base coat/clear coat. Is there anything special I need to do? What stages and steps do I need to do.

 

What kind of condtion is the body in? Any dents, or rust areas, and is there any peeling or bad paint buid up? If you dont have any problems with the body a good wet sanding with 400 grit will give a good enough surface to paint over. If do have any serious problem areas you will need to do some more serious sanding and repair and prep. Just make sure you clean the body really good with a chemical degreaser that you can get from a paint shop. Its usually labeled as a wax and grease remover. I'd wipe the enitre car down after washing it with dawn dish detergent, then start sanding. After you fininsh sanding it wash it again with dawn and you may want to wipe it off again with the grease remover after you tape it up.

 

The body is in good condition, it has only a few minor dime size, (1or so) surface rust, couple of chips, and in the door jambs the paint is chipping, but other than that it is in good shape, the pic in my sig is the car before I got it, although it looks much better now that I have it garaged.

 

I agree with the other guy. Wash the heck out of it, use a GOOD wax&grease remover. Do your dent repair, priming ,and detriming. Remember the more you take off the better the job. Then I would sand it with 600 to 800 grit. 400 seems a little to coarse to me...then again everyone has their own method. Then blow it off REAL GOOD, wax&grz again tape it up degrease again and go........... I've been doing this for 14 yrs for Ford (yep I'm a Camaro guy) and that's how I do it there.

 

Some enamels don't get along with other paints. I know I have used touch up paint on my enamel paint job and it started reacting. Found out quickly to buy enamel touch up paint and none other. Find out what is on it and check with the paint you are planing on using to make sure it will not react, if it will you will need to use a primer or other seperator coat between the two paints.

Test it in a small spot also before you start spraying, if it starts rinkling or seperating you know you need a seperator coat.

 

fix the areas that are damaged, finish them with at least 400 grit, spot prime, sand the whole car with 400-800, wipe her down, do the prep work needed, tape her up, get some primer sealer, and apply until you have coverage, wait for it to flash a few minutes, go in and start with your basecoat, go with light, several coats until you achieve coverage, a couple heavy coats is not the way to go, let her flash and hit her with the clear, should b fine if it has a barrier in between the different kinds of paint, just dont put the sealer on too heavy

 

Fix your dents and rust; and to be safe, I would wetsand the car with the appropriate grit; wash the car, wipe with a degreaser and then a TACK cloth (sticky cotton cloth used to lightly remove lint and dust - this is key to a good backyard job). THEN, I would spray it with a Urethane Sealer thats compatible with Acrylic Enamel. Since you arent 100% sure what that paint is, I'd seal it to give your base and clear a more stable substrate instead of 20yr old paint. You could also use a Epoxy Primer. Make sure you get the tech sheets for whatever brand of paint you are using.

Nate