After all my research I still haven't figured out how I'm going to tackle painting my camaro. Everyone has a different way and it just is kicking my ***. I've been in the painting business for a long time, just never painted a car.

I was thinking: Ospho/epoxy primer/urethane basecoat/clear coat

What are your opinions? I'm also not sure about the whole "guide coat" thing. I guess it helps get the body straight as possible.

Now what did I miss because plenty of people mentioning several types of primers etc would a couple of layers of epoxy primer be good? And do you put body filler on bare metal or on the epoxy primer?

 

Here's the condensed version:
-Filler over metal (I'm old school like that. I understand you can do it over primer and be ok, just haven't been able to change)
-catalyzed primer (look at Marhyde, Evercoat, or any reputable automotive paint manufacturer)
-guide coat and block sand
-may need one or two more primer coats/guide coat/block sand to get it straight
-QUALITY BC/CC or single stage from known paint manufacturer

Not real sure what "painting business" means but practice on something else before you spray your car. Find and old guy with gray hair that can give you some tips.

 

Wouldn't it be guide coat then primer then block? Or do you sand your guide coat?

Oh I've done work on houses and all kinds of things just not cars. I plan on doing a panel at a time anyway

 

Guide coat is a sparse layer of paint(cheapest black spraybomb at Wallyworld works great) over primer that when block sanded, shows the high and low spots of the panel. Hit up Youtube for an example. Way too much to learn within a couple of posts.

 

One more thing, you may want to buy your paint pre-mixed. If you do not know about reducer and hardners and such, you can buy what they call factory pack paint. If you buy paint just dont go with the bottom of a paint line, example is PPG also makes a paint called Omni, it is garbage. I swear it is what PPG scrapes out of the bottom of the vat when they make their regular paint. I know only use Dupont, but that is just a personel choice; I used PPG for 20 years.