this is nice, but not necessary.
people tend to focus on cleanliness alittle too much and dont focus on actually product spraying enough.
I spray in my garage all the time, and its not clean.

 

Hanging plastic on the walls and maybe ceiling is more about keeping the overspray off of the rest of your garage and stuff in it. Not necessary really for the paint job itself.

I did wet the floor down, but a clean and dry floor is probably fine too. If you don’t want overspray on the floor, I’d put down something on the floor, like ram board.

 

Honestly, that was my plan too, but when I painted my ground effects, I had very little contamination, at least nothing that won't be removed when I cut/buff. It was the same with these parts. This weekend I plan to shoot the car. I believe I will sweep the floor and wet it down, just to be safe.

 

Got the car painted today. Not a perfect job, but once cut/buffed, it will definitely be good enough for pleasure cruising…

 

It looks a mile better than it did when you started.

 

Thanks man, it’s for sure more Maaco than Mecum, but I knew being a first timer and black, it wasn’t going to be perfect!

 

Amazing progress. I can't believe how nice the rims turned out.

 

Thanks. Yes, they did a nice job on the rims. It’ll be presentable when reassembled…

 

It's better not being perfect and that you painted it and it didn't cost a fortune to do like at a professional paint & body shop. Plus you didn't get trapped in paint & body shop Hell waiting your entire life to get it done.

It not being perfect and costing a fortune means your mind can rest at ease when driving it and enjoying the car like it should be enjoyed. It it gets nicked and dinged you can repair it yourself.

The best part is you can take pride in the job you did and you get to tell people you painted it.

I'm proud for you and the job you did.

 

let it sit for a few days, sand the clear with 800 and put 3 or 4 more coats of clear over it.
you might not need to buff it then, and itll look that much better

 

Contemplating buying some inexpensive grey badging (the OCD in me) and running it basic black with these wheels for a while. I have all of the gold badging, wheels and decals to put it back to stock when the time comes.

 

Final product…. I am going to run it like this for a bit, but I have the gold wheels and Phoenix Graphics, that I will put on later. It is on a tender, so I don’t have the hood all the way closed and I need to tweak the back hatch a bit yet

 

Looks great. Ready for summer for sure.

 

Very nice. A glossy finish on a black car distracts from minor paint imperfections. Sure, the imperfections are apparent when people are right there examining it from 5 feet away, or when cameras are focused on the car at close range, but when that shiny black car drives by, it'll turn heads, and nobody will notice any imperfections.

I think the car looks good without decals and stripes and especially without body side molding. I'm a black and silver guy, not a black and gold guy (although we have both in Vegas lol), but the simple gold accents look nice on the solid black car. Gold wheels, gold rocker emblems, gold bumper emblem and front license plate name in gold (which answers another thread from TGO's past about gold or silver front license plates) will stand out on the solid black car without any decals or stripes.

 

Agreed, as long as you aren't right up on the car, it looks pretty decent, but making a show car wasn't the goal as it will be driven. Thanks for the positive reply!

 

I am sure this was stated up above, but is this single stage or base/clear?
I have never painted a car before and plan to paint my 91 resto mod, and love the idea of base/clear, but since I am sure I will mess something up single stage seems more forgiving.
Wondering where you landed on all that.

 

base clear is much much easier to spray

if you run single stage, well thats it, you got a big ole run.. if its metallic paint, that run will never be fixed as the metallic will all sag with the run.
Basecoat dries in 15 mins.
got a run? sand it off and respray it. make it all perfect before the shiny stuff (clear)

you get a run in the clear, well sand out the run and buff it.

single stage is only good for the purists that want single stage for award or high dollar restorations.. like a 69 dodge challenger or something like that

 

Agreed. Base/Clear is much more forgiving than single stage.

 

It is a base/clear job. As the others have said, you can fix runs/sags etc pretty easily. I had a few in this job, but after hitting them with Tolecut sanding block, you can't tell they were ever there.

 

Damn. OK this is great info. I always thought that single stage was the cheapo way of doing things.
I am painting mine just pure white, no metallic or anything like that. I actually really like the white that Audi uses. My plan is to get it from Eastwood where I get all my other supplies.

If base/clear is easier for a novice then that is the way I will go.

Sorry for hijacking the thread. Car looks great. When the time comes for me to paint mine, I will for sure start a new thread to get fine details from all you guys (plus my own research of course).
But nothing beats true experience with these exact cars, etc...

 

How much more of a challenge is it for a newbie to spray a metallic color, like maui blue?

 

I'm no pro, only painted this car, but I did do a spoiler for my Formula that was a metallic green. It seemed like it layed pretty well, but a full car may be different. I think the most important thing is to use good product.

 

Think I'll start collecting old fenders and see what I can do!

 

I would suggest that! I had an old hood that I practiced on a bit before starting on the car parts.

 

It's not really that hard. If it's your first time ever spraying with a gun, I'd probably practice first with some cheap single stage just to get the hang of it and play with gun setup/pressure/etc.

With metallics, there are some things to consider that don't matter as much with solids.

-Metallics can look different if painted on different days. Paint everything at the same time, if you can. Especially doors/fenders/hood/roof/quarters
-Ground effects, spoilers, and small parts can be painted separately and at a different time since slight variations in those parts won't be noticeable
-Paint all panels in the orientation that they will be on the car. Paint the quarters/doors/fenders vertical, roof/hood/decklid horizontal. The metallic will stand up or lay down and will catch the light differently
-Use multiple lighter, but even coats of base. You want to fully cover, but not lay down so much paint that the metallic runs or mottles.
-The final coat of base should be a very light dust coat. It will make the metallic really pop under the clearcoat in the final product
-Let the base flash dry, and then clear within the same day. You can't sand a metallic base before clear, so you have to clear within the window where the base and clear will chemically bond (usually 24 hours or so).

Good luck and have fun

 

This is great info, thanks!!

 

Nice work there!! Two thumbs up!