Dan_s_young

iTrader: (1)

Hey, I know quite a few of you guys have been getting your cars painted lately and they look very impressive. My car has been about half prepped all year and its driving me nuts. I have the money to do the job and I have decided I want to do the prep work myself and then rent a paint booth to do the paint itself.

I have purchased a haynes body work manual and have been reading it in my spare time (I certainally don't have much) and I have a few questions.

1) How can I get the wheel wells so they are smooth? It seems that there is all sorts of small pockets inside the wheel wells (like bumps and where rocks have hit making small dents)

2) What is the best way to sand this thing? I am considering going out and buying a decent compressor in order to get a air sander.

3) On my drivers side door there is a rust spot (surface rust) about 3" by 3" where a shopping cart hit the car when the previous owner had it. I am wondering as to what is the best way to cure this before painting it to ensure my paint doesn't end up bubbling. I have taken a grinder to it before in hopes of taking alot of it out but it doesn't really like to come off...

4) My car was half paint prepped and the engine blew. Resulting in some bare metal in the rain for about an hour (Ya, I know it sucks) anyways im wondering if I will need to some how cure the metal before I paint it or should I just resand all the rust off and quickly primer it? Will it be fine if I just do that?

5) What is the best kind of glaze to use? The bondo brand glaze seems to not work that well. I want something that is going to hold up well.

6) in order to pull dents from my panels (from when I took the trim off, I was stupid) is there a better way of popping the dents besides making a hole threw the metal and using a dent pulling device? And if I have to do it that way what is the best way to refill the holes afterwards if you can't get behind the panels?

Any other tips for doing this myself are greatly appreciated. I plan on using fiberglass bondo on any areas im in doubt with. I know I have quite the project ahead of me and im not afraid to spend some money (I have had the money for this saved up for about 8 months now).

My goal when this is all done is to have a decent paint job and not break the bank. I am also looking to have some basic autobody knowledge because I am becoming a mechanic and all the knowledge I get helps. My total price range for this paint job is about $2500 Canadian.

snakemon

Remove all the rust ,wax and grease remove entire car,except any body filler. Then Iwould use a good epoxy primer, like PPG DP or sherwin williams E932, to seal entire car. My personal favorite filler is Evercoat Rage Gold, it will stick to 80 grit sanded paint.

snakemon

When sanding for the sealer i would use a DA sander(320grit), when sanding the body filler always use a block by hand (40,80,and feather with 180)now your going to want to primer surface any imperfections and all filler.

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

1, If there is no rust and you are talking about the rear wheel wells, clean. prep and recoat with an underbody spray or truck bed liner.

2. A good da and an air file/sander. A hand flle/sander and sanding blocks will help with final sanding.

3. Sand down to bare, clean metal and feather out the paint. Start with 80 grit paper on your new air sanders, work up to 220 grit paper, then prime with an etching primer.

4. See #3 but start with 150 grit.

5. Ask your autobody paint supplier for his recomendation. Don't buy the cheapest filler.

6. See if they can be hammered and dollied from the back side of the door panel, if not then either drill and pull, or see if a body shop will pull them out with the weld on pins. If you drill, first fill coat should be a fiberglass or kevlar reinforced filler. Filler should never be thicker than 1/8".

You don't need to sand down to bare metal just down to good sound paint. Where you have rock chips, dings etc, where it is to the metal, do sand these areas down bare and feather out. You will find little rust pits growing under the paint that are much larger than the chip.

Remove everthing you can off of the body. Mirrors, window trim, side and tail lights and bumpers and hatch. If you find rust under windshield trim, remove it too. There will be more rust underneath.

Wankelguy

Treat the rusty areas by ferreting out the rust with one of those little scotchbrite discs on an air sander, then treat it with phosphoric acid (Os-Pho and Rust-Mort are two brand names).

You've got a lot to learn.

gonzz

Good info here:

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/