Painting my RX7
 

Hey!
I'm planning to paint my RX7 soon so I need help in few things before I get the work started.

My car was originally PX Black but was repainted 8 years ago by the previous owner in Spirit R 25G. I plan to go back to black. Black FD's look so much better :)
I'm also going with the full FEED kit so most of the car will be FRP.
The car probably does require panel work but only will know once it has been stripped to bare metal.

Since I have never gotten a car painted before I have very little idea what to get done, listing my questions below:

1. What's the best way to strip the car to bare metal?
2. What products are the best to use for primer body filer etc?
3. PPG or Axalta (Previously DuPont)
4. How much paint and clear will I require for the full car?
5. Which paint is the best Black?

I also have access to a ED Paint facility I was thinking of going with that route.

1. Someone can correct me, but you usually don't have to strip the car down to bare metal.
4. I got gallon setup of PPG paint through sherwin williams automotive and it was enough to a paint a car with full aero and have left over.

https://garage.eastwood.com/eastwood...aint_your_car/
https://garage.eastwood.com/category...powdercoating/


I am also planning a Feed wide body (just front fenders and rear fender-overs) My car is MB so I will be doing a full color change to black. My hood and fenders will be fiberglass also. Plus I need to remove that rock guard on the lower part of the car, so I am guessing I will have to go down to metal for that. This is going to require an engine pull and interior pull to hide all the MB!

I’d just call around to a reputable body shop and ask them their preferred way to strip the paint pro’s vs con’s, I’ve seen cars sanded down to bare metal, soda blasted and use paint stripper. I’m not a painter so idk the pros vs cons, but it’d prob help to ask someone who does it for a living and is a potential shop you may use. I’d be curious to see what you find out. But I agree with what you said. If you’re gonna do it, then do it 100%

I stripped my car to the bare metal using aircraft stripper and razor blades. It took several days. It was necessary, because the previous owner did a really bad job painting the car.

If it was the original paint. Then I would have suggested just scuffing it and painting. But with multiple paintings, you'd be better to just start over

Vince

Well that's the problem, no one strips cars to bare metal here everyone wants cheap paint jobs. I asked few body shops around and they told me weird ways they remove paint.
One for example: Gas welder and then scrap it...


I have multiple layers of paint and that's exactly why I want to go down to bare metal. Is aircraft paint stripper good? Can it cut through body filler easily... I guess you still have to sand the panels with a sanding disc or something to bring out that "shiny" metal look after using the paint stripper.

I have used the high end aircraft paint stripper about 10 years ago(don't remember the name) on a different car and it took the paint right off. Check on what works for automotive type paints. Be careful however, the fumes are horrible and toxic on the really good stuff.
Mike

Forgot one thing, that stripper eats plastic and rubber. Make sure all of your plastic and rubber parts are removed.
Mike

I found this video pretty helpful when spraying my FD. Covers the required techniques pretty well.
Other advice I can give is take time to make sure your gun is set up right, could save you money and a lot of time. There are guides online as to what to look for in a quick spray pattern test.

^I wish I had your skills man. Your cars have turned out so nice!

Vince

Should I go with this way of painting my car? It's actually free for me :P Only downside is that I have to complete strip the car to bare chassis.

From what I read online PPG has one of the best black paints. Both the single stage and BC/CC are good from what I have been reading.
I haven't read much about the single stage but PPG Deltron offers DBU and DBC. Which one is better? How much is required to do the full car? What other materials do I need?

I don't have PPG Deltron available in my country. Where can I buy them since there is no pricing for them available online, would need them in NJ.

This is more of a story series than an explanation series, but I found it educational as well. He does have the whole series based around repainting his car and such though if you wanna give that a watch, same playlist.

Hey, I just came across your post looking for suggestions on paint color for my 83 GLS. I'm doing a total tear down and restore from the ground up. My car had 3 paint jobs on it and in my opinion the easier, cleanest and least intrusive way to strip a car is to bead blast it. They use a very fine glass or plastic sand inside of a booth to blast the paint and rust off the car. The surface comes out smooth and clean. It's ready to lightly sand and prime for any body work needed. The only down side is the cost which for me was around $2000 but I think still well worth the investment. Not to mention the time and mess that it saved me. Anyway, hope that helps if you're still on the fence. Feel free to ask questions.

At the moment, I'm trying to figure out what color to paint it now. The original color was silver, which I was going to stay with until I got suggestions to go with plain black or plain white and then stripe it with red and charcoal grey. I'm sort of leaning towards maybe a medium fine metallic black vs plain black? Feel free to comment and/or offer suggestions.