Lupercal_CATS

My car desperately needs new paint and I am far to broke to afford to pay someone to do it so my friend and I are going to do it ourselves.

Before I get flamed to hell and back he has painted cars before and I have seen some of the cars he has painted and they look VERY good.

My question is because the factory paint was lousy I am supposed to sand to bare metal correct?

I'm also looking for words of encouragement because sanding the paint off my car is a bit nerve racking.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Based on the title, I knew you were from the dfw area. I havent heard 'Fixin' ta' in quite some time

BOTTLEFED

iTrader: (1)

I did my paint project myself with a lot of help from a pro that's a friend of mine. I did most of the sanding and prep work and he painted it.
He did not recommend going to the metal unless we were getting dents out. As you can see from the pics, there were quite a lot of dents and dings. I sanded down to the primer on most of the car and only left red in areas without dents and imperfections.
The roof had to be sanded to metal because the idiot before me buffed it until the paint was gone and then spray painted the whole roof.
The stock primer is good and adheres to the metal better than anything you can do. They had a perfect environment and new, untouched metal when they applied that primer and you can never get that or replicate it. No matter how well you clean that bare metal it will never accept the primer like the day it was first painted. Even though Mazda's paint was bad, it is still better than trying to strip it all and start from scratch.

tiger18

iTrader: (1)

u need to do some good research on preping and painting a car (it isnt hard, ive sprayed several cars and have 12 years experience) applying the paint is the easiest bit...

basically the whole car wants rubbing down with 600 grit (i would only drop lower than this paper if i was rubbing filler) ,, id never rub down to bare metal as bottlefed said the factory primer has a very good key to the body of the car...
has the car got a lot of dents ??

im not joking rubbing down a car and fixing the dents can be very time consuming job especially if you have no body work experience(talk closely with someone that has body work experience),,, but dont let people fool you if you are competent and patient it can be done.

F0RSAKEN

Can it be done minus the orange peel?

Lupercal_CATS

It is good to hear that the whole car will not need to be taken to bare metal. There are quite a few dings and such that will need to be popped though.

The guy helping me has painted several cars before and has done all the body work on his car and it looks very clean and strait.

Oh and yes, born and raised in Texas so I'm allowed to say 'fixin ta' and 'yall'

tiger18

iTrader: (1)

orange peel is paint applied too thick,,, (and even if you did get orange peel as long as there is enough paint applied you can flattern it with 2000 paper and polish) no problem.

you and your friend should get together and tackle it,, i reckon you can probably do a good job if you take your time

NCross

iTrader: (18)

You only have to sand the clear coat down a little bit. Unless the paint is chipping off and uneven I wouldn't sand all the way down. Go to Walmart and buy a $15-$20 orbital sander and a few refill discs. It really helps. Make sure not to use less then an 800 grit or you will see swirls in the new paint.

Ledfoot

iTrader: (1)

...I believe the FD was painted using a basecoat clearcoat system. On the early models it was the clearcoat applied too thick that chips. basecoats are usually applied thin. remove most of the clearcoat. if you go to the base metal, you will have problems if you don't know what you are doing. the primer/sealer over the base metal is a very critical part to producing a good finish. Painting with a basecoat/clearcoat system is somewhat similar to laquer in that any imperfections can be wetsanded after a short period drying and repainted. It's obviously a bit harder to correct clear coat imperfections. These are usually runs, but you can correct them too.

KNONFS

iTrader: (14)

I am doing this as we speak...

I am not sanding to the bare metal, just to the OEM primer. Since I am doing the sanding job by myself (by hand, no power tools or chemicals), I kept trying lower and lower grades, down to 220 to sand off the clear coat. Was it wrong? Could be, we will see once everything is said and done