Help me paint my car ...
08-25-04, 01:31 AM
#1
DRIVE THE ROTARY SPORTS
Thread Starter
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: May 2003
Location: CA (Bay Area)
Posts: 4,150
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Help me paint my car ...
ok, ive decided to do the bodywork and paint my own FD. just so everyone knows, i am not a painter and have never done bodywork, nor painted a car before. id like to learn how as it seems to be a handy skill to have with a hobby like mine 
. anyway, i have a friend who paints cars for a living but he is EXTREEMLY unreliable and hard to get ahold of.... basically he is someone that will come by a few times if i **** up, but besides that im on my own. as of now im just in the "learning what to do, and how to do it right phase" ... as well as collecting the necessisary tools of the trade.
obviously painting a car is not rocket science, but i do understand that it does take years of practice and knowledge to do correctly... im not assuming that ill be able to buy some paint and just "go out there and shoot it" and im done. when i do things i always try my best to do them right.
anyway, enough about me.... id like some help picking the propper tools for the job etc. ive been reading up on painting in a garage (a few sites on the net), but wanted a bit more knowledge and help, so im turning to my rotary bretheren. basically im about ready to go out and start buying tools, (unless i can be convinced otherwise). i currently have a 5HP 10 gallon air compressor (which id like to possibly hook up some aux. tank to, in order to not run out of air in the middle of spraying). i'm assuming ill need to purchase:
A) an inline water cutter for the compressor
B) good professional grade sprayer, (and maybe a spare, so i can do all the primer work with a separate gun).... can anyone recomend some good guns?
C) an electric sander of some sort, and various grit pads (again recomendations would be great for sanders)
D) various metal working dollies
E) lots more stuff that im too tired to list now
anyway comments, questions, suggestions, sarcastic remarks, or flaming wanted so please feel free to respond. thanks, heath
. anyway, i have a friend who paints cars for a living but he is EXTREEMLY unreliable and hard to get ahold of.... basically he is someone that will come by a few times if i **** up, but besides that im on my own. as of now im just in the "learning what to do, and how to do it right phase" ... as well as collecting the necessisary tools of the trade. obviously painting a car is not rocket science, but i do understand that it does take years of practice and knowledge to do correctly... im not assuming that ill be able to buy some paint and just "go out there and shoot it" and im done. when i do things i always try my best to do them right.
anyway, enough about me.... id like some help picking the propper tools for the job etc. ive been reading up on painting in a garage (a few sites on the net), but wanted a bit more knowledge and help, so im turning to my rotary bretheren. basically im about ready to go out and start buying tools, (unless i can be convinced otherwise). i currently have a 5HP 10 gallon air compressor (which id like to possibly hook up some aux. tank to, in order to not run out of air in the middle of spraying). i'm assuming ill need to purchase:
A) an inline water cutter for the compressor
B) good professional grade sprayer, (and maybe a spare, so i can do all the primer work with a separate gun).... can anyone recomend some good guns?
C) an electric sander of some sort, and various grit pads (again recomendations would be great for sanders)
D) various metal working dollies
E) lots more stuff that im too tired to list now
anyway comments, questions, suggestions, sarcastic remarks, or flaming wanted so please feel free to respond. thanks, heath
08-25-04, 01:42 AM
#2
2355lbs...
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Santa Clara CA
Posts: 1,420
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Im spraying a civic currently, fly your *** out to IL and il give you lessons. lol.
If you want to go ***** out like i did. Buy a Sata jet digital HVLP spray gun,,, they cost 550-650 but its the best money can buy. On a lower budget gun, check out the Sharpe Cobalt HVLP. costs about 170$ and works great. Words of advice, buy a $40 primer gun, NEVER primer with yuor color and clear gun! Inline air cleaner/water seperator are key so the gun doesnt spray any contaminated air.... Yada yada is damn near 200am and im **** tired. G-night.
If you want to go ***** out like i did. Buy a Sata jet digital HVLP spray gun,,, they cost 550-650 but its the best money can buy. On a lower budget gun, check out the Sharpe Cobalt HVLP. costs about 170$ and works great. Words of advice, buy a $40 primer gun, NEVER primer with yuor color and clear gun! Inline air cleaner/water seperator are key so the gun doesnt spray any contaminated air.... Yada yada is damn near 200am and im **** tired. G-night.
08-25-04, 02:25 AM
#4
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
honestly reading will teach you the ideas behind it, but to do a nice job you need technique, my advice would be to find an old hood and practice what you read on that, that way you can learn the movement and how to control your gun before messing up on your car and having to to start all over. And also check around either on the forums or with people you know that paint and see whats good and whats not. Good luck.
08-25-04, 10:34 PM
#5
DRIVE THE ROTARY SPORTS
Thread Starter
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: May 2003
Location: CA (Bay Area)
Posts: 4,150
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
what is the proper type sander to use?? and if you are sanding so much, how do you keep the work area dust free? id imagine when you go to spray the car, all of that dust will get kicked up (unless i can rent a spray booth near me)
08-26-04, 12:26 AM
#6
*******
iTrader: (9)
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: NJ
Posts: 1,784
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
i am very interested in this as well, cause painting is so damn expensive and im thinking about another repaint. anyway i dont know much but have heard of people making a booth out of pvc pipe. then have plastic sheets between the pipes to make somewhat of a bubble. then i think you would need a fan on one side, and a filter on the other. hope that helps.
steve
steve
08-26-04, 08:32 AM
#7
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Lynchburg, VA
Posts: 674
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have painted a few car myself in much the way you are here.
first off... the prep on a paint job is the most important part.
Will you be doing any body work? If so and you'll be using filler, use as little as you can (depth wise) but spread it out over a large area. If you are repairing a quarter size door ding, you'll end up with a 10" diameter repair area.
When sanding on a curved surface sand in an X pattern.
Don't be afraid to use a coarse grit paper. the fine grit papers are not good for shaping just smoothing. I made this mistake of too fine of paper too early and when the paint was all done you could see a few of my fixes where the surface shaping was not good.
I was painting a black car. so for me I ended up fina sanding with 800 grit before painting.
allow your primer and filler good time to dry. primer and filler will shrink. I let my car sit in the hot sun for 2 good days letting thingsdry before giving it the final sanding. this way much of the shrinking will have happened. 1 week in the sun will be even better.
use the fillers as ther were designed. (don't overbuild them) bondo is best for thicker than 1/8 repairs. then there is the thinner bondo glazing putty. good for mittle skim coats and pin holes. then there is primer. good for sanding scratches. Don't try and build up 3 coats of primer to Fill a small spot it'll cause problems later.
now onto painting.
There is a fine line between orange peeling and sagging. Neither one is good. I suggest leaning a little more on the orange peeling (too light a coat) and then applying several coats of clear (say 3) then you can polish out any orange peeling the still exists.
when you are done simply wet sand the surface with 1500 grit paper and a sanding block.
to remove the orange peeling in teh surface. then using a polisher, polish the surface back to a nice shine. In my opinion trash and sags are tougher to remove. moslty because the require more sanding in a local area and Im was always worried about over sanding.
one word of caution.
when applying the first coat of clear do not go too heavy. the second coat will "reactivate the first coat. if the first coat had a bit of orange peeling when it reactivates with the second coat 20 min later together they will make one perfect coat. if the first coat was just right or a little heavy. when you apply the second coat you'll likely get sags.
don't worry too much about paint imperfections while painting. you can't change them and after they dry you can sand them off. I ended up trying to fix one while applying the clear (a sag) and made it worse.
Never sand anything freehand. always usea block to sand with. your hand will leave finger images in the paint finish as the pressure is not evenly distributed.
I have 2 guns. a lowe's 85$ gun for household painting things and primer. and another lowes gun for color. my friend has a nice HVLP 200$ gun and it works great too. you don't need an expensive gun to do a good job.
remember if you make a mistake you can always sand it out.
I tried the book thing. but to me 2 TV shows that I watch have proven to teach a lot about body work. American Hot Rod.. the early ones are better try watching this one as much as you can a few complete projects of viewing an you can pick up a lot. next is Dream Car Garage. they have a restoration segment in the first 10 min of each show and when they are doing body work. you can again pick up a lot. it's the closest thing to This Old House I have seen for this sort of thing.
Another invaluable resource. a good paint/body supply shop. there you can learn about the steps to doing things correctly. what compounds and products to use where how long to let things dry and all that. I highly suggest pocking your head in a few of them to find one with someone that will take teh tie to help you. Also onfet when there you'll run into a body pro that is more than happy to give advice.
Finally. hang out at a mom and pop body shop if you can find one.
the last car I fixed up I wanted done show quailty. I didn't have the time to hone my skills so a paid to have it done after careful selection of a shop that would do thing correctly. I landed on a jewl of a shop. this 3 man operationdid lots of restoration work. guys with old classics came to this guy to get their rols royces and jaguars repainted. things like that. this palce had a lot of attention to detail. so I took my car there to have the body and paint work done. The agreed to let me come hang out any time so I could watch elarn and often help out. Ill bet I was there 40 hours (an hour to 4 a day) through the whole process. not only did I see my car get done I saw them work on all stages of other cars. Very professional place. I took lots of pictures. I learned a Lot.
A word on paint booths. the 100$ plastic one works fine and so does a clean garage bay. both are about the same... NEITHER of those is as good as a pro booth! It's nearly impossible to keep all the trash out like they do. So just do what you can and make it as clean as you can before painting. Vacuume all the dust out pay attention to the celings and be ready to polish out some trash some will surely get in there.
In the end when I painted my first car. I spent 1/2 my time on body and prep work 1/8 time painting and 3/8 polishing out the final product. when I was done. I had a show quility black RX-7 paint job. may people asked where I had my work done upon finding out it was painted and highly complemented the work. then I told them I did it.
however after such a labor of love Id never do it for anyone else.
first off... the prep on a paint job is the most important part.
Will you be doing any body work? If so and you'll be using filler, use as little as you can (depth wise) but spread it out over a large area. If you are repairing a quarter size door ding, you'll end up with a 10" diameter repair area.
When sanding on a curved surface sand in an X pattern.
Don't be afraid to use a coarse grit paper. the fine grit papers are not good for shaping just smoothing. I made this mistake of too fine of paper too early and when the paint was all done you could see a few of my fixes where the surface shaping was not good.
I was painting a black car. so for me I ended up fina sanding with 800 grit before painting.
allow your primer and filler good time to dry. primer and filler will shrink. I let my car sit in the hot sun for 2 good days letting thingsdry before giving it the final sanding. this way much of the shrinking will have happened. 1 week in the sun will be even better.
use the fillers as ther were designed. (don't overbuild them) bondo is best for thicker than 1/8 repairs. then there is the thinner bondo glazing putty. good for mittle skim coats and pin holes. then there is primer. good for sanding scratches. Don't try and build up 3 coats of primer to Fill a small spot it'll cause problems later.
now onto painting.
There is a fine line between orange peeling and sagging. Neither one is good. I suggest leaning a little more on the orange peeling (too light a coat) and then applying several coats of clear (say 3) then you can polish out any orange peeling the still exists.
when you are done simply wet sand the surface with 1500 grit paper and a sanding block.
to remove the orange peeling in teh surface. then using a polisher, polish the surface back to a nice shine. In my opinion trash and sags are tougher to remove. moslty because the require more sanding in a local area and Im was always worried about over sanding.
one word of caution.
when applying the first coat of clear do not go too heavy. the second coat will "reactivate the first coat. if the first coat had a bit of orange peeling when it reactivates with the second coat 20 min later together they will make one perfect coat. if the first coat was just right or a little heavy. when you apply the second coat you'll likely get sags.
don't worry too much about paint imperfections while painting. you can't change them and after they dry you can sand them off. I ended up trying to fix one while applying the clear (a sag) and made it worse.
Never sand anything freehand. always usea block to sand with. your hand will leave finger images in the paint finish as the pressure is not evenly distributed.
I have 2 guns. a lowe's 85$ gun for household painting things and primer. and another lowes gun for color. my friend has a nice HVLP 200$ gun and it works great too. you don't need an expensive gun to do a good job.
remember if you make a mistake you can always sand it out.
I tried the book thing. but to me 2 TV shows that I watch have proven to teach a lot about body work. American Hot Rod.. the early ones are better try watching this one as much as you can a few complete projects of viewing an you can pick up a lot. next is Dream Car Garage. they have a restoration segment in the first 10 min of each show and when they are doing body work. you can again pick up a lot. it's the closest thing to This Old House I have seen for this sort of thing.
Another invaluable resource. a good paint/body supply shop. there you can learn about the steps to doing things correctly. what compounds and products to use where how long to let things dry and all that. I highly suggest pocking your head in a few of them to find one with someone that will take teh tie to help you. Also onfet when there you'll run into a body pro that is more than happy to give advice.
Finally. hang out at a mom and pop body shop if you can find one.
the last car I fixed up I wanted done show quailty. I didn't have the time to hone my skills so a paid to have it done after careful selection of a shop that would do thing correctly. I landed on a jewl of a shop. this 3 man operationdid lots of restoration work. guys with old classics came to this guy to get their rols royces and jaguars repainted. things like that. this palce had a lot of attention to detail. so I took my car there to have the body and paint work done. The agreed to let me come hang out any time so I could watch elarn and often help out. Ill bet I was there 40 hours (an hour to 4 a day) through the whole process. not only did I see my car get done I saw them work on all stages of other cars. Very professional place. I took lots of pictures. I learned a Lot.
A word on paint booths. the 100$ plastic one works fine and so does a clean garage bay. both are about the same... NEITHER of those is as good as a pro booth! It's nearly impossible to keep all the trash out like they do. So just do what you can and make it as clean as you can before painting. Vacuume all the dust out pay attention to the celings and be ready to polish out some trash some will surely get in there.
In the end when I painted my first car. I spent 1/2 my time on body and prep work 1/8 time painting and 3/8 polishing out the final product. when I was done. I had a show quility black RX-7 paint job. may people asked where I had my work done upon finding out it was painted and highly complemented the work. then I told them I did it.
however after such a labor of love Id never do it for anyone else.
Trending Topics
08-26-04, 03:28 PM
#8
DRIVE THE ROTARY SPORTS
Thread Starter
iTrader: (5)
Join Date: May 2003
Location: CA (Bay Area)
Posts: 4,150
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
forcefed1: thanks so much, this is exactly the type of info i was looking for. i ordered a few books on painting and bodywork from amazon.com... when they arrive ill hit the books.
i know this is one of the last steps, but it popped into my head, so i wanted to ask it..... anyway, the FD has a strip of "rock gaurd" (the ripply/rubbery layer at the bottom of the car)... at what point is the painting process is this applied? what is it, and how is it applied? wouldnt this get in the way of any sort of attempts to sand/polish those areas? and also, how do you get a perfectly straight line when you are masking it off to paint (is there a "bodywork" book or something for the FD, laying out the dimensions and placement of stuff like this?) one last one for people that have re-painted their FD's: did you get some black paint to spray the top of the doorframe, and the door handles? thanks
i know this is one of the last steps, but it popped into my head, so i wanted to ask it..... anyway, the FD has a strip of "rock gaurd" (the ripply/rubbery layer at the bottom of the car)... at what point is the painting process is this applied? what is it, and how is it applied? wouldnt this get in the way of any sort of attempts to sand/polish those areas? and also, how do you get a perfectly straight line when you are masking it off to paint (is there a "bodywork" book or something for the FD, laying out the dimensions and placement of stuff like this?) one last one for people that have re-painted their FD's: did you get some black paint to spray the top of the doorframe, and the door handles? thanks
08-26-04, 09:54 PM
#9
Rotary Freak
iTrader: (27)
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 2,964
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dont buy a shape to paint your car i wouldn't that's more of a primer gun.If you dont want to waste too much money buy a binks they're really good guns and you wont be dissapointed or you could buy a sata jet digital.I have tried almost every gun and those are the ones i would recommand you couls also get a devilbis they're pretty good.