Yabo

I'd be interested to see how this comes out with spray paint.. pics when your done please.

GTSilver944

Be aware that if you are going to wish to paint the whole car next year, you will have to sand all the spray paint off the hood.

944kid

When he does a better job, he can use aircraft stripper, which as I understand takes off everything, but since it isn't abrasive, it doesn't *to my knowledge* damage the galvanized steel.

The only reason I'm not suggesting this is for now is because it takes too much effort to do, and I have no safe environment to work in while using hazardous chemicals...if I spill something in my backyard, it goes into the water table and I drink it from my well! Not to mention I don't know how to prep the car after using it...it figures I'd be the one to try and paint over it after it looks dry and have it come out patchy, kind of how toothpaste repels water.

I'll stick with what I know.

944kid

Ernest,

Sanding can be done at your place or mine. I sent you a PM on the method I use to paint so unless you have a garage, we would sand/bondo/sand/glaze/sand in the windy days leading up to a verry calm day. Calm days are when you paint! (Or at least, when I paint )

If the scratches and dings are already done, depending on if you want orange peel or not, wet sanding adds a good 2 hours in between coats, or at the very least, 2 hours *or more* for the final coat of paint. Painting a car can be done in a weekend, drying it takes 24-48 hours after the fact. (I'm ****/slow/too much of a perfectionist.) Curing the paint after it's finished takes another month-two months depending on who you ask. Never wax a car after it's been freshly painted, by the way. Escaping gases will have no way to escape if you do. I'm not sure what this does to the paint, but I'm taking the word of the several people who have told me this as fact, so it must be bad! Very bad!


Oh believe me, this is going to be a well documented project, both of them.

Yabo

Have you painted a car before? just curious how you know the time frame for it and all, or if you're just going on what other people have said? Just asking all of this because it's a consideration for my car

944kid

I've painted a few parts off of real cars, but never whole cars. I imagine it's no different than the R/C car I had to meticulously tape up. I am going on the time frame for both what other people have said and what I've experienced myself on small scale items. One thing I do know is drying time is pretty much constant, no matter what. The one thing I'm completely making educated guesses on is the actual painting time.

I just keep in mind: 90% of time goes to preping, and 10% of time actually goes in to making the car "pretty." I'm confident given two ten hour days to prep, and a day or two to paint, plus a day to dry, that this car could be done. I've got a flexible boss now, he has no problem giving me time off during the weekend.

I've painted the tail lights on my Acura...chrome was waaayyy too tacky. I used only one can of gloss black paint to do three coats on both tail lights:

GTSilver944

So... I'm guessing you are going to spray with the whole car together, ie no door jams, under the hatch and hood etc. If so, I would give yourself a full day just to tape it. You said two ten hour days to prep?

I assume you are just going to scuff the coat of paint already on there. Degrease before doing anything. Block sand diagonally in an x pattern. Make sure it is level! This is especially important on flat pieces like the hood. Wet the car and squeege it noticing where there is still water. This can also be done by priming it with a sandable primer and block sanding it. The parts that aren't sanded are the low parts while the parts that went all the way through the primer are the high parts.

Please - test a large flat area before you spray someone's car. It will show any mistakes that you are making while spraying, while small curved parts (pretty much everything you have painted, models ect.) hide mistakes with the flow of paint.

You seem to really be into this. Consider buying a compressor, filter, and gun. Get reducer and some free messed up paint from an auto paint store and practice until you have it down. Once you figure it out, you will quickly be able to bring down your debt counter.

Good luck. Don't underestimate this undertaking, especially in regard to time. It is not like spraying an RC car.

944kid

I'd certainly do the jams, under the hood etc, if the owner wanted it. It's all up to the owner, and whether or not they want it.

All of your advice has been listened to, and might I add it's good advice at that!

I seem to recall hearing using a degreaser, although now I can't find it in this post. I use dawn soap to degrease after I sand, it's always done me well.

DDP

Are you kidding me? I don't mean to come off as a jerk...well...but you're going to, in all seriousness, paint the outside of a full car with spray paint? You expect it to last? And your experience is an RC car? But best of all they're going to pay you to do this?

Now I've seen some car spray painted and it never comes out clean and even. But it's not my car so go ahead, be sure to post pics. lol.

944kid

I said they didn't have to pay me, I offered what I knew. Spray paint, the automotive kind, when done *right* is a good alternative to a full spray job, and a helluva lot less expensive.

To set the record straight now, only one car part is going to be using spray paint, and that would be reno's hood. Theon proposes we use a spray gun, colour matched paint, the whole nine yards, and I agree with him, it's his car. You wouldn't know that unless you read the PMs in my inbox though, so no offense if I come off as "stand-offish." I'm dealing with a lot of people jumping on my back lately.

GTSilver944

Go to an automotive paint store and buy actual degreaser. It's only about $15 for a gallon. Be sure to wear gloves when you use it. Do it both before you prep the car and before painting.

Doing the jams, hatch area, etc. takes a lot more time. It takes days more time to take the doors, hatch, hood, and bumpers off. It will take even longer to put them back on with fresh paint, an aligning them. I think you are underestimating the scale of time needed.

When it's time to actually, non-spray paint, paint the hood, I would not use aircraft paint remover. Sanding is the way to go. You would have to sand anyway after the paint remover.

I'm glad you're using an actual gun to spray the whole car. That was a SMART decision. Spray paint should work on the hood temporarily, until it's sanded off to be actually shot. I would just use a similar color primer on the hood, no color or clear. It will make it a lot easier to get the spray paint off later.

I'm not trying to be a dick. I just don't want to see you f*** up someone’s car. If you listen to everyone's advice and PRACTISE before you actually shoot someone’s car, it could come out well. Good luck.

944kid

Good words of advice.

I mentioned the aircraft stripper because I've seen way too many cars (944s especially ) with three or four layers of paint that look "thick" and "soft." If you say sanding is better, I'll definately keep that in mind for all the rest of the painting projects I do later. (See what a big impact you can be? Rennlist FTW!)

I have currently a grey primer and a red primer, and I was planning on using the red for reno's hood, under a coat of red. There's no paint 400 grit and a power sander can't make short work of, and that I know! (If you have any advice on this I'd love to hear it.) Of course, I wouldn't burn through the primer either. I've got a sanding block for detail work.

I may be underestimating it, but I'm also overestimating it in my mind. I'll see what kind of parts I can do some practice on in the mean time.

GTSilver944

Good, it should turn out pretty well. Just be sure to block sand any area you did with a power sander, as the power sander is not always even and can leave a wavy look in the final product. Consider doing an etching primer (anti-rust) before the actual primer. Post pics when you're done.

944kid

Most definately, power sanders are the suck. Don't get me wrong, they're great for saving time, but they give a false sense of perfection.

Power sanding --> block sanding --> run my fingers over the edges with paper (paranoid about paint not adhering to the edges because you can't sand those.)