Brian Wilson

I'm doing some light touch ups to my car. Any tips for EVERYTHING!?

I need whatever input i can get for prepwork, products, masking, primering, painting, maintaining, full panel and spot repairs. If you have any informational websites, that would be good too.
Thanks

ahofam123

The most important thing would be the prep work. I haven't done a whole car paint job yet but I have done a few touch up areas. I don't know of a good website but I was able to find a Dupont store near me and they were able to answer all of my questions and recommend and sell me the paint.

Brian Wilson

What about if you aren't doing a whole panel? How do you blend the paint?

Also, when masking off an area, when do you pull the tape off???

OZ951

I just did some painting on my 951 last week and it turned out pretty well. I would suggest you buy one or two automotive painting books for $20-$25. Those should be ok to explain the basics, especially about feather edging around spot repairs and blocking. There is also plenty of online info that you can search for.

If you get the technical reference manual for the paint system that you want to use, it should tell you the specifics of each product, and how the surface should be prepared, what the product can be used over, how long to let it flash off etc etc.

I was quite lucky that the paint rep came to my house and spent several hours over 4 or 5 visits explaining various stuff about the paint as well as verifying that my compressor and spray guns were appropriate for the job. I completely masked the car and then sealed off the garage except for some filters at one end and a fan at the other end to draw the overspray out of the garage whilst keeping out the dust and insects.

I have some pics I can post if you want.

Brian Wilson

Please do post some pics!!! I think everyone would like to see that. They offer a automotive painting class here i think, maybe i'll check into it.

OZ951

before
after

Here are pics of the filters in the doorway - they allowed me to draw air from within the house and the fans sucked that air through the garage and vented it outside.
filters
fans
paints
And here is todays pic: Latest pic

Macfreak007

wow that is a beautiful car OZ, I wish I had the time and energy to do painting myself, that would make finding a car much easier.

Brian Wilson

Man, that looks real nice. The fastest color alive!

What kind of gun and compressor do you use??? And what kind of paint was that?

OZ951

Thanks Mac, I think being able to do some paint work is a handy thing for sure, especially if you find a car that is mechanically sound but paint a little faded.

Brian, thanks, I love that colour. The compressor is a cast iron 6.5 HP 60Gal Husky and the gun is a 1.4mm Husky as well. I may use a different gun with a wider pattern to paint the hood after the car is back together. The gun and compressor combo worked quite well. I was thinking the compressor was a bit on the small side but it was fine. The paint is Sikkens and is very good, especially in terms of being able to spray wet on wet without sanding between coats in some circumstances (read less work and less chance to screw it up).