4drgl

I'm planning to paint my 928 in the spring....

I will be doing this in my garage...

I have prepped and cleaned and will do so again before paint.

My question is this...

I will not be baking the car... The paint will cure solely based on time/temp. So if the temperature is kept roughly at 65-70 in the garage, how long will I need to wait before installing a brand new windshield and seals to not stain or lift the clear?

Thanks

Podguy

You should be ready to install parts within 24 hours. The new paints are catalysized so they react pretty fast. If you are nervous wait 48 hours. Putting the car back together is more than a one day job.

For best results you should be stripping at least the clear coat if not all the paint. The original clear coat is inferior and reacts to UV getting very minor cracks that will eventually lead to bubbling and even cracking and peel later. It is not uncommon to see an entire section of the new paint peel off.

There are many levels of quality. To get the best job you should disassemble most of the car. I generally paint in panels - but if you are doing a pearl or even a metallic then you will need to have the body assembled loosely for the final coat.

Your biggest problem will be dirt in the paint. If you have not painted a car before then it is doubtful you can get a high gloss finished product. With today's paints they dry quickly and it is difficult to get them to flow. Even the top shops color sand the clear coat.

Here is a link to some information on painting cars in general. I will put up some more as I complete each section of the job on my 78. I am currently working on three at the moment.

http://www.kondratyev.com/porsche/te.../body_work.htm

It might be best viewed on IE but works on Chrome too.
Good luck

4drgl

Dan,

You remember me... I've painted a # of cars up to this point and have experienced excellent results so far... You commented on my bumper smoothing questions on my resto thread.

I'm just mainly concerned about re-assembly. I didn't have trouble with a cavalier or a camry I recently painted, but had problems with my jetta which I painted 18+ months ago... On the jetta I had trouble with weathstripping lifting the clear... but I didn't wait 24 hours either. I also wiped the weatherstripping with armour all several hours before I re-installed on the fresh paint which I believe was my problem...

I will be wet sanding the clear after coat #4, after 24 hours, and then possibly shooting more clear on top.. depends on time, $, and clarity of clear after initial wetsand.

Podguy

You will have to forgive my memory it is not so good these days. Either age or too many paint fumes - I cannot tell which.

Never ever use armorall. It contains silicon which is not good for anything around a car.

If you search the internet they make stainless steel staplers about a quarter inch long. The staples fit in an Arrow stapler and are just long enough to staple on the beading.

We just finished rubbing out the underside of the hood and started to assemble the engine well today. I hope to get the hardware back next week and finish the rest of the engine well. I got the wiring harness and AC installed today. Pictures to follow

4drgl

Had a feeling about the armour all... wish I'da known that then... The issues didn't appear till a couple weeks later... But still... don't want to have that problem again. The other cars I've painted, painted with windows in, and no problems.

I won't ever use armour all again... it caused some funky issues as did the sealant I used to reinstall the windshield... The clear cracked around the pieces I used armour all on... the window sealant caused the clear to bubble???? weird.

4drgl

The weirdest thing was... that took me forever to figure out... was the clear only stained/cracked and bubbled around rubber and foam... obviously whatever I used on each piece was incompliant with the clear....

Since I'm not installing new door seals, what do I use to clean them, and restore them to their original look? My seals are in great shape just filthy, and brownish from lack of maintenance by the po?

Erik N

When I used to shoot woodwork, I would get all my thickness layers on first, then do my final sanding in a relatively coarse sandpaper/steel wool, and finally shoot a much-thinned, very thin top layer to conceal the scratches and "melt" it together. That would save having to smooth out and polish up a sanded surface- the finish did the work for you. I don't see why that technique wouldn't work on a car.

That doesn't work with lacquers, though, they will not fill/conceal blemishes.

Erik N

A $2.75 can of silicon from walmart and a few paper towels will clean them up like new, and keep them from squeeking (like on the hatch). Silicon is fine on the paint, just don't try to paint on it.

4drgl

Is exactly what caused adhesion problems on one of my first paint jobs....

Silicone based products will never ever be anywhere near an uncured paintjob in my garage again... No offense but I had extremely bad results with anything that involved silicone and fresh clear coat.

The paint was absolutely gorgeous perfect UNTIL I mounted pieces that had been wiped clean with armour all and windex... Learnt my lesson... Surprisingly in my little garage I am capable of laying down flawless bc, it's the clear and the cleaners that seem to give me trouble...

I want to be absolutely positively sure, that nothing I do to the car after it's painted, cause problems this go around... I learned a lesson with leaky airlines, lesson with armour all, and a lesson with older tack rags... I've sprayed enough paint to understand where the f-ups are now....

Considering this is a car I've never driven... I wouldn't know where it squeeked to begin with! I've driven it exactly 1 mile in 30 months...

4drgl

I'm not talkin about cured paint either... I'm discussing paint/clear that is fresh sprayed within 24 hours and is considered uncured ( unless baked at 140) for 6 months.

Podguy

Eric,

The same thing can be done with lacquer. For automotive they make three thinners - well you can only get two now Medium and Slow. I apply a base coat with medium - usually somewhat thin. Then sand it out and fill in any imprefections or even apply some primer for the final blocking. The first coat of lacquer applied dry like that will act as a sealer and can be applied directly over a sanded and prepped factory finish. This will give good results and lock in all the sins below. I fill the imprefections with either putty or just some primer straight from the can. In worse cases spray on a thick coat of primer and block with 400 to get flat. The color allows for the imprefections to be seen.

After apply a second thick coat in three passes with medium thinner, wet sand out with 400 and then 600 lightly and apply the last coat. This one goes on with the slow thinner and if applied right gives a fare amount of gloss. I put a little extra thinner in the last pass.

Loaded up this way the lacquer will fill and cover and leave very little work behind. You can often start with a course compound and not even color sand. If sanding is needed I use 800 and 2000 with lots of water. I also find on lacquer if you can wait as much as a week before color sanding it is much easier to get that high shine. The key to color sanding it to get the paint absolutely flat before buffing.

As far as the two part stuff, the base coat is generally easy to apply. it is the clear that is a pain. I have found you can use a two pack base coat and clear with lacquer for quick repairs and blends like the scratches on your mother in law's bumper that seem to magically reappear every couple of weeks.

I have found if when it is set before it dries you can apply a mist coat and blend it well as long as you add extra reducer - more than allowed under VOC rules. Again the key is to get as much on as possible without runs and as glossy as possible then the rub out will be much quicker. With the two part I find the longer you wait to color sand the harder the materal gets and the more work required to sand it.

Podguy

Talk about strange paint reactions I painted out a rear quarter and roof with a new batch of paint. After it dried I rubbed it out and buffed it so it was light glass. Everything looked good and I was ready to start on the rest of the car when bad weather set in.

In the spring I had to move the car and noticed there were a couple of minor blemishes on the paint that almost looked like finger prints. I color sanded these with 1200 and buffed them out by hand and then put a car cover over the car hoping to get back to the project later.

A few months later I removed the cover and the entire roof and rear quarter were imprinted with the texture of the cover. I tried buffing a couple of places out and again they came up and looked like glass.

Experimenting I found I could imprint on the paint with my finger. Finally I had to restrip the paint. I could not sand it off as it just gummed up the sand paper and smeared. I finally had to remove it with Air Craft stripper which took it right off.

Podguy

A couple of tips I forgot.

I used SEM flex agent for the bumpers. it seemed to work well but wanted more agent for light colored paint. The Restoration Shop sells the SEM flex agent. I seems to work on all paints. I used SEM felxible plastic primer for the base and then paint with the SEM flex agent on top of that. It is not as easy to sand and you should leave it for at least a couple of weeks, but it does not affect application or outcomes and the paint really flexes with the material.

The bad paint that I got from above was from Trinity - I found them on the net.

I am currently having a little problem with primer shrinking in seams. it just pops off the surface. I think it is related to resdue from the air craft remover. Be sure to flush that stuff with a lot of water.

Erik N

^^^ That sucks. I know what it is like to have a product that never sets off for whatever reason... aggravating is a euphemism for that!

On another note, my car will still smell like paint if left in the sun... roughly 6 years after I painted it! The paint was called OMNI. But no softness issues thank goodness.

OP, if you are shooting a metallic color, after you are done with the colorcoat, mist a very light dusting of color from a distance to mask any tigerstripes.

4drgl

Lots of interesting info here. Thx.

As for the flex agent. I've been using Bulldog. Which came highly recommended from numerous sources.

I also had a vw antenna base that was brand new, and I installed it, the day after I painted the jetta, and now there is a yellow ring on the clear around the base of the antenna... I didn't wipe or clean that, as it was brand new outta the box.... Any idea's as to why that stained the clear? Should I have washed it with soap and water first?