how to paint a car?

91supacoop

Registered User
I have never painted a car before, and i am going to try for the first time. It will be a jeep cherokee, and i will be keeping it the same color. If it turns out good, i will be painting my SC myself. I need either some tutorial websites, or some personal advise on what the process is. I have no idea of the painting process or anything. At work we have a full paint booth and all the equiptment, i just need the actual step by step process from prepping to the final product.
 
91supacoop said:
I have never painted a car before, and i am going to try for the first time. It will be a jeep cherokee, and i will be keeping it the same color. If it turns out good, i will be painting my SC myself. I need either some tutorial websites, or some personal advise on what the process is. I have no idea of the painting process or anything. At work we have a full paint booth and all the equiptment, i just need the actual step by step process from prepping to the final product.


Personal Advice: Don't go to Maaco ...
Actually, a friend of mine paints/details cars, I'll see if I can get ahold of him (I'm not even sure if he still lives around here) -- I'll try to get you some info :)
 
There have been a few threads posted here in the past that you can search on. I know there are a couple good ones in the members forum.

Search google for info on painting. You'll find it's all about prep. Do you know what method of painting you want to do. Are you re-painting, or re-coloring the car?

Your best bet is if you have the equipment at your work, you likely have a guy there that does painting already. So see if he will be willing to shoot the car for you if you do all the prep work.

There is a good FAQ entry on Wet Sanding your car after you're done painting it to help make it really shine.
 
paint job

Check fordtruckenthusiasts.com they have a lot of info in thier forums on paint jobs.

Todd
 
Well, that is an involved question. I am going to give you a quick step by step on how I do it(I mainly paint airplanes though).

1. Prepping the car.
A. Wash the car.
B. Look over car, circle all the dents and dings you plan on repairing with a marking pen.
C. Repair the dings/dents one at a time. A good rule of thumb is to never use much more than 1/16 on a inch of body filler on any repair. Once you think you have repaired the dent well enough, you haven't. If you are not sure, you can spray a light coat of gloss black spray paint over the repair. The black will show any imperfections in your repair. Don't spray too much because you will want to sand it off after you are done. Just keep repairing any damage until all the circles are gone. BTW, get some spot putty. You'll need it to put over any body filler to fill in any pin holes and small imperfections.
D. Once you have all the body work done to your satisfaction you will need to sand the entire car to a smooth finish. Try not to take it down to the metal if you don't have to. Remember that the quality of each step will reflect in the next.
E. Now you will need to wash the car again. You can use laundry soap, such as Tide, regular soap and water, or you can get a wash made for this purpose.

2. Masking the car.
A. It is always best to remove what trim and parts from the car that you can, such as taillights, license plate brackets and whatever else is easily removed.
B. Before you start masking the car you will need to make sure you have all the water out of all the nooks and crannies. An air compressor works well for this or you can just let it air dry.
C. You will need to get some good quality masking tape, paper, and possibly some fine line blue tape. The blue fine line is optional, but it seals better and prevents the paint from getting on trim, glass, etc.
D. You will want to take your time masking to make sure you do a good job. A poor masking job can make your paint job look like Maaco.
E. Make sure you press down the edges on the tape so paint doesn't seep undereath the tape.
F. When you are done masking, go over the car one more time and look for any flaws that you can't live with.
G. Don't touch the surfaces to be painted with your fingers while masking the car. The oil on your fingers will cause fisheyes.

3. Primer.
A. I don't have a lot of advice for you as far as types of primers to use. I usually paint aluminum and they require some different primers. A good primer that I use that would work for you is DuPont Fill n' Sand. It will fill in small scratches and sanding marks.
B. After I spray the primer I usually sand the primer with Scotch Brite. It makes it smooth and lightly scuffs it.
C. Wash the car again.

4. Paint
A. Basecoat/clearcoat paints are the most common types of paint jobs out there. This method requires that you spray a base or color coat before a clear top coat is applied.
B. DuPont Chromabase is a good, easy to use paint. The color coat has a quick flash time to prevent anything from sticking to it, and allows you to recoat quickly.
C. Single stage paints are the ones I like the best. Paints such as Imron and Acry-Glo are good examples(don't use Centari). They are unforgiving though.There isn't a colorsanding option here like in basecoat/clearcoat paintjobs. Single stage paints are best to use on daily drivers and one color paintjobs. If you plan to show your car "under the lights" then a basecoat/clearcoat is the way to go because you can buff it out and give it that high gloss finish. You don't buff single stage paints. You can still get a glossy, beautiful finish with single stage paints, you just have to be good with a spray gun.

5. Painting.
A. Once you have your car prepped and your paint mixed up in your gun according to the manufacturer's specs, you should be ready to paint.
B. The textbook method to spraying is to have a 4-6 inch fan with the gun about 8 inches away from the car. You want to have about a 50% overlap and keep the gun level with the panel being painted. You don't want to tilt the gun or spray inconsistantly because you will get streaks. This is really important when spraying metallics because the flakes will bunch up if you don't spray evenly.
C. Your first coat will be your "tack" coat. What you will want to do is spray a really light coat on the car and allow it to get tacky and then spray your next coat. Let each coat tack up before spraying the next coat. Doing your first coat this way will make the paint stick better and prevent runs.
D. If you are using a base/clear paint, then your initial coats should tack really quick. They will also look dull. Once you have sufficiently covered the car with color it will be time to do the clear. That is applied like the base, but with colorsanding between each coat. Once you have the clear applied and it is completely dry, you then will colorsand it and buff it out.

I will add to this later. This is just the start. :D If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. I can also give you my number if you want some pointers. Shoot me a PM.
 
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