The Spray Painting Thread

["Z" UTE]

Craig, I find wet sanding with 800 gives a nice flat finish.

Soft pads are not so good, as thet will flop down into the dips etc. You really need a solid block to get the flattest finish.

If you have access to the proper air sander and the pads, by all means use them. Mirca pads are the go.

With mechanical sanding you double the grit value on the pads, ie. 400 will give you an 800 finish.

cheers Chuck.

[mscphillips]

i have an airsander, thing i will run with that and the 400 for large areas, prefer not to make a mess with the water!


i have just had another last thaught too

what is the best way to mask off, i will be painting engine bay, door jams, under boot lid and bonnet in my shed, then fit the car up and do a closed door style job in a booth.

[o_man_ra23]

I regret doing a closed door on my car. It caused frying at the edges of the door jambs and hatch seal area. Am currently sanding back and re-priming. I should have all the beige primer on before the weekend, then white primer on the weekend, and weather permitting, I should be colourful again next weekend. This time I have the doors, guards and fuel flap hanging on the wall of my shed, hatch hanging from the beams, and bonnet pulled away from the edge of the plenum. The only area where there is a join between existing paint and new paint that I will be worried about is at the edge of the plenum where it goes down into the engine bay. I'll have to use a bit of fancy tapework to get that blended right.

Here's hoping the final product comes out how I envisaged it last time...

["Z" UTE]

Craig, question is how disassembled is the car? Do you really need to mask anything at all. Generally I remove the interior, all outer trim pieces, and the screens. Door glass is removed as is the rear qtr glass. Crash pad and instrument cluster all removed as well.

Taking out the glass gives you a great opportunity to make any rust repairs, and then get a good coat of paint where the seal will sit, this will reduce the possibility of having to do that at a later date.

Regardless of wether you have the glass out our not, you should do all the fine masking before heading to the booth. When you get there you can throw on the paper very quickly as you have already got the good mask edge.

If you have painted the jambs and under the bootlid and bonnet, as well as the inside of the doors, you should be ready to rock at the booth. Most booths will have stands for the doors bonnet boot and guards. So just bolt your panels on with a couple of bolts to make removal simple as.

A closed door paintjob sucks balls, as you have to do a shitload of fiddly masking, so you do not get overspray onto door jambs etc.

If you are going for a really nice paint and panel job, all the panels should be trial fitted back onto the car whilst they are still in primer, set all your door gaps, guard alignment, boot and bonnet alignment. Check this thoroughly even to the extent of using a pair of vernier claipers to get the gap just right. The next step is to drill some 1.5mm match holes through the guard into the inner guard, drill the same size holes through your hinges into the bootlid, bonnet, and doors, These serve as your final alignment points when you put all the panels back on, you simply insert a 1.5mm rod/allen key/rivet through the matching holes then install the holding bolts.

cheers Chuck.

[xa-mont]

The next step is to drill some 1.5mm match holes through the guard into the inner guard, drill the same size holes through your hinges into the bootlid, bonnet, and doors, These serve as your final alignment points when you put all the panels back on, you simply insert a 1.5mm rod/allen key/rivet through the matching holes then install the holding bolts.

cheers Chuck.

That is the best idea i have heard in ages!!! I'll be using that one!

[mscphillips]

chuck,

Car is completely stripped to a bear shell, nothing is on it at all, reason i was thinking closed door style after edging out is because u only have a 4hr limit in the spray booth. so wanted the panels on the car so i dont have to handle the, for a few days so they can be cured properly. im open to all suggestion just want best/easiest way!

["Z" UTE]

Craig, with acrylic on a Celica, I would alloy 15-20 minutes per coat in a booth, coupla three coats of colour, and a coupla coats of clear, shut the doors on the way out and let it bake for the remainder of the 4 hours. After that let it sit in the sun for a couple of hours, the UV will help to harden the paint.

2Pac is a lot different, 2 coats of colour 40 minutes.

Clear over base COB/ COBRA is basically a couple three coats of colour followed immediately by a couple of coats of the 2Pac clear.

With any of the painting procedures above, you will have panels that are able to be handled by the time the 4 hours is up.

Check out the paint booth a few days before you are going to use it, make sure there are stands available, and it would not hurt to ask when the filters were last changed. ( I had a bunch of crud drop out of a duct directly onto some freshly laid 2Pac)

Just make sure you have all your paints, thinners, prepwash, tack cloths, spray guns, mixing sticks, measuring cups etc in one big box before you head out. Have a couple of ten litre resealable paint cans, for mixing the acrylic paints and clear. Take a trusted buddy with you that can mix the paint as you go.

cheers Chuck.

[mscphillips]

I am painting it ford conquer metal 2 pac blue (COB)

the spray booth has plenty of stands.

hopefully next weekend i will be doing the colour under the bonnet bootlid and doors

im going to see if they will let me spray it sat and pick it all up monday morning that way i can take a made and bolt the bonnet etc on before transporting back home

[JZA70R_92]

arghhh sucky....painting my rear drivers 1/4 and roof and rear 1/4 is ok need more coat of paint but for some reason when I paint the roof the outer edges are ok but the middle is all dusty dry rough as guts looking why oh why!! Going to block back and add few more coats of black this arvo if possible. I need to drive the car so is it ok to say add another coat next week when im free?

["Z" UTE]

A week later you will need to scuff back the "new" paint, otherwise in 2 years it will just flake off. Hold your gun a bit closer to the top of the roof, and maybe drop your air pressure a few pounds.

[JZA70R_92]

is it ok to scuff back with 600 wet before recoating? yeah will tweak even when I held it close to the roof the paint was rough and dry! worse comes to worse I can aerosol the middle part of the roof lol its just JET BLACK have a few cans aswell just incase

["Z" UTE]

600 wet will be OK.

Word of warning though on the aerosol cans, sometimes the thinners/carriers in the cans can have a very bad reaction with "new" paint. I have seen minor touch ups with an aerosol can turn into a full repaint!

cheers Chuck.

[o_man_ra23]

Chuck, I put the white primer on the ol girl (again) on the weekend, only to still get some nasty bleed-through/fry up in a couple of small spots. A few of those spots are visible when the car is assembled too. I only have enough primer left to spot prime those areas, and coverage isn't too bad on the rest of the car. If I scuff back the affected areas to a nice feathered edge, and then apply an isolator, do you reckon that should be sufficient to give me a good base to prime onto? I am assuming that once I have a consistent primer coat, and don't sand through it when I hit it with 800 wet, that the colour spraying won't give me any frying grief?

I am hoping to have her colour again this weekend, but if I can't get the primer stable, I'll put off the colour until I do. All bolt on panels are good, it is just the body itself which is having fryup issues, but I want to paint it all in one hit to get even colour coverage. Will buy a 5ltr plastic bucket with lid and mix the colour into that and pour a gun full every time I run out.

[JZA70R_92]

will try with the gun need to play with settings its fine on the 1/4 panels as soon as I start on the roof the paint comes dry and rough only the edges of the roof come ok

[o_man_ra23]

With chalky paint, I found too much pressure or a blocked pot breather port caused that on me (2 different issues I came across while painting). With my HVLP and LVLP guns, I currently have the regulator set to about 18psi at the compressor, and for basecoat and acrylic I thin to about 1:1 paint to thinner. 2k clear I am putting about 30% reducer.