[DeGzReX]

Hello Fellow community members,

I have some questions and am in need of information. I'd like to try to paint my car by myself, as i wam going into auto body/mechanic school possibly next fall. Here are my questions :

Where can i get the proper equipment?
Where can i get paint, wet sanding products, and auto body tips?

now i know what the basics are. Sand down the car repair the broken material, Primer, the sand the rough edges coat it with a single coat, then let dry the coat again.

does anyone know where i can find a write up on this, i'd love to get the information on doing this and have a great project for the summer. Does anyone ANYONE have anything. I found Stage one stuff which you can purchase at autozone or localsotres, but i really don't like that, i want a professional look to my car. here are some pics of it at the moment.

http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=5921&highlight=

now it doesn't look bad but it was pretty ****ty done, some of the paint is chipping off and such, i had to remount the bumpers properly and get it painted (bumpers). Does anyone have any information on where can order equipment and material for my car.

Thank you.
Enjoy the pictures.

 

[Ragnaarok]

If you want detailed, complete information about auto body restoration, I suggest you google search some old muscle car restorations.

I've found articles that go through the whole process, and it seems they always have pictures of the restorer, usually an older guy wanting to recapture his youth.

Yeah so do that!

 

[bil]

Here are some links I've run across in researching the same topic:

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/cheap_auto_painting/index.html

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/24820/index.html

http://www.garbee.net/~cabell/paint.htm

http://www.xs11.com/faq/paintfaq.shtml

http://www.d-series.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56517

http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto/20318/index.html

Eastwood's not a bad place to look for products and info, but they aren't cheap. For wet sanding, auto supply stores often have the finer grit paper, but you can get 100-200-400-600 wet'n'dry from most hardware stores.

Keep us posted and take lots of pics. ('

 

[DeGzReX]

Thank you for the answers keep posting up. Tomorrow i will take pictures of the car as of today and the process. I'm getting the equipment asap.

 

[Baker]

Where can i get the proper equipment?
Where can i get paint, wet sanding products, and auto body tips?

Also, try looking in your area for a local Auto Body Paint supply store.
They should have most if not all that you need.

Some dealerships or independant auto body repair garages may tell you where they get their paint supplies.

 

[Blackbird_Pilot]

IF you want any product ever made for the painting/body work industry go to

http://www.eastwood.com

Great tips, videos and products.

Great rust prevention products as well.

 

[DeGzReX]

Thanks i'm contacting my local shops tomorrow to ask about more information so i can do the work next paycheck hopefully.

 

[ITruns20s]

here's a basic rundown on how to paint a car. first materials and tools.. 1. you can get a spray gun at pep boys for cheap. sure its not as good quality as a $400 gun but its the painter not the gun that makes a car look good. 2. a DA (dual action sander) will be very helpful. 3. paint. single stage paint is easiest to use if your a beginner and is a lot easier to fix imperfections. ok to start off use 400 grit sand paper on the DA, sand the whole car, dont go down to bare metal because the best base coat is the factory paint. just make sure you can't see any shine on the paint surface so the new paint will stick. after the whole car is 400'd, you will want to use 1500grit scuff pads to smooth everything out. it will be tiring and take a while but its worth it. after everything is pretty smooth you want to put some comet or degreaser into a bucket and add water then using the 1500grit scuff pads wash and scrub your car making sure you get all the edges (that is where the paint will start to peel first) after the car has dried, tape off everything you don't want to have paint on. spraying - i don't care what people tell you, the first thing to do when painting a car is a "dust" coat. this is basically when you just go around the car really quickly to apply a "mist" of paint on it.. this is so the paint and the paint surface get used to each other so it doesn't create fisheye's. (little spots that repel paint) after this apply a few coats letting the paint become tacky between coats. you can tell when the paint is tacky by touching the tape. now after the paint has completely dried, give it a day or two. wet sanding isn't necessary but if you dont' want orange peel (little ripples in the paint) you can. first rule- never wet sand where your buffer can't go. ok, take 1500 or 2000 grit wetsand paper and a bucket of water and a rubber squegee. wrap about 4-5 pieces of sand paper around the squegee and begin sanding, don't apply too much pressure and make sure you hold it on the sides so there isn't more pressure where your fingers are causing deep grooves in the paint. dip back into the bucket often, you can never use too much water, after you think a spot is good, wipe off the water with the squegee and it should look dull with no orange peel spots. you'll know what im talking about when you do it. after your satisfied with your wetsanding, take extra cut buffing compound and start buffing, then after that switch to 1500 polish, then you can finish with final glaze if you want. the buffing compound acts kind of like sanding so most of the stuff you missed wet sanding will be taken care of. if you are new to buffing, you can use swirl mark remover to get rid of the swirl marks.

hope this helped. because it sure was a pain in the ass to type.

 

[DeGzReX]

WOW NIce thanks man!

Should i take off the hatch the hood the doors tape off the engine bay ? What should i do? Also what kind of paint should i use for the ( before )base coats and the clear coats for ( After ). ???

For those who didn't know i had a flat black colour as my coat now but i want to switch that. let me know. thanks

 

[ITruns20s]

ok you dont' need to take off the hatch and doors, for the engine bay just make a tape line from the side of the fender bolts all around the engine bay, then with plastic wrap or even newspaper connect it to the tape outline you just made. now your engine is protected from paint, your going to want to get some paint on your rad support and the part of the fenders where the bolts are so set a block of wood (6x6 works good) on your radiator or valve cover (wherever is easiest) and set your hood on that so when your spraying you can easily lift your hood to paint and set it back down without touching anything. for the doors, i'm assuming your painting the jams so just make a tape outline (like the engine bay) on the inside of your car, then with plastic wrap or newspaper fill it in so paint will only get on the door jams. with the hatch the same thing as all the engine bay and jams, it can be a pain to mask off but it's worth it imo. as for the kind of paint and clear. since you seem to be a beginner at painting, i would use single stage paint. that is where the base coat and clear coat are all mixed into one paint, so you spray a few coats and thats it. dual stage paint, is where you spray a base coat (color only) and then spray a separate clear coat. this is where beginners always get runs because spraying clear isn't as easy as you might think. also with single stage paint, its cheaper. i like to think of single stage as more "user friendly" because when you get a run you can wetsand it out without worrying of breaking through the clear coat. when your buying your paint just ask the guy about single and dual stage and also how you should mix it, like what ratio's it should be mixed at. o yea and don't forget to wear a respirator or at least a dust mask because you will get loopy as hell.

edit - im not sure what color your choosing but if your spraying it yourself i would stay away from silver, my reasoning, silver is all metallics and its hard to tell how "heavy" your laying it on. ex. there might be more metallics in one spot than another which you can't tell until its dry and too late.