as far as never painting a car before, how have your projects turned out? i want to paint my ihc truck but have never painted before. not looking for show car status but i don't want it to look worse than it does now. what have your experiences been?
Get the paintucation video's lots of cool tips. By the time you spray, sealer, surfacer, then another sealer and then primer, you will get the ideo of spraying the base coat. The clear, make sure you mix it thinner than the recomendations and use a finer tip than the rest. I used a 1.5 for all the above and a 1.3 for the clear. My first heavy metalic with lots of pearl came out awesome!! Just a few years off topic but paint is never off topic. The first pictures are when I bought the car, then I had it painted all red and hated it for over 20 years, Then I decided to paint it myself and do all the bodywork. I never had a spray gun or welded sheet metal in my life. I did ask lots of questions before attempting it. http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii281/sixt8bird/1968%20Firebird/?albumview=slideshow
Get the paintucation video's lots of cool tips. By the time you spray, sealer, surfacer, then another sealer and then primer, you will get the ideo of spraying the base coat. The clear, make sure you mix it thinner than the recomendations and use a finer tip than the rest. I used a 1.5 for all the above and a 1.3 for the clear. My first heavy metalic with lots of pearl came out awesome!! Just a few years off topic but paint is never off topic. The first pictures are when I bought the car, then I had it painted all red and hated it for over 20 years, Then I decided to paint it myself and do all the bodywork. I never had a spray gun or welded sheet metal in my life. I did ask lots of questions before attempting it. http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii281/sixt8bird/1968 Firebird/?albumview=slideshow
Be sure you have a quality gun and a good compressor. I have Binks siphon feed and I have never changed the tip. Prime, seal, paint all with the same set-up. Just air pressure changes depending on what the paint company reccomends. As said before, you will have plenty of practice before you get to the paint, you will do fine.
Rule of thumb is 8 inches on pattern 8 inches away from car. I usally go little finger to thumb ,first time great goes down hill from there .The more you learn the worst it gets.
RULE #1. WEAR AN EXCELLENT RESPIRATOR. Do all you can to make sure there is no water or oil in your air line. Paint from the top down with the air hose over your shoulder so it won't accidently touch the car. Also, add fish eye killer to your paint and use the correct reducer for your climate. The www.paintucation.com videos and site are a great source of info.
When you get used to it, you can watch how the paint falls on the car. It's important to get the mix right between major orange peel, and run. I've seen both - the hard way. Good consistent dry air is very important also. BTW: I love your car. lol
My first car that I painted was when I was 16. It was a 46 Dodge pea green. That was the color of my face after I was done and I was drunk as a skunk! My advice to you, Use a good exaust fan.
yep, get educated first - tons of info here on every aspect of painting. this is one time that having the right tool for the job is very important. but, to start out learning is when you primer you car as you do repair work. you can use lower end equipment just to get a feel for the whole process and how to set up your area to do painting.
Actually Kevin Tetz, Paintucation guy and lots of other paint from the bottom up and do all your jambs and edges first. Close them all the way and then do all your flat panels. You can also put your car on jack stands and take the wheels off. Then your hose won't catch on anything. All these tips are in the paintucation video's. The cool thing that I liked is the hand made cleaner he uses and adding fiberglass resin to the filler as it will make the filler smooth out better. Lots of cool tips. If you are spraying metalic, only let the last coat half dry and then hold your gun back and open the fan wider. This will prevent modeling and the metalflake will meld into the last coat more even.
I second that. And when you think you are done sanding, sand and smooth some more!!! Do this at least 5 times when you first thought you were done and you might have it flat enough to paint.
<--this was my first paint job. I knew there would be alot of scxrew ups and redo's so i chose a solid color, no metallics, and single stage. That made it easier to color sand any orange peel(and there was alot) or runs, and match mistakes. But like the guys said, read up on it as much as you can before you pull the trigger. I pretty much painted every panel twice to get it to look like i wanted. Cesar
Actually the BC/CC metalics are very easy to do and they spray on damned ggod. I just used a cheap HF used HVLP and I was so overconfident as it sprayed on so easy!! Then I used the clear with the same gun and thats where I had a ton of runs and Orange peel. I used the manufacturers recommendations as far as mix but it went on thick and heavy. After I screwed up the clear, I asked my car experts that build million dollar cars (no shit) the y told me that they always reduce the clear as EPA has strict guidlines and that the only way that the clear will pass is if its shot on heavy. Less airborn polutants. So reduce the clear. I used a different gun and reduced the clear and it went on like glass. Over all the paint job is awesome espexially after sanding all the orange peel and scraping the runs off with a razor blade. Another Paintucation tip.
Actually theres like 5 video's!! If you kinow anyone that has them, just borrow them. I could see if I can locate mine and send them to you but its been about 8 years and who knows where they went. A buddy of mine said he found them at the local library. If you want to contact me, privately message me and leave your phone number and I will describe all the ins and outs as a first time painter. I have now painted 4 cars. I'm not a pro but sometimes amatures can communicate technically better.
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