Im painting my car for the first time ever. The car has about 7 layers of paint already but im gonna just sand the top smooth. Ive heard sanding all the way down can warp the paint? Anybody here ever paint cars themselves? if so any tips, tricks, hints, do's, dont's?

 

if i where u i would strip it all off and start new

 

i talked to a body shop about that and he said that that may give the metal a wavy look to it.

 

I paint........, few ?'s, has the car ever been painted before?, if not you can just do a scuff on the top surface w/ 400 grit (the factory hold is great), I'd use some kind of filling primer if you have any nicks or deep scratches then sand again w/400 to make perfectly smooth, and are you doing single stage or double?, and what color?, make sure you use a flex additive on the bumpers, what kind of gun, make sure you got the paint tempatures right and a dust free environment...............

edit: if this is your first paint job....... you will want to go with double stage because you can allways watersand down the runs or whatever else, make sure you got a good compressor and a filter and a good resperator any time your doing work on the car.......

 

you say you want to sand the top smooth. are you trying to eliminate swirls, surface scratches, orange peel? if ur trying to elimnate swirls you can simply buff your paint or even foam pad it. Surface scratches and orange peel require wetsanding and a good buffing.

if your sanding all the way down there wouldn't be any paint to warp.

if you want a great job you need to put time and effort into the job. The best way short of taking all of the paint off which would require taking 100% of the paint off (door jams and everywhere) would be to wetsand down through the clear and about half of the paint with 600. then you would want to use a red scuff pad to prep the surface. wipe down the surface with a rag. next you would want to use a cleaning solution to get all grease and dust off of the painting surfaces. then you will need a really expensive paint gun (300+bucks), a respirator, a really good air compressor (consitent pressure is helpful), and a completely dust free enviroment. use primer then paint (house of kolor or ppg). then clear the car. buff the paint.

if you don't have much experience you need to get an edumacation on painting so you don't **** yourself off. there is alot of tricks to it and lots of equipment is required to do it the right way.

 

I agree totally with T/A,only difference would be if you really do have "7" layers of paint on there,take it all the way down then bring it back up,and by the way to that body shop you talked to there is NO way to warp the paint,the metal yes.For the job to be done correctly and to last without bubbling or blistering,will take a lot of time and a lot of money,it is all in how far you want to take it,what was you planning on spending on it?? That will give you your outcome.

 

yes, i meant the metal not paint. The 7 layers include all the primer layers. My dad is going to be helping me with the job. What about the gloss enamel in the paint, he painted cars with that back in the day. Can you use that then also put clear coat over that? i really want clear coat on it, but he says the gloss enamel is enough, which means no clear coat.

 

its not back in the day anymore.

are you painting the 77 or the 01?

paint today is made with many different tones of paint combined and mixed with reducer to create one color. you spray that color ontop of primer and then clear over the paint.

every new car on the road today has a clear coat, and there are reasons for it.

my dad tries to help me with my car and it would probably be a great bonding experience IF he had the knowledge of todays cars. my dad drives cars with fuel injection but isn't really sure how it works. my point is i would never let my dad touch my fuel injection because he knows primarily about carburated engines.

your father dosn't know about clear coat and the paints of today so mabey you shouldn't let him paint your car with the paint of today including a clear coat.

since you probably don't have access to a body shops materials or facilities you will recieve your primer, your paint premixed, and an order of clearcoat.

if your insistent on painting your own car; going to autobody school dosn't fit your situation, you don't have access to a body shop to learn hands on how to paint (as did i), you should buy a recently published book on painting cars and read up so you are aware with what all is involved and so you are happy with the end results.

 

yes, the 77. Thats EXACTLY what i want . I want the black to look a mile deep. So you cant get that deep look when you use the enamel, only clear coat?

 

yes you want clear coat all the way and lots of it. then a fantastic buffing job

 

the clear is what make your paint look like a relfection off of water

 

so your going with black? what kind of paint are you buying?, and doing the two stage on the clear I would reccomend you going three fahtt coats useing a high solids clear then watersand smooth (800 should work good) and put one more layer on top of that, unless you just want to buff from there, buffing out black to get it perfect is a big motha biatch, ask anybody, alot of time and effort is required...... along with the right tools and finishing compounds.......

 

Black is a tough choice for your first paint job. It's impossible to hide anything with it. If you take your time though it can turn out good, doing good prep work is the key.. any painter will tell you. It's a tough call on what to do though as far as preping, if the paint on it now is bubbling or peeling anywhere it's best to take it all the way down to metal. If you don't it's extremely likely to lift later after you have painted over it, and then you end up with bubbling in your new paint job. If the paint on there is sticking good though and you start sanding it down and it's sanding and not flaking off, I say paint over it. I'd take a DA with 400 and go over the whole thing then patch any minor body flaws and then primer and wetsand it. If you do end up having to take it down to metal, DA it with 180 but keep moving to avoid heating up the panels. Even if you only take it down a bit keep moving over the whole car and go back and start over until you got it down all the way. Otherwise yah you'll warp the metal and it'll look extremely wavy with black on it. If you do go down to metal, even in only a couple of small areas be sure to use some etch primer before putting filler primer on!
Where are you going to be painting this? I'm guessing a garage or something and not in a booth. If so I'd stress doing the sanding in a different place or building if possible than where your going to do your painting. If thats not possible it's ok, just make sure you do some good cleanup before you start spraying and wet everything down (floor, walls, ect) before you start painting so your not blowing dust/dirt around that will give you headaches later on. Also since I'm assuming your not doing this in a booth so your not going to be able to bake it, use a faster(not extreme though) hardener to avoid sags/hangers. Other than than that use atleast a halfway clean and decent gun, make sure you set your air pressure and test it before spraying the car, and make sure the place your painting in is heated good.
Again if your not doing this in a booth, don't put the clear on wet. Let the color dry and check it over for any flaws. You don't want to be dry on the color, but don't worry about making it shine with it either.. just worry about solid coverage. If you really want the deep shine, do 2 moderate coats of clear and let it dry. Wetsand it lightly with 1200-1500. Go back and do another 3 coats of clear, then when it's done back to wetsanding, go 1200, 1500, then 2000(the 2000 will save you ALOT of time in buffing). Also when putting on clear.. always put down the first coat lightly just as a 'base' for the following coats of clear to build on. Don't worry about laying it on like glass to the final coat.

Ok, I know it sounds like alot of work and well.. it is, especially black. I've worked autobody for 6+ years(as a hobby atleast 10) and have spent countless hours wetsanding. It's the most time consuming part (both prepping the car and finishing it after paint). But as I said if you prep the car good that's 80% of the job, cuz if you don't it's 2x the work later on and it still won't turn out as good. Another thing is don't rush anything, last year me and a buddy did a side job painting a 79 Trans Am(black too) in a garage... a booth makes it easier but you can still get killer paint jobs in your back yard as long as you take precautions. Didn't mean to be so long winded, but doing a complete paint job is a big job and I've done it plenty of times and every time I learn something new that I should and shouldn't do. Just thought I'd pass some of it on, good luck!