hey guys ive searched alot but cant find what im looking for. I want to paint cars and always wanted to...i finally have a place to build a small booth. I aa also pretty quick to pick up talents. where can i find the best info + pics to paint cars? books videos and pics are what i need, the most of the questions.
how to prep.
how/when to blend
when to buff? like in between base coats, clear or both?
methods on how.
how to pick what kind of paint
gun set up...
thanks guys for any help. it all started to hit me when i tryed to get my gf's car fixed, insurance covered 2274.39 + 500 deductable...i found all the parts for 550 but up graded to a ram air hood. the body shops parts cost 1050??? So i cut the price down...till i decided to install the parts...the price went down more, and now if SHE trusted me id paint it my self but now the cost is minamal and we are walking out wit 1200 pocket cash. Now if only i could paint
thanks and please just reply or talk paint with me

 

I would say go to your local paint supply shop and try to talk to them. Most of those guys are trained by the manufactures in the products and procedures and can point you in the right direction. At least the reputable supply shops. They may be able to give you liturature in the procedures you are looking into. Me, I just jumped right in and learned from my mistakes. Don't be affraid, just do it and if it ain't right try again. Its a fickle beast to tame.

 

shoot me a pm with all yuor questions ill be glad to help you out. but man to be honest with you no book is going to really make you a better painter. the only way to learn is to get out there and do it. get some junk parts to mess around with so that if you screw up who cares. every shop is different as well. your going to learn crap ways and great ways to do the same thing. its all personal preferance and how you want your quality to be. where are you from?

 

couldnt agree more, no online video,no book, no school is going to teach you , guys like him, myself included can teach you, i never went to school, i was taught by a old pissed off polak,

you want to learn get into a shop and be the shop bitch for a couple of yrs, and then someone might take you in as there apprentice, thats what i did, 20yrs later iam still goin

 

thanks, i know the hands on part is really on you...i mainly want to know when to use what tool and the steps in detail how to...ive got the perfect car to learn on and a giant shop, 80,000 sq ft to learn it. the car is my dd its a 96 caviliar and um...its a beauty...lol but id want to paint that to see what im getting into. i have a gun and ive painted a gsxr with a friend, but he messed it up bu sanding the **** outta it...i know i can do better then him...btw thanks for the help

 

prep work will make or break your paint job.
no matter how well you can spray, the prep job is paramount.
the best thing to do is as stated above, get some junk body parts and practice, practice, practice and patience is a good thing to have or get acquainted with it quick.
take your time, don't be in a rush.
just my $0.02 hope it helps a lil bit.
Bill

 

thanks for the help, any and all. a smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from others mistakes....i just hope im not completely fucked...

 

but also like a good example is look at the car in my sig...oh yea thats my baby...but i want to fix the very small chips in the paint and the drivers side headlight pan. and paint a pearl flame on the front end and re-clear the front of the car. stuff like that is what i want to do..

 

^^^that my friend takes a lot of practice. your talking about doing a 3 stage paint job there. also when it comes to pearls you can really mess up the pearl itself. finding the right pearl is key. you can add more or less and reduce it to either make it faint and ghost like or you can use standard reduction to make it come out like a typical tri-stage paint job. regardless when your doing custom work like that it takes lots of time and practice especially when your maping flames out. also another big thing is picking your style of flame out and using a quality fine line tape to map them out and then cutting them in all the right spots so that you dont have lines in all the wrong places. what else do you want to know? get specific with questions and ill answer them for you in detail.

 

like lets take one bare panel laying on a bench. the one i got is black in color and claimed to be primed already, is it? it looks ready to paint? if so what are the steps for that, do i paint 3-4 coats, let dry then buff or clear a few let dry then buff. also what would be the best way to prep the panel

 

ok first off the black is what they call ecoat. most panels will come with it. same thing with bumpers but on bumpers you have to be careful because the primers are different and some are waterbourne. i check for any dents or imperfections because after its prepped and you see a dent you cant return the panel. these are the steps i use to prep a fresh e coat panel. now depending on your paint line(i use spies and hekker and standox) their sealers will stick to the oem primer so technically you dont even have to prep it just clean it and spray it but i dont like that so i prep the panel. i take a 6" d/a and 400 grit and d/a the panel until all the orange peel is out of the panel and then anything the d/a cant get like on the back side of the panel or any of that i take a red 3m or red scotch brite pad and scuff it all out. i remove any r-dot stickers that are on the panel aswell. then i clean the panel throughly by blowing it off and using wax and grease remover. if it sits in the shop for a bit i blow it off again before putting it into the booth. after its in the booth i wipe it down first with a waterbourne cleaner by standox followed by a silicone remover. when using silicone remover of any kind you want to have a wet towel and a dry towel. you must dry it with the dry towel as soon as you get it wet or if you let it air dry you will get fish eye so its best to do a section at a time. after its wiped down i take a 1k anti corrosive primer and spray down any bare spots. one thing is that if the panel isnt scuffed 1k will not stick to unprepped ecoat unlike the primers and sealers that will. so i 1k all bare metal spots and then go to mix up sealer. after i mix sealer i blow myself off very good before walking into the booth. i set the gun in the holder and then take a tach cloth and throughly wipe the panel again. i shoot 1 wet or as in some call it a closed coat of sealer and allow it to flash for the reccomended time which depends on your paint supplier. while its flashing i go mix basecoat. after mixing base again i blow myself off before going back into the booth and when i go in the sealer should be dry enough for my to tach it off yet again. then i put down the basecoat. usually i put down 3 coats good coats so that it covers mostly. allow 5-7 minutes between coats of base. i then let it flash off. after it flashes i go into the booth and look for any dirt knibs in the base. i take 1000 grit and wetsand them out because after its cleared you can sand it flat but you will still see it under the base. if i burn through to the sealer i come back and apply a couple more coats. i then mix clear while the basecoat flashes. this is where keeping it clean counts. after you blow yourself off extremely good and go back into the booth. tach the panel off really well and then your ready for clear. now theres many ways of applying clear. normally i do one quick open coat to get the panel sticky and to help prevent runs even more and then come back with a good wet closed coat. i let it flash off and then come back for another closed coat. most guys put 2 coats of clear for production cars and more for show cars. but you can put as many as you want. never buff basecoat. after its cleared and cured i usually wait about a day before buffing to prevent any dye back in the color front solvents still being released. when its time to buff it depends on how you want your car to look. for show cars i take 1200 and a soft block and sand it totally flat and then come back with 3000 and 4000 on a 6" d/a with water. that makes everything looks totally flat and flawless. for cars where you have to match the orange peel i normally take 1200 or 1500 wet and sand out the knibs followed by 3000 on a d/a wet to feather out the flat spot when sanding the knibs out and then buff away.

 

Do you think some places would offer apprenticeships? I think that may be the best way to learn how to do it right. Just a suggestion.

 

When i started to learn i went to a guy that did my racing stripes on my Extreme. I told the guy if i could just help out for free around the shop like, help him mask and prep. The guy said sure but i cant pay you. I told him all i wanted was to learn. The guy said sure that is no problem. I was there for two weeks and picked up almost everything i needed to learn. By the time i left i was painting part of the bikes he started on. Some guys are ******** so i hope you can find a good guy.