Repainting my own car, overview of steps
07-26-2007, 02:44 AM
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Repainting my own car, overview of steps I am painting my whole z/28. I have painted before and got ~90% perfection on a few panel paint jobs. Its been a while so i wanna get it all right.
I am pretty confident i can do this and get great results at this time. This is pretty much what i gather i should do.
Please insert any recommended steps or stuff im missing? Car needs some minor body work in acouple places (minor cracks dents and chips)
-Sand body work areas to bare material, do repairs as necessary including bondo
-sand entire car with 400 grit
-remove lights, and mask off car, remove hood and spoiler (paint on the side)
-spray primer (how many coats)
-sand primer to make it perfect body wise (what grit?)
-spray basecoat (how many coats im painting car black and it used to be black, should i wetsand this before clearcoat?)
-spray clearcoat (how many layers?)
-wetsand 1000, wetsand 1500, wetsand 2000
-wheel with buffing compound
-wheel with glazing compound
I am getting a new hood, can someone recommend a good way to paint both sides of the hood iwth ease? i have no idea on how to do it and make it look perfect. Any trim i should take off?
ps, do i need any sealer or something like that or not?
I am pretty confident i can do this and get great results at this time. This is pretty much what i gather i should do.
Please insert any recommended steps or stuff im missing? Car needs some minor body work in acouple places (minor cracks dents and chips)
-Sand body work areas to bare material, do repairs as necessary including bondo
-sand entire car with 400 grit
-remove lights, and mask off car, remove hood and spoiler (paint on the side)
-spray primer (how many coats)
-sand primer to make it perfect body wise (what grit?)
-spray basecoat (how many coats im painting car black and it used to be black, should i wetsand this before clearcoat?)
-spray clearcoat (how many layers?)
-wetsand 1000, wetsand 1500, wetsand 2000
-wheel with buffing compound
-wheel with glazing compound
I am getting a new hood, can someone recommend a good way to paint both sides of the hood iwth ease? i have no idea on how to do it and make it look perfect. Any trim i should take off?
ps, do i need any sealer or something like that or not?
07-26-2007, 06:53 AM
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Well, I have yet to do an all over, but I just finished my SS spoiler, and I learned a couple things...
Don't try to do both sides at the same time. Once you get ready to do base (on the hood and the spoiler), tape off / cover one side, and base/clear one side at a time. Give it a good day to set up before you remove the covering... and then cover the side that you just based/cleared and do the unpainted side. I was trying to do both sides in one sitting on my spoiler, and that got me in to trouble.
On the spoiler, for the last coat of clear (24 hours after first coat), I sanded the top side clear down with 320 (don't try this with some clears
), removed the taped off portion, and reshot clear over the top and sides (hiding the very slight tape line). Very happy with how it turned out, I started cutting and buffing it last night.
I'd be scared to sand the base. I don't think you want to do that. I've been tempted to try, but have not.
As far as "counting coats", it's more of "filling in". Build primer fills in over bodywork, you can use epoxy primer as a "sealer" to fill in sanding scratches over build primer, and then base will fill in any very small scratches in that, and the clear fills everything else in. If I were counting, I have 5 layers of clear on my spoiler... but remember I sanded with 320 and knocked it down. So "layers" is really tough to track. If you intend to sand, put more on (like with primer and clear).
Don't try to do both sides at the same time. Once you get ready to do base (on the hood and the spoiler), tape off / cover one side, and base/clear one side at a time. Give it a good day to set up before you remove the covering... and then cover the side that you just based/cleared and do the unpainted side. I was trying to do both sides in one sitting on my spoiler, and that got me in to trouble.
On the spoiler, for the last coat of clear (24 hours after first coat), I sanded the top side clear down with 320 (don't try this with some clears
), removed the taped off portion, and reshot clear over the top and sides (hiding the very slight tape line). Very happy with how it turned out, I started cutting and buffing it last night.I'd be scared to sand the base. I don't think you want to do that. I've been tempted to try, but have not.
As far as "counting coats", it's more of "filling in". Build primer fills in over bodywork, you can use epoxy primer as a "sealer" to fill in sanding scratches over build primer, and then base will fill in any very small scratches in that, and the clear fills everything else in.
If I were counting, I have 5 layers of clear on my spoiler... but remember I sanded with 320 and knocked it down. So "layers" is really tough to track. If you intend to sand, put more on (like with primer and clear). 
