The hood on my car (a solid black 996 Porsche) has quite a few stone chips and I have decided to respray it. There are no issues with the inside of the hood so I only would like to spray the outside. What is the proper way to mask this? Do I just mask right up to the edge of the hood or do I leave a couple millimeters under the hood just after the edge?

Also, I plan to sand the outside of the hood with 320 (but not all the way to bare metal) then since some of the chips are all the way to the metal I would spray the whole outside with epoxy primer followed by 2k primer. Then I would block sand then spray paint and clear. Does this sound right?

Thanks in advance!!

If you sand the chips smooth, and you should,
there's no need for 2K after the epoxy.
I usually remove hoods and hang them for painting,
it's cleaner and I get the edges real good.

Thanks for the reply JC. Ok so if I sand out the chips and sort of scuff the rest of the paint with 320 grit then spray the epoxy primer. Can I/ should I block sand the epoxy primer? Then spray the base and clear directly over the epoxy primer? If I burn through any of the epoxy primer down to the original clear or paint do I have to spray primer again on the entire hood?

Also regarding the masking, I only want to respray the outside of the hood. Where exactly should I mask. I'm guessing I should mask just past the edge on the back side of the hood? I don't want to end up with a hard line. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply JC. Ok so if I sand out the chips and sort of scuff the rest of the paint with 320 grit then spray the epoxy primer. Can I/ should I block sand the epoxy primer? Then spray the base and clear directly over the epoxy primer? If I burn through any of the epoxy primer down to the original clear or paint do I have to spray primer again on the entire hood?

Also regarding the masking, I only want to respray the outside of the hood. Where exactly should I mask. I'm guessing I should mask just past the edge on the back side of the hood? I don't want to end up with a hard line. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Okay, here is what you do. If the paint on the hood is not thick, then sand the chips down evenly with a soft rectangle 6" block w/ 500 grit wet or dry sand paper (can get sandpaper at just about all auto parts stores). When sanding down chips, do not focus all sanding on the chip, even sanding over the general area of the chip so your blending it basically. For the rest of the hood, wet sand with 1000 grit till all clear is hazy. When you spray a sealer before you paint it, I suggest a 2k sealer. It is a very thin primer sealer and be sprayed like basecoat. It also dries fast enough to sand something you see you dont like. Spot the sanded down chips with the sealer, over spray wont be an issue. Now if you spot the chipped areas with basecoat and consider if the car is outside a lot the color of the car (mostly on the top parts of the car) will be faded. The black sprayed could be darker then the rest, I suggest basecoating the whole hood. Be sure to get a decent clear, Some will last a year and doing it all over again. As for masking, is there a hard point? Such as an edge that two ending panels meet aka seam.
If not then at the bottom edge of the hood you will have to "soft line" the tape. You can fold the tape of one edge 1/4" or smaller. Or you can "back tape", which is taking 1 3/4" with around half of it visible sticky side facing up and "skirt" it all the way around taping the 2 or more ends of paper together, 18" paper should be just fine to keep over spray off the bottom. Remember to over lap at least half of your spray pattern. Do the same with the clear, lay it down and watch it, you dont want runs, if it is a little dry the first coat leave it, the second coat should take care of it. Hope I helped

Thanks so much for the very detailed reply. The hood has many very very small/fine chips.I think its kind of like road rash I guess. It would be very hard to focus on each chip one at a time because there are so many.

Could I just sand the whole hood with 1000 and then just spray the 2k sealer? Is it possible that the 2k sealer would fill these very fine chips? Would I still have to sand the sealer or could I just spray base coat right over the sealer?

Thanks again for the help

Sealer will not fill in chips not would high build primer unless sprayed thicckkkk. If you don't know to feather out chips with out making low spots then just sand the chipped area of the hood with 400grit and fill the chips with some putty. Block sand the putty spray your sealer. (Yes you can spray base over sealer without sanding the sealer) spray your base color over the whole hood forget blending at your skills and clear over base. Done deal

Thanks for the reply. What is a good a example of a sealer that I can use? I have read a lot about using epoxy primer over metal. When you say sealer do you mean an epoxy sealer or something else?

Thanks again!

Epoxy sealer is used for bare metal because of its anti corrosion properties unless you sand to bare metal you do not need it.

Paint sealer is used between base paint to add extra adherence and keep some chemicals locked in place and safe. It's not necessary in every application..

Honestly if you just want to sand into your base coat and fill those chips with light puddy, you can just spray your base and clear over it and be fine if you are not sure how sealer works..

Obviously, you can see that there are several ways to attack this, and either way will work.

However, I think that you originally were on the right track. To me, epoxy is the superior choice but again, either way will work. I would sand the hood until the surface is smooth (eliminating the pock marks) with 320-400. If you hit bare metal in spots it is no big deal.
Epoxy primer will give you the most adhesion and protection against rust so I would spray two coats of epoxy. I would then follow up within the next few days with 2k urethane primer surfacer as it is easier to sand smooth with 400-600 than the epoxy. If your epoxy comes out perfect, you can skip the 2k primer surfacer (but it rarely is perfect for me as I paint outside and I get dust and bugs, lol). Either way, there is no need for a sealer coat.
Your surface should now be perfectly smooth and then you can spray your base and clear coat. Base coat is easy to spray while the clear can be challenging for someone new, but it is fairly easy to sand and buff to a quality finish.

This all is just my opinion and I'm not a pro. good luck!

Thanks so much to all, I really appreciate all the advice. Lots of info to digest but I think I am now ready to give it a go!

Thanks again!