Steps to DIY paintjob completion!

General Discussion. Make yourself at home...read, ask and answer!



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PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 10:47 pm
Hi everyone. Bit of background. The cars bodywork in general is okay, but there is patches of rust here, flaking of the clearcoat and stone chips. Im on a bit of a budget but i want to achieve the best job i can with my budget and willing to put the time in to get it done. I plan on using 2k primers paints and clearcoat. I'm wondering if you could help clarify all the steps from start to finish.

1. Sand the entire car down with 180 grit.
2. grind out rust patches to bare metal and sand dented areas to bare metal.
3. spray bare metal areas with epoxy primer. Leave to dry for several days.
4. body fill all dents and rust repair areas.
5. Sand entire car with 240 grit, then 320 grit, then 400 grit.
6. spray entire car with a high build primer. leave to dry.
7. Apply guide coat and sand high build primer with 400 grit, reapply primer to any low spots.
8. apply epoxy sealer.
9. Apply base coat (3 coats) then clear coat (3 coats)
10. Wet sand with 1500 grit and polish to a shine.

Does this process look okay? And parts you would add or take away? thank you

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:03 am
Hi and welcome to the forum.

These questions gets asked repeatedly, therefore all of the information and the steps are addressed in sticky posts and in the forums on this site.

At the top of the Body and Paint forum you will find as Sticky Post on how to prep metal for paint from bare metal or respray. You will also find how to use Guide Coat and a discussion on sandpaper grit choices.

At the top for the Welding and Metal Fabrication you will find the basics of metal work.

The cut and buff forum has a lot of information and the different materials and ways people get great finishes on their cars.

In the Info Center there are a number of Articles to help beginners and even the more experienced refine their techniques.

And the Completed and In Progress Members Projects forum has countless examples, pictures and details of what others have done.

Once you are done researching, if you find you still have questions then by all means post them.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:29 pm
tropicalpalmtree wrote:Hi everyone. Bit of background. The cars bodywork in general is okay, but there is patches of rust here, flaking of the clearcoat and stone chips. Im on a bit of a budget but i want to achieve the best job i can with my budget and willing to put the time in to get it done. I plan on using 2k primers paints and clearcoat. I'm wondering if you could help clarify all the steps from start to finish.

1. Sand the entire car down with 180 grit.
2. grind out rust patches to bare metal and sand dented areas to bare metal.
3. spray bare metal areas with epoxy primer. Leave to dry for several days.
4. body fill all dents and rust repair areas.
5. Sand entire car with 240 grit, then 320 grit, then 400 grit.
6. spray entire car with a high build primer. leave to dry.
7. Apply guide coat and sand high build primer with 400 grit, reapply primer to any low spots.
8. apply epoxy sealer.
9. Apply base coat (3 coats) then clear coat (3 coats)
10. Wet sand with 1500 grit and polish to a shine.

Does this process look okay? And parts you would add or take away? thank you


Your pretty close sounds like you've done some home work some of it needs a little tweaking in my opinion but what you describe will suffice for most part.
My biggest concern is your AIR supply?
Air water trap and air filter system?

How many CFM is your compressor? what cfm does it produce at 0, 90 & 175 psi?
Do you have a water trap? do you have a desiccant drier of some sort?
Do you have Hi flow Air fittings?

These need to be addressed before spraying anything! Air flow is most important.
Dennis B.
A&P Mechanic, FCC General radio Telephone Operator
Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist.



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 9:02 am
I see a few things right off the bat, I'd do differently. But if you follow the sticky's up at the top you'll get a good idea of a better way.
Just a couple changes: You can take the car down to bare much faster with 80 grit. Even coarser isn't going to 'ruin' the metal, as long as you don't bear down on the sander.
Sanding the first coat of epoxy to 400 grit, then shooting hi-build? complete waste of time. Finish your filler work to 180, then hi-build primer it. Later sand it to a fine grit finish.
I wait until I see how my final clearcoats go on before deciding how to color sand it. If I had a bad day, I sometimes start with 800 grit, or just do the rough areas with 800 then progress to 1000, 1500, and then 200 or a 3000 Trizac cut.
Depending on the color, and whether it's a solid, metallic or pearl, you might want to sand the final primer with up to 600 grit.



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 10:11 am
since theres a step one, step 0 should be clean and wash the hell out of the car. blast the crap out of wheel wells,door jambs, rocker panels....
dirt hides pretty good. once everything if prepped, it LOVES to pop out once the trigger on a spray gun is pulled.
blast the carp out of (with air) as youre going through the steps.



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 8:23 am
chopolds wrote:I see a few things right off the bat, I'd do differently. But if you follow the sticky's up at the top you'll get a good idea of a better way.
Just a couple changes: You can take the car down to bare much faster with 80 grit. Even coarser isn't going to 'ruin' the metal, as long as you don't bear down on the sander.
Sanding the first coat of epoxy to 400 grit, then shooting hi-build? complete waste of time. Finish your filler work to 180, then hi-build primer it. Later sand it to a fine grit finish.
I wait until I see how my final clearcoats go on before deciding how to color sand it. If I had a bad day, I sometimes start with 800 grit, or just do the rough areas with 800 then progress to 1000, 1500, and then 200 or a 3000 Trizac cut.
Depending on the color, and whether it's a solid, metallic or pearl, you might want to sand the final primer with up to 600 grit.


Thanks for the tips. If i'm doing the filler down to 180, should i then DA the car all over with 180 grit? then spray the hi-build? Cheers



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 8:37 am
tomsteve wrote:since theres a step one, step 0 should be clean and wash the hell out of the car. blast the crap out of wheel wells,door jambs, rocker panels....
dirt hides pretty good. once everything if prepped, it LOVES to pop out once the trigger on a spray gun is pulled.
blast the carp out of (with air) as youre going through the steps.


Taken on board! I am just testing my skills on some old car parts so will pay extra attention to getting the panels properly cleaned.

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