Thread: My four week long paint ordeal NIGHTMARE

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where have I been the last few weeks you were all wondering?

IN HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Paint hell.

You guys have no idea what I've been through but it was enough to traumatize a sumi wrestler into crying like a little girl.

I'll spare you the gory details but here is the low down:

1- Took car apart and started doing body work. Went real well.
2- Fixed the big dent in my guide headlight all bny myself and was real happy with my handy work... So far so good...
3- Fixed all the little imperfection , holes, scratches and sanded the whole car until it was as smooth as a baby's butt... Yep we were styling.
4- Cleaned up the mess and rolled car into garage. spent a whole day stripping the red paint off my hair pins and no less than 4 hours on each side on my knees polishing the chrome depleated old pins. At the end of the day they looked like polished aluminum and that saved me having to replace them and spend a good $800 in the process (I didn't think I wanted to do it myself)

By now I have no more nails and very tired but I am happy as can be. So far so good... Seemed we were on a great roll.. What could possibly go wrong?



5- Spent an entire day masking car and turning garage into a crime scene. Full plastic covered room and floor, etc etc...

AND THEN THE SHIT STARTED TO HAPPEN

We were now ready to start shooting the paint. Sean was to do the actual spraying. I bought about $500 worth of PPG paint to create a suede look for HIboy. the plan was simple: Use DP90 primer and then shoot the eggshell mix of flex N'flat clear and gloss clear. We made test panels they came out awesome.

1- First attempt. Sean can't see a thing with all the black paint flying in the room. He shoots to close or too much and get more runs than Babe Ruth. We also have many fish eyes and some bad crackling from primer reacting to older layer of unkown paints up to 30 years old. Possibly lacquer. We also have a large number of miscellaneous insect and dirt trapped in the paint. Hiboy looks like a science project .


2- sand down the runs, fish eyes and crackles for the next 3 nights after work. Body work is still noticeable so we need a second coat of primer.

3- Second attempt. Now nervous Sean sprays too dry. I end up with a pine cone. Hiboy now looks greyish and pretty much like 50 sandpaper. You can't even slide a rag across it. We are in orange peel land. And I mean MAJOR orange peel.

4- SAnd back down everything for the next week. At some point I notice that I have sanded my thumb's nail right into the flesh and past that. Ouch. I have spent no less than 40 hours straight sanding so far... And we are nowhere near done. At this rate the car will never be ready for the film shoot at Paso Robles. Sean brings two helpers from his work - they do body work prep professionally. They help us sand everything down and one of them offers to shoot the paint for a small cash fee.

5- But another bad surprise awaits us. Turns out the store gave the wrong hardener. the clear coat is too wet and the chemicals go through the primer coat and attack the payer of older paint and create a weird chemical reaction. So now I have a car that looks smooth, has the proper suede shine (which in itself is very challanging to obtain) BUT has a weird pattern to it, looks like leather grain or something. I take a hood panel and show it to many experts, including George barris himself and no one has ever seen anything like it. I call PPG and they do not know either. we can't figure out what went wrong but we speculate it was the hardener used.

6- Now in third week of ordeal I have spend $1200 in supplies, paint and labor and still no paint job. I am stressed to no end and not sleeping at night. My roadster is in pieces and looks like hell. I am going through withdrawal symptoms from not driving it... I look for a shop to finish the job but can't find one to take me that fast.

7- The guy who runs the body shop at Sean's Chevrolet dealership feels sorry for me so he offers to help. I am desperate enough so having no other options and not wanting to try it again on our own I accept. We tow the car up and hand it over. At this point I lose all control over my project. I am given samples of paint finish but none of them is what I want. Too glossy or too dark blue etc etc... We are now runnign out of time cause he can only do the car friday. A last sample indicates we have obtained a mixture that will produce a 20% gloss finish in dark black color. OK, I guess I can live with that. I give the OK.

8- Come back friday ti pick up my car and find a very BLACK and pretty darn GLOSSY car Go figure. BY now I have paid about $1900 and still do not have what I wanted.

Very depressed I put my roadster back together and drove without windshield, tail lights or license plate straight back home. On the way, the wind was beating on my face and the familiar sound of the engine started working its magic. I smiled for the first time in 3 weeks... I hit the gas pedal and the hotrod jumped and I was happy again...

But now I no longer have a flat black roadster. Not sure what I'd call it, but I would qualify it as a very shiny satin / suede look. I think it will dull out some as I drive it and sun exposure does its magic... I was very depressed. however yesterday I stared putting my stuff back on it, (tail lights, headlights etc...) and noticed that although this was not what I wanted, the hotrod looks GOOD...

Go figure.

PS: LORD GOD I PROMISE I WILL NEVER EVER EVER PAINT MY HOTROD AGAIN FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE (and they all said "Amen")

Well, ya coulda just left it all rough and grungy and called it a rat rod!

Faith---I am sorry that you have had such a sucky first time paint experience. Paint is one of those things that can give instant ecstacy, or a pain so big you could die from it. I'm glad that you and your roadster have survived the experience, and I'm glad to see you back on the forum.---Brian

Wow, what a paint odyssey! Complete with monsters! Glad you are back driving him and hopefully you will like the outcome over time. Proud of you for working so hard on it.

Pat

This stuff ain't as easy as people assume. I've had many of those bad experiences myself, over the last few decades.....though it doesn't happen as often with practice. :-) About the only thing that can make it worse is when it happens while you are working for an extremely difficult customer!

A few tips:

if you use too slow of a reducer, spray too heavy, or if the shop is cold, it can come out glossier, or have glossier areas.

I've done them both ways, but now will only use the "full flat" finish, as it is the most controllable and uniform.

Also, I would not expect the gloss to die back, if you used good paint. I saw one of mine last night at a show, and it still looks fresh after 5-7 years.

Painting cars and car parts is horrible work. It's messy, costly, labor intensive, and probably not the healthiest endeavor to undertake. I'm continually sneezing up stuff that is the same color as my newly painted parts. Went out to dinner with some friends last night, and my hands were pretty embarrassing with the various paint and primer shades around my nails. Lady sitting next to me had to be very impressed. lol


Yep, that cinches it...........my body is going to a real shop to be painted.

Don

Lets see some pictures!

Welcome to my world! Now when you hear the price of a paint job-you will know what we are up against.

Painting has become a lot more complex with the advent of urethanes and the use of catalysts. I painted my own cars years ago when you had a choice of lacquer or enamel, but not anymore. If you don't have a paint booth or suitably vented space, and knowledge of paint properties, you can wind up with a mess. And given the cost of materials, it just isn't worth it.

As much trouble and expense as you went thru ... You should just went ahead and made it shiney ...





Not all 50's rods were primer ... nice paint was the goal.

Not all 50's rods were primer ... nice paint was the goal.

Amen..... shine is good

Trust me I feel your pain. Imagine if a person involved in painting your car dies. That is what has happened to me in the last few months. My car has been in the shop since Jan 17th. Hopefully it will be out in a couple more weeks. I have lost 10 years off my life because of my troubles recently. Who knows in the future, I may look back on it and be able to smile about it, and tell the whole story. Time will tell.

You always could have said the hell with it all, and bought a few cases of John Deere Blitz Black rattlecans and probably have gotten the look you want.
I do feel your pain my friend, I hope it all works out for you to your satisfaction. BLITZ BLACK RULES!

As Denny said, either seal it or strip it when you don't know what is underneath. The new paints aren't all that difficult to use as long as you read and follow the directions on the product sheet. The prep work is still the key to obtaining the results you want with paint. Without a sealer, bleed through and other "special effects" is common. That's why the pro painters charge high prices, they allready know the mistakes to avoid!!!!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

As Denny said, either seal it or strip it when you don't know what is underneath. The new paints aren't all that difficult to use as long as you read and follow the directions on the product sheet. The prep work is still the key to obtaining the results you want with paint. Without a sealer, bleed through and other "special effects" is common. That's why the pro painters charge high prices, they allready know the mistakes to avoid!!!!

Dave (and all),
There are so many safety aspects of these new paints that it scares me to think about the epoxy, primers, Isocyanates and other paint constituant nasties that make up a "new" paint job. The MSDS warnings on these products alone is almost enough to put you into a catatonic state

Necessary are carbon filtered face masks, supplied air systems, Tyvek suits, nitrile gloves, fully vented paint areas. It is no longer for the faint hearted.

Gotta go upset the neighbors again and finish epoxy priming the trunk lid of my project. (Let's see, face mask with new canisters, check, nitrile gloves, check, bunny suit & head sock, check, vent fan on, check. Now to mix the paint - spray, then clean up)