Thread: how to do the best paint job on your own. polish in the end? advice please

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hello,
i'm building a car (not an hot rod) but i found that this is the best forum for ask advices.

I'm painting my car in my garage, and obvious the garage is not ready for paint cars, i'll use a compressor and a paint gun and that's it. no electric ventilation so the garage will have to be open to the air flow and that stuff...

I believe that this is nothing new to people with low budgets so i'm asking advices to make the best paint job.

i saw some tv shows (overhaulin) and i noticed that they use to polish or something the car in the end.. this is to make the paint better and remove some dust? give me advices please to make it look the best possible.

Thanks

Man, oH Man... so much to say .... do a lot of searches here and on the WWW maybe you can narrow it down a little . unless someone wants to try and type it all over again ...... good luck .

T L

Get you some plain house fans and aim two of them IN the garage and two OUT the garage. Gotta be careful, the ones that are not sealed can spark and blow up the garage from paint fumes. Then get a LOT of light. You can try to find furnace filters, etc to filter the paint but that is not necessary since that doesn't filter too much anyways. Then for the stuff you are talking about at the end.... That is buffing and waxing the car. What you do is after wet sanding to take off orange peel, runs, etc you buff the car and then wax it... This takes out scratches from wetsanding and smoothes and shines the car up. Then the wax shines it and protects the new finish.

Oh and what I just said up there is not a "In Detail" description or instructions. I gave you a basic. Get you a book on painting called "Custom Painting, how to paint like the pro's". It is VERY basic and will help the home painter out a lot.
Good luck!

One other thing. In most cases, you will need to add a hardener to the clear if you are planing to sand and buff. However...the hardeners are bad for living things, and If you don't have the right kind of respirator for hardeners, I would not use it.

hi thanks for your replys
my garage is pretty big so the fans in my case will be usefull because it had to be really big big industrial fans.
So at the moment i'm interested in that after paiting tips like FMXhellraiser said.
So after paint the car i should wet sanding all the paint? and it will give me scratches that i'll fix with the buff and the wax? is that? it should be done with hands or theres any kind of machines to help with that job? can you give me brand names and kinds of wet sands, buff and wax? I'll do some searchs about this subject anyway if anyone has pictures to post to show the diferences before wet sanding, after wet sanding and then after buff the car and wax it, would be awsome.

Thanks once again for your tips

Well I guess I will ad my 2 cents worth .

FMX you have the cut and buff right , but wax is a NO NO before 90 days as paint gases off at least that long , and waxing is a sealer and will seal off that fresh paint job and will eventually blister up , as the gases have been sealed in , with no way to evaporate .
Now make sure you use a compound and polish that is made for buffing a fresh paint job , this will make sure you dont seal off that paint job .

And like HRP said , make sure you buy the right respirator to spray these products , as they are deadly !!!!!
Also make sure you put a minimum of 3 coats of clear if using a base coat /clear coat finish , as you will usually sand and buff off 1 - 2 layers of clear getting it slick , and most paint manufacturers require 2 coats of clear for UV protection .
You would be best to get a book on refinishing a car to get some just of whats all involved , its not as easy as some say , especially if you have no clue .
Its not something someone can just type up and tell you how to go about painting a car , as every one has their own way of doing things .

Good luck

SprayTech

Yeah forgot, the wax thing you have to wait a while. I should have said something since we were always told this in school but I wasn't thinking too well. Anyways, get that book I told you about and it will help you to get started. It takes practice to be able to paint a car. Not that I can really say too much since I haven't done much of this but I DO know the basics and what to do and not to do.
Good luck!

So much depends on what materials you are using also. I painted my brother's Mustang and a jeep and my Corvette in my driveway...........But I was using laquer and any dust in paint was rubbed out...........all jobs came out great.........but sure wouldnt try it today with the paints they use.......not fast enuf flash for me...I worked fast and furious..............lol.

Please someone explain me one thing..
you said to wet sanding the paint.. it wont remove the shine of the acrylic paint??the buffing will get all the shine back???

You will remove the shine, but you are using extremely fine sand paper, and as soon as you start buffing, you will see the gloss come back. Try a small spot first, to give you confidence.

that's so weird.. do the best to give shine to the paint.. then wetsanding to remove the dust and the shine together.. and then put it back but with the buff.. but ok if you say that i'll believe and try it
Thanks

It doesn't just remove dust, it removes dust, runs, orange peel, and it straightens the surface for that glass like finish.

do not sand were you can not get the buffer un less you like hand rubbing .keep of the edges or you can sand off the paint or buff it off.you will need air movement. it needs to be some thing to pull and push this can be done by putting a heater fillter in a window or door way and a fan to pull it out use a window or door way .the air you do not need fans blowing in unless you want lots and lots of dirt. when painting start from the farthest from the fan that pull the paint out .wet the floor down. whipe the first 3 feet of the air hose down use old tack rag.so no junk get in the paint. get a cheap painter suit and a painter sock to keep hair out of the paint make shure you have a very good watertrap and fillter. and good luck . when paint keep the gun inside and out clean wipe cup off so there is on junk on it from were you set it.so junk will not get in the paint. i tape off a spot with paper on the bench for this

I have an air compressor in my shop that I do use for paint, BUT I get water in the lines. I have a 25 foot hose coming out of the tank that goes through a container of water (Hoping to cool the air), then about 10 feet of pipe going into the side of a T, at the bottom of the T, I have a water trap, at the top of the T, I have a run that I connect my air tools to. I have a water filter connected to my paint gun.
Does this setup sound OK? Should I change it and how?
I also shut the lines off every night, and as there is a leak in the line, in the morning there is no air in the lines.

Thanks