Thread: Garage Painting for Dummies

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Originally Posted by roadster32

Wow you guys seem to pay a lot more than we do for primers & paints, for example i pay £12 for a litre of epoxy primer which is about $15, straight colour is around £25 ($33) per litre

Yep Steve, I just picked up a quart of DP90LF primer today so Dan can shoot some more parts this weekend, and the primer was $ 49.00 and the hardener was $ 49.00. (It would have been $28 for the hardener but they were out of the pint size so I had to get a quart.) We figure he will have about 6 quarts total of DP90 spraying the cab and bed, so that is about $ 600 in primer alone. Then we have to spray high build primer, and finally color. Even doing a paint job yourself, using good stuff, the tab is very high. Makes a person understand how Jay (Hotrodpaint) and others need to get $ 10 K or more to make any money painting one professionally.

The guys like Steve in California really have it tough as they are banned by law from buying and using products some of us in other States use. I watched a show where Jay Leno was having a Deusenberg (sp?) restored and the shop owner said he had to use modern paints that are ok to use in California. He said if they come in and find a trace of other stuff in his filters it is a $ 10K fine. Won't be too long those restrictions will migrate across the country...........everything starts in California and eventually happens everywhere else.

Don

I've been stocking upon body work supplies myself the last few months.
Got my duraglass and sanding stuff, couple differant air sanders mask, spray guns, driers
3m tape. I thought I had some primmer allready but it will wrinkel with the new paint.
So my paint is gonna be over a grand with the primmer,3 paint colors, a inner clear and the clear at the end. Life used to be so cheap.
Kurt

This is what i do. Hope it helps

Epoxy primer bare metal 2 coats
Key epoxy with 120 grit and do filler work, grits starting at 80, 120 & 180
apply 2 more coats of epoxy followed wet on wet by hi build primer
Apply 2 pack stopper if needed
Flat primer dry with a block and with guide coat with 360, finish with 600 for straight colour or 800 for mettalic
Paint and then flat & polish.

TIPS
Steer clear of the polyester surfacers if its a steel car as they suck up moisture like a sponge, I sometimes use them on glass cars but it needs to be sealed as soon as possible.

Try and stick to 1 product line

Read the spec sheets

Get a proper mixing stick

Don't use cheap filler

Get your primers tinted to body colour as the stonechips won't show so bad

Use good quality masking tape, the cheap ones leave the glue behind

Use a block when flatting not your hand

When checking the surface for irregularites use the other hand to what your flatting with

Use a good 2 pack stopper

When applying primer/paint get the area up to temp

Buy some Red & Grey scotchbrites

I painted my first car in my dads woodworking shop. The biggest chore was to first keep it clean of dust. We put plastic up on the ceiling and wet down the floors with a mop, it seemed to work pretty good. We used all shopline products from the local abs. Once we got the body were we wanted it the first coat was a sealer primer that was dark grey, about three coats with 15 minutes in between for dry time. The it was a surfacer primer that was light grey, three heavy coats with 15 minutes between again. Then we sanded and sanded with 600 or 800 to get things a little smoother and then it was time for antoher 3 coats of the dark grey sealer. After that it was 3 coats of the topcoat(color) with drying time in between again. We wet sanded with 1000 grit then and painted our clearcoat. The way we did the clear was 3 coats that were probably too heavy(runs) more wet sanding and then 3 more light coats of clear. Once our clear was on we waited about a year to do the scuff and buff, big mistake. The clear coat was like concrete. We had to use 400 just to start leveling things out. It took a while stepping up from 400 to 2000 grit but it had to be done. After that we had to use a wool pad and heavy cut compound from 3m to get rid of scratches. Then it was a couple different pads for rubbing compound and then finishing compound. There are still scratches in the clear but i'm done pissing with it. Its still a smooth and shiny finish and i suppose a good job for the first time. The savings were nice too, about $900 to DIY it compared to $4000 to have someone else do it. P.S. don't try to cut cost on materials, just buy the spendy stuff and do it right the firsttime.

i painted for many years. many of the paint jobs i did were not done in a booth .some were in a body shop with a dry wall room with a door with some filters in the room and a fan . much more were just shops were stuff was cover up so no over spray could get on the stuff you could not move out of the shop wet the floor lock the doors and shoot .over the 25+ years many of the cars .trucks . air planes . boats .race rims . painting of many race parts for casting shop .alot of show car paint jobs were never done in a so called booth alot of them were in a open shop or a lean with plastic up on two walls with a roof and a side wall to make a small booth this worked very well and shot many in a lean like this. this was nice to most the shops where i shot cars trucks at .it was my shop after work so it very low voume so it work.. i was never happy about the air pump in the booth but never ran it when i was putting a finsh coat down and never put any thing near the air movement of the pump . slow air movement of the fan help alot with dust this 1/2 ass booth was not much to look at. but i really do not know how many things i shot in hear or at other many shops with less then this .i think someone told me i shot over 300+ rims in hear for indy lite race cars some GTOs .BMW were the big jobs .. many more i just never counted. but some of my helpers like to BS about the good old days and all the stuff they help out on

Much like Pat, above:

My booth:




Some of my 'equipment':







The (almost) finished product (licensed and driven now):

yep good pre work and clean dry air you can do alot....I seen alot of jobs very nice jobs .that did not come out of real booth .i had guys pay me to come in and shoot paint out. that was a sweet gig when my arms and back would bend

Thanks guys this is great info. My biggest fear is getting the bed to look flat and smooth! Everytime I think it looks good, I move it into different light and see a bunch of stuff that was hiding while I was working on it!

Jesus IC2 you must have arms like Mr.Universe.
That gallon jar on top of that gun must get heavy. HE! HE! HE!
Just kidding I know thats a standard size, it just looks big in that picture.
Kurt

Originally Posted by vara4

Jesus IC2 you must have arms like Mr.Universe.
That gallon jar on top of that gun must get heavy. HE! HE! HE!
Just kidding I know thats a standard size, it just looks big in that picture.
Kurt

Kurt - you are right about that cup on the gun. It's the 1000cc version, but well balanced. This in real world (US anyhow) is 34 ounces, or just over a quart. I didn't think when I bought it (CRS), and really wanted the 750 size. I seldom fill the gun more then +/-half way, so it does work fine.

IC2,
What type and flow (SCFM) fan did you use in your booth? I like the "variable damper" to adjust the flow!

Roger - this is the fan I use along with their optional variable speed switch to control the output. The "shutter" in front of it was just a piece of plywood to direct the air flow higher. That actual air flow for this fan is 1050, but I only needed to run it at about 2/3rds speed to keep the air moving and exhausting properly. Any more air, speed, mostly and I found that it would pick up any dirt and of course deposit it on the fresh paint. It does have an internal shutter which is more for keeping little beasts out when its off.

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/T...ctinfo/FA-VFT/

http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/V.../CT-VFT130144/

I used the $141 version (tho it was about $20 cheaper when I bought mine)

Dave,
Thanks - I bought an almost identical fan through Tractor Supply, but mine is a larger 24", 4200 SCFM unit mounted in the gable of the barn for ventillation. I am building a diverter box to fit over the fan box, bringing the inlet down to near floor level, and I have segregated one end (12x30) of the barn with plastic, bringing air in through a pair of filter boxes that mount at the bottom of the two garage doors. I just ordered one of those variable speed controllers from the greenhouse store, which I think will be a very good addition to balance flow. My fan had a bad vibration when I started it for the first time, and they are sending me a replacement blade, hoping it comes Monday/Tuesday so I can prime my frame.

I've probably done more paint jobs in the garage then in a booth...and I've got to admit sometimes with a whole lot less then adequate exhaust... I've got a good fan now, and going to an HVLP gun a number of years back made things even better, really cuts down on the overspray.

I've seen a lot more bad paint jobs then good one's done, and most of them go right back to the prep work--or rather the lack of it--prior to the paint going on the car.. Guy I know can lay down paint and clear like nobody's business, but his prep work absolutely sucks, and consequently the finished product is lousy!!!

Guess what I'm saying is, don't let the "garage job" label be an excuse to do poor prep work and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT be in a big dang hurry to grab the gun and put paint on the car thinking that the "paint will hide it" cuz paint doesn't hide a thing, only makes it look worse!!! It does take good equipment to do good paint, but like Pat and others I've also done a lot of work in less then perfect conditions with less then the best in equipment and had paint jobs come out quite nice, but it was because of the prep work, not because of the booth or equipment. I know it's a big kick to get the shiny stuff on a project you've been working on for a couple years, just don't do it until the body work and substrates are as good as possible!!!! When you think all the panels are flat, the lines are clean and defined, the sanding scratches are all gone, and the curves are smooth and flowing, put on another coat of hi-build and block it again!!! Works for me!

Gotta agree what Dave said,
If ya think it's ready to paint, go ahead and shoot 1 coat of black on it.
Then the next day block it out 1 more time with 600.
Now your ready to paint it !!