Who has experience painting?
 

So my Purple car is getting painted gunmetal grey. Im buying the acrylic enamel paint, and the polyeurathane acrylic enamel Clear coat with activator. Im cleaning my garage super clean (easy to do since its a half garage) and im going to slide it in there sideways with some wheel dollies. Now ive already talked to a few people about it, and the best advice was clean it like 10 times with a pressure washer before you do it, all the little nooks and crannies especially. Also to take my time masking it off, And remove everything i can and paint it separetaly (i.e. hood, fenders, bumpers and trunk.) Take out the lights all around, and door handles. Now with all that said, can someone give me some tips on exactly what to do with the painting process? I have a hvlp paint gun (tractor supply. $130) and a 50-60 (?) gallon compressor. I have painted using single stage colors a few times, but this is totally new to me. I need to know about Dry times imbetween coats, How many coats of paint and how many of clear, Sanding between coats, and what grit sand paper i need. Also any special little things im forgetting about. I have already thought about how im going to ventilate the Garage im using, but havn't really found a good way to do it yet. Full size garage door, but with the way the car will be stuffed in there, i will barely have room to get the low parts of the car. Also thought about baking it, cuz i have the shop lights from craftsman, and with the garage door closed, i can get the temp up to like 90 and with the help of a small space ehater i could easily do 110 or so.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

if it were me i'd use the lights and heater to bake it

and yes you deffinitly want to take your time masking, the last paintjob i did i spent prob about 4 hours just masking it off and makeing sure i had everything covered up (although since the guy was a douche i painted a small square on his headlights, and stenciled in a small penis on his trunk, lol)

sadly thats pretty much where the advice i can offer ends

hope it turns out good though

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

One small but useful thing i've seen done.

Spray a very light coat of a dark colour (black is good) over your primer sand it back with a fine grit paper and it will reveal any low spots in the paintwork. These can then be filled and primered for the very best final product.

Preparation really is the key to a good paint job.

A proper mask will save your lungs.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Thanks, sounds like it will work out good.
As for the mask, i have respirators at my house. I just really need to know about the sanding part, and the drying times.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Make sure you sand all corners and edges well...these are the areas that will chip and flake up the most, so good prep on these areas will save you headaches down the road. Most 2-stage paints have a "flash" time in between coats (the time it takes for the paint surface to turn semi-solid), the average being around 15 minutes. Spray one coat at a time, let it flash up, spray another coat over top until you achieve the result you want, letting each coat hit it's flash point. After the basecoat is sprayed you have 1 of 2 options...spray the clear coat immediately over top of the base after a slightly longer flash time, or letting the base coat dry completely for 24 hours and then scuffing the surface and applying the clear coat over top. I reccomend doing the clear coat right after letting the base coat flash, creates less work in the long run. Also allow the clear coat time to flash in between coats as well just as you did with the base coat. Prep is the key though to a good paint job...make sure everything is 100% clean after sanding, and I would wipe all the surfaces down with prep-sol and then a cheese cloth to remove any remaining traces of dirt or dust. Let it bake for at least 7 hours and give at least 24 hours before sanding and polishing. If you don't have any bakelights, I would pull the car out in the sunlight and let it harden up for a week before sanding and polishing. The hardening agents respond to heat and light, so full sunlight helps out alot with this process.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

I took some art classes in college

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Just gather up all the work lights you can from people you know and use that. It's just getting all of the parts equal amounts of light cause once you go back and start doing sanding. Then find out some stuff didn't setup and hardened up like some stuff that got more light and baked better.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

a couple other things... get the water separator deal for your air compressor so you dont make fish eyes in your paint! when painting in your garage its a good idea to take out the window(s)...if its two open one and cover it with cotton mesh and the other one put a fan blowing out..oh and also make sure you have the right tips for primer color and clear

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Yes, the water seperator is a must. As far as tips goes I've never really seen any issues with using one nozzle as long as it has an adjustable fan spray pattern as well as an adjustment for the amount of material being sprayed out. I personally now use 2 seperate guns though, 1 for primers and basecoats, and a second one for clear coats. Make sure to clean your gun thoroghly, especially when changing between paint types. I would also find some junk or scrap metal pieces (such as old banged up fenders or hoods) to do test sprays and adjustments on. The last thing you want it having to adjust the gun AFTER you sprayed a huge dripping glob on your car. :P

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

thanks, that helps a lot. What about the flash time, im worried about my paint setting up inside my gun and drying. And when all is said and done, what grit sand paper am i looking at sanding. I totally forgot about the water seperator. I remember buying one once, but couldn't get it hooked up to my line do to wrong fittings and now i don't know what i did with it. Also, my garage is a 1 door full sized garage that got hacked up into a half garage and a room (where all my snakes and strange animals are at) So now my garage takes an act of god to put a car in, or at least the help of a friend or two.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/5273/75951770zm6.png
The dotted lines are the doors. Its a 1 door garage, with no windows. Can't vent out the back room either cuz there is about $3000 worth of snakes and other animals and cages and ---- back there that could die from fumes. Any body got an idea for that?
Also, where is a good place to get a psi gauge for my gun? i can't see how much psi its pushing out right now, pretty sure that is why all my single stage jobs orange peeled. I bought one from tractor supply but couldn't hook that up cuz of fitting issues also. I bought the damn gun there, and they don't sell ---- that fixes it. gay.