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.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Kill them!!! :7
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Re: Who has experience painting?
 

haha no.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

When you buy the paint, it should have instructions on it as far as flash times and required activators and such...Make sure you read these instructions EXTREMELY well(make sure you buy paint that has adequate instructions on the can, I know Dupont does)...If you are gonna be painting in a small area I would make sure to get as much free space as possible around the car to work in, you don't wanna accidently brush up against the car or have one of the air or paint lines from your gun do so either...You'd also be better off using at least two guns...Most people I know don't like to use primer and gloss in the same gun...I work in the paint department for a large farm equipment production company...We have 2 PROFESSIONAL grade paint booths and it still takes ALOT of work to produce a QUALITY paint job...U say you have painted b4 so I'm sure you know the basics, but the most important thing to remember in my opinion, is that you can always add paint if you go too light on a spot, but it's a mess when you spray to thick and have runs and such to clean up, ESPECIALLY when using the acrylic type paint you are gonna be using...

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Is there any problems with acrylic enamel? I have used single stage tractor paint on 3 different cars before, and i did screw up and get a couple runs. After sanding them, when i went over again, the run came back exactly as before. The only real problem i have with using my garage is it is so small and i can't figure out somehow to ventilate. The problem is being so close to the wall and having to bend down to get to the lower half of the car. I would much rather paint multiple coats on thin, then go back and paint some more, than have to sand more ------- runs. I just want a nice paintjob that i can tell people i did on my own. I take some pride in my work, so i would really like to have this come out nice. Im just trying to get all the little details in order before i start on this. Im going to order a secong hvlp gun right now, (EBAY spesul.....)
http://cgi.ebay.com/DeVILBISS-Topcoa...QQcmdZViewItem
Hows that one look?

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

eeeehhh, I don't know man, that stuff looks pretty good but $110 for 2 quality guns seems kinda cheap, but hey, it could be a good deal...I can't tell for sure but it looked like the cup on both of those guns mounted on the top...We have both top and bottom mount cup guns @ work and the top mount guns are all somewhere collecting dust, the bottom mount spray guns are ALOT easier to get a decent spray pattern with to me...we have GRACO stuff at work which is top dollar, I imagine paint guns are like anything else, how well they work has alot to do with what the internal parts of the gun are made of and such...what do you plan on using for thinner?? we use butyl acetate to thin the paint and lacquer thinner to clean equipment with...we use tractor grade Valspar paint on MOST stuff, but on some things we use Dupont acrylic enamel...You're gonna need plenty of room to paint, but I will give you a suggestion on the low spots you are talking about having to bend over and paint....try a creeper. Anytime we have to paint the bottom of something or a real low spot that it's hard to get an angle on we just lay down on a creeper and roll around underneath the machinery or what not...It sounds like it would be a lil awkward, but it's really not once you get used to it...Oh yeah, and most of the time when we have bad runs we just scrape them off with a razor blade and touch the spot(if it isn't tooo big) up with a cup gun, but we're painting farm equipment NOT cars :-\

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

i wipe off the car about 30 minutes before i paint it with laquer thinner or mineral spirits. The dolly idea is pretty good, if i have enough room ill try that.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

dont use laquer it leaves a residue.. use wax and grease remover. um dont sand the base.. unless you have a run and then recoat. 2-3 coats of base or until coverage. and 2-3 coats med. wet for your clear. what product are you using? and with the flash times it will tell you they will be different with different hardeners and activators also. tack off and are you goin over old paint or bare metal? tack between base coats. and make sure your runs are in the clear haha little easier to sand out haha :P only thin about paintin parts off the car is the orange peal and your metalics layin out different. but thats not real noticable beczu or the curves in your bumpers and get low make sure you have even coverage as well.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Im going to be scuffing it up (the old paint) pretty good, but not much more. Wax and grease remover it is then

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

AS far as time between coats, 10-15 minutes is plenty of times. just keep going till you are cool with it or run out of paint. IO recommend wetsanding before clearing, just to make sure the base coat is all smooth and ----, shines up any dull spots from unintentional overspray. just looks better when finished. I have always used like 2000 and a bucket of soapy water. Takes some effort but to me its worth it. When the strokes though, make sure your hand is perpendicular to the direction you are sanding. if you dont you'll put finger lines in it from uneven pressure on the sand paper.

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

That's why you use a block when sanding flat surfaces. ;) As far as the gravity feed or siphon feed gun debate, I prefer the gravity feed as do most paint shops. I've never had any issues with my guns (they're both made by Binks) and usually have less overspray than siphon feeds. Siphon feed guns work well for large equipment and covering large areas, but they're not really a hvlp type of gun. Just stick with the gravity feed and don't forget to uncap the top vent on the paint hopper, otherwise it'll start creating a vaccum inside and will make a mess when you figure it out. ;)

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Good point. ;D

Re: Who has experience painting?
 

Ok so someone finally told me what grit sandpaper i need to use. thank god. Any other tips or tricks to doing a good job. I know prep work is 90% of it, but im more worried about the actual painting part.