The primer surfacer was a lacquer variety, so from what you said it will need a sealer. Didn't know about K-2 until I read some about it on this forum. The hood idea is great. I have been trying to figure out something to practice on, and forgot about an extra hood in the back. For a short while thought I could practice on my wife's Honda. It was totaled yesterday in a rollover accident by a Suburban driven by an unlicensed uninsured driver. Our insurance co. was going to haul it out here but instead took it to Medford.
What I am working on is a 46 pickup door. The cab was done professionally in metalic blue. I did the front fenders and grill in black. Will still have the other door, rear fenders and bed to finish.
What is meant by not being able to sand a basecoat? On the black sheet metal up front I sprayed 3 layers of black, then color sanded with 1500 grit, rubbed, polished and waxed. Is that right or wrong? They turned out pretty good for a rookie.

 

Regarding the right/wrong question of sanding the black lacquer above, the answer is given in other posts I looked at this AM. Mike

 

I would like to thank everyone on this thread and many other threads in the forum. You have increased my knowledge base 1000 times.
I did the metalic blue color shoot today on the door. It went pretty well, though not perfect. There are two light spots apparent under high light, approximately 6 inches in diameter, on the outside of the door. The inside of the door looks great inspite of the fact I wasn't trying real hard in that location, just wanted to make it look good. I think I put on way too much color overall. The gun was laying it down fast. No runs and only one slight dry area.
My little 3 hp 12 gallon aircompressor is paint challenged along with me.
Thanks again. Mike

 

I have really learned alot from all you have put out.The only thing I havent seen is how much paint I will need.I had my pickup painted already with acrylic enamel and its time for another coat to cover up the scrathes. I,ve tried to match the paint but doing spot touch up but have'nt had any luck blending it so figured I would just spray another coat of paint on it.How much paint willI need and how can I figure how far will a cup in a mini hvlp gun and acup in aregular size spray gun will go.If you have any tips on blending AE this would be preferable to a whole paint job

 

I'm wanting to get rid of the rust on the inside of the bed before I put the plastic bedliner that came in it back in. I don't want it to keep rusting away underneath a liner while I try to gather money for a pro spray in job. It's a metallic silver on a 79 f100 longbed. There's no clear coat inside the bed either but it's all scraped up and rusted like beds do when they're used. What's the best way to go to clean this up and get it good enough to go under that bedliner or would it be cheaper to skip the do it myself part and just have the liner sprayed in and them do whatever to get it ready?

I've never done ANY kind of paint or body work but my dad has done some years ago. I'm sure things have really changed since then. There's nothing that needs to be filled or anything like that. I just need to get rid of the rust, and get it to a point where it can be left underneath the liner for an indefinant amount of time. I'm hoping to use this as a learning project becuz it doesn't have to look perfect, but if I can get it to look durn good then I'll know I can do it later if I need to. I've printed all this off but it's not easy to pick out what would apply to my situation since I am paint ignorant.

You guys are great!! Looking forward to the help.

 

Do you have to do all of these steps if only doing the interior (eventually will be getting Line-X sprayed in)? Not looking for show room quality, just something that will last (primed) until it gets the line-x.

 

I always thought LineX went over bare metal? if it does then a light coat of primer to stop the rust will be a big help

 

I glanced through all the responses but may have missed it.

How is the painting of plastic body panels different? I need to repaint the wheel flares on my DRW F350 and I think they are plastic.

Secondly, for non HVLP guns what is the min cfm required?

AFP

 

Depends on the Gun Model. Check on the web, www.sata.com should have the info..

Painting plastic is alot the same, except that you have to put a adhesion promoter to help the sealer, primer, paint stick... You can get it in a spray can, from a company called bulldog.. purple colored lable on the can .. or any of the major paint makers have some, that you apply with a regular spray gun

 

Oh my gosh. There are so many different questions on this post that I think a lot of them should be new posts. I don't want to look through 5 pages, but the ones I see on this page I'll try to help on.

Sanding Basecoat: Sanding basecoat is OK. There is absolutely no problem with sanding any basecoat wheather it is metallic or not, clearcoated or unclearcoated. However, if it has not been clearcoated more basecoat must be applied. Lets say you're on your second coat of silver base and a fly lands in it. Remove the fly, let the basecoat dry for a little bit, and lightly sand with 1500 or so until it is flat. Then rebase with more silver. And you don't have to rebase the whole car. If you were done basing except for that spot, simply rebase that spot. You may want to put a couple of dry, light coats over the sanded area first though, because some of the paint lines tend to react/wrinkle if you put on a heavy coat over the sanded area. Just make sure your last coat of base over the sanded area is sprayed like the rest of the car, which should be a medium coat.

Last coat of base: There are so many different ideas on how to spray your last coat of metallic, wheather its single stage or not. Basecoat I wouldn't spray from 2 feet away on your last coat. It would help to do the x pattern, but you probably can't do that on every panel. The 'spraying from far away' thing will cause a metallic color to go on 'dry' and will make the flake stand up alot more. This can make the color look totally different. Someone recommended spraying with a little more reducer in the color. That should be okay too, but I would still think this would make the flake stand out more. We've actually done panels where one side is sprayed at 8-10" away and another at 2ft away to show how much the color can change. Its quite a difference.

How much paint to use: Depends on basecoat/clearcoator single stage. The general rule is a full sized truck, non-crew cab, including outside of bed and jambs, will take a gallon of single stage and about 3 quarts of basecoat. But 3 qts of basecoat is darn near the same price as a gallon, so you might as well get a gallon. And DO NOT try to spray your whole car/truck with a mini HVLP. It can be done, but it will have tiger striping from hell and will take forever.

Sealer/epoxy primer: There's a ton of different ideas on this thread about this product too. Sealer is basically the same as sandable primer but with less talc (the stuff that makes it easy to sand) and more resin (the stuff that makes it lay on nice). Sealer is not a required step, but if you want your paint job to come out decent I would use it. Sealer will create a uniform, smooth surface for your paint to lay over. If you've got your sandable primer already laid out and sanded, usually you will have some spots on edges that you will have sanded through to bare metal or even some high spots that you may have sanded down through your primer into bondo or metal. Sealer willl cover these spots and make "Halos" or those rings you see if you don't use sealer not show up. It also helps with coverage on color, if you use a tinted sealer. And because it contains less talc it will be easier to cover with your color. It will also add gloss and gloss retention to your final paint job. Now, Epoxy primer CAN be used as a sealer. Because epoxy primer contains less talc, it makes an OK sealer. But it has to be thinned a little. DP epoxy primer by PPG was a very commonly used sealer until better products came out. The problem with DP or any Epoxy as a sealer is that it usually comes out a little grainy or textured because the product wasn't meant to be thinned out that much. So you will get a better end result by using a good sealer instead of an epoxy as a sealer. Good sealer examples by PPG would be NCS2004, or the V-seal series DPS sealers. These products are made as sealers only and lay out beautifully. Also, the nice thing about sealer is it goes much further than all of your other products. Usually we sell about 2 quarts of sealer to a customer sealing a complete vehicle. And usually only 1 wet coat or 2 medium coats is all that is required. And if you get a run in the sealer, simply sand it flat and move on to painting.

Line X over bare metal: I wouldn't put any bedliner over bare metal without a primer down first. If the liner gets chipped or scratched the metal will start to rust. And because the bedliner is not a rust inhibitive coating, the rust will 'creep' and continue doing so. A primer such as an epoxy or rust inhibitive primer will not allow creepage of rust and will contain it to the bare metal spot that is exposed only. You can get inexpensive epoxy primers too. PPG has one called Omni MP170 that is a good inexpensive epoxy primer. I used it before bedlining the floors on my 76 F250 and it worked great.

Sorry my post is so dang long. Lots of questions.

TO 46YBLOCK: We have a paint store in Medford called Automotive Paint Specialties. I work in the Grants Pass store, but if you need help simply call and ask and we'd be happy to help you. Medford 541-734-7200 Grants Pass 1-800-303-5517.

 

I forgot painting plastic. Wipe down the plastic with a plastic cleaner, and apply an adhesion promoter. Read the directions on the adhesion promoter as to how long to wait to paint. I wouldn't prime though. On plastic, the less build of product the better. PPG has an awesome plastic painting system called One Choice Plastic Prep System. Its a 3 part process that works really good, but its kind of expensive. About $50 bucks for everything not including paint, but you can do a ton of plastic with it. We sprayed it on an inner fender plastic (that really waxy plastic that's in your vehicles wheel wells) and it made the paint stick like glue. You couldn't scrape it off with a screwdriver.

 

I have used a flattening agent when using a Sherwin Williams acrylic enamel for a project and it work fine. However because the surface was flat and white it's a little harder to keep clean and get the dirt off.The more you add the duller it gets.As Huntsman advised test your proportions.

 

I will over the next couple of months be cleaning this up.

Moderator I would greatly appreciate any help on this, old links remove, links that don’t work remove.

PLEASE do not add to this at all.