I have a white bugeye WRX and I am getting some surface rust here and there. I have decided to paint the car, I have spray guns and all the proper tools. I was wondering if anyone on here has painted there own car (not rattle can)? And if they have any tips to make it come out perfect. I have decided to paint the car BRG metallic, British Racing Green. the same color you would see on the new aston martins.
Are you going to be doing it in your garage? If so, I recommend getting enough poly to mask off your whole garage to keep the dust down when you are ready to spray. Also, wetting the floor is a good idea for dust. Lots of lights are your friend. You don't want to end up with dry spots or runs. Personally, I like to take as much stuff off the car as possible. Are you gonna spray the jams and all that? I try to remove all the lights and anything else. Less masking always looks better.
Be prepared to take tons of time Also, BMW BRGM from PPG is tough to spray. I'd talk to Mike Wray after this weekend and see what he tells you about spraying that stuff. Also, SweetBugI knows painting. Might want to ask him. Eitherway, the basics are.... Fill cracks, dents and such, get everything straight. I'd remove the doors, hood, fenders, and decklid, bumpers, basicly, anything that can be removed with bolts and without cutting welds. Then mask off the car, peel back the carpets so you can get the jambs. I'd wetsand the surfaces with a 320 - 400 grit. Wipe down the surfaces with a wax and grease remover Prime Sand the primer, look for high and low spots. Reprime if necessary and re-sand the primer Wetsand primer with 400 grit. Spray down your color, 2 coats should be enough, might need some extra in tight areas. Check the paint, make sure everything looks good, no runs or whatever. Spray clear. 3 coats would be fine. Let it set Unmask Re assemble Return a week or two later with polishing compound to really smooth out the clear where necessary. Then wax.
Thanks guys! Yea, Im going to be building a paint booth in the garage to keep dust down, thanks for the wet floor idea, I hadnt thought about that. The car will be disassebled for paint, and I will be painting the sills. I want to paint the engine bay but i dont have the time to remove the engine, I hope it turns out ok. I am reading as much as I can about painting with metalic paints and whatnot. I think I will have the paint mixed at Welle auto in columbia heights, I have heard good things about thier paint.
Thanks for the tip! I will go with PPG OK I know I sound like a half retarded step cousin with all these questions. But, I would like some insight into what type of paints would be best for durability and adhesion. Acrylic enamal, urethane, or lacquer. Thanks for all your help guys.
ppg has a new enviro base i HIGHLY recommend... for flex / and bond. (can't get better then ppg anyways) especially if you don't have ported vent system. it's still nasty stuff to get in your lungs, but far less worse then sucking down uros. it covers just as nice, can be thinned with water, and sprays like a uro. same price, but just as nice.... and friendlier to the environment. and ppg is really only uro and waterbourne now... my strong advice... go with the waterbourne. you have a little bit longer of a window before you have to clear with waterbourne vs the recomended under 24 hours with uro. I also have a fantastic clear i've been using lately that will lay down like glass by even a noob to clear. runs about 89.00 a gallon. this includes clear AND the hardner. ask anyone.. thats one HELL of a deal. another route to look into is AutoAir for your base coat... far chaper, has one HELL of a bond, is waterBASED, its what I use as a base for some of my projects... but unless you know what your doing with the clear to make it smooth as glass... stay with ppg.
Skarecrow - what name/brand/type of magical noob proof clear are you using now? is it part of the enviro base line from PPG? this advice, I would guess is with a HVLP set up, is that kind of an industry standard now? should this paint be thinned with an special water? I ask because we get our water from a well. should people color sand??? and would it be done wet before the clear goes on? any suggestions for neutralizing rust?
FYI, PPG paint is great and all, dont get me wrong. but personally, Sherwin Williams Ultra7000 series sprays and lays as well as PPG does. its not the paint only, its more the prep work than anything that will make the difference on the final results.
im not sure I fully agree that prep work is the key to paint looking good. it's 100% the key to paint lasting... but it's all in the paint and how you lay it down
I think that prep has quite a bit to do with how the paint will look. There are so many contaminents that will be seen in the finish if you are not prepping correctly. When you're doing your body work, just remember smooth does not mean straight. Use a paper towel while you're running your hand over you body work to feel for imperfections. Doing this will help you find high and low spots easier than using just your hand. Make sure you know flash times with paint and clear used with the temp of the garage at the time you're spraying. A tack rag will help with dust between coats. That's my .02
I agree with that I suppose... I wasn't thinking about contams, I was thinking about stuff laying down smooth, and coverage... flash times = KEY for clear.
Yea I painted mine WRB In the garage in 05. welle is alright but there is a lowel's paint shop right off of university in fridley. They just do paint and paint,body supplys. Also put the car up on jackstands and take the wheels off,so your a little easier to spray level. And they are not kidding you might want some one to help it was me and my Dad we had to wet the floor about every 5/10 mins-no joke but your in a garage you have to keep any contaminants down. Yea we plastic'd a big area around the car from the ceiling to the floor also. talk to lowel's the will help you get the right stuff and give you plenty of tips on spraying in the temp it will be. just my .02 Mine turned out great lowels turned us onto a great CLear to make That WRB POP Out!
Ya if I could get clear for $90 a gallon instead of $200, I'm very interested. Maybe it won't take $800 of material to paint my car. How is the compatibility with old paint as far as the waterborne stuff goes?
hey guys, i'll try and answer as much of this as I can... Skarecrow - what name/brand/type of magical noob proof clear are you using now? is it part of the enviro base line from PPG? it is made by the same makers of ppg, however it did not stand up to ppg's ultra anal quality control, so they have decided to not call it a PPG product, and were sub-selling the product under a a different name "5-star xtreme clear" which is now just "xtreme clear" fantastic product.... and it is now my workhorse clear unless specified different by client. but why would you want to pay a crapload more for the same product? as far as I can tell there is NO yellowing, it levels wonderfully and lays down like glass. so the only reason it didn't pass the PPG quality control i'm guessing is the hardner itself. PPG usually uses a 3 stage clear. clear/reducer/hardner ... while this product has the reducer mixed into the hardner. pot life is 4 hours mixed, flashtime between coats is 10 minute average. I can dig up more specs if you really want 'em this advice, I would guess is with a HVLP set up, is that kind of an industry standard now? yes and no, I don't use a hvlp gun... but I do love those little buggers. I'm using a regular cyphon feed spray gun you can buy at home depot (because I concider them desposable) running at 40 - 45 psi and my results are great. you can use a hvlp if you want, but clear is a pain in the arse to clean, and I would rather junk a gun I don't use my best paints in. should this paint be thinned with an special water? I ask because we get our water from a well. ppg sells a reducer for it, and it's cheap enough to just buy the reducer from them (i think it goes for like 1.50 or 3.00 for matched size reducer)... you don't need much, just enough to get it to flow a little smoother.... any suggestions for neutralizing rust? this is a pretty big question without alot of details... whats going on with the rust? what kind of spots? how big? how long? how deep? piddster - PPG is ultra ULTRA anal about making sure everything matches / works with all ppg products. if it has the slightest bit of of color mismatch or incompatibility.. ppg will pull the product before you even thought there could have been an issue and send it off to the scientists to find out why. you can trust PPG uros / waterbourne... they both are made up of the same compounds in paint, it's just the medium used to thin the products. waterbourne is awsome, and my collection of the stuff is growing faster then my collection of old school auto air for base paints. ((also an awsome if you don't need to color match and want a cheap but amazing hold up basecoat))
I was just wondering about old paint and laying over it. So the waterborn stuff comes already reduced? How far does a gallon of the pre-reduced waterborn go compared to a gallon of standard clear when you reduce it?
oh, your good to go laying over the old stuff... just cover like you would any other product. and for coverage are we talking clear or paint? if were talking clear, the clear is still a uro and I just made a cup or so of clear cover a helmet, a harley tank, and a pinecone ... because I wanted to make it shiny
My parents have shiny pine cones at their house , some really big ones. Skarecrow - Thank you for the straight forward first hand knowledge! I'll think about my rust questions better before posting them next time. just mainly wondering if i can de-scale the rust and neutralize it and then cover with filler? or grind to new metal then fill.
^^^ truth. sad but true. depending on how bad the rust is depends on how much prep work needs to be done... but sand out the rust... bad news to just hide it.
well yeah wheel wells are a hard area, it will just hide under the wheel well lip and come back. kind of sucks.
Thanks for all the info, I will have 4 people helping me to get it done right, 2 have some paint experience. I have to get a couple of minor maintanance issues taken care of and then I will paint.
Sorry, its been a long time. I have been spending my time fixing my suspension and I havent had the time/money to paint yet, I hope to be able to do it this summer, but im not 100% sure. And Demong, ill let you know when we start, Your free to come observe/help/do stuff to your car.
