I ordered the paint from a place called Boaters Land, it was the lowest prices I could find.
dickie wrote:cool writeup, i really want to put it in the DIY section, but could you get back to me with some more hi-rez pics and maybe a little bit more detail in the process? THANKS!
ps, you think your weather was weird? here in ft worth we had 80 degress all week and on saturday it was 31 and snowed all day long.
I have the same pictures but like bigger, lol okay, I'll try a little bit more detail.
MATERIALS:
1-2 Quarts of Interlux Brightside
1 to 2 quartz of either Interlux Brushing Liquid 333 or pure mineral spirits (available at any hardware store)
Sandpaper pack of 180, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000
You may not need all of this but I found that for the shape my body was in I needed a lot of different paper grits.
Spray bottle and shammy or squegee for wetsanding
A lot of high density foam rollers, they usually come in like a 6 pack, I used two packs all together.
A high density foam brush
3 step compounds, I used 3M Perfect-It series
Dont use any of the cheap Turtle Wax brand stuff, as it does not develop as much of a shine
A random orbital buffer, such as a Porter and Cable 7424, you are going to need something strong to compound.
PREPPING:
1.) Clean car thoroughly with water and a little bit of dish soap.
2.) Remove any trim (lights, etc) and tape off any remaining trim and glass etc.
3.) Sand down the car with 180 grit (possibly coarser like, 80 if you are doing a different color than what was orginally on there) then work your way up to 220 and then 400. I suggest using a rubber sanding block, like this [IMG][/IMG]
http://mc.clintock.com/basemen...k.jpg [IMG][/IMG] versus an electric sander because you dont want to sand through any body lines or edges. You have much more control with the rubber block, and it also keeps everything even.
4.) Next, find any dents etc you need to fill or paint chips you need to sand out and take them out, because if you just paint over a dent, it will become amplified with the more paint you put on. I had a massive dent in my rear quarter panel from the previous owner, and as I couldnt seem to hammer it out at all, I opted to fill it with Bondo. Be sure when applying bondo, that you add enough hardener so that everything gets solid, other wise you might get it hard on the outside but still very doughy on the inside, and also, Bondo bonds to BARE METAL much better than old paint.
Once all your prep work is done, wash the car with some dish soap and water and let it dry overnight.
Note: if you are doing this in your garage, when you pull the car out to wash it, be sure to sweep, and wash your garage floor after sanding to get rid of all the dust and keep it out of your painting area.
PAINTING:
1.) First of all, do not get the paint shaken, it will cause air bubbles that will show up in the paint, and make it a bigger hassel for you. Instead, mix the paint by hand to minimize bubbles. For the first few coats, I suggest mixing with about 10% of either the brushing fluid or mineral spirits. After mixing, let it sit for about 20 minutes so that any air bubbles can escape.
2.) Next, wipe down the car with the thinner and then go over the whole car with a tack cloth to pick up any left over dust and debris.
Now you are ready to paint, grab to rollers in your hand, one loaded with paint, and one clean.
3.) Gentley lay down the paint not applying too much paint with each coat (I learned the hard way) if you apply to much or too hard you will get a lot of orange peel as well as roller marks.
*Do one panel at a time using long single strokes as that minimizes roller lines.
4.) After you have covered the whole panel, go back with the clean roller and gentley, with just the weight of the roller, go over the area you just painted to help pop any air bubbles as well as assisting the paint to level and smoothening out the roller lines.
*Even after the first coat or two the paint shouldnt necessarly have full coverage, in fact, if it does, its going on too thick, which is okayyy, if you like spending hours and hours wetsanding.
^ not full coverage, but still a little thick
To do any small and tight spots, just dip the foam brush in the paint and barely graze over the needed areas, or use the rounded end of the roller if you can fit it.
*Depending on the previous color and how thin the paint is, you will lay on anywhere between 4 and 8 coats total.
*You're going to want at least 2 coats before you wetsand (assuming you layed the paint down as thin as you should have) Allow the paint about 24 hours to cure before wetsanding, this will vary with the weather, the colder it is, the longer you'll want to wait.
WETSANDING:
1.) For the first wetsand, you should wetsand with 600 grit paper, making sure you keep the area wet with the spray bottle (with a littttttle bit of dish soap in it) and wiping it off to see how level it is with the squegee, the idea is to only sand the high spots, and not to sand the low spots. Be sure to change your paper frequently, the sand paper wears out faster than you think. When you are done your care should be a pretty uniform dull color
*use a sanding block for this also*
2.) Wash the car when you are done and let it dry for 18 to 24 hours, just to make sure no water will get in the paint.
PAINTING THE NEXT COATS:
1.) Repeat with another 2 coats, thinned less than the first two and wetsand using 800 grit this time.
2.) And then a final 2 coats unthinned, hopefully your technique for painting should be better this time that it will not be much more difficult to work with.
Wetsand with 1000 grit, and then wash, and wetsand with 1500 grit, wash, and wetsand finally with 2000 grit.
FINALIZING
1.) Now, you are ready to compound. Be aware that if you have any major areas of peel left over that you will most likely not get them out in compunding, and should go back and wetsand again (which unfortunetly is what I have to go do)
2.) Do small areas at a time and be sure not to go to hard as you may burn through the paint. Some people say its best to do this the day after the final coat, others say its better to do after a month or so, you be the judge.
3.) After you have done the whole car, wipe off any left over/splatter, and repeat using the swirl remover, and polish. By this point, your paint should feel super smoooooooth.
4.) With the polish, you will need to apply a little bit more pressure. the polish is what should bring out that nice pretty shine.
5.) Finally, you will want to seal all of your work in with wax, I've heard the best results with some type of pure carnuba wax, meguiar's tech wax, and other various high end waxes. Just make sure you dont cheap out here and have your paint faid because you didn't seal it up well enough.
Tips:
1.) Practice on a spare part or hunk of metal you have laying around to get the technique down
2.) Do this with more than just you, it will save you a lot of time and work
3.) Dont skip out on the prep and filling, the car will only look as good as how you prepped it.
4). If a panel starts going to hell, take either a thinner soaked roller or rag to it and you can remove what you just put on and try to re-apply it.
5.) Dont rush it like I did, because now I have to go back and re-wetsand, compound, polish, etc.
6.) Finally, dont get discouraged, it may look like crap at first, but chances are, it probably looked even worse before if you are resorting to using rollers on your car, so just use that to motivate you.
Hope thats better detail
