Seal it, Paint it, Clear it

Sealer, paint and clear. Might seem like three separate steps, but these three steps have to be done one after the other in such a way as to make them one single process. Of course there is still flash time between coats, but, while a quick lunch might be an option, don’t plan on any long movies.  There’s still plenty to do and a lot of it will involve your eyes and brain.  Take the time to to look very closely at all the surfaces. Make sure it is truly ready for paint. Plan your steps. Where is the best place to start the paintwork? There’s no one size fits all answer to this question; things you need to consider include where your first coat will begin and end. Again, if this is a complete paint job, your plan of attack will be different than it would be for a dent repair, which is usually a much smaller job and things like a dry edge don’t come into play with a dent repair. If you are doing a color change, then (hopefully) you’ve removed, cleaned and painted the undersides of the the hood and deck lid as well as door jambs. Replace the hood and deck lid on the car before continuing so that the entire exterior can be painted together at one time. If you have small parts like mirrors, ground effects, gas doors, etc., you can paint these when you do the jambs and undersides, or you may want to do them at the same time as the rest of the car. At this point you’ve sanded and cleaned numerous times, but it isn’t over yet. Sorry. Remove all the tape, masking paper, plastic covers and replace it with fresh, clean masking material. Once you remove all the tape and paper, do your self a favor and wash the car one more time to get all the sanding residue out of the cracks. You’ve gone to this much trouble to get it ready, so why allow a stray dust particle sabotage you now? It’s also a good time to clean the area you are going to be painting in. Make sure to allow plenty of time for the cracks, crevices, and jambs to dry thoroughly before you start re-taping.

As I said, planning is part of the job and you’ll want to get all your materials lined up. Make sure you have instructions for all the materials you’ll be using and take the time to read them. Measure carefully and use the proper hardners and reducers for the weather. If you bought the material some time earlier and the weather has changed, it might be necessary to visit the paint store again and exchange reducers and/or hardners. This very important. All the material has been designed to dry at a certain speed and dry times are usually given for temperatures around 70 to 72 degrees. If it’s hotter, you want to slow the material’s dry times by changing the additives. If it’s colder, you’ll want to speed them up. Dry times will have a huge affect on things like dry spray, runs, and even the final color. Color will be darker if it dries slower and lighter if it dries faster. Clear that dries too fast will have excessive orange peel and if it dries too slow, there’s more chance it may cause a run. Rule of thumb; if the product is suppose to dry in 30 minutes at 70 degrees, it will dry in 15 minutes at 80 degrees. Air movement also has to be considered when choosing which hardners and reducers to use, as more air moving across the car will speed up the evaporation of the solvents and will require you to use slower drying products. So…..if the temperature is 75 degrees and you have a good amount of air flow, you’ll want to use products designed for 80 degrees.

And, speaking of air flow, if you aren’t lucky enough to know someone who’ll let you use their paint booth, you’ll need a couple of good fans. Set one up in front of the car to blow air across the surface and one behind the car to pull the overspray and fumes out of the area. The one in front of the car probably should not be full blast and should not blow directly on the car. Tip it so it blows over the top. The one behind the car will need to be turned on full so it pulls as much overspray out as possible. (Make sure your other car is NOT parked right outside!) Never spray in an unventilated room. Even if you don’t pass out from the fumes, the overspray will fall back down on the car and will look like you threw a handful of sand on the top surface.

Once the car has been taped and masked, you’ll need a tack rag. A tack rag is a slightly sticky cheese cloth. Open the bag and unfold the cloth completely, then wad it up into a loose ball. Use no pressure, but lightly wipe all the surfaces with it. Turn it and re-wad it as you go to keep a fresh surface. Allow the tack rag to pick up any dust, dirt, and lint. Keep the tack rag handy, you’ll need it again. Also, tear off a small piece of 1000 grit sandpaper to be used for removing any little nibs of trash. Keeping the surface clean and dust free as you go can be controlled to some extent with the use of your tack rag and the small piece of 1000 grit sandpaper.

Now, suit up. Put on your paint suit, gloves and respirator. Cover your hair, as well. That one hair in the middle of the hood is not an ornament.

Mix your sealer according to the products directions. Use a gun with a 1.3 or 1.4 nozzle set up. Unless you are tall enough to reach the center of the roof (I’m not), you’ll need a step stool. Make sure your air hose is not coiled or kinked and won’t get hung up on any obstructions. It can be draped across your shoulder and allowed hang down your back to keep it from dragging across the car or touching the fresh paint. And while we’re on the subject of the air hose, take the time to clean the first six feet or so. It’s usually spent some time on the floor, so wiping it down will keep loose dirt from falling into your job. Sealer should be applied in one wet coat. Watch the way it lays down by looking directly behind the the spot where it hits the panel. Good lighting is a huge help. Most manufacturers recommend one or two coats, but it does not have to be heavy, just wet so that it looks smooth and even. Start on one side of the roof and spray towards the center. Keep the fan pattern parallel with the surface, gun distance of about 8 inches from the panel. Overlap by 50%, so you are always directing the bottom of the spray pattern to the center of the last stroke. For a large roof, it’s better to move your step stool than to over-reach, so you can maintain the parallel gun position. Be sure to extend the spray fan past the edge of the panel. When you’ve sprayed the first half, move your stool around to the other side. This time you’ll start in the middle of the roof where you left off and spray towards yourself. Again, better to move the stool than to over reach. Now kick the stool back and start on the body. I usually like to start on a quarter panel, at the bottom and work my way up. That way your dry edge will be on the corner. Work your way down the side of  the car, across the hood, down the other side and across the deck lid, until you have one good smooth coat. Everyone is different; faster, slower, whatever. Better to use two coats than get a run in the sealer but if you should get a run, take a strip of wide tape and roll it so the sticky side is out. Lay it gently into the wet sealer and remove what you can. You can come back later and clean it up if you need to, after it has a chance to dry. But don’t stop sealing until the whole car is done. A run can be fixed more easily than a dry spot which would cause orange peel.

I’ll give you a little tech tip for fixing a run or piece of trash in your sealer. This can be done as soon as it is dry enough to be lightly touched. Pour a little wax and grease remover into a cup. Take a piece of 800 or 1000 grit sandpaper and two rags. Wet one rag with the wax and grease remover and keep the other rag handy. Wet the sandpaper in the cup of wax and grease remover and sand the run or piece of dirt. Wipe off the residue as you go and don’t let it dry on the surface. The smaller the defect is, the smaller the piece of sandpaper you should use. You don’t want to touch anything you don’t have to. Once it is smooth, wipe the residue once more with the wet rag and carefully dry it with the dry rag. Tack it off with the tack rag and spray one coat of sealer over the area. Allow the proper flash time and you are ready for paint.

Your paint process is pretty much the same as the sealer, except that it will take at least two coats and maybe more. The paint should be medium wet coats, in other words you should see a little gloss until it starts to dry. Again, watch behind the gun, at the way the paint falls onto the panel. And again, a 1.3 or 1.4 nozzle. You only need enough paint to cover and more is not better. If two coats does the job, stop there. Some colors like bright yellow and maroon are more transparent and will require extra coats. Be sure to allow enough flash time between coats. If the directions say 5 minutes between coats and you have to use 3 or more coats, then add another five minutes for every coat after the second one. Increase the flash time before clearing as well. Now, here’s the beauty of basecoat. It dries fast enough that you can tack off the surface between every coat and before you start clear coating. This keeps dust, dirt, lint, hair, bugs, etc., from being trapped under the clear. You’ll want to back off to about 10 inches from the panel, but use the same starting and stopping points you used to seal it. Overlap your strokes by 50%. Once you’ve given it the proper flash time, and before you clean out your paint gun, carefully look at the entire surface. If you see anything, a speck of dirt, a gnat, a piece of trash or lint, get your small piece of 1000 grit sandpaper and tack rag. Dry sand the defect and tack off the residue. Go around the entire car and look close. Once you are satisfied it’s as smooth and clean as you can get it, spot spray the areas you’ve sanded. You will be able to see the spots you’ve sprayed, but don’t worry. They will disappear when you put on the clear coat. Allow the proper flash time and, if you’ve used extra coats of paint, add five minutes for every extra coat. Now you can clean out the gun.

Clear Coat is the last step and probably the hardest to get right. It dries much slower than the other products you’ve used and can’t be tacked off between coats. However you should tack off the entire car before you start to clear it. If you get a piece of trash in it while you’re spraying, you might or might not be able to get it out with a corner of a piece of tape, tweezers or a toothpick. Be careful though, and keep your removal tool as small as possible. Clears are either Two-Coat Clears or Three-Coat Clears. Know which one you have. If it is a two coat clear, you don’t need three. It will be higher in solids and that means more material stays on the panel and less solvent to evaporate. If you decide you DO need another coat, wait until the next day to apply it. Gone are the days of 17 coats of clear. That was back in the days of lacquer, where you would put on 3 coats and sand off 2 of them. The new clears give you more protection with fewer trips around the car. The fewer the trips around, the less chance of problems. Never has there been a painter, who, at least once, didn’t think, if two coats looks good then three will look better, only to brush the air hose or his sleeve into that third coat. Most minor defects can be sanded and buffed once it dries and should be handled that way. Test your gun on another panel so you will know that, a. you have a good spray pattern, and b. you have a feel for the way the clear lays down. Wet coats are needed and your air pressure will need to be higher. Widen your fan pattern as far as it will go. Lighting is very important. Because clear is….., well…., clear, you will need to watch the gloss as you spray. Watch the way it falls. If you see a dry streak and can come back over it immediately, do it. Otherwise, let it go and catch it when you come back around. Some high solids clears will die back on the gloss if you double coat without enough flash time. Flat surfaces won’t (usually) run so you’ll need to use some restraint and not put too much. On the other hand the sides will run and I usually start at the bottom and work my way up. That way, if a run starts, your overlaps are going the other way and this run will be lessened because you aren’t chasing it. There is a tool made by Steck Tools, called a nib file, which works great for runs on a flat panel. I’d rather have a run than dry spray and orange peel. Don’t panic if you do get a speck of dirt at this point. If it is small and close to the surface, it will buff out. On the other hand, a black bug on a white car in the first coat of clear? Well, that’s probably a reason to get out the tweezers or the small strip of tape.  Once the last coat is on, you are done. Clean your gun and celebrate! But leave the paper and tape on until at least tomorrow. If you need to sand and buff, final cleanup will be easier if the masking paper is there to keep compound off the rubber around the windshield.

In my opinion, there is nothing that compares to straight-out-of-the-gun clear. One tiny speck of trash doesn’t justify wet sanding and buffing the entire car. But if you have enough trash or orange peel to need it, then don’t hesitate. We’ll cover color sanding and buffing in the next week or so. Thanks for tuning in!

Time to get to work!

Now it’s time to work. And I do mean work. Prepping a car for paint is hard labor, no doubt about it, but careful planning and attention to detail will make all the difference in the finished product. Step one is to fully, thoroughly and carefully clean the car. Clean it like you mean it. A little dirt left around a door lock will prevent adhesion and that’s where the paint will start to peel.  Remove everything you can, emblems, antenna, door handles, locks, mirrors, grilles, just pretty much anything that isn’t getting painted or if it gets in the way of thoroughly cleaning cracks and crevasses. Put every thing into zip lock baggies and label them so you can find them later. If you are doing a color change, take off the weather strips, even the hood and deck lid if you can. The reason for taking the hood and deck lid off is so you can turn them upside down to clean thoroughly and paint the under side. If you can’t take it off, clean around the edges with a small detail brush or even a stiff toothbrush. Soap and water is the first step and rinse all the cracks and crevasses with high pressure to blow any trash out. You can use dish washing liquid and even Comet or Ajax. You need something strong enough to take off wax and the abrasive in Comet and Ajax will give you a head start on the sanding. Once you’re sure it’s clean and completely rinsed and dried, then you clean it again with Wax and Grease Remover. There’s a certain procedure for using Wax and Grease Remover, which I’ll cover here quickly. You’ll need at least two rags (old t-shirts are perfect) preferably white, so you can see any dirt, if there is any to see. Wet one rag with the Wax and Grease Remover and apply it generously to an area about two square feet. Then with the dry rag, wipe the area dry. Keep turning the dry rag to keep a clean surface and it may take more than one dry rag to do a whole car. In fact, it probably will. The idea is that the contaminants will float to the surface with the wet product and be removed with the dry rag. So don’t spare the clean dry rags.

Now we need to thoroughly sand the car and you’ll need to plan the body work. Add more dishwashing liquid to your water sanding bucket to help clean as you go and to lubricate the sandpaper, just stay away from the bare metal with water until you get primer on.  Small dings can be sanded with 180 grit, dry, and puttied, or you can just use a little dab of body filler. Larger dents and gouges will need some straightening. Remember, body filler should not be more than 1/8″ thick. Old school was to drill holes and use a slugger to pull the dents out. Avoid this if at all possible, because the back side of that hole is rust waiting to happen. You may be able to remove interior trim panels to get to the back side of the damaged panel and hammer them out with a body hammer and dollies. Ideally, a stud gun is used weld a “nail” to the panel. Then the slugger screws onto the “nail” or stud and is used to pop the dent out. If you can’t get to the back of the panel, you may want to hire a body man to do this part, since the stud guns are pretty expensive. Below is a picture of a dent being worked with a stud welder.

Once the dent has been pulled out,  the studs are cut off with a pair of side cutters and ground smooth. Now, clean the area with wax and grease remover and prime with epoxy primer. Your body filler can be applied on top of the epoxy and sanded smooth. Start with 36 or 40 grit dry just to get it flat, then step up to 80 grit. It’s normal for the top of the filler to be a little sticky, but the stickiness will come off quickly with the first few strokes of the paper. Finish up with 180 dry on a long block. Don’t worry if you have a little bare metal showing around the edges, that’s normal. Just a little more epoxy and you’re protected from rust.

Already have rust? Well, it depends on how bad it is. Surface rust can be sanded off, but you should treat the area with a rust treatment product. There are many of them on the market and your choice will depend on the area you are treating. Some stay on the metal and will turn black on the rusty areas. Some are meant to be rinsed off and primed. If the rust is deeply pitted to a point where the integrity of the metal is compromised or the panel has rusted through, the only real solution is to cut it out and weld clean new metal in it’s place. Again this may be better left to a body man. Some tools are just too expensive for one time use and the price of the tool just might cover the cost of a body man’s labor. After market sheet metal is readily available and some preformed panels, such as floor pans, are also available. There are crimping tools which will create an overlap for the edge of the new panel to make it fit more smoothly, but again, the price of the tool has to be considered.

Once the dents and dings have been fixed (and don’t rush this part; a painted dent will be glaringly obvious) the next step is to sand the rest of the car. Use 220 grit if you are going to be priming the entire car, 320 dry or 400 wet if the project is a repair. Next  is  primer and/or primer surfacer.   If you have bare metal, then primer will be needed, the same epoxy you’ve been using, and you need only hit the body filler and bare spots. Once it has flashed thoroughly, apply two or three coats of a good primer surfacer. Apply one coat on the areas where you’ve done body work and be sure to allow enough flash time. All flash times in the manufacturer’s instructions are based on temperatures of about 70 degrees. Come back again with two more coats over everything. When I say this, it is with the assumption that this project is a complete paint job. If it is a dent repair, you probably won’t prime the entire panel. Mask the adjacent panels and prime only a little past the repaired area.

Next, a little insurance. Guide coat is used to show you where the high spots and low spots are. Keep the sanding block flat and resist the urge to cheat by tipping the block to get in the the low spots. A hard block is best and the longer the better. Paper grit should be 400 wet or 320 dry. I prefer wet sanding for inexperienced sanders. It’s a little slower than DA sanding but much safer. Sand at an angle, not just back and forth, never in a circle, crosshatching as you go. ////\\\\////\\\\.  Also, long strokes on a flat panel and don’t concentrate your efforts in any one spot. Your sanding strokes should overlap. Take care along body lines and sharp curves as it would be all too easy to sand through.Instead, change to finer sandpaper or a softer block and sand across the line, not along it.  These areas will take much less elbow grease so go gently. Guide coat can be as simple as a can of cheap flat black spray paint since you’re going to sand it all off anyway. The trick is to step back and apply only a light mist coat. If it comes off quickly in one spot, then you have a high spot. Keep sanding until either it flattens, or you see a different color (primer or the paint underneath). Stop before you get to bare metal. If you go completely through the primer surfacer, you will need to tap the metal down and possibly do some more repair work. Then, of course, prime and sand again.  A low spot might be minor enough to be filled with another coat of primer or, if there is filler underneath, it may need more filler. I can’t stress enough, though, how very important this is to get right. It is the foundation of the job. Everything else rests on it. Below is a picture of guide coat and some low spots, which only needs a little more sanding.

Now that everything is sanded smooth, clean it again with the wax and grease remover to remove any oil from your hands. You may think it isn’t there, but believe me, all it takes is that one swipe of the hand to cause a fisheye. At this point, you need to be wearing gloves any time you touch the surface for any reason. You’ll need to decide now if sealer will be needed. I do usually recommend it for several reasons. It gives a smooth, even, uniform base for your paint, which is all one color. Whether you use a colored sealer or not will depend on the final color of the paint. A white sealer will intensify bright colors and help them keep their vibrancy. Dark colors will benefit from dark or even black sealer. Gray sealer is one of the easiest colors to cover and will work just fine for most colors.

Our next chapter will cover sealing, paint, and clear, since these last three steps should be done one after another, without a lot of time in between. Take your time to get it right and to plan your next steps. Thanks for tuning in!

Primer , Paint , and Clearcoat

First, a little lesson on primer. Primer can be broken down into 3 categories; primer, primer surfacer, and primer sealer. Basic primer is for adhesion and corrosion protection and nothing more. There are products on the market which try to cover all 3 jobs called direct-to-metal primer. I’m not a big fan, but you may find this product to be perfect for your particular job. For now though, let’s just talk about the 3 separate types.

Primer can be self- etching primer or epoxy primer. You’ll need a 1.3 or 1.4 needle / nozzle setup. The primer you use will be determined by the project you are working on. If it is a fairly new car you may not need primer at all. Self-etching primer is a good choice for bare metal if the primer surfacer can be applied almost immediately after, soon to be followed by paint. For a restoration job, I’d use epoxy primer. Epoxy primer case hardens in 7 days and is all but bullet proof. You could spill thinner on it and not hurt it. It provides an excellent moisture barrier for a panel that is not going to be painted for a while. A panel can sit in epoxy primer for months without paint and all you’d have to do is scuff it and apply one more coat of epoxy primer and it’s ready for paint. Another reason that epoxy is one of my favorite products is that it will stick to almost any thing and almost any thing will stick to it.  It can also be used as a sealer, and body filler can be applied right on top of it. A big advantage to the filler over epoxy method is that it will prevent moisture from reaching the metal around the thin edge of the filler, because body filler heats up as it hardens and can allow moisture to form between the warm filler and the cooler metal. When you finish sanding the filler, you will most likely have a ring of bare metal around it but you will still have the primer under the filler and you can simply put one more coat of primer over the filler and bare metal. Now set that fender over in the corner, out of the way, while we work the next part or panel.

Primer surfacer is used to fill minor imperfections and sand scratches and finish smoothing the body filler. I always highly recommend a 2-part (2K) primer surfacer, one that uses a catalyst, which is also called hardener or activator. You want to apply 2 or 3 coats, with the proper flash time between coats. A good primer gun with a 1.7 or 1.8 needle / nozzle set up will allow you to apply the primer without the need for thinner (reducer). You’ll get better filling with fewer coats and also prevents the possibility of trapped solvent.  The next step after waiting for it to dry is guide coat. There are products that were developed especially for this step, but just the cheapest black spray paint you can get will do. You’re going to sand it all off anyway. Take the spray paint and back off 6 or 8 inches more than you would if you were painting. You don’t need to cover with it, just a light mist is enough. Now you’re ready to block it out. As you sand, the black spray paint will show you the high and low spots. The black will disappear quickly on the high spots and will remain visible in any low spots. If you get to bare metal and a low spot of black remains until  you may need to use a putty or glaze or you may be able to apply another couple of coats of primer to the low spot to fix it. Remember though, body filler should be no more than about 1/8″ thick and putty should be about 1/16″ thick or less.  A longer block is necessary for body filler in order to make it completely flat and smooth.

Now that everything is sanded and smooth, you’re ready for primer sealer. This is a thinner product and is meant to give a smooth, even undercoat for the paint. You’ll want to use a smaller needle / nozzle set up than the one you used for the primer, a 1.3 or 1.4. Primer sealer does not need to be sanded, in fact you will want to avoid sanding it, unless you absolutely have to. It can be used alone, without the two previous steps, if your panels are smooth and dent free. The advantage is no sanding needed, just seal and paint. It is somewhat rare for the average paint job not to need a sandable primer at all, but it does happen, for instance, if you are painting because the clear is deteriorating. You may need to simply get the bad clear off, seal it and paint it.

Paint is the visible part of your job. There are hundreds of thousands of colors to choose from and it sure is hard to make that choice sometimes. The paint can be acrylic enamel, acrylic urethane, or polyurethane. Single-stage paint means that a catalyst (hardener) is added to the paint, no clear is needed and it will dry with a gloss. Then there is basecoat paint which must be clearcoated. I often meet folks who’ve used enamel before or who’ve used lacquer before, and are somewhat intimidated by basecoat/clearcoat. Don’t be scared.The basecoat/clearcoat system is the best of lacquer and the best of enamel in a single system. The basecoat dries fast, like lacquer and the clear sprays a lot like enamel. The beauty of it is that it can easily be sanded and buffed and will last for years, if you invest in good material. Basecoat usually covers in 2 or 3 coats and all you need is coverage. There are no advantages to putting on more paint and 2 quarts of a good basecoat will paint a midsize car. There are exceptions, of course. If you are changing the color, you’ll need to paint door jams, under the hood, and under the deck lid, so it will probably take another quart of paint. Also, some colors just don’t cover as well. Maroons and bright yellow are almost always more transparent, while white covers very quickly. You can use a sealer to help with coverage. Bright colors will stay brighter over a white sealer and black sealer under black paint will save you money on the actual paint. Gray sealer is the easiest to cover under the most colors though. The paint you chose will be determined by the end result you want to achieve. Do you just want to make it look better so you can sell it? Then enamel is the fastest and cheapest way to go. A daily driver that you are going to trade in or sell in a year or two? There are less expensive basecoat/clearcoat systems available and will give you a good job that will last 3, 4, 5 years. However, if this is your baby, your pride and joy, give her the best you can afford and you won’t be disappointed. A good paint system that’s well cared for could last 15 or twenty years and still look great.

Clearcoat is the next step and it does several things for you. First, it gives you the gloss, the shine, the depth. It also protects the paint from fading due to the sun’s nasty UV rays, and from the stuff on the road which can be pretty harsh. It can be sanded and buffed and will keep that paint job looking good for years to come. Not too much short of paint stripper will penetrate it, although bird droppings, bugs, and pine tree sap all contain natural acids and should be removed as soon as possible. New paint needs to breathe and should not be waxed for at least 90 days. In fact, fresh paint will usually come clean will a spray of the water hose, and without the need for soap. It can be polished, if you like and your local paint store can recommend the right product for that. Polish does not form a hard surface like wax does and will wash off  with the third or fourth wash job, but it will allow the solvents from the fresh paint to evaporate, as they are suppose to. There are many grades of clear available and your pocketbook will be the determining factor, most likely. There are 3 coat clears and 2 coat clears. The less expensive clears will need three coats and the better clears will only need two. The reason for this is the amount of solvent in the clear. The cheaper the clear, the more solvent it will have. When it’s all said and done, you need to have about 3 mils of clear when it’s dry. A dollar bill is about 1 mil thick, just so you know. A 2 coat clear will have less solvent, less of the stuff that evaporates and is called high solids clear. A little note here. Solvent is the cause of most of the problems in paint jobs, so always, when you can chose less solvent, you’re doing yourself a favor. Solvent is necessary to get the material out of the gun and make it lay down smoothly, so you could call it a necessary evil. There are plenty of clears available with all the solvents already in the product without you having to add more. All of them do require that you add the catalyst, though. Catalyst is what makes the product dry faster, dry harder and last longer.

Take your time, plan ahead and follow the directions and you can achieve a professional looking paint job. After all, every one who ever painted a car had to start somewhere.

Let’s talk tools

OK folks, if you saw my first blog post you would have noticed it was…. well, bland. But luckily for me (and you) my son set me on the right path. That’s his profession and he’s good at it. To be honest, I thought WordPress was only for websites. If you’d like more on how and why he did it, check out neal.tv. He set me up and now I have a domain name and an email address so you can contact me AND a comment box!

So let’s get to it. You’ve decided you want to paint your own car. The first thing I have to do is let my motherly side out for a minute. Safety is very important. Gloves and a respirator are a must. The chemicals you’ll be dealing with are not Kool-Aide. I can argue on two different sides and I don’t care which reason you choose.

Side 1 – If you wear gloves, it will protect your hands from the chemicals.
Side 2 – If you wear gloves, it will protect the surface of the car from contamination.

See what I mean? Ok, so a respirator won’t really help the car that much, but hey, you want to be around to enjoy the finished product, right? Goggles will protect your eyes from chemical splashes and you will only get thinner in your eye one time, before you know I’m right about that one. If you wear glasses you’ll be ok, but if you don’t, slip on the goggles real quick before you thin the paint or primer. And a paint suit. This again is for you and the car. You only need it when you’re actually painting, but they are lint free and will keep the t-shirt lint out of your paint job and keep spilled paint from soaking your clothes and penetrating your skin. You can pick up a cheap disposable suit for $4 or $5 bucks. One should get you through the whole job.

Now, let’s talk about getting ready and the tools you will need. Air sanders are a wonderful invention, but you can get a great job without them, although sandpaper and a sanding block are a must. There are a bunch of different sizes and shapes when it comes to sanding blocks. The old standby block is a 5 inch hard block with a slit at each end. Pull up on the slit and you will find 3 small nails that hold the ends of your sandpaper in place. These are good blocks to have. They also come in a 9 inch block for leveling body filler or blocking larger flat surfaces. There is a huge variety of other types of blocks and long files and your particular job will be the determining factor as to which block(s) you should choose. Basically, the bigger the panel, the longer the block should be. It will also depend on how much  body work you have to do. Your local paint store can help you decide. There are many grits and styles of sandpaper; 36 grit, 40 grit, 80 grit and 180 grit are used dry for bodywork, to prepare for plastic filler, and to level the filler in preparation for primer. The primer should be sanded with 320 grit dry or 400 grit wet, but no finer than 600 grit. Clearcoat can be sanded with 1000 to 2500 grit, depending on the amount of dirt or orange peel. We’ll cover this a little closer when we get down to business.

And you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on spray guns, but I definitely recommend at least two guns, one for primer and one which can be used for basecoat and for clearcoat. A third gun, just for the clear, is ideal, if you can swing it. Your primer gun should have a 1.7 or 1.8 millimeter fluid tip and needle. That will allow you to spray your primer without the need for thinner or reducer, which, by the way are two words for the same thing. You thin or reduce your material to make it come out of the gun and lay down smooth. We’ll talk a little more about that later. Your paint gun and clearcoat gun should have a 1.3 nozzle and needle set up. A 1.4 is okay if you have painted before and have a little practice. Most professionals would prefer 1.4, because it allows them to get the job done faster by putting out more material. But if this is all new to you, slower will be better in the long run so if you haven’t already bought a gun, go for the 1.3 millimeter set up.

A compressor is also a must and the bigger the air tank, the better. A twenty gallon tank will handle your paint guns but might run out of air if you’re using a DA sander. Be sure and drain the air tank regularly. Water will be building up every time you use it and water and paint don’t mix. Think of it like a vise for air. When the compressor does its job, it is actually squeezing the water vapor out of the air it compresses. It also heats up the air and we all know what happens when we have high pressure, moisture and hot air. A thunderstorm! So you will also need to have a good filter for your air line. Air piping lay out is a science and you can use the picture above, courtesy of Sharpe Spray Equipment, to get an idea about how your piping should be run. The idea is that water will take the path of least resistance and you want to give it a place to go that doesn’t include your paint job or your air tools. Your air hose should be 3/8″ ID (inside diameter) and get yourself some high flow fittings. Most paint guns these days are HVLP. That means High Volume, Low Pressure. They aren’t any more complicated than conventional guns, but they most likely will be gravity feed, which means the cup is on top. Anyway, the bigger ID  on the high flow fittings and air hoses will give you more volume of air and your HVLP gun will work much better. You can pick up a gun stand to set it in when you aren’t using it for around $10 or $15 bucks. They are nice to have, because a gravity feed gun won’t stand up by itself. However, necessity is the mother of invention and I have fashioned temporary gun stands out of small cardboard boxes in a pinch.

A buffer will be the finishing touch. Again, you don’t have to spend the family fortune, but you need a variable speed buffer, so expect to pay at least $70 or $80 for a cheap one. And with diligence and planning, it’s possible to get a job that doesn’t need to be buffed, so you can wait until the job is finished before you go out and buy one.

So here’s a checklist for the tools you’ll need:

Gloves

Goggles

Respirator

Paint suit

Sandpaper

Sanding block(s)

Clean rags (old t-shirts are great)

A gallon of wax and grease remover

A bottle of dishwashing liquid

A clean bucket

Compressor

Air hose and fittings

Air filter

Spray guns

(Luxury Items) DA sander and Air File sander

(Maybe, maybe not) Buffer

There a lots of incidental items available to make the job go smoother and easier. You may find some that are absolutely necessary for your particular job, but these are the basics to get you started. Go shopping!

I Decided to Write a Blog about Automotive Paint

I’ve been selling automotive paint for years and every week or so someone comes in to the store where I work and they have a car they want to paint. Granted, sometimes they want to do it with a spray can or a paint brush and I’m forced to keep a straight face and not groan, but there are a good number of people out there who truly want to learn and don’t always have a good source for information. My favorites are the ones who soak up any information I offer like a sponge and come back time after time with more questions. It gives me a feeling of being useful and helpful and there have been some who’ve made me feel as though I have adopted them and their project cars. It’s a great feeling to see their finished projects and to see how, many times, they can’t wait to do it again!

So….. I decided to write a blog. Easier than publishing a book, right? At least I hope so. Over the next few weeks I’m going to share information with any one who wants it and I invite you ask questions. I don’t know all the answers, but I’ve painted cars myself, as well as helping customers find answers to questions and work through problems and I’m hoping I can help you too. Please ask me and if I don’t know, I will make every attempt to find out for you. Whether your project is your daily driver or a future show car, a hot rod honey or a neat old truck, let me share my experience with you while you share yours with me.