Anyone got a good tutorial on minor body work and paint?

[one2hunt]

OK so my 89 liminator DD shows signs of living it's life in the Texas sun. The roof of the cab and the hood is hail damaged. I am planning on attempting to do the bodywork and paint myself but am looking for resources on how to. Is there an alternative to bondo? I was told that it causes rust and my truck is 100% rust free so I don't see the point of using it. I've googled the dry ice trick but wonder how long 30-40 hail bumps will take me and what sucess I'll have. Thanks in advance guys-you are a treasure trove of info.>Chris

[Blue88Comanche]

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16750&hilit=paint

 

I got a PM asking for tips on DIY paintjobs, and I ended up doing a full write up for him, so I'm gonna paste it here too, because some of you guys might find it helpful. I am a professional automotive painter, so this is advise from a pro, not from some hack garage painter. I hope this helps a few of you. PM me if you have any questions, or if I forgot anything.

These instructions are for solid colors. if you are doing a metallic, or pearl color, make sure to finish sand with 600-800 grit, so your sandscratches don't show through your basecoat.

 

Where to start! Ok, first off, it's all in the prep work. You want to make sure to thoroughly sand everything. I would say you need to finish sand, all your surfaces with no courser paper than 400 grit. And don't sand anything with anything courser than 220 grit, unless you are planning on priming it. You should prime anywhere that you cut through the factory finish.(Any where that you go through the clearcoat) You should sand your primer with 220-360, then with 400-600 along with the rest of your surfaces. Make sure to sand all your edges with a scotch brite pad, or some kind of abrasive pad, or your edges will start peeling in no time. Once you have everything prepped and masked, use a mild mineral spirit to clean and de-grease your surfaces. Wipe it on with one clean towel, and wipe it off till it's dry with another clean towel. Then use a tack cloth to pick up any remaining dust, and dirt off the surface. You can buy these at most Napa stores in the paint section for like 2 bucks each. I don't know where you are planning on painting, but don't do it outside. Any breeze is going to blow crap into your paint. Do it in your garage with the door cracked if possible. Do it on a nice 70-80 degree day. That's about the best temp range for your paint to cure best. OK, now it's time to spray! Be patient! You don't need to get complete coverage in 1 coat. Your best pet is to do a nice even "tack coat". That is just I nice light even coat. It'll look really splotchy, but that's fine. Tet that coat flash dry for 5-10 minutes before your next coat. That coat will give your next, heavier coat something to bite into. It will also help to keep from getting runs! Now, you don't have much air flow at 3.4 cfm, so keep your airflow low, and the feed on the gun fairly low. Use a piece of cardboard to get your gun set up good, not your truck! I don't know what you are using for paint guns, but get it setup so your fan is about 6-8 inches high where it hit's the panel, while keeping your gun about 6 inches away from the panel. like I said, light coats are key! After your first, "Tack coat", You want to spray your paint on just heavy enough to look "Wet". like I said, as long as it doesn't look dry, or like it is fuzzy, that's enough. Several light wet coats will turn out looking way better than if you try to hose it on in 1 coat. Give it 10-15 minutes between coats, until you have nice even coverage.(Till you can't see your primer spots anymore.) Make sure to do about 50% overlap on your coats. This means that if you have an 8 inch spray fan, move down 4 inches on each pass, so that each pass overlaps half of the last one. make sure to move across the panel at an even speed, keeping your gun as square as possible, and at an even distance from the panel. (The 6 inches away I talked about.) After you have good even color coverage, Put your last coat on just a little wetter. You can do this by slowing down the speed at which you move the gun across the panel, or you can open up the feed on the gun. (Just like 1/8-1/4 of a turn on the feed knob will be plenty.) If you are using single stage paint, you are done. If you are using basecoat/clearcoat, let your base dry for 20-30 minutes before you clear it. Spray your clear the same as your base, Only give it one tack coat, (You don't need to get full shine on your first coat.) Then give it two even heavier coats, making sure to get full smooth coverage with no dry spots. Make sure to give it 15 minutes between coats. Let it air dry at least over night, and you are done. Let me know if you want to learn how to wetsand and buff, to make it look like glass! I hope this helped, and didn't overwhelm, or confuse you. Let me know if you need help with anything else! Good luck and have fun! Remember, don't rush it!

 

philbert - I noticed that you didn't mention sanding between coats. Is the idea to get a perfect sanding during the prep work, then sand again after the paint has dried?

 

LEAD - That looks pretty good, what rattle can did you use?

My post was based on how professional painters do the job. If you do proper prep work, Sanding your base is not necessary. Sanding your base between coats is like using your base as primer. That's what primer is for! using your base as primer sounds like a waste of basecoat/money. sanding between coats is only necessary if you are a terrible painter, and are willing to wait like 4 hours between coats. I've painted 1/2 million dollar cars, and have never sanded my base between coats. The only thing I can think of even remotely related to that would be colorsanding your first clear job, and re-clearing to get that perfect glasslike finish. In which case, you probably aren't doing it yourself! The idea of a "Perfect sanding job" is to use progressively finer paper to cancel the previous sand scratches. As in, use 80 grit for your body work. use 120 grit to sand out the 80 grit scratches. use 180 grit to sand out the 120 scratches. Prime the job. sand with 220-240 grit paper. Sand with 320-360 to sand out the 220 scratches. sand with 400-800 (depending on basecoat) to sand out the 360 scratches. and you are ready for paint.

[one2hunt]

Thank you.