paints in the gun and your all set to start spraying

962porsche · 04:48 AM

last night i let a friend use one of my booths to paint his E36 M3 . i told him i would be more than happy to do it but he wanted to do the job him self so i said have at it .
now this car was all together with the hood , doors and truck lid on the cars still .
he seamed to be a little lost as to were to start spraying the car and to how to go about moving around the car laying the paint on . the both he used is the one in my airbrush shop so it's just an old cross draft booth .
the car is black so it's a ez color to paint and see what it's like as the top coats are going down but he ended up with some dry spots . so i then stepped in on the next coats to show him were to start and stop .
being a cross draft booth i told hom to start on what is called the dirty side of the booth . that is the side were the exit filters are .
the car was back into the booth so that is were i tend to always start to lat bown the paint on the car .
how take in mind this is just how i do it so i'm not saying it the only way or the right way .

starting : i start at the rear body panel 1st laying down the top coat then up onto the trunk lid . next i do 1/2 the right QTR then move to the left QTR and do half of that panel then back to the right QTR and finish that panel and up the sail panel then back to the laft and do the same .
then i move back to the right side and do half the roof and them to the laft side and finish the roof .
then to the right door and just into the right front fender move the the left side of the car and do the same the door and just into the left fender .
then move to the right side again and finish the right fender then back to the left side and finish that fender.
then to the right side of the hood and finish off with the left side of the hood .
is it a lot of moving around the car well yes but you always want to work your paint in the gun into wet paint on the car this way you will not get dry spots in the finish .
now on the next go around on the car spraying the next coats you want to change up were you stop with you coats . on the 1st go around i stopped at half the QTR at the top of the wheel opening . the next coat i do the all most the hole QTR stopping just short of the door gap to the QTR . the reason for this is simple i don't want to stop in the same places were i did on the coat before .
the searon is that if you do you will be spraying to much material to many time in the same spot . when you stop and then move down the car your picking up the next part just before were you just stoped on the last coat there for your in fact putting twice the amount of material down in that area . so by changing up your start and stop of your pattern you will avoid doing that . this will help you not to get runs .
now there is how do you know when to start you next go around (coat) on the car . is it flashed off or not . that is ez you want to finger test the clear or top coat . take your finger and touch the finish were it on the masking tape (not the paper ) your looking for it to leave a finger print but nothing comes off on your finger at all . go around the hole car and check every were . if any of the wet paint comes off in your finger don't spray the next coat yet .
so how did the car come out well dam good for a 1st timer ! 7 little pieces of dirt and one very small sag (heavy spot )on the right door handle recess .

edit i forgot : the bumpers and header panel he did in his garage i was told they did not come out all that good so he wants to bring them bown and use my booth to reclear them . he told me they came out dirty .
i think the reason is that when you have parts like that off the car and your painting them the air coming out of the gun is also blowing around the dirt (dust) from the floor and walls . it has to land some place and it tends to land right into the wet paint . also plastic and parts made od fiberglass and carbonfiber tend to attract dust . they tend to build up a static charge when you wire them down and tack them off .

drcoastline · 12-15-2012, 03:18 PM

Nice write up 962. I know you said this is your method and not the only way but why wouldnt (or would) a person go down and around a car more or less?

962porsche · 12-16-2012, 05:19 AM

there are many ways to skin a cat . some painters like to start at the front of the car . i tend to always start painting at the back . also things change up a little too when all the bolt on panels are off the car . i tend to always remove all the bolt on panels . but at the end of the day you always want to work the top coat coming out of the gun into the wet top coat on the car .
there are other thing to like i start at the bottom of the panels and spray moving up to the top . this comes from painting in down draft booths .but other painters like to start at the top of a panel and work down . i don't like doing that because the over spray will land on a non wet area . were if you start at the bottom and work up the over spray will land on a wet area and melt into the fresh wet top coat making for less dust in the finish .
also some painters like to start in the middle of a hood or trunk lid i tend not to do that .
i like to start on the side and work acroos the panel . this too comes from trying to get as little dust / over spray in my finish .
when you start in the center of say a hood your hiving the over spray more time to setup on the other side of the panel before you can get to it and wet it up with top coat . if your over spray flashes off before you can wet it up the panel will look dusty / dirty . were if you just start on one side and work right across the panel you have not given the over spray time to flash off and setup so your top coat will just melt into it's self .

cnielsen · 12-16-2012, 06:16 AM

Thanks for the write up! That's about the process I use but just wondering.... In your shop, is it ever practical to have two painters working a car so you are not doing the Chinese fire drill around the car?

962porsche · 12-16-2012, 08:17 AM

in my airbrush shop i'm the only one that works in it . it's my personal shop . in my body shop i will do about half the painting of the painter i have will do it . we have never tag teamed a car . it's not like your running around the hole point is to work at a good pace and not kill your self doing it .
the only time i have ever tag teamed any thing was a 1939 mack tractor trailer truck and it's trailer . it was built to match his 1930s bugatti we restored for him . the rig was built to haul his car around the funny thing is he races the car and shows the truck .

cnielsen · 12-16-2012, 02:58 PM

Any pics of the Mack? Sounds like a cool combo

962porsche · 12-16-2012, 05:05 PM

no i never take photos that is all up to the customer . 30 years ago i used to take photos of all the jobs we did but now it's pointless to do so with out a web site . i keep thinking i will have a site done but our customers are not looking on the web to find a shop to have there cars worked on .

the rig was in some trucking mags the owner did send my the mags they are in i will have to dig them up .
the owner updated the tractor to a turbo diesel with all modern running gear . because of the extra power he was adding we boxed the frame rails and added modern air suspension .