Show me Your Self Painted 911

[vol96]

I've done a lot of mechanical and sheet metal work that has turned out fine. But my attempts at painting in my garage have not turned out very good. I'd like to see what it is possible to achieve in a garage with 5hp air compressor (dont remember the cfm delivery numbers but it runs my air tools so should be enuf for painting).

Thanks,
Joe

Edit : My biggest prob is the body work. Every little bondo spot shows up only after painting. Feels fine after sanding, no edges can be felt, appears to be well feathered. Then prime....still looks good. Then paint and its WTF! Is there a way I can check the body work so to speak before I waste too much time priming/sanding/painting?

Does everybody use 2 stage system (base/clear)?

Best paints for beginners? acrylic eurathane, enamel etc. Dont be fooled...I know nothing of paints.

HVLP gun or not. I been using a small gravity fed hvlp and it sucks IMHO.

[targa80]

Here are photo's of my work as an amature painter. It is a lot of trial and error. It is doable if you take your time and spend a lot of time on prep work. You can't fix after paint if you did not fix it in primer.

[72 four door]

[widebody911]

http://vintagebus.com/howto/paint/

[Ron,K]

Here's my entry. I second the importance of body and prep work.

[thrown_hammer]

Ohhhh this is gonna be a good thread! Prep work is everything! I wetsanded my primer twice with 400 grit.

[markwemple]

I don't have pics but my self-paint on my motorcycle turned out very well. These guys, however, are on a whole higher plain than me (or is it ....than I). Wow!

[85eurocarrera]

Did this a year ago. Lots O work!

Joe

[dmcummins]

here's mine.

[85eurocarrera]

[dmcummins]

Well that didn't work. Just take everything off that you can, and clean and sand untill your sick of it.

Then clean and sand some more. Then get a good spray gun and practice. Then fill any imperfections and sand some more. Then prime and sand again. Then spray your paint and sand again. Then buff. If it doesn't look the way you want it to . Sand again and respray.

Just get lots of paint and sandpaper.

And make sure your paint area is clean. All that sanding makes alot of dust.

[K. Roman]

How do you get all the little dents out? And how do you know it's straight? Newbie to painting.

[barlowdo]

I read once where you can use two different color primers and the idea is you see different colors showing thru telling you high low spots as you sand.

Good Light- I can't say enough about good light.

Hold a light and shoot down the side of the car it will show shadows around the high low spots.

Strip down to bare metal-the car that is. I have just about given up filling leveling over existing paint it just takes longer IMHO to fill a void than to strip the existing paint completely off. ANd don't strip off the galvanizing if it has it.

Use a "epoxy primer filler" to fill some of the voids.

Start with 600 wet/sand with a sanding block where possible and work your way up to at least 1000.

Make sure you can see !! I now have to take my glasses off to see the fine detail.

Some fillers just don't feather well 2 part ICE feather pretty well.

And by the way I can't make a spreader spread to save my a__. It always leaves grooves in the filler behind. And I have used both harder plastic as well as rubber spreaders. I have yet to see a quality spreader even at a Car paint store. But that does not mean they don't exist.

Also Paint seems to go on differently depending on if it is a horizontal surface or a vertical surface.

And by the way all those pics above sure look good !!

-Don B

[vol96]

Those pics do look good. Anybody got pics of a bad paint job they did...and what they learned from it? I'm too embarrassed to post mine.

Has anyone done more than one paint job? I'd love to get this part of resto down.

[Chuck Moreland]

I'll play.


Reaching rock bottom:


Starting to clean up:


Light at the end of the tunnel:


The payoff:


And another:

[Andy Ring]

My 69T needs a paint job bad. I am currently containing rust by using Por 15 on the floors and other underbody areas. On the body work that shows, I have sanded down to bare metal and then used spray can primer to cover it up followed by spray can top coat paint (since I've heard that primer is porous). The car is black and looks like crap (we call her Patches), but at least it isn't rusting--kind of a holding pattern.

I have a question that I don't think is off thread. Suppose you want to do the prep work yourself, do you have to go the compressor, spray gun, 2 part paint route? Suppose I were to continue as I have been (spray can paint) and somehow managed to get a really smooth surface (that looked bad, but was smooth) and removed all the glass, trim, etc. Could I then bring the car to a body shop for a quick prime/top coat, or would they just laugh at me? I hear a lot about incompatible between "paint systems" but I have no idea what that means really. I may be opening a can of worms, but any info would be helpful.

[targa80]

Originally posted by Andy Ring
I have a question that I don't think is off thread. Could I then bring the car to a body shop for a quick prime/top coat, or would they just laugh at me? I hear a lot about incompatible between "paint systems" but I have no idea what that means really. I may be opening a can of worms, but any info would be helpful.

One time I did the body work on a 1976 Camaro that I bought cheap. Preped it for paint and took it to Maaco. (no glass removal) For $200.00 they masked and shot the whole car. Naturally they did not guarantee the finished product since they did not do the body work. I sold the car to the first buyer who came to look at it. If you shop around I am sure you can find a place. If you are courageous enough I have seen paint supply places that know where you can rent paint booths for hours or days at a time.

[dean]

Bodywork is a skill that takes time to learn. I have painted maybe 15 cars over the years. Paint and equipment has come a long way in 30 years. When the car is primed hold a light at a steep angle and look into the light to see the waves. Get a $150 HVLP gun and read the mixing instrutions and practice. It also takes a fair amount of equipment to do a good safe paint job.

[Zeke]

Originally posted by barlowdo
I read once where you can use two different color primers and the idea is you see different colors showing thru telling you high low spots as you sand.



-Don B

If you want white to show thru a black paint job when you get a stone chip, then use white primer. Otherwise, use the dark primers or even black primer.

To find imperfections, after a full prime, spray a light misty coat of a contrasting color over the whole surface. This is known as a guide coat. When block sanding, the little droplets of the contrast will show you the low spots and scatches, etc. Stop when you reach your base coat and reprime. Start over with another guide coat. (You can use a spray can held about 3 feet away.)

[dmcummins]

good light is a must. I also purchased a fresh air resperator. It's a pain to drag another hose around but its better than the alternative.