Home Car painters, last bits of advice?

SLKWrx · 08-30-2006, 06:20 AM

So tomorrow evening I roll my shell of a 914 body into my canvas lined "downdraft" paintbooth/garage bay.

Any last bits of advice before I dive head-first into this project and come out with more paint on myself than on the car?

With any luck, by Labor Day, I should have a fully painted car, ready for the long reassembly process.

Thanks all,
-- Steve

bd1308 · 08-30-2006, 06:21 AM

Make sure you, if you use a air compressor, get ALL OF THE WATER out of the compressed air.

Get a seperator if you have to.

degreeoff1 · 08-30-2006, 06:32 AM

I second that...they make lil ones you put on the nipple of the air feed to gun...works well......AFTER you dust clean CLEAN CLEAN the "room" also get a garden sprayer and run H2O through it, sprayer the walls and the floor with the mist...it gets alot of the dust...something about negitive charged ions or somthin...

Josh

stratoblaster · 08-30-2006, 06:39 AM

Yeah, get the water out. You can get a little "last chance" filter for your gun. Don't sweat little errors, most can be wet-sanded out (unless you are shooting metallic). Wipe the car down with some kind of cleaning agent or lacquer thinner. Then get a couple of tack cloths and wipe the whole car down for dust and particles. Follow the directions on your paint. Keep your gun clean. Spray some test patterns to test your gun setup before you shoot your car.

Spray the inside of the sail panels first or early. You know, right where the engine lid and rear window is? Otherwise you will have to lean over your fresh paint to get to them.

I wetted the floor and the walls with a hose as well. DON'T DO THE CEILING THOUGH!

Most of all HAVE FUN!!! Its a blast to shoot your own car.

08-30-2006, 08:09 AM

I always wipe the car down with the same reducer/thinner the paint uses before using the tack cloth, gently, one direction.

Important, run a ground wire from good ground on car to a metal water pipe buried in ground. Drive pipe into ground and hook up as alternate. This will reduce the amount of dust your paint job attracts. Moving fluids (air) produce static electricity.

Be careful with the water, try shooting in morning before wind picks up. With low wind and ground wire I stopped the water trick. The ground wire made the biggest difference.

Good Luck, Don

Bleyseng · Bleyseng's Garage

Use a HVLP gun so you don't have the cloud of paint spray everywhere. Paint goes on the car not everywhere else.

I painted my car in my driveway with just a canvas tarp on the gravel. Very little dust and overspray.

Phoenix-MN · 08-30-2006, 09:06 AM

Most importantly, Have a good positive flow air system to breath clean air.

SLKWrx · 08-30-2006, 10:16 AM

Great advice guys, I appreciate all the info. I have an HLVP gun that I'll be using. I heard that grounding wire thing before and completely forgot about it! I'll definitely be hooking that up before I start.

Doing the inside of the sail panels is something I definitely would have screwed up, thanks for that one. I can't believe how good your cars came out, they look fantastic. I hope that mine comes out looking half as good. This is my first attempt at painting aside from my "test subjects".

Tack cloth and cleaning agent/thinner. Anyone have a brand or desired type that works best?

stratoblaster · 08-30-2006, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SLKWrx

Tack cloth and cleaning agent/thinner. Anyone have a brand or desired type that works best?

Whatever brand/type of paint you are using probably has a cleaning agent that is compatible. I used PPG Omni and I think the cleaner was called DX430. It just gets any contaminents/oils off of your surface so you don't get fisheyes.

As far as tack clothes, I think 3M makes some. Wherever you get your paint should have something.

So.Cal.914 · 08-30-2006, 12:37 PM

You probably already thought of this but make sure you have a

sock for your head and face and a really good resperator.

And when useing a tack cloth you want to just touch the surface

with very little preasure or it will leave some of itself on the

primmer, not good.

chief914 · chief914's Garage

Sometimes cleaning up causes more harm than good if all the dust has settled and is basically "glued" in place by primer overspray. I know most will disagree with this, but I've gotten more crap in my paint by cleaning up prior to spraying than simply leaving things be and exercising caution with disturbing things.

I just painted my car in the same bay that I did all the welding/grinding/body work and all I did was wet down the floor prior to spraying. Of course the worst screw up in my paint job was a big drop of water off the air hose from the wet floor! Sometimes you are your own worst enemy!

Oh....yeah and watch out for bugs

rich · rich's Garage

30+ years of auto body experience. Your getting some good advise here. I owned a top notch booth in my shop. Some of the best paint jobs came from my garage. We'll not really, but close enough to work out. Here's a garage paint job.

w9r1 · 08-30-2006, 09:51 PM

Back in my younger (much younger) days, and prior to getting hooked on a 914s, I was spraying the fender wells of a 1955 Chevrolet on saw horses behind my shop, took one step back to admire my handywork, and stepped on the water hose....

Another time, we had just finished unmasking my very first car (1964 Chevrolet) , putting on all the trim and bumpers, and while shutting the garage door (we were finished restoring the car and about to go on vacation), the garage door fell off the tracks on top of the car.

Another time, me and Budweiser were painting the dash of my '55 Chevrolet, and the runs were so bad we had to cut them off with a knife.

Painting your own car is very rewarding, just don't do anything stupid! THINK (and don't ask Budweiser for any help)

Ed

rich · rich's Garage

Here's another

KaptKaos · 08-30-2006, 10:51 PM

This thread will make your head hurt then.......

Cheap Paint

sww914 · 08-30-2006, 11:09 PM

Practice first on an old panel. Sand it and clean it as you would the car so you can see what it will really look like, and do it in the same place as you will spray the car, at the same time of day, so you can find the problems before you mix up a couple of hundred dollars worth of paint. If you don't have anything, I'm sure any bodyshop will give you a ruined fender to use.
Also, I think it's easier to fix a run or two than a big dry spot.

degreeoff1 · 08-31-2006, 05:29 AM

Man hearing about that paint on a budget...makes me happy about what I'll be paying......PPG self etching primer, 2 part apoxy primer , $600 a gallon for my color and then there is the clear coat totaling 1500 total

D1A3 · 08-31-2006, 11:48 AM

OK, I keep hearing about that challenger on different boards. has anyone ever really tried that? I wonder, assuming it does work, metallic silver woudl come out? Also, if you "messed up," ow hard would it be to take the paint down and restart, blending it in?

Cost has been keping me from getting my car painted, but for a couple hundred dollars, I'd try it...

sammyg2 · 08-31-2006, 12:13 PM

I was a car painter for 4 years.
I thought I'd never finish that stupid car!

KaptKaos · 08-31-2006, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by D1A3
OK, I keep hearing about that challenger on different boards. has anyone ever really tried that? I wonder, assuming it does work, metallic silver woudl come out? Also, if you "messed up," ow hard would it be to take the paint down and restart, blending it in?

Cost has been keping me from getting my car painted, but for a couple hundred dollars, I'd try it...

I am in the process of getting some body panels to pratice on. I will let you know how it goes.

According to the threads (there are two, both over 30 pages), metallics don't work well with the roller.