Painting a car

Ok so I got everything I need to paint my car and I'm now working on getting everything on the car as smooth as I can and repairing dimples , dings , or scratches , I went over it today with light to see everything and there was more than I thought , guess the flat black hides a lot , I went to KOI and bought some Body Glaze and began filling all the bad spots , this stuff sets up in like one minute , I got my inner fender wells removed , back hatch off , tailights , side marker lights , front signals off , put some old wheels on it and began sanding the repairs , I'm still not finished sanding them and plan on wet sanding the entire car after the repairs are done , if anyone has ever painted cars before and have any advice or tips I would greatly appreciate it , I'll post some pics of what is done so far , it looks way different then when you all seen it on Saturday , I have a cheap $30 gravity fed hvlp spray gun that is new , water remover to hook up between the gun and tank , reducer, hardener, 1 gallon of Black Dupont Gloss paint and Activator , I know the spray is supposed to be at about 32 psi . but I'm a rookie and I'm tired of sanding , I'd like to get this right the 1st time lol , I'm trying to have it ready and back together by the friday ?

Most of these spots are just road gravel chips but I had a 6" trowel and had to work fast getting the Glazing on so I had a lot more sanding then I could of had .

That 32 cruse must have been really hard on your car!!

First off get that mud off the rubber nose. It will not stay on there. You may get by with very, very small amout such as spot putty size for small chips but anything bigger than that will pop off down the road. The rubber will conduct the heat and cold differently than the glaze. The rubber and plastic will flex differently than the glaze. The glaze or bondo will stay for a while but it will pop back out. May be a week may be in two years but it will come off. If you have rock chips you need to feather them out using a D/A or other sanding methods. For deeper scratches, down past the factory primer you can use hi build primer. You still have to watch this and get almost all the build up off other than the scratch or chip or it will chip off or crack too. They sell flex agents to use on rubber pieces and alot of guys are now using a bonding agent to get the primer and paint to stick on the rubber/plastic pieces. I have been cursed with dealing with plastic stuff on my Bird. The few times I have been able to get it perfect someone nips my bumper and messes it up. Best bet on anything is to ask alot of questions at the paint store. KOI paint seems to go out of their way to help get you what you need to do the job right. Most are sellers and not painters but they have classes just like school to teach them and it is usefull info.
One other thing to remember. Places that talk about baking on paint? Maaco?? Don't let them mess with it unless you take the nose off. That baking paint on is all BS. The reason they put the car in the oven is they are mass sprayed and have orange peel. The heat smooths out the paint and make the orange peel smooth out. It doesn't bake the paint on as they claim. The paint will not hold to the car any better no matter if it's in the oven or not. It's just to smooth out their fast cheap paint. You will get the same effect if you have orange peel in your paint if you just park it in the hot sun right after it is sprayed. What else it does is distorts the rubber on some of the newer cars if they have it cranked up hi.
The Front end on my 78 was never the same after they painted it. They are okay for all steel cars but I wouldn't let them mess with anything that has rubber or plastic stuff on it. I know you are not taking it there but just a warning to everyone.

The Glaze on the nose will be sanded off when I wet sand , the reason it's there is for only road gravel chips , do you think it will be allright after sanded ? there will be only tiny spots of glazing left on there , I tried the primer build paint before and it cracks on the rubber nose , I'll sand it down if I have to thats one reason I posted this to get advice , let me know Steve I appreciate it .

If you sand it down to only cover the scratches, chips or small bad spot you should be fine. I would watch anything bigger than the size of a dime unless it's a scratch. As long as the scratch itself is covered it should be fine no matter how long it is. You may still need to spray some primer on it to get a good base cover for your paint but you are right about the hi build primer. If there is alot it will cause trouble. Looks like you have the basics. Can't wait to see it done. The above stuff only reflect to the rubber on the car. The metal body parts should be just fine with what you are doing.
Steve

Might want to read this, Bill. http://www.saabce.com/Media/PDF/Plastic%20Repair%20and%20Refinishing%20Procedures.pdf

Black is difficult & will show minute imperfections.

Since you are using black primer, once you have the car coated and wet sanded, shoot a light gray mist coat of primer on and then block sand it. Any dings and small waves should become obvious.

I've never used HVLP guns, but before I started on the car, I'd practice on a spare panel somewhere to make sure I had the hang of getting a good pattern overlap and keeping a wet edge.

It has been a long time since I was spraying cars and paint technology has passed me by. I use to buy my supplies at KY Motors when I was painting and at that time they had a few guys that actually were in the business and knew exactly what to recommend for any job.

I know you know to shoot the jambs and other hidden areas first. You need to clear out the garage and get it as clean as you can before you start shooting the finish coat because you need to minimize crap that can be stirred up and settle on the finish. And even though the HVLP is supposed to minimize overspray, you need some kind of ventilization going. And, do not attempt this in high humidity or in the evening. You'll end up with moisture under the paint and bugs in the paint. One darn little flying critter can can absolutely kill the job on a panel.

Good luck with it.

Thanks for all the tips , I plan on covering the ceiling of the garage in plastic and also the walls then wet the floor before painting , also I have an exhaust fan mounted to the rear garage wall , I picked up some flex additive for the bumpers today , I'll mask them off tomorrow and paint those first , I also have a few Camaro body parts lying around that I plan on using to get my pressure and flow down .

Bill how did it come out?

Don't think Bill was happy with the results Steve. He'll get it straightened out though.

Z-YOU wrote:Don't think Bill was happy with the results Steve. He'll get it straightened out though.

That stinks. At least black is not bad to touch up or as costly as some other colors.

Ok I didn't do such a good job , so to update this I sanded the entire car down again spent all weekend on it and a friend of mine came down today and shot it with his high dollar gun and what a difference a good gun and experience makes , in short I'm very happy with it now it still needs buffed a little but it looks good , here's some pics of how it turned out .

Wow.... that's NOTHING to be ashamed of. Black is my favorite color on any car, but then I am the type that loves to polish and rub on it every chance I get.

Looks good from here man, good job. Now your gonna force all us guys with primered car to make ours look good.

Thanks guys , what do you mean make ours look good primer is good too , in fact I thought long and hard about going with gloss , if it wasn't for my uncle buying the paint it would still be primer and I got lots of good comments on the flat black and people saying leave it like that , but only looking at it now I can say I like it gloss , when I got the car it was gloss red and had a glass finish , I didn't like red so first thing I did was taped it off and primed it , later guys .

Good work!

Looking good.

Looks great!!

Great job man!

Thats slick, but now it's not a rat rod.

looks real good man....when can i drop mine off to ya

Bill stopped by the other night. It went from a nice car to a slick car in justa few weeks. One of the cleanest 3rd gens I have seen in a long time.

Looks really good. I just love the black.