Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register.

Clicking on eBay [or other affiliations] may result in referral commission being paid if a purchase is made.

Painting my ride ...

« Prev
1
Next »

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 9:57:57 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	I am in the process of painting my car at the moment. I thought it might be of interest to someone on here if I detailed the work and help give others the encouragement to try it for themselves. I am doing this as a novice; I don’t have any past painting experience (other than spray cans) but its something I have wanted to try myself for ages now. Hey if you don’t try it how will you know if you’re ever any good at it? Steve3002 on here has been a great help in offering guidance and advice - Thank you sir! As I go I will probably try and revisit some of my posts with updates so you can learn from my mistakes etc – what worked, what didn’t, and what I would do differently next time. The materials … In the picture I have: I have 5L of Cellulose paint 2.5L primer 5L anti bloom thinners (for the paint) 5L standard thinners (for gun cleaning / primer) 5L Panel wipe 1 tin of Plastic padding filler (Note – I found this filler to be less than great, it’s pretty tough to sand by hand. I was told it was just like Plastic Padding Ultima (which I have used previously and its very easy to sand – this stuff isn’t) Still it will have to do! A pack of 800 grit wet and dry (for keying good paint surfaces and flatting out) Mixing pot Sanding block 1k stopper/primer (for minor imperfection repairs, its like an air dry filler in a tube and easy to sand) 3x Masking tape Tack rags Filler applicators Blue roll Latex Gloves Decent spray mask, with filters and pre filters for organic vapours There will be a few other things I will need but I will cover that off as I go. On top of all of this I also have: Compressor - specs 3hp / 14cfm / 50l tank Pressure regulator Water trap and air filter HVLP gravity fed spray gun Dedicated hose for paint spraying (to keep the airline free from oils etc) Due to lack of space the car is going to be painted panel by panel – then the body painted outside on a good day (if that ever happens). As this is a bit of a retrospective as I am further ahead than this stage – here are some updates! update To date the compressor I have has worked brilliantly – whilst I am yet to spray a large expanse of car the compressor has kept up without issue and never run out of puff even when I have been working on 3 or 4 fairly sizable items at the same time. So whilst its only a small compressor it seems to be man enough for the job. update Extra purchases Kestrel DAS6 DA Polisher 3x Polishing mops (compounding, polishing, finishing) 3M cutting compound (Wanted Farecla G3 but they only carried massive tubs and I didn’t want to spend that much!) Finishing Glaze (Again wanted G10 but they didn’t carry it and I just couldn’t be bothered looking elsewhere – the stuff I got works well though) 50x sheets of 1500 grit wet and dry for colour sanding 1L of Bar Coat – intermediate layer which goes between 1k paint and cellulose to prevent reactions (more on the reactions later) 2.5L of grey cellulose primer 10 sheets 120 grit (for cleaning up those reacted panels) 10 sheets 400 grit 10 sheets 600 grit Paint strainers 50x mixing pots – got fed up using 1 bucket, had I know I could get the disposable ones I wouldn’t have bothered with the 1. More Blue Roll – you get through this stuff like mad! I think that’s it … I will dig out the invoices and list down what I have paid out on so you can have an idea of costs.


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 10:08:35 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Reasons for going with Cellulose There is a lot of paint out there that would be suitable to use – enough to confuse the novice! Enamels, Water based, Rustoleum, 1k, 2k etc! I went for cellulose mainly as I wanted to get a paint match (not possible with Rustoleum – which was the second option) my local paint supplies carry the paint and its also supposed to be a forgiving paint which suits a novice sprayer (you can wet sand the paint to give a good gloss finish, even if you cant get it from the gun). As I am using flat colours I can colour sand the paint to get a good paint finish (working on the basis I won’t get a perfect finish from the gun) so any imperfections in the paint (including dust / bugs) can be sanded out – which is a plus to the novice as there is less emphasis on getting it spot on from the gun first time around. I understand that cellulose will take a few more passes to give good coverage compared to 2k but then you only really need to wait around 10 / 15 mins between coats before you want to throw the next one down so its no massive hardship. Apparently to get a better final coat you want to change the mix to 30% paint / 70% thinners which should help the paint melt in and give a nice shiny finish – I will find out if this is right shortly. Cellulose is also safer than something like 2k, so you don’t require an air fed mask. (I also found a few places reluctant to sell 2k to a private individual). I preferably don’t want to die as a result of painting my car so 2k is off the list. Seriously if you’re a novice and are looking at using 2k please do some informed reading before going ahead. The hardener in 2k is the nasty curse word that will kill you and can also be absorbed through your skin and eyes. You can get special 1 use masks for 2k which is like your normal spraying mask but when I read about one guy who used one and then woke up in hospital after his lungs shut down as it had been absorbed through his skin its not a risk really worth taking. update Steve3002 recommended I use Rustoleum, and I would have but I wanted to get a colour match rather than an off the shelf colour. According to the man in the know it’s a very good paint, cheap and also isn’t very sensitive to reactions so a good option for a novice DIY’er. Like Cellulose it can also be colour sanded to give a nice shiny finish even if you can’t get it from the gun.


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 10:11:47 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Panel stand Not massivley relevant to the process but hey .. I felt like posting it! :lol: As I was going to be painting the panels off the car I needed some way to suspend them so I could spray them easily. I dug out what was the remains of what was a weight lifting bench press from the A52 scrap steel stash. Gave it a bit of thought, did some chopping and then broke out my welder and stuck it all together. Some pipe cladding and job done! Should come in handy, it also flat packs and has adjustable height … Nice! update For what is effectively a 30 min lash up at Area52 and made from scrap the stand is awesome! Had a bonnet on it and it was nice and stable – also great for hanging bumpers off it too. Another Area52 engineering triumph!


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 10:15:19 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	DIY Paint booth I have tried to improvise as best as I can to create a suitable space for painting. A big tarp to cover over the workbench and roller cab at the back and 2 over lapping tarps across the garage door to stop the weather getting in. An electric radiator has actually done quite a good job of keeping the garage warm as well! I put a few screws in around the garage door frame to hold the tarps in place and then weighted them down with a spare set of wheels. The wind has made a good attempt to get into the garage on a few occasions as it’s got bloody windy but this wet up has worked pretty well so far. update Its pretty ghetto but this set up is working really well – I haven’t noticed anything getting past the tarps and out of the garage which is good news. Sadly the amount of paint floating around in the garage has got everywhere. Its not a problem as it settles as a light dust and easily wiped off but it does mean when I am done I am going to have to do a bit of a clean up – the dust has even settled in the draws of my roller cab! I am keeping the old Takrags as they are great at wiping down the stuff that gets covered!


	Reply Quote

ben711200 Posted a lot Posts: 3,412	Painting my ride ...ben711200 @ben711200
	Apr 14, 2010 11:57:40 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	I'll keep watching this, James. Loving the 'for a complete novice, by a complete novice' writing style too. Will be VERY useful for me in the next month or so...
	Oct 12, 2012 9:40:03 GMT Robinxr4i said: ...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.

	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 14:05:14 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Bruce told me about the plan the other day! Looks like a busy weekend!


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 14:17:31 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Setting up the gun Working on the basis you have bought a new spray gun your going to want to clean it through properly before you use it, its also a good opportunity to tweak the knobs and set the gun up properly. I filled the gun with some standard thinners, and then sprayed onto some sheets of newspaper I had taped to the garage wall. Just meant I could adjust the gun settings to understand what they did and tweak the fan of the gun and the paint delivery / air pressure. Wear your mask when spraying the thinners! Run the thinners through the gun until it’s dry and then give the gun a wipe down (remove the spray nozzle bezel and wipe down with thinners too – you may find some assembly grease there). update Being a spaz I realised that depending on what your spraying will affect how it comes out of the gun. For example primer is mixed 2:1 so it comes out pretty thick and hence your spray fan is quite limited. When spraying paint 1:1 it’s a lot thinner and so your fan will be larger. So you will need to adjust the gun depending on what you’re spraying. I do a quick set up on an old bit of plasterboard. On the final cellulose coat your spraying 1:2 so it comes out even thinner than the initial coats so be careful as at this point the paint is very running and it’s pretty easy to get a run, sag so again you might need to tweak the gun accordingly so you don’t lather it on. update I now run the gun at around 45 / 50 psi, any lower and its useless. So if you’re running a Clarke HVLP gun ignore what they say in the manual as if you spray at their recommended pressure its curse word and the paint doesn’t atomise properly. update I think my needle size maybe to big for paint – its 1.8mm and I think I should be using 1.4mm, the smaller needle just means the gun puts less on, not an issue with primer as that’s pretty thick but with the colour it could be to much . I need to check the other gun I have and see if its cot a smaller needle and they are swappable and do a test to see which is better. I just bought my HVLP gun off the shelf and didn’t think to check this out – something to think about. I seem to be coping ok with the 1.8mm needle though.


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 14, 2010 14:23:19 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Compressor bits I have a separate airline for paint spraying – to reduce possible of oil contamination in the paint from airline oil / air tools. Working on the basis that my own spraying technique would give me enough work I didn’t want to also have to do with water spots or fish eyes (oil in the air). I have also fitted an inline air filter and water trap to collect any moisture. Prior to painting I evacuated the compressor and also opened the drain to get rid of any water that was inside. You will need a regulator as well to drop the pressure to a suitable level for painting. My compressor isn’t anything amazing – it’s an Airmaster 14/60 14cfm, 50l, 3hp and so far seems to be well up to the job. So it seems you don’t need anything too serious to paint. But then remember I am doing this panel by panel rather than going end to end on a car so your experience may vary. 15m airline was £10 from Machine Mart Air filter / Trap was £10 from Machine Mart Quick break connectors and Barb connectors – dunno maybe £20 for the lot.


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 19, 2010 13:20:21 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	The prep starts - sorry no photo's for this stage Going to start with the smaller panels first – so I removed the front lip, arch extensions and headlight covers from the car. Only issue is they are filthy, covered in melted rubber and bug splats! I have never been great at cleaning my cars! Panel wipe did a good job of loosening most of the stuff stuck to the panels, after that I got bored and broke out the scotch pad and some water – the rest came away nicely and the panels were nicely keyed for paint. For any unever areas of the paint I used 800 grit and water to help flat them out. Using some blue roll and some panel wipe I cleaned the panels ready for spraying. I wiped them down, and wiped them down, and wiped them down, and wiped them down … you get the idea! I kept cleaning them until they were spotless and I wasn’t picking up any dirt on the blue roll. With the panels arranged for spraying I gave them a quick run over with a tack rag and then set myself up for spraying the primer. I did a spray test on the garage wall and fiddled with the gun settings to get a good amount of paint out of the gun but nothing crazy. I then went about spraying the panels. This is the first time I have sprayed! Let the carnage commence! update As this was all new to me I started to get myself in a bit of a pickle, when mixing up. Now I have calmed down about the whole process it’s a considerably more casual affair. Remember the paint won’t go off in the gun or the pot so you don’t have to rush. Also don’t mix up to much (you can always make more if needed) I did an ended up wasting paint. Chuck your primer into the mixing pot and then add your thinners. The primer ratio is 2:1 so that 2 parts primer, 1 thinners. Then you need to stir away until the thinners and primer are nicely mixed. Pop a paint filter in the top of the spray gun cup and pour away (don’t over fill!). If I have paint left in the pot that I still want to use I put the filter into the pot – keeps the filter good for another use and stops crud from falling into the paint. update I reckon anyone could spray primer and get a good finish; it goes on nice and thick, settles nice and flat and leaves a great finish. The panels I was painting had a few awkward shapes and corners so I used this as an opportunity to practice for the main colour run. After doing this a fair few times now and working some curse word shapes I am now very comfortable with spraying awkward panels etc. update If you get a run or a sag when using primer your doing something really wrong! The first coat I laid down was a light dust coat, gave that 5 mins and laid down another heavier coat (but not trying to give a full coat) and repeated this about 5 times with 10 min breaks in between to allow the layer underneath time to flash off before I added another. Spraying wise I just tried to keep the gun level across the panel and worked relatively quickly in a sweeping motion starting the gun before I hit the panel and ending off the panel. With some areas this just isn’t possible though so you will need to using wrist flicks and the like to get the paint on without overloading an area – its hard to describe but with some practice you will get the idea.


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 19, 2010 13:21:57 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Mojo killer! Paint reactions! On the 3 panels I sprayed they started to suffer from paint reactions. How bummed am I! I thought I had done something wrong, laid the paint on too heavy, not allowed the bottom coat to flash off enough before laying the next one etc. I remembered that I had previously used Halfords 1k acrylic enamel spray cans to do a few temporary spot repairs to the paint – unsurprisingly the repairs were exactly areas where the paint is reacting! So total wash out. 1k paints and cellulose don’t mix! This is how the panels looked as the paint went on - you can see the paint literally tearing, this just got worse and worse as the paint dried! I summed up the energy to sand the panels down again and have another attempt – this time I sanded down to the gel coat of the panels – hopefully that would do the job. After asking some questions I was advised to start light and build the coats and in the areas that react keep adding dust coats until they go away. I found that by pulling the trigger on the gun half way would allow me to blow air onto the affected areas to help flash the primer off as quickly as possible – it seemed to do the job! update A few days passed and all looked good. No paint reactions. I moved the panel into the kitchen to free up some space in the garage, went to bend and came downstairs to this. Literally overnight and the warmth of the kitchen the Cellulose and the 1k reacted again and across the panels the paint has cracked and torn! update If you have done any painting with Halfords aerosols and intend to use Cellulose then its going to react. There is a product call bar coat which acts like an intermediate layer between the paints. I have bought some so will be revisiting these panels when I can be bothered sanding them back for the 3rd time! So it’s worth checking what’s on your car first before painting to save the problems I have had.
	Last Edit: Apr 19, 2010 13:27:50 GMT by eightsix

	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 19, 2010 13:28:33 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Things do get better people! I promise!


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 19, 2010 13:30:40 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Stuck for space As you can see I am slightly stuck for space! Which limits how much I can paint in 1 go. What you see here is the N2 kit and headlight covers in primer waiting for paint – sadly the reactions above happened after this photo was taken!


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 19, 2010 13:44:01 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	We have white! Thankfully some of the N2 kit was still with the original paint and hadn’t reacted to being sprayed with cellulose. To my surprise I now have 2 headlight covers and 2 rear arches painted white. Woop Here are the rear arches on the later stages of paint (I will do a more detailed paint process run through in a bit – my phone battery died when I was doing all of this). Here is the final finish – the shot was taken looking down the panel. Now what I understand from this photo is that the final finish is too dry, so not enough paint, painting too far away, or moving the gun over the panel too quickly. Obviously being my first proper attempt at getting a paint finish from the gun I was quite nervous and probably being too light with my application. Still it’s a fine textured finish and the advantage to Cellulose is that it can be colour sanded. So I fixed the arch to the car (it was too floppy to sand otherwise) and broke out the sanding block and the 1500 grit wet and dry and with a good supply of water carefully sanded away – being extra careful around the edges and lines so I didn’t burst through. The end result being a nice smooth panel, ready for some paint compounding and polishing to bring it up like new. (BTW subsequent to this I have dragged a DA over it and its come up light glass! Awesome!)


	Reply Quote

ross_m Part of things Posts: 98	Painting my ride ...ross_m @ross7
	Apr 24, 2010 14:02:14 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Brilliant thread! very helpful as I'm going to be doing the very soon in a few weeks Ive been working away at my car for ages. I'm at the final stages of prep. Most of the car is in primer. I just have one door to do and the roof. I'm planning on using cellulose with a compressor for the final coat. I have primered the whole car first with spray cans because I didnt want to have to get out the compressor etc and clean it every weekend whenever I needed to spray a panel. Just seemed the easiest way. It has come out really well as like you said, its really easy to get a good finish with primer The thing is, I have sprayed the whole car in halfords acrylic cans! So now I know I'll need bar coat for the intermediate layer. Will need to find somewhere that sells it. Cheers


	Reply Quote

eightsix Part of things Posts: 415	Painting my ride ...eightsix @eightsix
	Apr 27, 2010 15:20:53 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Might be worth you reconsidering using cellulose if you have painted the car with acrylic primer. Maybe you should look at using an Acrylic paint as well to help prevent any reactions – I don’t know anything about acrylic paint though. You should be able to get some Barcoat from your local paint shop. Its needs a good surface to bond to so make sure you key the paint with 400 grit. Once the Barcoat is on you aren’t supposed to key it before adding the next layer of paint. Bar coat goes on really easily and you will get a good coat in 2 passes. Dries fast too. Make sure you clean the gun out immediately it’s a curse word to clean out of the gun properly. Run a good amount of thinners through it once you think its clean to clear out any extra crud.


	Reply Quote

manbearpig Part of things Posts: 831	Painting my ride ...manbearpig @vivaboy
	Apr 28, 2010 0:35:57 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Nice one eightsix - top thread, top bloke
	retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=54678

	Reply Quote

Mystery Machine Club Retro Rides Member [][][*] Posts: 10,299	Painting my ride ...Mystery Machine @mysterymachine
	Apr 28, 2010 10:46:36 GMT Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top
	Awesome stuff James. I'm hoping to pop up very soon to grab a sneaky peek at this in the flesh - from what I can tell, it's going to look stunning. A brilliant guide - one that should be saved in the Useful Threads section alongside Alistairs guide to painting a car. Keep up the good work ;D


	Reply Quote

Retro Rides Privacy Statement