painting my car...need tips!!!

I have fixed a good chunk of the rust on my car and gotten most of it primed and all that fun stuff...but when i put the bondo and stuff on my car i used 80 grit sandpaper and then primed it, then i used 120 grit and primed it again...now i am waiting for it to dry...so now what i think i am gonna do is take it to 400 grit sandpaper and then heres where i need the tips! should I prime it again or should i jump strait to putting the paint on? thanks for your tips in advance i should have the front fender done by today so i'll post some pics later on!
Luke

I am in the process of doing the same thing. Every time that I bondo and sand I am putting a new layer of primer down. It may not be the right thing to do but I would think that it is going to make it a lot stronger.

that is my 2 cents so if I am can someone that has some experience please post and help both of us.

can u post what process u went through to sanding n' primering ur car? i'm gonna be doing the same thing this saturday and sunday. How long did it take for u to sand and prime it?

When i first put the primer on and sand, i use that as an indicator for places that still need some finishing work. I go down to 600 grit and then put on a couple of coats of primer to help build the surface and then wet sand that with 400, 600 then 1000. i think that is the best way to get the body filler and metal to be completely flush with eachother. at that point you are pretty much polishing the surface but it makes a difference.

what kind of paint are you guys using and what are you spraying it with? are you doing a clear coat?

Your final sand should be done with 1000 grit. After you spray the base coat and let it dry, wetsand that with a 1200 grit. Then spray your clearcoat. Thats how mine was done, and it turned out wicked.

Oh, and if you decide to sand between clearcoats, again wetsand with a 1200 grit. (make sure there is no "orange peal" this means sand untill you dont see any orange peal like pattern in the paint)

Good Luck

oh man i just laid the first coat of paint on...oh man it looks tricked out, its subaru WRX blue! oh man i can't wait till my cars totally done!

sweet man! Let us know when it is done and make sure if you can post some pics for us to see. you never said what kind of car it is. I know a civic I hope but are you running a 4D or a hatch.

sounds awesome! that's a gorgeous color. my friend drives a wrx and my car is blue too but parked next to eachother, mine looks more purple.
are you painting the entire car? sounds like you took panels off to do it. i took my doors off and lined them up on the one garage wall. was able to break up the spray pattern and made it a lot easier, i think. i hate dealing with overspray.

I got an 89 CRX DX i got it for 800 bucks and there was so much rust on it but it runs like a dream and i am going to paint the whole thing in one chunk but it has been like a month and a half and i want to see something actually finished so i am just painting the front pass. fender. people look at my car and think its the biggest pile-a-junk around cuz its like 5 different colors but now i can be like "well this is what the rest of the car is going to look like in less than a month" and point to the fender! i'll post pics later on!

painting just the fender sure makes the rest of my car look like crap...but oh well. here goes nothin...feel free to make any coments...good or bad!
F:\lukes stuff\DSC00123.JPG
F:\lukes stuff\DSC00124.JPG

crap how do you post pics...still kinda a noob

i hope this works

wow that looks good man, glad to see another crx in the family as well.

get the rest of that paint done, then come paint my car.

man that color loooks SWEET!!!!!!!!!! That is going to be one bad arse looking paint job when you are done. Make sure you post some pics.

Good luck.

wow, that's a fine ass job man.

thanks a lot guys...it does look really good but it takes so much work! lots and lots of wet sanding! But i might be done with the hood today so i'll get some pics up (hopefully in some weather thats more shiney!) But yeah thanks again for your comments!