Steps To Paint Vehicle...

[ShaolinMassa]

Mike or somebody else can you let me know if I got this correct, I wasnt sure about the clearcoat part, do I have that where it needs to go, please let me know if I need to add anything or take anything out, thanks...

1. Use paint remover and steel wool to remove all the old paint
2. Use a paint thinner to clean the metal
3. Remove all plastics
4. Apply a metal conditioner
5. Apply a conversion coating
6. Mask and tape off the car and use compressed air to get rid of dust
7. Apply a coat of etching primer
8. Apply a coat of laquer primer, let dry, apply 2 more coats (use a sealer also?)
9. Allow primer to cure for 3-4 days then use wax/silicone remover to clean the car
10. Sand primer with 600 grit sandpaper (not circular motion, back and forth sanding motion)
11. Wipe down with wax silicone remover
12. Thin the basecoat (use enamel lacquer paint), 3 parts basecoat to 1 part thinner, then strain it into the spray cun cup
13. Test the gun and then apply a tack coat (very light fogged on layer of paint)
14. After about 15 minutes apply a second heavier coat and let it dry for 30 minutes
15. Apply a final coat
16. Let dry for 2 days and color sand with 600 grit sandpaper (what is color sanding?)
17. Spray on several more coats and let dry for 2 days
18. Water sand with 2000 - 3000 grit sandpaper, use running water so that paint flows away easily from under the paper
19. Apply several coats of clearcoat and let dry for 2 days (wasnt sure where the clearcoat part came in so i stuck it in here, is this correct?)
20. Water sand with 2000 - 3000 grit sandpaper
21. The surface will look dull, polish the car with hand rubbing compound
22. Polish the car with an electric polisher and machine rubbing comound
23. Go over the surface with a sft dry cloth and liberal amounts of corn starch
24. Using cold water and no soap, wash the card thoroughly
25. Dry with a chamois
26. Apply a coat of wax (is this carnauba wax?)

[ShaolinMassa]

anyone?

[ghostguy6]

yes thats pretty well it, but you can sand the primer with a 320 grit paper if your careful and you can use a primer sealer instead of seperate primer and sealer its just an extra step if you apply both coats seperatly. I have never used cornstarch on any of my cars but if you do use it i would wash the car with soap just to make sure you remove all of it before you apply the final coat of wax. I have no idea what you would use corn starch for so I'd just leave it out

[shanonperry]

do you have to do all that stuff even if your painting the same color like black?

[ShaolinMassa]

From what I know and read, you have to do most of those steps but not all...you dont have to do step 1 and strip the paint off completely, you can sand the old paint and paint over it, I am only stripping because I had an extremely bad paint job done and its bubbling and cracking everywhere...you also don't need to do the corn starch part in step 23...

[Markgase2000]

The more thorough you get when doing a painting aplication the better the results , if your painting with enamels and laquers you can use the 320 gritt works great , but if you use the newer dupont type systems a finer gritt will be required due to the consistancy of the paint. (It shows through any defects unless aplied with orange peel affect)
All auto manufacturers use this orange peel efect to hide any flaws with the metal finish( slight warping , ripples small dents or dirt specs under the paint) the metal manufacturers use is way different than anything we used in the old days (has less memory , doesnt like to stretch or be heated as much as old metals did) this new material gets shaped once and thats it. Too bad cus with older cars/trucks all you needed was a dolie , body hammers , tinman hammers , body files , body chalk , and an oxy acetaline torch. They could repair anything without fillers or resins.
Nowadays the metal is repairable without removing the paint and repainting , its called paintless dent removal , thanks to more flexible durable paints.
Most important thing to remember , condensation is the enemy , it will get in any tiny places and ruin after time the hard work you done will go bad. I use hydrophoric acid (not spelled right)to remove rust from the peice and quickly nuetralize it with amonia then put body solvent on and dy that off then paint the piece with under coat to seal the peice. This process is fast , if you dont do all these steps after the acid within 10 minutes it will not work , if you do it fast enough the piece will last forever. Under coat and metal prep are very important. If your gonna paint farm equiptment use a sand blaster to remove paint and rust if its metal finish repair on a car or truck do it with sand paper wet or dry. Im sorry I cant go on , will post up later and finish this off. Unless it boring you. Ill put my steps in order later on.