painting just the roof- how should i go about this

[curveball3110]

hey everybody, im looking to paint just the roof of my prelude black... the rest of the car is a bluish-purple; i bought those side mirrors with the turn signals on them and they are black, the contrast looks real good, then i saw a pic of a civic that was yellow but the guy painted the roof black and it looks real hot, so i want to paint my roof black too... only question is, how should i go about this? the entire roof isnt visible from any one angle, so im not worried about how glossy the paint will look... im thinkin ill sand down the roof with 220 grit sandpaper or finer, then spray paint? it, and then apply a clearcoat... the spray paint i have is already medium glossy, so i may just not even apply a clearcoat... what do you guys think? or should i primer it first? ive never tried this before, i am thinking of using my old side mirrors and testing my skill on those before i potentially wreck the paint job on my roof... any help/ insights would be greatly appreciated... thankyou all. ps- the entire area im painting wont be more than 4'x6'

[Greenblurr93]

dont rattle can it, it will look like shit. dont use 220 as your final sand before you paint, it is too rough... go to a shop and pay them to do it, they shouldnt charge more a couple hundred for it if they dont need to do any body work. or find a friend with a compressor and a automotive paint gun. (not the wagner)

[thefooshmeister]

yeah i agree with green..that sand paper is waay to rough..you should work your way up to about 1500 grit..i used it when i was painting my lights. spray isnt the way to go..for mirrors and stuff it can turn out ok but when youre working with a big surface area like that youre just not gonna get an even coat like you would with a gun.

i would sand then primer and mark off where you want the black to end and the purple to begin. then after your done coating the top several times and wetsanded you can wetsand some of the purple and add black to make a gradient in that area to hide the shade line then wetsand it all and clearcoat..

do it right and take your time or you will regret it

[curveball3110]

yeah i definetly learned my lesson about doing things right the first time... on my 1st prelude i bought cheap coilovers from ebay bofore i found AF... bounced my ass around back to the stone age... i follow your writeup on how i should do the job, but what exactly do u mean by "wetsanding" it? so im gonna want to use 1500 grit sandpaper, primer it, coat it several times with the black paint, apply clearcoat...gotcha. though easier said than done. im just unclear on what exactly wetsanding is... thanks guys for all your help i will also post pics when im done...i figure if i mess up the paint i can take it to a body shop and though it will cost more than if id just taken it there in the first place, they can fix it and paint it. so not much to lose, except some pride...

[Greenblurr93]

there is a special sandpaper that is made to be soaked with water, its usually black, i would use 2000 grit and a lot of water. no such thing as too much water. although i personally dont wetsand anything, i use 3200 grit dry. that way i can see all the orange peel as it comes out and make sure i dont burn through it. then use a buffing compound and then some polish and you car will look show quality (if done correctly)

[thefooshmeister]

you can find the sandpaper at any autozone..even walmart has some lol just make sure each layer of paint and clearcoat is dry before wetsanding or itll all come up. i usually soak the paper and have a sponge or rag saoked with water right next to it so you can keep squeezing water onto the surface