Need Help With Achieving That Perfect Paint Job

[BrisTroy]

These steps are mainly for a repair, you'd skip past the first half for a respray, scuff up the old paint with 800 or something and apply primer from there.

As for lightening paint, no can do mate, its paint fade. All you can do is make sure you either do an entire panel and blend to a line where light/reflection changes, or consider a full respray. A great finish on new work will be more noticable for the colour difference, so maybe dont buff as hard

[BrisTroy]

My only thought, is that, this seems like alot, I mean ALOT of work to get a single panel finished, so is this the same sort of process used for an entire car respray? because if it is, I would never have thought they did all this

How'd ur panel turn out?

[lincellusion]

How'd ur panel turn out?

Only been able to sand it down at the moment, it has rained a bit here and Ive gotta go out and get some more paints as I am empty now haha, will be re doing it soon though, will let ya know thanks.

[BrisTroy]

Only been able to sand it down at the moment, it has rained a bit here and Ive gotta go out and get some more paints as I am empty now haha, will be re doing it soon though, will let ya know thanks.

Much luck or give up?

[stÖrmy]

As a spray painter, It makes me sad when people still use acrylic

[stÖrmy]

As a spray painter, It makes me sad when people still use acrylic

[stÖrmy]

As a spray painter, It makes me sad when people still use acrylic

[stÖrmy]

As a spray painter, It makes me sad when people still use acrylic. it just gives you more work at the end of the job!

[iwanta34gtr]

Ok, so here's wat i've worked out so far. (excuse the obvious being pointed out, a mate of mine yesterday was sanding back a layer of paint from a front bar with the dry 60 grit sandpaper for timber) so i'll try be thorough.

As much as the damage "doesnt look too bad" with some shiny paint left intact in places, be brutal. Its gomna be fixed, so dont try and preserve anything. Always easier to do a bigger area than blend a repair.

I usually start with 220 grit (wet n dry for all this, paper or sander in one hand, bucket and sponge in the other) for taking back paint, but for removing old bog or fibreglass, might go down as far as 80.

Take off a few layers of paint and see what you're up against, bog always binds better to bare metal too.

You can obviously mix bog correctly, fill and shape, its the sort of thing you'll wanna let dry overnight to be sure its set, everything takes time.

Fill holes with "metal fill" its a cross between fibreglass and bog. Harder to sand than bog, but so much stronger.

Once overfilled (always over compensate the shape you want) start sanding back with either 220 or 600, depending on the area being done, 220 for something the sander is going to have a lot of movement over, 600 for finer areas and corners.

Hopefully by now you have the shape you want, if not, repeat bog step above, only using 600-800 this time, being more particular to fine ripples or dips.

"Spray Putty" in a can is a godsend. Its a spray on, fine layer bog ideal for getting rid of stone chips or scratches. Allow about 5 hours for a generous coat of this crap to dry though, it can also undo a lot of hard work by "peeling" the whole layer off if u sand with too much pressure before set overnight.

Sand with 800 now, focusing on imperfections, air bubbles (you see these when the job is dry, so its important at this stage to keep washing down with water n sponge, and rag drying) and overall job finish. Ask yourself, is this ready for topcoat? By now it'll be looking pretty alright, but mulitcoloured. Base coat prime 2-3 coats now, and allow a few hours to dry.

Now that its all 1 colour, you're probably cursing at those spots you didnt feel or see earlier, so again make friends with the spray putty and sander. Get it right at this stage, or no amoutt of polish at the end will get you out of the shit you end up with.

Once happy, give a final coat in surface primer, allow to dry for a couple of hours, and give a light sand back with 1200 to smooth over. You're practically polishing it here, not removing paint, so focus on removing any scratches, and dont stay on the one spot too long. Wash with water and a sponge, allow to air dry, then use "prepwash" or similar to wash off remaining paint dust.

Happy with how it looked buffing with that shiny liquid? No dents, good shape? Buff dry, and check for pinprick holes from air bubbles.

Topcoat time.

Any acrylic in a can will do, but autobarn can mix any auto colour to a paint code, usually no more than 30 bucks.

3 even coats, allow a few hours to dry, then 1200 it smooth, wash with sponge and water, prepwash and allow to dry.

Clear coat is this process repeated, but dont touch with paper once sprayed.

48-72 hours is time required to dry for clear to be cut back.

Start with 600 to remove orange peel look, then 1200 to remove the 600's scratches, then 3000 to remove the 1200's scratches.

Finally buff with a cutting compound, and finish with a polish/wax.

This was originally a PM, but good info to share here. Feel free to add anything i left out or go into more detail. Hope this helps.

Great post explaining the process.

[trustr32]

As a spray painter, It makes me sad when people still use acrylic

I'll second that! Acrylic should have been outlawed 20 years ago lol. Na it is good for guys who want to have a bit of a muck around but not much else. As for the title of this thread the only way to get that perfect paint job is to leave it to a professional and not just anyone do your research on the painters previous work. I'm all for people having a go and the more you do the better you'll get but painting 'perfect' 2pak is a skill that takes years to perfect.

[BrisTroy]

And requires a spray booth

[mad082]

yeah, 2 pack requires a booth and breathing apparatus if you care for your health. certainly not worth it for some doing a minor touch up or painting something like a grill or mirror.

[BrisTroy]

I repaired my rear quarter from behind the fuel fill, and it turned out great, figured i'd share the process I used. There may be better/quicker methods but this way worked for me

[trustr32]

yeah, 2 pack requires a booth and breathing apparatus if you care for your health. certainly not worth it for some doing a minor touch up or painting something like a grill or mirror.

Yeah you definately want an Airwash hood for resprays but no need with the smaller stuff. 2Pack is not the best for your health thats why I quit lol.

At the end of the day it's all about the finished product so if it turns out well then alls well but you would only ever blend solid colours half way through a panel and even then you need to prep it correctly or your edge will show/peel back when polishing the blend.