Painters please step inside.

My hood on my 80K mile car is in bad shape paint wise(damn FL sun). What do I need to repaint this hood? tools, paint, proceedure.

I also have a bad spot on top of the car where I would have to "cut" the paint. Can enyone elaborate on this?

I have a Binks gun and new air compressor.


Thanks
Bo

Ok, How about I strip the hood, sand it down w/??? gtrit and primer it 2 times then block sand it.... Then 3 coats of paint.

Does this sound ok?

I need some advise please.

Thanks,
Bo

IF YOU WANT TO PAY $24 A GALLON GET AIRCRAFT STRIPPER. LIKE ALL AUTOMOTIVE PAINT SUPPLIES, THEY ARE OBSCENELY OVERPRICED. I'VE USED AIRCRAFT STRIPPER..........THE STUFF FROM HOME DEPOT WORKS JUST AS GOOD (stripease) AND COSTS CLOSER TO $15 A GALLON.

GET YOURSELF THE COARSEST STEEL WOOL YOU CAN GET. NO MEDIUM/COARSE.........COARSE. GET A COUPLE GALLONS OF LACQUER THINNER AND SOME RUBBER GLOVES AND A LOT OF CLEAN RAGS. YOU'LL ALSO NEED A BOX OF RAZOR BLADES. COST ABOUT $5 A HUNDRED AT AUTO PAINT SUPPLY. YOU ALSO NEED A SCRAPER THAT YOU CAN INSERT THE RAZOR BLADES IN.

AFTER STRIPPING, TO GET THE REMAINING PAINT OFF, USE THE COARSE STEEL WOOL, STRIPPER AND THINNER TO "SCRUB" REMAINING PAINT OFF. THEN CLEAN THE BARE METAL WITH CLEAN RAGS SOAKED WITH LACQUER THINNER. YOU CAN USE A METAL PREP BEFORE PRIMERING. I USUALLY SKIP THE METAL PREP. THAT'S UP TO YOU.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money on paint, paint the hood with Nason synthetic enamel with a catalyst. Get a qt matched to your color code. Prime the hood and paint the the Nason in medium wet coats.

DON'T WAIT FOR THE WINTER TO DO IT. THE WARMER IT IS, THE FASTER THE STRIPPER WORKS. HAVE FUN!


__________________

Hey red regal, Have you ever tried laying a sheet of plastic like we use to bag the cars over a panel while the stripper is kicking? It seams to trap the vapors in and pull off more product.

Ok first off take the hood off the car 2nd dont use that paint stripper it makes a big mess and then you have to prep the metal after using that crap. when you say the hoods a mess what exactly do you mean is it faded or what ?? Let me know this is what I do for a living =)

YBLEGL, Of course I will take the hood off! I am almost set on stripping the paint as to sanding it. The paint is pealing from a previous buffing and sun faded.

The top of tha car (after the ttops )needs to be blended, so Im guessing there is a specific technique to do this( That part I will sand). I want it to look presentable....thats all. I am going to get the whole car painted as soon as I get other things done first.


Why not strip?

Bo

Strippers just make a big mess and then you need to wash the hood over and over with water to make sure no chemical is left then you need to dry it right away so it doesnt rust and then of course you gotta seal the hood right away or any moisture in the air will cause it to rust. If you use a DA and some 80 grit sand paper you can probably have the hood ready to paint in 30 minutes then just go over it with 320 so its smoothe enough for basecoat. You dont need to strip the hood just get off the paint thats flaking and the rest of it just buzz with 320 or 500 and its ready to paint no need to goto the bare metal. Paint sticks best to paint not metal, as far as the roof if its just faded just sand it quickly with 800 then go over it with a gray scrotch bright pad and its ready to blend and or paint.

This is bogus. Do yourself a favor. Strip it like I said. Nothin to it. I never heard of partial sanding bad paint and painting over it except at Earl Scheib.

Strip it to bare metal. If you don't, the problem paint and any imperfections will show or come back in a short time and your hood will again be screwed up. Just wipe down the bare metal with lacquer thinner a few times. Washing the hood is not necessary. Best primer would be epoxy primer.

Not sure what you mean.......you don't have to sand it down if you stripped it already. If you mean sand it down, primer and block, it's harder than you think to sand down to bare metal. If you leave paint and primer over it and sand out the scratches, they will come back within a week and it'll look like ****.

No........never tried that. Sounds good. I try not to make stripping an everyday job though.

Hey Red regal T goto any bodyshop in america and see what they do obviously you havent painted anything half decent in your life. How do you think bodyshops do blends and **** the bad paint is sanded down and the rest is scuffed up and cleared over you dont even need to put color on it but you are so experience im sure you know everyone. Do whatever you want I dont recommend a chemical strip if you want do yourself a favor and call a few bodyshops and ask them how they want it prepped if you were to bring them the hood to paint im sure they wont use chemicals, I know I dont at work my boss wont even order the **** because it sucks and all we paint is high end cars.

and TT if you are going to paint it yourself you will be basecoat and clearcoat unless you are doing single stage which you should only need 2 coats not 3. If doing 2 stage put enough base on so you cant see through it and its completely covered then 2 good wet coats of clearcoat but dont run it. Dont put on the 2nd coat till the first coat is stringy when you touch it. Spray on a peice of paper to test on obviously dont touch the hood to test after you clear it or you will have alot of wetsanding to do =)

Go get 4 cans of Rustoleum flat black paint, lean the hood against a sturdy tree, and spray it real good. It'll look like a carbon fiber hood and it will turn heads......trust me!

Congrats on your new track times Bo! Impressive.

Ed

I try to do it as little as possible too! I agree with red regal T. If the paint is checked or crazed it must be stripped. There is the chemical stripper way that RR T mentioned and its very effective and can be done by a novice with some direction, then there is the sanding method, which is better left to the pro's. Ohh! , and by the way, I'm a Autobody Tech and everything I've seen Red regal T post is accurate. He usually just beats me to it and I type slow so I don't bother repeating him.

Thanks for the replys people. What grit sandpaper should I sand the top with?

Any techniques/tricks to doing ANY of this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bo

I couldn't tell you how many times I've had to prep panels for paint and said, "what asshole was working on this?". Some bodyshop, no doubt. There's so much half-ass work out there, it boggles the mind. You can choose to do a good job, or a half-ass job. I see no reason to do any half-ass work, especially on your own car. I've painted hundreds of cars, so your right, I don't know what I'm doin. There's a few in my signature.

Anything wurth doing is wurth doing RIGHT!. I feel ya Red. Half the cars I work on have been slaughtered allready!

The poster that said to remove the top layer of paint is correct. 80 grit and a DA and knock it down to primer. Don't sand through the primer. No need to go down to bare metal and stay the hell away from aircraft stripper. That factory primer coat, if undamaged, is better than anything you'll put on bare metal yourself. .... Now if we were talking about a GN with the laquer job that was checking .... Yes you would have to sand down to bare metal. If you do decide to go ahead and strip to bare metal, I would still use the DA over the aircraft stripper.

I am a ferm beliver in Plasic Meida Blasting. If, its available in your area. Other wise sanding with a D/A and 80 grit paper would be your next bet. Only use stripper on small parts that you can't get to with your D/A. Make shure the primer is not checked or cracked. If it is, that needs to come off also. Unfortunatly when the paint starts to check or crack, if not atended to right away. The primer will start to deteriate also. To be safe if the paint has cracked I would go all the way to bare metal and start over. I would sugjest using PPG primers/sealers. DPLF line comes to mind for bare metal. Make shure you Metal Etch the bare metal before spraying the primer/sealer.

I find it easier to use chemical stripper. I'd can handle the mess for an hour and half or so for a hood, rather than standing there all day with a DA sander. After having hoods warped on a couple classic cars, I'll pass on media blasters, thanks! Do you metal etch the panel after you sand it down with 80 grit?

I owned a Plastic Media Blasting bussnes for over 10 years. I just sold it to someone here in town. I got too bussy to do both that and my resorations. I have blasted Aluminum, Fiberglass, Plastic bumpers and very thin sheet metal. Never have I ever worped anything or ruined anything. Plastic Media is nothing like sand or other abrassives. It was designed by NASA to work in their space program. The highest pressure that is ever used is 30 psi. But most of the time its around 27 psi. Unlike sand blasting is around 100 psi. Plastic blasting dose not create any heat what so ever. It will not worp any metal on these cars. It dosent hurt glass or chrome eather. It is by far the most affectave way of removing paint and plastic filler short of dipping them. Witch I'm not fond of for other reasions.

If it takes you all day to D/A a hood Your doing something wrong. I just D/Aed a hood from a 70 Chevelle this morning. It had 7 layers of paint and primer on it. It took me 30 mins. max. I used 80 grit. Stripper on the other hand is tuff to work with depending on the weather and the temp. But I always say do what works best for you.

I always metal etch any bare metal before I prime. From body panels to compleat cars. It is also a great cleaner to get rid of any contaniments.