Primer, Paint, Spray Gun, and...

[Blown&Injected]

Getting very close to doing the body work, and paint and looking for some ideas on tools and materials.

This is the supply place near me Mattos Profinishes > Home and there is a good chance that they will have a "system" that will determine what happens - but I do not want to get stuck with a bad option.

Due to paint checking, I took it down to the metal and I have been told self etching primer-sealer in one is the way to go. Then base coat and clear coat - it will be black.

I have used cup guns to paint steel but I have never painted an entire car - it looks like many use a different gun for the different stages, but a middle of the road gun may be used to do it all. I am not setting up a paint operation and I hate the fuss of selling stuff so I would prefer to not have to buy a bunch of guns. I understand that the base coat goes down easy, like primer, and I probably will not do enough painting to notice the difference in the guns anyway, so it sounds like the one gun should lean towards the clear coat type of gun???am I right???

Plan to go over all the bare metal with 80 grit - wipe down with some type of cleaner, and spray the SE primer/sealer. Then block with a contrasting fog from some rattle can and go over all the primer with 180 to 220.

What to use to do the cleaning on the bare metal and before shooting the black base and the clear?

Also, the RA sander is an air hog and I have water coming out the sander after an hour of sanding - what to do to keep the air clean? I was thinking that filling the compressor (60 gallon) the night before will let the air cool down but it is clear that the filter/separator I am using is not effective. I am told another filter at the gun and not letting the air line lay on the ground will help.

Any ideas are appreciated.

 

[thessman]

Most of the time the paint company ( dupont ,ppg ect..) will tell you what products to use and in what order. Prep is the key to good paint jobs.
Bad prep work WILL ruin a nice paint job.
Block it, block it, block it.......

Good luck ! Steve

 

[BIGPSI]

use primer filler overtop of the self etch primer. block and re prime with it. self etch is not made to fill imperfections. first time block it good with 220 grit. re prime with primer filler about 3to4 wet coats let dry real good block sand again with320 grit or finer. if body and prep work is good you should be able to paint after this

 

[cchilly]

I would also finish the primer in 500 or 600 grit. 220 grit is way to coarse, especially for black. I would also go with bigpsi and put a filler primer down as well.

 

[gculver]

Get a decent gravity feed for the base/clear...Use a large tip primer gun(suction is fine) for the primer. I like to use a high build urethane for the mid-top prime coat and epoxy for bare metal(sticks to damn near anything). Sandwich all body work(putty) between prime coats, NOT on bare metal. Don't use anything but 400 or finer for any final prime coat work and follow the time constraints between the base and clear to lessen adhesion problems.Don't touch the base, tack it off gently.Sand swells will show though the base if the body work is mediocre. Lay down enough clear to color sand and buff...Color sand with 1400 to 2000 grit depending on texture(finish with 2000) and keep a steady trickle of water on the panel while color sanding.
My $ 0.02 and Happy painting......and use a good mask!

GC

 

[Chuck Leeper]

"Plan to go over all the bare metal with 80 grit".
Unless you are going to use bondo over the bare area, 80G is WAY too aggressive as a prep for primer.
Etch primer is not necessary if you use the epoxy that GC mentioned.
We use PPG products, ONLY. Once a project is started, we use the same mfgr for all the materials.

 

[Blown&Injected]

Thanks for the tips!!!

Was attempting to get on autobody101's message boards but the admin is asleep over there or something.

Almost totally stripped to bare metal - messy job