poloz28

i am about to paint my car myself if weather permits, and i was wondering if i could just sand my panels really well instead of stripping them with chemicals? What is the LOWEST TEMPERATURE you can paint your car in? are there any f body specific sites for complete car repaints? or other sites would help! thanks alot.

Paul

chiselmonkey

hey, well do you plan on painting your car outside???? you can paint your car in temps as low as 45-50 but it would take forever to dry and it will run easily. Also do you have a compressor that would keep up with the demands of a paint gun.You can sand the panels and paint right over the old paint as long as the old isnt flaking off.

poloz28

yeah i plan on apinting my car outside. its my only option and i really need and want to do it. i am a diy guy even at the ocst of screwing up (most times). i think i got pretty good sources so far, and i have some experience too. how long are we talking its goin to take between coats? also any more web sites would be great. thanks for the reply!!!!!!

Paul

MysticTeal 95 V6

Its going to be hard to get a clean paint job outside in the open. Painting in an un-controlled enviroment can be a pain... If possible it'd be best to have it done inside some type of shelter. When spraying the base you can get objects embedded like dust, leaves, hair... pretty much anything found floating around in the open. The most noticeable will be when you go to spray the clear and anything and everything likes to stick to it If you insist on doing it outside I'd go between coats with a tack rag and lightly wipe over the base to get rid of any derbis. Once you get to the clear you pretty much just have to pray you don't have an insect or otherwise kamikaze into your car else you'll be going back and re-spraying tryin to cover up the damage.

How much do you plan on painting? The entire car or a panel or two? You can buy diff temperature of activator according to the temps of the enviroment you're painting in. I believe anything below 50/60 degree's wouldn't be good. Like the other guy said... it'd take forever for it to dry in between coats and it may not tack up right at low temps. The last paint job my car got took about 5 minutes between coats with the base and approx. 15 minutes between coats on the clear. Then let it sit about 3 hours before it tacked up enough to touch w/o leaving an imprint.

As for prep work... you can sand long as the paint isn't chipping. Go through and wet sand what you plan on spraying... then go through with Ajax and rinse well. That should get all the chemicals, road grime etc etc off. Be sure you have a compressor that can keep enough PSI on your gun :again like the other guy said : so you can get good atomization of spray as it comes out of the gun to get a nice, smooth finished product. When you go to paint make sure its not real humid or a high chance of rain. Too much moisture in the air can cause the clear to have a pearl look to it as it dries and not give the car the shine that you'd want.

poloz28

Thanks for all the info! yes i plan on outside painting, it doesnt have to be flawless. i plan on using some type of tarp to keep dirt and bugs off. Any other info or links would be great. ill take all those things into consideration, but like i said, i want to do it weather permiting...
Paul

MysticTeal 95 V6

If you have any other questions then hit me up with an e-mail and I'll try to help out... if not then I'll find out the answer for you

Sorry... but I don't know of any links online with more info on a DIY paint job. It'll be difficult to do an entire car but it can be done *just as long as you don't expect a professional grade paint job *

Edit:: One thing that you may want to consider to cut down on the amount of base used and time is to blend in the spots that you're trying to cover up... or are you trying to re-paint the car an entirely different color?

poloz28

i am going to repaint a different color, removing all panels of course. i have a good feeling about doing it, its just that i am worried about the coldness around here. it cant look too bad if i did do it right, i have terrible flakes and road grime.

TA25th

Why not check into renting a paint booth? You will be much happier with the results. Timing will be everything if you paint it outside, and a simple gust of wind could ruin all of your hard prep work if you are in the middle of spraying it.

-Shawn

poloz28

Well i plan on using a makeshift "booth". I am using large tarps and make a somewhat sealed area for my car or parts of my car to be protected in. that will block wind, and keep a large majority of grime and dust out. now to address the issue of it being too cold...can i use heat lamps like you can buy the heat bulbs at WalMart? or would that not work? i planned on buying about 4 heat bulbs to heat up the sections i do, because i planned on stripping everything off that i can anyways. will this work or will i need something infared like a mr heater? thanks in advance!!!

Paul

TA25th

I would check with the instructions on the paint for the recommended lowest temp, but I would recommend only painting the car if it is above 65-70 degrees outside temp. I would not recommend trying to heat up the paint with warmers or heat lamps because you will get a very uneven heating on the paint, and it will not dry at the same rate, and will probably not work very well.

-Shawn

Whistler

A diy paint job by an expert painter in an outside, cold environment would be decent at best.

If this is something you're wanting to try out, and you have little experience, It will probably look worse than when you started. I've seen it happen before.

If you're determined, find an independent shop to rent you a booth. The 50 or 100$ you spend here will make the job exponentially better. Plus there's a good chance one of the workers will feel sorry for you ,admire your determination and help you out with a few pointers. Visit the shops to ask, don't call on the phone, they'll just blow you off. It's harder to say no to a person's face.

Wet-sand the whole car with 400 grit until there's no more shiny spots. If ther's any scratches or chips, sand them out with a little block and 220 wet. Dont use your fingers or you'll sand dents into the paint/primer. Go over the 220 scratches wilth the 400 and be sure to get them all out, they'll show up.

Pull the mirrors, taillights and antenna... the rest is easier to tape off.

Jack it up and pull the wheels, you can get the rocker panels and wheel edge lips better.

Painting in temperatures below 60-65 can result in all sorts of problems, from fisheyes to blistering, and worst of all, the clear will take so long to flash that it will run all over the place.

poloz28

thanks for all the info, you guys are slowly discouraging me, lol. anyone else got opinions on the success probability of this project?
Paul