My rear passenger 1/4 was pushed in and the bumper has spider webs, and my top bar has a crack from something previous, so if I repainted all those, I figure I should go ahead and paint the whole thing. I have painted alot, won VICA competitions 2 years in a row. I will be doing this in the 3 bay garage that a family friend has recently built to build hot rods in. He has a lift, compressor, spray equitment, etc. I figure it will be very hard to paint black without a draft booth, and I always loved dark silver cars.

So, my questions are:

1- Will I need to take it all down to metal, or just sand off the clear coat and spray the silver over that?

2- What all will I need, like how much base maker, how much paint, clearcoat, buffing compounds, which grinders and buffing wheels, etc?

3- How many hours do you estimate, from sanding to spraying, to sanding and buffing?

4- Any other tips.

5- Anyone know any real cool dark silver colors?

Thanks,
james

 

wow, thats a mouthful. First off, you should be able to paint black without a problem. Just get everything as clean as possible. Remember, DONT Oversand. Its not neccessary in most cases to go down beneath the original primer unless that area is totally shot. I buy a gallon of paint almost for all cars that I paint.
I dont like worrying about having enough paint when I spray and Its nice to have extra in case you have to go back and shoot a panel. Make sure you follow the mixing directions on the can exactly (the only thing that I vary is I go 1 heat range hotter on the reducer, that allows for slowing drying time and a little better overspray melt in).
Rule #2 dont try this with a cheap spray gun
Rule #3, never, never put the car in the sun to dry quicker.
After its done, wait a day or so, wet sand with 1500 paper, followed by rubbing compound, followed by white polishing compound, followed by a good final glaze or swirl remover.
do it right and the car could look better then new. (less orange peel) do it wrong and ?????

You might want to reconsider the color change though. To do it right you have to paint EVERYTHING, including all door jams, engine compartment etc. etc. Not to many people do it right.

Oh b/t/w/ did I mention that you can expect to pay about $500-$600 for all your paints and related "stuff".

This is just a couple of hints, thats why they write books on the subject. (But no book can teach you better then the school of hard knocks.)

Figure the following as a time estimate (without body work)
8 hours for getting the car ready, masking sanding etc.

Depending on your ability the color coat probable would take about 1 hour, clear about the same

the actual detailing afterwoods is totally upon your ability to spray and your dust and bug level in Texas, Better Spraying=less detailing.

Sounds like a fun weekend

 

I am actually planning on starting mid day next Friday, working through the weekend, then working at nights through the week, then finishing it up the next weekend.


Do you think I should pull the front and rear bumpers? Should I pull the hatch off?

What else should I do?

-James

 

I am actually planning on starting mid day next Friday, working through the weekend, then working at nights through the week, then finishing it up the next weekend.


Do you think I should pull the front and rear bumpers? Should I pull the hatch off?

What else should I do?

-James

 

silver is very hard to paint because it has the glitter specks suspended in it and they gotta be laid down evenly. My silver car was repainted by GM, by hand, and it sucks. At the factory they're painted by a robot that gets it perfect every time.

 

Good luck on Silver. Especially in an enviroment with no dirt control. AS said before, Silver has to lay down one way. If you spray it to heavy or too light, You will get what is known as modeling. It looks darker or lighter in spots. And if you get a little dirt under it when you paint and wet sand and buff it out, You will see it. Thats a promise. I am fortunate to spray my cars at work. We have a $75,000 down draft bake booth and it works great. I just painted my Brothers car black and only had 5 pieces of dirt in the whole paint job. We sanded it flat anyways but when we spray silver in the booth, We still have to take extra steps to make sure it looks good. If your gonna paint all the door, Hood, Hatch openings as well, You will certainly need more then a gallon. I painted the car in my Avatar. It was originally Red and painted everything including the floorboards. I used 2 gallons of Basecoat. I took the car down to a bare shell and did it from the ground up but I really went extreme on it. A color change is something that you really need to do some homework on. I will tell you this. If you are looking for a good brand Paint say like PPG. Clearcoat alone is 185.00 a mixed gallon. Basecoat is gonna be around 300 to 400. Tape, masking paper, Sand paper. Sealer ( You will need to seal the old paint as it will ring up if you sand through anywhere)By the time you are done just buying supplys, You will be looking at about 1200.00 and that not including a spray gun. I do this stuff everyday for a living and it is not getting any cheaper.

 

Dittos to EvilZ28, as far as the plastic bumbers in front and rear. LEAVE THEM ON THE CAR !!!! If not you'll probably regret it