1st DIY paint questions

[sw20>>s14]

i bought my car fully knowing that i had to get a paintjob, but now im going to do it myself.

talked to a guy with a 280z that had a very clean flat black look. thought it was done by a shop. this by no means looked like blotchy primer (which i was about to settle with). perfect amount of gloss and very consistent. asked him a couple of questions and found out that he used kragen bumper paint (think of old cars that didn't have paint on the bumpers. just black plastic). said it worked and is holding up very well. said sanded, no clear coat, one layer. didn't use a spray gun, just rattle can...

so i have a couple of questions. i didn't clear the details with him so i am asking you guys/gals:

-should i wet sand?

-what grit should i use? something very fine, but what works best?

-my clearcoat is peeling on the roof and on my pass door, there is a 3x5 chunk of paint missing. meaning bare metal. so if i sand it, will it be evenly smooth or will it be choppy?

-since there is bare metal, should i primer it?

-does anyone know the properties/characteristics of this bumper paint? meaning, does it have to be room temp. etc?

thanks in advance for all your help or advise. any thing will help me perform my first DIY paint job!

[s13silady]

well if you wanna go and do it yourself, i wouldnt use bumper paint.. if you want a nice color, they make actual rattle can car paint...if your set on doing it this way, then all you really need to worry about the pprep work... probably 75-80% of what your car will turn out will be from the prep work... if you have the time, wet sand it, and do it that way. but when your done, you could have probably have done all the prep work done, and then have it re-sprayed for like 300.. thats with clear coat...(oh yah.. dont forget clearcoat after..)

[SirWarrior]

you are only supposed to wetsand the clearcoat. everything else doesn't need to be wetsanded. Wetsanding is pretty much used to smooth out the top coat and allow buffing to bring out the shine.

Than again, my bro could be wrong, hes only been doing it for 15yrs.

[Antihero983]

hmm let me know how it goes, im going to be painting my car flat black (i dont have the money for a real paint job yet and nor do i know what color i want either) and would like to hear how it goes.

[wootwoot]

Get on the bandwagon any harder and it might kill you

[s14 blacktop]

you are only supposed to wetsand the clearcoat. everything else doesn't need to be wetsanded. Wetsanding is pretty much used to smooth out the top coat and allow buffing to bring out the shine.

well your brother is wrong!! wtf why would you want to wet sand your clear coat I think you mean buff it then that is correct.. buffing and sanding are two different things..

the only time you wet sand a car is after you put primer on it, you wet sand the primer with a high grit paper to smooth it out..

[SirWarrior]

wetsand the clearcoat to get rid of any orangepeel effect
than buff it.
;)

[Phil St John]

Actually it depends on how Good you want your paint job to be. Always sand the primer, but if you want it to look good, wet sand the color coat as well, repeat untill the final coat then go get a three stage buffing agent, 3M makes tons of them and can be found at an autobody suply store.
good luck

[Phil St John]

wetsand the clearcoat to get rid of any orangepeel effect
than buff it.
;)


Oh yeah the orange peel effect is greatly reduced by the steps above, try not to sand your clear coat

[s14 blacktop]

hey sw20>>s14 dont paint it with spray paint it'll look like crap I tried doing my hood and front bumper with the can and no good do it with a paint gun way better results... and it wont look too bad if you have a idea of what your doing.. theres a link that will help I'll post it up after I find it..

[m0rex]

I did my front bumper flat black and came out good after i sanded it twice and i was using $2.00 spray can from Napa.

[s14 blacktop]

well if you like it looking all nasty do it, my car a needs paint job but i'm gonna do it right the first time, sand off the whole car really good fix any dents I have on it, prime it, paint it, and clear it with about 4 coats so it'll be nice and shiney..

[TwoFourO]

Spend the extra money and get all the ish you need to do it right. That's what I did, and it came out awesome. It ended up costing me about 1200 bucks and now I have the equipment permenently and I have a huge air compressor for air tools. If you want my honest advice, don't use a spray can. The results will be crap. Oh and for most of you above, don't comment if you don't know what you're talking about. Color sanding is a thing of the past, you only sand the clear coat to elminate irregularities and imperfections, and then you buff the shit out of it. I have yet to sand or buff mine and it looks great anyways. Needless to say, you need to do much, much more research before you do anything involving paint. Go to an autobody forum and check it out. Good luck man.

Here's pictures from right after I painted my car...in my driveway...first time...

www.cardomain.com/id/twofouro

[s14 blacktop]

what I dont get is why all you guys sand the clear coat and the paint?
when you wet sand the primer and smooth it all out and therefore elimenating the need for sanding the clear coat or the paint, unless you guys let the clear run and then you have streaks, thats a different story its called poor craftsmanship in other words you cant paint.

See the way I learned how to paint is that I hung around my uncle's shops(got 3 of em with shops) the paint guys always used this same routine and every time it turned out clean and shiney there were a few that didnt turn out so nice but they buffed it with some compound and bamm looked like it was new...
so I dont get you guys sanding the clear coat....the only time you sand the clear coat is when you had a run....n

[Phil St John]

I was talking about show quality pant, and not Hot import Night stuff either. I found there is a world of difference between a nice paint job and a perfect paint job. I'm an anal paint freak, so I want evey corner every edge and everything not visable to still lokk awsome. That takes work. And this man never said anything about sanding the clear coat. Its just a matter of how good you want your paint job. I personally would not rattle can a car, sure paint is more or less paint but the atomization process is quite important. And unless uve got money falling out of your ass color sanding is not a thing of the past. Hell none of you even bothered to mention that the environment where you paint is as important if not more than the paint itself. If your shits not clean your paint will suck. period. If your shits to smooth yer primer wont be happy either. You can also avoid the orange peel look by not sucking when you paint. Oh yeah Unless you really have horrible painting skills, any new paintjob looks good, even Maco's paint looks ok, untill you look closly at it or any time goes by. My car looked awsome, but I live in Oregon so buying a car in the rain is pretty common. Turned out it had a ton of dry spots and I dont think he cleaned the car that well so my paint wiil probably turn to crap in a couple of years.

Damn I talk alot, bottom line, If Your not gonna go into some car show and you dont really care as long as its one color just spray it with the rattle can and if you dont like it you only paid $20.

[o5i2]

well, if youre going to rattle can your car, you need quite a few cans. when i sprayed my fender, it came out all blotchy, so you would need to sand it. the spray pattern on rattle cans are pretty uneven, so its not really painting skills. its hard to get it looking nice without sanding it down afterwards.

-barry

[sw20>>s14]

yeah, i was talking about "bumper paint" though. the dood told me that the way the material works in bumper paint is different from paint. such as: it doesn't tend to not stick together when its cold, doesn't "layer" as noticable as paint, clearcoat, or primer. i was condsidering doing it primer, but ive seen too many blotchy cars. you needed to see it to know. it looked semi professional, or at least done with a paint gun. but he told me three basic steps: sand, paint (one layer?!?!?!?!), dry. came out pretty well. no botches, only imperfections were because of his dings and stuff. just considering doing it because right now, looks it least of my worries, but i still want something that is easy on the eyes.

plus, im doing this because my front bumper is chipping. and also, my clearcoat on my roof is going. so as an alternative, is there a certain grit to JUST take off the clearcoat and leave the base paint?

so...should i wet sand or dry sand? considering im doing bumper paint. should i primer just for extra precaution?

thanks for all the help...buying sandpaper tomorrow, so i want to know what grit is best.