Painting the Car, Sequence of Events

[Ed in Maine]

I am about to paint my fourth car and each one gets a bit better than the previous car. What I have now is a good "ten footer." I know you could write a book on this subject but I wonder if others have a particular trick or two to make the job come out a bit better. The following is a rough list of the sequence of events that I use to get the car ready for paint. Please comment:
1. Disassemble as much as possible, remove trim, etc.
2. Install patch panels, do any welding. Chase all threads and repair if necessary.
3. Strip off old paint to bare metal.
4. Sand away rust, rub down metal and clean with metal prep such as Dupont 5717S.
5. Thoroughly dry and prime as soon as possible.
6. Do the body work with body putty, skim coat to remove all small dents and imperfections.
7. Sand body work and wipe down clean. (What washing liquid do you use at this point?) Metal prep any bare metal.
8. Reprime and finish with fine sand paper.
9. Wipe down and finish with tac rags.
10. Apply top coats.

I would like to see this next car get to be a "six footer". Give me your comments. Ed

[700rpm]

Current theory suggests not chasing threads on original bolts and such, because modern taps and dies are different than originals.

[SkipShift]

Sounds like a good plan. I like to use a direct to metal, 2 part epoxy primer. It adheres well and shrinkage is minimal. You can skip some of the metal conditioning with this primer if you like. It never hurts to use metal prep, epoxy primer can save this step for you if you like. On my car I'll condition the metal for any body filler but prime away after that. Final prime sanding I have been using 400 then topcoat. What color or colors are you spraying? Epoxy primer comes in many colors these days and you can use it as a sealer just by using more reducer. with a similar primer the topcoat will cover quick and might save some paint.

7. I use ppg wax and grease remover, prep sol or pre kleano works too and there are others. I force air dry with my blow nozzle to get it dry.

[SkipShift]

I see in the other thread you are spraying Jet Black so I looked at it. I found their technical data sheet which you might find helpful. I'll be painting my car black too and have gotten my black from TCP also.
http://www.tcpglobal.com/restoration...chsheet_au.pdf

I will also be using their DTM epoxy primer. It comes in Black. I have been using it on motorcycle parts and it sticks like glue to bare metal.
http://www.tcpglobal.com/restoration...px#EpoxyPrimer

[Logan]

The secret to a really good paint job is many blockings with a long block. If areas done block out flat, fix them. Don't "cheat" by blocking out that little area with a smaller block. On average every car we paint gets anywhere from 4-6 blockings after all the body work has been "roughed in" before the first coat of primer. Depending on how rough the body was to begin with, the first 2-3 blockings are with 80 grit, everything after that is 180 grit. Then to prep for the top coat of paint, we do 400 wet on a block. No Disk sanders used except when we knock down the top part of bondo, but we finish off the bondo with a block. Do you see a trend here? Block block block. That's the only way you can make one as slick as you possibly can. For 80-180 blockings our sticks are about 18-24 inches I believe. The 400 block is like 9 inches I think. Once you switch from 80 to 180 80% of your body work should be done. You'll still pick up some highs and lows with 180, but the idea of using 180 is to get rid of the 80 scratch and start smoothing out the primer so that your 80 grit doesn't show bellow your top coat. If you take your time, block correctly, and you don't mind spending your extra time, and little bit extra money in primer you'll be really really happy with the end result. The reason 10 footer paint jobs exist is because people just don't spend the time to so a paint job right. It's not that everyone couldn't do a show quality paint job, its just that people get in a rush to get something done. We call blocks "idiot sticks" because any idiot can block a car, and as long as some common sense is used it's hard to mess up blocking. Don't run a block strait in any direction. You'll wear grooves into the primer that will show up in the finish even if you don't see it in the primer. Put your block parallel to the floor and run it in a long diagonal. When I'm blocking it is a full upper body work out. I use 2 hands on my long blocks, get my knees on the ground, and just start sanding as large of a pass as I can down the sides of cars. When I'm done I'm usually drenched in sweat, and my arms are jello but it's worth it to see the end result. At the end of a show quality paint job you can expect to have a 150-200 hours in just body panels. That's not putting the car back together or anything else, or wet sanding and buff/polish.

Simply, perfection takes time and not cutting any corners.

[Pinstripe]

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excellent advice good paint takes a lot of time, there's no other way

[Growley bear]

Chasing threads on original fasteners is not recommended as they were rolled thus no metal was removed. The threads are generally a touch larger in diameter than the unthreaded shank. Cut threads w/taps and dies remove metal thus not a very precise fit of threads. The threads are generally a touch smaller than the unthreaded shank. Thread files and bench mounted wire brushes work well at dressing up threads on bolts.

Chet

[tbirdtbird]

All good advice.
" I force air dry with my blow nozzle to get it dry."
I have never needed to do this; surface cleaner dries very quickly. But if you do this; be sure to use a filter ball ahead of your blowgun to get rid of the fine mist particles of oil in the air from your compressor. I know a guy who ruined his color coat by not using a filter ball; and he got fish eye all over the place.

[SkipShift]

Originally Posted by tbirdtbird

All good advice.
" I force air dry with my blow nozzle to get it dry."
I have never needed to do this; surface cleaner dries very quickly. But if you do this; be sure to use a filter ball ahead of your blowgun to get rid of the fine mist particles of oil in the air from your compressor. I know a guy who ruined his color coat by not using a filter ball; and he got fish eye all over the place.

Point well taken, most home shops should let the panels air dry. I have a 4 stage compressor filtration system with up-over-down-up-over piping system. This eliminates cratering for me. I mostly use my hobby paint shop for motorcycle paint. I'm also using a fresh air filtration system for myself.

[Terry,NJ]

I instinctively used a long block. It uses a 3 X 18 sander belt cut and stretched out to it's full length. My blocks have a very gentle radius sanded into the area below the belt. This helps to maintain the curve of the body.
Regarding the bolts and threads, I use an adjustable die, opened up so that it only removes the rust, etc in the threads. This cleans only the threads and does not remove any stock off the bolt. For nuts, I run a old "Starter" tap into the nut from both ends until the the tap starts to "Bite" into the metal of the nut.
Terry