kermit

First time paint job couple of basic questions:

1. What equipment will I need (I realize I'll need to build a frame and plastic)

2. Anyone whose done this before can you give me a basic step-by-step walk through?

3. What am I looking at cost wise?

4. Any issues I need to be aware of?

5. Is this something a novice home mechanic can handle?

6. Can I paint in a garage in the winter or should I wait till it warms up?

The vehilce is an 85 4Runner 2dr. I believe it's pearl and I'm probably going to stay pearl.

Ilovemountains

I’ve painted a few cars in my day and may be able to lend a hand. I am not a professional but have got professional results without spending $2500 on a paint job! You will need 1 HVLP spray gun the best you can afford, the cheaper ones do just as good of a job but wont last as long, I got mine from HarborFreight.com for like $70! You will need an in line water filter, you want to make sure you are only spraying air, not a water mist, I got mine at the local auto body supply shop for under $30, so there your only in $100 and if you already have a good compressor your in good shape! Next you will need to buy QUALITY sand paper, body filler and tools don’t try to save $10 on the prep work it WILL show up trust me! Take a good look at your truck, what needs to be repaired if any thing. The last truck I painted was a 1989 Yota 2wd. The body was in great shape but the pain was a scratched up mess and was faded and all from never being waxed in its entire life! I started by taking one of my garage bays and taping it off. I bought heavy white plastic at Home Depot and stapled it to the rafters creating a ceiling and made a wall dividing off that bay of the garage "2 door 3 car garage" Then I pulled the truck into the other bay so I could really focus on the prep work. I stripped it of everything that could possibly come off, bumpers, grill/head lights, tail lights, antenna, all trim, gas filler cover etc. The less you have to tape off and mask the better the end result will be. I then began wet sanding the entire truck; I used a palm sander and a random orbit sander for a lot of this stage. I took half of the top coat off I would say and really sanded out the scrapes and scratches. You will want to have picked a brand of paint by now and have at least bought your primer. I used PPG because that was the only brand that the local supply store had. $60 for a gallon of gray primer,$120 for a gallon of the alloy metal flake paint and like $70 for the clear, MAKE SURE YOU ONLY BUY 1 BRAND OF PAINT PRODUCTS, DO NOT MIX AND MATCH, some paint will NOT stick to other primer and some clear coat will crack and yellow if laid down on some color coats, stick with one MFG and make sure that what you are buying is compatible! Once I got the entire truck sanded and re-sanded I washed it totally with dish detergent, dish soap breaks down oil and will remove most of the residue left behind from the sanding. Now was time to mask it off, take your time and use good quality tape and buy an exacto knife of at least some fresh blades for the utility knife. Mask everything you DO NOT want any paint of any type on! I mainly focus on windows and the radiator and under the core support. I also masked off my front suspension and wheels rather good, the tail pipe and all wires to any thing you removed, wrap them in news paper and make sure it can’t come off! I loaded up my sprayer and tested it out on my old garage fridge before I shot any paint on the truck. This is the key to a good job waste an entire bottle full of paint on something clean, you want to make sure your gun is spraying strait, clear and that there is NO water mixed in with your air! I painted a Saab rally car and found out the hard way what a little bad air can do to the paint job! I laid down the color coat and went inside for lunch, came back out 20 minutes later and the entire car had orange peeled on me! This is why you need the in line air dryer/water filter. I did all of my primer work in the drive way out side on a clear warm day, you will once again sand this coat down with wet paper so if you do get any orange peeling or runs simply sand them out and if need be touch the area up. I always use a base coat clear coat system. I painted one car with acrylic enamel, NOT FUN the paint was cheap but the one coat was your finish coat! I always make sure the primer coat is clean and smooth then pull it into my make shift booth. My one garage bay has 6 fluorescent lights across the top and I have 8 more that I set up around the vehicle I am painting. This sounds like a lot but we are talking about $6 fluorescent lights from Wal-Mart, I have 4 in my basement and 4 in my attic and the rest in my garage, they get used constantly I just borrow them for the once every few year paint job! Anyway once you have the feel for you sprayer start laying down the color coat, make nice even wet stripes the full length of the truck, just make sure to hold on to the hose!!!!! If you get a run in this coat it will be OK wait till it dries and use FINE wet paper and sand it back down! The clear coat can be tricky since this is the most important part of a base/clear paint job. TAKE YOUR TIME with this one. I always lay down 2 light coats, wait a while then really lay down a good wet coat, not dripping off the body wet but enough to really bring out a wet shine to the paint. Wait a few days till the paint hardens in between color and clear then wait a few more between clear and clear if there are any runs or issues, if so isolate the area and wet sand it out, if its on a fender re clear the entire fender, door do the same don’t skimp out now or it will show up! The key is take your time, if its your daily driver take it to a pro or be willing to take your time for a professional result. You could paint it in one weekend and it will look OK but you want to let the coats harden properly and you don’t want to rush it, especially the drying unless you have a climate controlled garage where you can crank up the heat and really let help the paint cure, if not let it alone for a few days so it has time to really set up, it is a chemical not like wall paint in your kitchen! Like I said I’m not a pro but I have painted a few well about 9 total vehicles in my time and have a good idea of how to do it right " the Matt way at least"! I may have skipped a step so if any one else knows of something I’m missing let me know! I’m going to paint my 1988 this spring when I get my new fiberglass bed installed!

kermit

Man. Why can't I find a guy like you to show me the actual, hands on, how-to. If anyone lives in Northeast Nebraska let me know.

So I need:

A spray gun and an in-line water filter (what's that?). Does Wal-Mart carry quality sand paper, if so what grit (fine?)

Is there some kind of rust coat I can put on or is that part of the clear coat?

Then I get started let it sit between coats for a few days. 2 Light coats then a good coat. Then a clear coat?

I'll get back with ya if I have more questions.

superjoe83

an in line water filter removes water and fine particles from the compressed air so they don't end up in your paint job
Ive only used 3M brand paper and have had great results with it, not sure if wal-mart would carry it though, i wet sanded my runner before i painted it with 320, you may want to start out with a courser sand paper, like 200-220, they will cut a lot faster, but not fast enough to gouge the existing paint down to bare metal
as long as you don't have any rust on the surfaces that will be painted, you will not have a rust problem
let it sit about 20 min or so between coats, that will allow the coat that you just put on to set up slightly

Ilovemountains

Wally world sells a few brands of paper, don’t buy the cheap store brand, and stick with the 3M or what ever the name brand they have. You don’t need to go a few days between coats if you’re spraying color, or if you’re spraying clear, a good half an hour between them is fine. I like to let my primer set up for at least 24 hours and letting it set longer lets you take more time to really look at it, if a spot shows up in the primer it will show up in the finish coats. When I spray my color coat I like to let it set up for a day then really hit it with light, or pull it back out if it’s a nice bright sunny day and just look it over, make sure there are no hidden runs or any light spots, like down low on the doors. Since you plan on keeping the truck the same color it’s a lot easier to paint than masking off the interior and doing the door jams and all. The color coat will look dull like your factory paint did after you wet sanded it, but if you take a wet paper towel and wipe a spot to get it wet it will shine like new so don’t be scared when you see the dull color coat, the shine is all in the clear! I spray my clear down light for 2 coats, just enough to coat then stop. On my top coat I get it good and wet, like I said not dripping running wet but a solid even coat, this is why it is very important to be familiar with your gun and how slow or fast to move it, just like I said also PAY ATTENTION TO THE HOSE! I was spraying the final top coat on an 8 layer job on my old VW beetle, actually it was more like a 16 layer, 4 coats of primer, then 4 coats of blue-white then I masked off the front rear and middle quarter panels and hood inlays and shot the car with a black cherry for the 2 tone look then 4 coats of clear. On my top and final coat my freaking air hose slid across the top and down the side of the car right through the fresh clear, NOT FUN. If you really want a deep finish wait till the clear dries totally and wet sand it with at least a 350, a very fine paper, then lay down another clear coat! Once you get your final top coat laid down you can let it sit for another day then carefully un mask it, your finished with the spraying. You can then put your lights and all back in if you need to use the truck. Give that clear coat a week and then buy yourself some super fine like 2000 grit paper and some polish compound. Take your time per the directions on the compound and start rubbing the clear coat out till you look down through it into the paint! I take this much time when I am painting either a classic or really just want a good out come. When I painted my last truck I didn’t bother to rub out the clear coat since it looked great as it was, I also did not put down 2 final coats of clear, I guess it’s all in what you want the final out come to be! Like I said before I’m no professional I’ve just been doing this as a hobby since I was 15 when I painted my first VW beetle with automotive grade can spray paint, which is where I found out the hard way, if you buy brand A paint do not buy brand B primer and brand C clear, the first time you pull it into the sun it will crack and the first time you take it to the car wash you can blow the paint off down to the primer, not in all cases come are compatible with one another but I will never take the chance again! If you have never painted a car or anything with a sprayer before try to find something with different angles to paint as practice. I helped a friend of mine with his paint job but wanted him to do all the spraying, I talked him into repainting his riding garden tractor for practice just to get the feel for what he was doing before painting his car, a VW Corrado VR6, he has the nicest looking Ford garden tractor around but it opened his eyes to the many steps of cleaning, sanding, cleaning taping and spraying that he had no idea about, he thought you just pulled it in and painted it, he was wrong!

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

thread so far!

I'm a ways off from painting but that is good information for future reference.

What is a HVLP spray gun as opposed to gravity fed? In line water filter, no problem. I have a compressor already so all I need is the gun/filter. I've got all winter to sand/prime. My PC orbital polisher will finally get to be used for what is actually made for - sanding!

Mad Chemist

HVLP- High volume, low pressure. My take is that the paint droplets come out at a much lower velocity, so you get less paint actually bouncing off the surface, more of it actually sticks. So, you use less pressure, and waste alot less paint. I picked a setup from Harbor Freight, and am still in the endless preppping stage at the moment. I keep struggling with how much time to put into a trail rig that I'm not supposed to be afraid to scrape/dent......

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

Thanks David! Don't struggle with it, building it up is half the fun, or it is for me, and there is nothing wrong with looking good as you get there in style!