FULL PAINT JOB(Whos painted a car before?)

[Anonymous]

Hey Everyone,
Who ever helps me is gonna be a life saver. Whos painted a car before.....I've got an 86 5.0 w/ decent, paint. Very shinny, but i'm replacing some panels and such due to an accident. What is the first step in prepping my shiny paint for a repaint? Whats the 2nd step, and hten the 3rd step...I've never done this before, and to me it's not really one of those things to say, oops, i guess it looks ok when u got u'r paint chipping off a year or so later. Please anyone if u could, just give me a few pointers and get me started here. If u have a good idea where I can find a very detail oriented manual, let me know. I'm looking for all teh help I can get. Thank you
-Brian

[TangStang]

When I did mine I stripped it to bare metal and primed it... for your case I would.

Take all crome, emblems, lights off
Wet sand all the paint with 400grit wrapped around a paint stick until you get a nice smooth dull finish

Get a cheap can of paint and lightly spray one panel @ a time ; then sand it - this will help you find Hi/Lo spots, Fill the Low spots - they will have paint

This is "BASIC" prep - I don't know if you are changing colors or doing door jams, trunk.......

The more you do the cheaper the final cost will be - If you prep the you should be able to get a great paint job in the $450-1000 range

I would prime the car if I where you - get some epoxy primer and have @ it - pretty easy to do if you have a paint gun - Then wet sand again ; The more you "block sand" the betterv the look!

A big problem I have seen, is when you don't take the crome off and the body shop masks it off. The paint always seems to chip around those areas - Also, Make SURE they use a BASE coat Clear coat system and use the correct additive for the plastic bumper parts - It's gotta flex! I have seen some bad paint jobs on Stangs 8O I would go up to the book store and do some reading ; One of my friends owns a body shop so I had someone to consult with. He paints cars that make it into those rice rocket and truck mag's and he told me the PREP is the most important step. If you run into any prob's just ask!

[capri650]

Hotrod sells a book on painting it's a good reference manual and would help you understand what you will need to do there are a lot of things that you need to consider ,is the cracking or crazing you have to look very close at it to tell if this is the case you would have to strip it off there are different methods of stripping you could just top coat strip it this would just take off the the top coats usually clear coat and color coat or you could blast off the paint in Cali they do alot of walnut shell blasting this is best blasting method as don't have to remove or cover glass or moldings and won't damage the metal just remove paint. I would go to book store or library and do some reading the PREP work for paint is the difference between a great paint job and a nightmare. Good luck

[Gord]

Paint prep is the key as tang stang has said. I would also buy dry paper to start for the initial strip stage. I used it to bring the paint down to the primer and then went to finer as I got cloer to the metal. When you do the initial fill on the surface, use epoxy based paint as it will cause the filler to lift if you put epoxy putty over oil based rattle can paint. In fact you can buy a few rattle cans of epoxy based filler primer from a good paint store. That being done, get a painter to look over the car before painting so he can let you know if anything else needs to be done prior to painting. Your painter shouldn't be a backyard garage guy. He should have a downdraft booth and a clean storage area to allow the paint to set up right after coming out of the booth. He should also have a good reputation in your area for being honest, something you should ask around about. I also recomend avoiding those 350 dollar maaco jobs (aka spray and pray) as you will be disappointed. If you can borrow a dual action (DA) sander and a palm sander, you'll also save some prep time. My Festiva is getting painted soon, so I am doing the prep myself but I have a friend who is helping me. If you know someone in the autobody trade it may be worthwhile to have them over for a beer or 2 and pick their brain for extra tips noy found in the autobody books. BTW if you have a haynes book they have a small chapter with pics to help out some.