[jordan]

Ok I was going to wait to post this topic, but it seems like the time is now I will be painting my opel (arcylic) sunshine yellow in april. I know some of you fellows are going to disagree with other members about painting techniques but thats the way it is. I dont have the time to do a full restoration but I will in a few years. For now I am going to wash the car, use rubbing compound, remove dents, then I will have to do some light bondo work, and rough sand probily start at 300 grit and go up to 600 grit. I hear that I have to rub degreaser with a rag all over the car (to remove oil and finger prints) and then put paint sealer on (so if there is a different type of paint on the car right now it wont make a chemical reaction with the paint im spraying on) then I will spray 2 "dry coats" of paint on the car one day apart and then 2 "wet coats" of paint after that. of coarse after that I will let it continue to cure for 2 weeks and rub "paint cutter" to remover minor imperfections. Now for my questions, is there anything that I typed that isn't necessary, and are there any things i didnt mention that I should do? And should I prime over bondo or should I just paint over it?

 

[RallyBob]

If you are not trying to do a concours job, you can simplify it even more. I've done a lot of 'quickie' paint jobs for racecars and there's no reason you can't get a decent fiish without spending a ton of time/money on it.

I've painted a street car in as little as 17 hours....stripped most trim, degreased, masked, primed, sanded primer, remasked edges, painted, cleaned up...the whole deal. Not perfect, but very presentable, and still shined 5 years later when my friend sold the car.

Basically, I'd skip the rubbing compound step. Use a good wax/grease remover and clean the entire car including edges. Do your bodywork. Sand entire car, but you really don't need to go finer than 320 grit. Use a sealer wherever you broke through the paint to bare metal or wherever you have done bondo work, and preferably seal the entire car for uniformity. I like using a high-fill catalyzed primer over the sealer....it will fill all the imperfections in the surface. Sand with 400 grit. Then just paint it. Don't worry about spraying one day, then the next. I'll spray one medium coat first, then three full wet coats, about 10 minutes between each coat. Done. Go clean the paint gun. In an hour, if you used catalyzed acrylic enamel, you can start stripping the masking off.

I once drove a car home 1.5 hours after I painted it! It reeked of fumes, but it was dry to the touch!

Anyway, if you want to get picky, wait a month, and then wetsand and compound the paint. Give it some time to fully cure and the paint to shrink as the solvents evaporate, don't buff it out right away. You'll end up needing to do it again. If you are using a metallic color, then you'll want to clear-coat the paint at the same time. Wetsanding metallics usually gives nasty results. I always have another spray gun ready with the clear, and spray it over the basecoat while it's still slightly wet.

And lastly, make SURE you have a proper respirator. Today's catalyzed paints are NASTY to breath.

Bob

 

[jordan]

The acrylic paint im using gets a really nice shine by its self and no clearcoat. and it says it doesnt require buffing, i also need a good hplv spraygun id rather have a good used one than an "ok" new one, does any one have one for sale?

 

[jordan]

should I just use one coat of primer and to what grit should I sand it to?

 

[RallyBob]

Depends on the type of primer. Old fashioned lacquer primers (still common) will shrink a lot, and need to be sanded to a much finer grit. The newer catalyzed primers/epoxy primers are high-solids with very little solvent content, and therefore do not shrink as much as lacquer primers. So they can be sanded with 320 grit. If you sanded lacquer primer with 320 grit, in about a month's time it would look like 180 grit scratches showing through your paint! So you will have to sand to a finer grit, say 400 (wet) or 600. Alternatively, you could let the primer sit for a few days and let the solvents evaporate, then sand it.

Bob

 

[jordan]

yea I think ill use the high filled catalized primer. where can i buy something like that?

 

[Joe Van Wagnen]

Jordan

get on eastwood's website www.eastwoodcompany.com and look at item 34202 which is house of kolor chip chart and tech book it has all the information you would need and you can buy all there stuff right through eastwood.... House of Kolor makes awesome products

 

[RallyBob]

I used to use Dupont's two-part primer a lot. They call it 'Uro Primer'. It has excellent high-fill capabilities. In fact, three coats of it will completely fill 36 grit scratches in bondo!

I'm particularly partial to PPG paints lately, but they're a heck of a lot more costly.

Bob

 

[OpelMutt]

Two points:

The quality of the paint job is directly proportional to the care taken in the surface preparation steps.

Find out where the quality local body shops buy their paint. The counter people there will be a wealth of information for your project.

Bill & the FrankenOpel
The path to perfection is littered with fine sandpaper.

 

[jordan]

I went to car quest and now i am really confused! there the manager showed me SEALER and PRIMER/SEALER can i use primer/sealer instead of sealer and primer? (seems logical to me) under what conditions should i use sealer? should it be before or after I use bondo? then on "Trucks" on TNN they welded in patch panels (which i will also have to do) and they used (SEAM SEALER) what is that? do i need it?

 

[bear]

painting your opel

go base clear if you can...it is no harder to do, takes just a little longer, and you won't have to worry about orange peel, the clear evens everything out. i just used 'harbor freights' hvlp gravity gun (79.99 on sale for 49.99)...hands down the best gun for the money! I've painted over a dozen cars and used about 4 different guns, the hlvp gun was so nice, easy to use and adjust, very comfortable, and i sprayed my entire opel (sanded to metal everywhere) with just two quarts! (it reduces 50% so you actually have a gallon)

i always use a sandable primer...because you always have a little something to fix with some spot putty that you didn't see, then i wet sand it 800 grit and spray color.

check out the result...jon

 

[bear]

in primer...

here it is just primered...jon

 

[jordan]

what does every one think of this spray system at harbor freight. or should i just go with the purple hvlp gun?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=7902

 

[bear]

purple

purple...dude...purple

 

[jordan]

I went out to the shop took a thin blade screwdriver and started scraping away paint that was around the areas where i am going to bondo, and in some places the paint is very thick. so i was wondering if it is crazy or not a good thing to use aircraft stripper in certain areas instead of the whole car?

 

[jordan]

well i am almost to the point where i can prime, and i was looking around at http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/ and i saw item # 31108 ZP, and i was wondering if i could prime my whole car with this and will i need more than a quart and how many coats of it will i need 1? 2? 3?

 

[jordan]

when this says "non sanding formula" does it mean it isnt necessary or it isnt possible? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42611&item=2415468709

 

[opelgt73]

They probly mean that it isnt necessary, that you don't have to sand between primer and color coats,
as far as buying this kind of stuff off of ebay I would reccomend not doing that.
it is best to go to a local car paint shop (find the ones that the good body shops get their paint at), get the primer and the color from the same place, and make sure they are compatiable, there is nothing worse than finishing your bodywork painting it then having to strip it all off again because of paint incompatiablities.
The other problem is how are they going to warranty the paint over ebay?

I personally prefer PPG paint but there are some other good ones too.

 

[jordan]

well i am also going to get the color coat from that same guy and it says it is compatable with all of their paints on ebay, and a friend of mine bought paint from that guy and it came out great! here it is a year later and it looks like the factory paint job on his s10, so that is encouraging. and also where can i get a large roll of plastic? i want to have a box like 8ftx12ftx10ft for a painting room.

 

[opelgt73]

I got plastic sheets from walmart to make my paint booth.