Hi all, new here but found this place because of the excellent guides on painting (I know this is a welding place but boy, the information here is fare more respectable/helpful than youtube/reddit etc)
I need some help/advice on near enough everything at this point (can never have too much knowledge)!
A bit of background for what I need - I have a project car that I have been working on for several years and is now road legal and drivable so looking at the final stage of paint! It had rusted through on the back arches and had got these professionally repaired - can't buy the panels and they are welded to the chassis so I got a firm to cut/weld/fab new rear arches. These need painting now as well as the boot getting really bad paint after being parked up for years and looks like acidic rain/moss or something has gone bad over it.
I was probably going to get this to be done professionally and was looking to get a quote when... a family member had an (minor) accident in my daily driver and scratched the door and back arch.
I got a friend who works at a garage that I have used before, for each panel he has quoted £250 - I also have a bumper that was scuffed badly by a hit and run a while ago
thats coming up to 6 panels, I also want to underseal the car (quoted £450) and my brother also wants to do some painting and small media blasting jobs
I'm an IT guy by trade, however the project car I done was an engine swap, done the engine, fabricated other parts and re-done the car's electrics, all self taught taking time and practice and on a budget! - with that thought I am considering if with everything that needs to be done can I do this myself for cheaper? (over £2000 for what I need alone)
My expectations - I am not expecting a professional job by no means, I am not all that bothered about the perfect finish, my main goal is to get it acceptable, so it looks good unless you're inspecting the car properly, you know just standing a few feet away you won't notice anything too bad.
Location - this will have to be done on a drive, don't have a shop or garage (big enough) to do the job, so this will be a temporary location/setup from a standard house mains plug (not hardwired separate power line) my plan is to get some sort of cover, be it plastic sheets and a home made frame or a gazebo to stop dust and flys etc
The premise - to get all setup to make it as easy as possible for a new guy to painting for as little as an expense as required, this won't be a full time job and don't plan on taking it further than an occasional weekend hobby.
The question is is it possible?
The research so far
Thanks to this forum (really good advice and glad it's pinned) I am now aware of the issues surrounding 2k paint, no one mentions that this stuff is deadly etc reading this throws a spanner in my original plan as if I go down the 2k paint route then I need(?) an air supplied mask as opposed to my original thought of a normal filtered mask. This then requires more CFM from a compressor.
The issue is what I mentioned above with not having a dedicated power line, the max compressor I am looking to get is 3hp 14.6CFM compressor, most bits I have read through research say for a full size paint gun this might not even be enough for a hvlp gun - let alone an air fed mask.
My next point of research led me to the mini/midi guns, with the ANI R160 Q coming highly recommended, and as I don't plan to be re-doing an entire car I should be able to get away with a smaller gun such as one of these. They have a run rate of 4.2CFM
looking for a suitable compressor at this point, there are 2 options I could see, direct drive and belt driven, I was considering the direct drive for a while as they are cheaper until I dug down and the specs for the belt driven ones have a higher PSI rating (145 psi opposed to 112) this seems like they will be better suited to the media blasting thats planned
I found a good priced 200l compressor at halford but they are out of stock! so I was then looking at the airmaster 14/150 from machine mart.
The issue is with an air fed mask they seem to require approx 5CFM of air - with both the gun and the mask, from what I understand this might push the compressor too hard (as they are not supposed to run continuously?) with a on/off cycle of 66/33
At this point any suggestions, is this going to be not to use a 2k paint and make it a bit more difficult? Will the compressor be enough for the mask? being somewhat outdoors and for small areas do I need an air fed mask (I am probably saying this will be a 100% yes from everyone but its worth asking if you don't know)
Looking over the painting guide on here the one thing I saw that I had considered but probably worth investing a little more than I was is the air filter, any recommendations here?
Moving on from equipment
Looking at the guides here, something that I have not come across in my research until now was the "flatting with guid coat" everywhere I see normally goes from primer to base coat. The information there goes over how to do it but I am still a bit unsure on the why? I thought if the primer was done properly (no runs or over spray etc) then the prep work from filler and high build primer would be enough to make sure it was flat?
When looking at primers /paints /clears is there any brand to avoid or to recommend, what do I need to look out for when choosing the paint, I have a local paint shop that can mix paint to colour match the car (rather than by code), granted they only seem to sell one brand of paint but is there a good or bad brand?
paint thinning, this is briefly mentioned in priming guid again in the "flatting with guid coat" but I have seen videos where they use it but they don't explain too well to why and how you can tell, I am assuming this will be to do with the spray pattern and the capability of the gun being used? has anyone got some good information on this?
One thing that I need to do more research on is painting technique, but I thought while I am here asking the questions I might as well ask this one too, but I hear a lot of mention of wet edge and dry edge. Can someone elaborate on this?
Regarding timeline for paint, lots of fragmented information that I am struggling to put together here, but the overall question is for all the steps and layers, what parts can you let dry, to what parts do you have to do when it's almost dry to what parts have you got to do before the last bit dried?
My final question (for now anyway) is are there any other resources out there that people recommend to read/watch that will help me out, most of the youtube videos show you but don't explain or oversimplify and I havent found many useful.
I need some help/advice on near enough everything at this point (can never have too much knowledge)!
A bit of background for what I need - I have a project car that I have been working on for several years and is now road legal and drivable so looking at the final stage of paint! It had rusted through on the back arches and had got these professionally repaired - can't buy the panels and they are welded to the chassis so I got a firm to cut/weld/fab new rear arches. These need painting now as well as the boot getting really bad paint after being parked up for years and looks like acidic rain/moss or something has gone bad over it.
I was probably going to get this to be done professionally and was looking to get a quote when... a family member had an (minor) accident in my daily driver and scratched the door and back arch.
I got a friend who works at a garage that I have used before, for each panel he has quoted £250 - I also have a bumper that was scuffed badly by a hit and run a while ago
thats coming up to 6 panels, I also want to underseal the car (quoted £450) and my brother also wants to do some painting and small media blasting jobs
I'm an IT guy by trade, however the project car I done was an engine swap, done the engine, fabricated other parts and re-done the car's electrics, all self taught taking time and practice and on a budget! - with that thought I am considering if with everything that needs to be done can I do this myself for cheaper? (over £2000 for what I need alone)
My expectations - I am not expecting a professional job by no means, I am not all that bothered about the perfect finish, my main goal is to get it acceptable, so it looks good unless you're inspecting the car properly, you know just standing a few feet away you won't notice anything too bad.
Location - this will have to be done on a drive, don't have a shop or garage (big enough) to do the job, so this will be a temporary location/setup from a standard house mains plug (not hardwired separate power line) my plan is to get some sort of cover, be it plastic sheets and a home made frame or a gazebo to stop dust and flys etc
The premise - to get all setup to make it as easy as possible for a new guy to painting for as little as an expense as required, this won't be a full time job and don't plan on taking it further than an occasional weekend hobby.
The question is is it possible?
The research so far
Thanks to this forum (really good advice and glad it's pinned) I am now aware of the issues surrounding 2k paint, no one mentions that this stuff is deadly etc reading this throws a spanner in my original plan as if I go down the 2k paint route then I need(?) an air supplied mask as opposed to my original thought of a normal filtered mask. This then requires more CFM from a compressor.
The issue is what I mentioned above with not having a dedicated power line, the max compressor I am looking to get is 3hp 14.6CFM compressor, most bits I have read through research say for a full size paint gun this might not even be enough for a hvlp gun - let alone an air fed mask.
My next point of research led me to the mini/midi guns, with the ANI R160 Q coming highly recommended, and as I don't plan to be re-doing an entire car I should be able to get away with a smaller gun such as one of these. They have a run rate of 4.2CFM
looking for a suitable compressor at this point, there are 2 options I could see, direct drive and belt driven, I was considering the direct drive for a while as they are cheaper until I dug down and the specs for the belt driven ones have a higher PSI rating (145 psi opposed to 112) this seems like they will be better suited to the media blasting thats planned
I found a good priced 200l compressor at halford but they are out of stock! so I was then looking at the airmaster 14/150 from machine mart.
The issue is with an air fed mask they seem to require approx 5CFM of air - with both the gun and the mask, from what I understand this might push the compressor too hard (as they are not supposed to run continuously?) with a on/off cycle of 66/33
At this point any suggestions, is this going to be not to use a 2k paint and make it a bit more difficult? Will the compressor be enough for the mask? being somewhat outdoors and for small areas do I need an air fed mask (I am probably saying this will be a 100% yes from everyone but its worth asking if you don't know)
Looking over the painting guide on here the one thing I saw that I had considered but probably worth investing a little more than I was is the air filter, any recommendations here?
Moving on from equipment
Looking at the guides here, something that I have not come across in my research until now was the "flatting with guid coat" everywhere I see normally goes from primer to base coat. The information there goes over how to do it but I am still a bit unsure on the why? I thought if the primer was done properly (no runs or over spray etc) then the prep work from filler and high build primer would be enough to make sure it was flat?
When looking at primers /paints /clears is there any brand to avoid or to recommend, what do I need to look out for when choosing the paint, I have a local paint shop that can mix paint to colour match the car (rather than by code), granted they only seem to sell one brand of paint but is there a good or bad brand?
paint thinning, this is briefly mentioned in priming guid again in the "flatting with guid coat" but I have seen videos where they use it but they don't explain too well to why and how you can tell, I am assuming this will be to do with the spray pattern and the capability of the gun being used? has anyone got some good information on this?
One thing that I need to do more research on is painting technique, but I thought while I am here asking the questions I might as well ask this one too, but I hear a lot of mention of wet edge and dry edge. Can someone elaborate on this?
Regarding timeline for paint, lots of fragmented information that I am struggling to put together here, but the overall question is for all the steps and layers, what parts can you let dry, to what parts do you have to do when it's almost dry to what parts have you got to do before the last bit dried?
My final question (for now anyway) is are there any other resources out there that people recommend to read/watch that will help me out, most of the youtube videos show you but don't explain or oversimplify and I havent found many useful.
