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advice on painting

894 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  Silverback 
#1 ·
ive been saving my money over the summer ive got about $1500 i have acess to a small shop and a paint gun i need to pull some dents but iam close to starting i just have some stupid questions (asking stupid questions prevent fixing dumb mistakes) :confused:
1 many coates of primer and paint should i spray
2 how many gallons of paint will it take for a ford long wheelbase
3 is it possible to make bondo stay i have only seen the bad side of it
4 what color do you recomend that will forgive my mistakes (not black or white)
 
#2 ·
I think you need to do a lot of reading. I have spent hours, weeks, and even months reading around here on body work and paint (plus another forum).

Personally, I would follow the recommendations of the paint and filler suppliers you want to use.

I am starting to strip one panel at a time on mine and coat them with epoxy primer. I intend to use rage extreme for any filler that might be needed. Then either more epoxy or 2K primer as I block everything. Might require several re-shoots since I am an amateur.

Then seal everything with a reduced epoxy, base, clear.

It will take me a very long time, but most people are faster and have more of a budget than I do.

As far as "bondo" I will never use that brand again. Even the good stuff will crack out if you do not get the panels really straight and put the filler on thick.

Listen to the pros around here and follow their advice. Do a lot of reading on previous threads before you just jump in though. I am just starting to see what they all were talking about. It is meticulous and time consuming. Not to mention hard work. LOL
 
#3 ·
no NO nO

Bondo is used for thin aplications 1/4inch is the max i'd do. Get the metal straight as possible. Most cases you see were bondo is falling off or failing to bond is cause from lack of procedure. People mix bondo wrong or apply it with out correct prep.

I have painted singlestage paint with no problem just do you homework. I bought a painting dvd for 50 that xplained everything and even google to death how to auto paint.

i've painted a bugs for less than $400 using single stage. Thats the first tyoe of painting you want to do. BC/CC is to complicated for beginners.

paint jobs all in the prep work. Make sure you have a sufficient copressor and buy the HVLP gun , wear masks , used water filter on the end of the hose and one inbetween the two hoses that you buy.
 
#4 ·
I think a lot of more experienced people tend to recommend bc/cc paint jobs because there are a lot places to fix things when things go wrong, but I’m with you 31chevy, there’s a lot of advantages with single stage for a first paint job. I would argue that there are fewer places to screw up, fewer places to have solvent problems, you don’t have to worry about getting as many things done within a specific time window (which could be a surprising problem for a DIYer unless they can take a few days off of work to get things right), and the biggest reason, like everything else with bodywork, there’s a lot of patience involved and single stage lets you have results faster and gives an impatient beginner less of an opportunity to get impatient and cause a big problem.

FWIW, the first few times I did this stuff was when I was a kid on my parents cars in the 80’s/early 90’s using lacquer using a Sears and a Montgomery ward gun and my dad’s little 1 or 1.5hp compressor well before there was all this advice available. I showed up at the paint supply with the crappy gun that I was going to use (which I’m sure caused some snickers from a few of the people there), they showed me how to set up the gun, I told them when I planned on shooting it and they gave me the right thinner and suggestions how to keep it from fogging from the humidity (a HOT day during the DC summer). I tried to absorb as much info as I could and did as much of it as I could justify and actually had good results (If I tried some of the stuff now I know that I would have issues, for example, I didn’t use any filters at all anywhere in the old air lines…)
 
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