I have a hood I am working on for my son's car. I sanded the whole thing down with 120 on an electric orbital sander, tacked if off, and sprayed on 4 good coats of 2K primer surfacer.
I let it sit 24 hours and started blocking with 320 dry (all I had on hand and was itching to do something) . My next step would be to wet block with 400 and then dry it, tack it off and apply my SS Urethane black paint.
Am I doing this correctly or should I be doing something else? I would like to skip the epoxy / sealer step as I am on a very tight budget. Is this advisable?
Oh, when I sanded the hood down, I got down to the base coat all over and factory primer in a few spots. Its a 95 camaro with factory paint and not going to be any kind of show car. Its really just something for me to practice on before I tear into my 71 Nova and its 19 yo SSU paint job.
I've been through the paint process on 3 cars, but this is my first time when I will actually be doing the spraying on the final coat.
Is your omni. a sigle stage black or are you going to do it in base clear? I've do some used car paint work this way when their older and on a budget. If it's siingle stage I would lightly hit it with some 600 after I used my 400. When you put down your paint dont use to heavy of a coat on your frist coat and let it dry good before you do any more coats. Maybe up to and hour. Give all your coats of paint plenty of dry time this will keep sand scratches from swelling up. Good luck.
Thank-you sir for the reply! Do you think blocking w 320 was rough enough or do I need to do over w 180 220 then 320 400? I still have some rock chips I can see and feel. Not sure whether I should keep taking the primer down or go spot putty route?
I don't want to take the primer down to much and have to reprime for sure!
I'd say scuff up the rock chips with 180 and use a catalyzed spot putty like Dolphin Glaze or any other decent catalyzed spot putty. I'd then urethane primer/surface the hood with the same primer you've been using, sand up to 400 grit and spray your paint. i don't go to 600 grit unless spraying metallic and then make certain the sanding is in a circular pattern sort of like a DA sander.
I'd go with 600 wet before topcoat. You're spending a little bit extra time/money on sandpaper but you sure would be glad when there won't be any visible sandscratches from 400 grit.
Ok, so what I did was this... I blocked the whole hood again with 180, filled all the holes with 2 part spot putty( made kind of a mess of it, too heavy, so I had to drag out the orbital w/ 120 and do the whole hood again.
Then I shot 1/2 quart of high build on her, reducing it correctly this time and walah, no chips visable. waited 24 then blocked w/ 220 and 320 dry and 400 and 600 wet. I am very pleased with it now, but it was alot of work!! Glad this isnt a paying job, I'd be broke or fired or both!! haha. But I learned a TON
Just got done sanding today and vacuuming out the booth tonight. Will mist the floor in the morning, tack, mix paint and spray.
btw, I can't seem to edit my previous post. I misspoke. I meant to say I filled the rock chips with putty, not HOLES. Didnt want anyone to think I'm filling holes with putty...lol :drunk:
OK, So I got the thing painted this morning. I'm going to say for my first time actually spraying finish coats, it was a roaring success!!
Now, its not in perfect, stick it on the car and drive home condition. It will have to be cut and buffed before I call it done, but I am very pleased.
But I have been in the booth on 3 other cars with 3 separate painters who had been doing this a very long time, and my hood looks pretty much the same as what I saw them doing. All of those jobs turned out just fine after cut n buff.
It has the usual dust nibs and some orange peel, but nothing terrible. I did my best to make as clean a work space as I could possibly do. So there Is really nothing I would change other than I should have put the entire quart on it, b/c I was worried on the last coat that my siphon gun might start spitting and I didnt get to lay it down quite as heavy as I would have liked. But really not an issue as I will have to buff anyway.
I shot the paint "high solids" mix for the first two coats and then standard reduction for the third.
I sprayed at 50psi at the gun with the trigger pulled and both adjustments wide open, seems to work best on my $30 HF siphon gun. I think it has a 1.8 or 1.7 tip.
I ordered two HF "purple" $14 guns, but they are still a week and a half away, so I decided to go for it anyway. It was a gamble but it worked out fine.
Thanks for all the tips!! I'm sure I will need more help when I get to work on my Nova, very soon!! Actually, I plan to start as soon as I finish the cut n buff on this hood.
Put up a few more pics on Photobucket taken outside, like I said its not perfection as sprayed, but I can get it pretty darn nice with cut n buff later this week. I'll update then.
Andy
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