painting

[bigred318]

okay so my friends dad has a paint gun and a compressor and has painted before hes pretty good, i was wondering when you paint you take the paint put it in the gun spray evenly blah blah blah, but then when it comes time to put the clear coat on do you want till your paint is dry or wet or what? also does the clear coat go in the gun and get sprayed on too or what? say you are doing bumpers would you put the flex agent in with the clear coat and stir it up or what! any help would be great! im going to have him do it but want to klnow all the info myself before it goes down!

David

[CiscoKid]

well, if these ?s need to be asked, maybe he should not paint the car

[Mr White G]

I agree with Cisco. Only a professional job will look acceptable. Any fuck ups will be plain to see....... every time you clean the car..... evertime the sun hits it.... it will look dodge.

I would suggest more than 1 coat of paint and 1 coat of laquer. Put down a base colour, then the prime colour (twice) and wait until dry (tacky) before laquering. A couple of coats of laquer will give it a nice shine and protect it better.

What colour are you going for?

[bigred318]

umm actaulyim asking these?'s for my bennifit not his, he knows what he is doing im aksing so i know!

what is laquer?

David

[Kevin325i]

Ok, if he's asking these questions first off it doesn't mean you're going to fuck up. It's not very hard to follow directions on a can to reduce some paint and point the gun straight and put an even coat on.

What you'll have is the base color, an activator, and a reducer. You mix the three in the ratio that the paint manufacturer specifies. Ask the people at the paint place for the tech manual on the paint your getting. That will be all you need. Some of them want you to give it 3 light coats, some want 2 medium wet coats, some need 1 heavy coat.

You'll normally have to let the paint sit for about 5 minutes to flash before the second or third coats, and about half an hour before you can normally clear coat it.

Laquer is a base for the paint. Laquer, acrylic, dope, etc. I can't remember what my paint I used was, I think it was a laquer based and because it's quite flexible the flex agent wasn't needed.

Just make sure you get the right color paint the first time, so yuo don' thave to spray it twice, or 3 times

[bigred318]

haha yeah ill try to do that so if i got buy some bmw paint from this place in town will it have eerything already mixed or not? and my other question do i spray on the clear coat or not? also how much do you think would be need (paint) to do my front and back bumpers? and then serpertly how much to do my trunk lid?

DAvid

[Kevin325i]

I think a quart will get it done. Ask the dudes at the place. You need to spray the clear coat on. Everything will not be premixed. You have to do it yourself.

[Gator]

Doing a paint job the right way is a HUGE amount of work, and doing it other than the right way is a BIG mistake. First the car has to be completely wet sanded. Then any chips have to be filled and sanded smooth. Then all trim, rubber etc has to be removed. THen the car has to be carefully masked. Then the car has to be carefully cleaned and gone over with a tack rag. Then the car should be put in a dust free environment like a special spray booth. Then a primer coat is sprayed. Then the primer coat has to be wet sanded. Then the car is carefully cleaned again. Then generally two base coats are sprayed followed by 2 or 3 clear coats. The paint is not lacquer as that was generally outlawed years ago as it had too many VOC's. The current system is called base coat plus clearcoat. The supplies to do one panel on a black BMW came to $250. For a whole car it would be about $300-350. Anything less and something is wrong. Also, the paint is Extremely toxic and should only be sprayed with a positive pressure respirator system.
You can do the prep work yourself if no dings and dents have to be removed, but count on 3-5 8 hour days to do it right. I'm not a pro by any means, but I've painted several cars and the prep work never took me less than a week but what I was painting was in poor condition to start with. I would never even think of painting my BMW.
An alternative is acrylic emamel, but it won't have the same depth as a clear coated car.
Finally, there is another problem with repainting a car and that is as you build up the mil thickness of the paint, the paint begins to have a trendency to crack over time. You're basically taking a chance it will all work out unless the car is stripped.
Any half assed paint job will last a year or so, but if you plan on keeping the car and or don't want to ruin its resale value do it right or not at all.
I hope this gives you pause for thought and saves some nightmares in the long run.

[Kevin325i]

He's just doing bumpers.

And I totally agree. 99 percent of the work is prep work. Shooting the paint is only .5, and the other .5 is sitting on your ass and waiting for it to dry for the next coat.

[bigred318]

what kind of prep work would i have to do to spray my bumpers?

David

[Kevin325i]

Degrease them with a wax grease remover. If there's scrapes you could sand them or fill them with body puty. Prime them. Paint.

[bigred318]

how much does primer cost? and how is that applied? just painted on or what?

[Kevin325i]

Like 3 bucks from the local hardware store in a spray can.

[Gator]

If your bumpers are shiney plastic, I think they will have to be wet sanded or chemically etched so that primer will adhere to them. Also, I suspect that a special primer is needed and maybe special paint. Also, the primer will need to be sanded before the paint is applied. The primer goes on with an orange peel effect and if you want a smooth finsih coat, it must be wet sanded. You really should consult your local body shop paint supplier about exactly what is needed and the prep work that should be done. They are usally very helpful and more than happy to answer you questions. You may be suprised that the cost of materials is way higher than you suspected.

[Kevin325i]

I used an red oxide primier, just degreased them and the primer stuck.

Yeah good paint is expensive. You could also get a 1stage paint that is glossy without a clear coat.