ALT-4 Tips for Painting your Car yourself
The best advice that I can give anyone is to let professionals handle this, however if you do decide to venture into the world of auto body let me tell you that it's not easy. You will need more than a piece of sandpaper and couple spray cans. To start with there are tools to be purchased. For a quality job start with an air compressor, orbital air sanders, epoxy, tape, sanding discs, masks, garage, paint guns, sanding blocks, and a lot of time on your hands.
Let's start with the air compressor. Make sure that you have kept up on the maintenance. You should already have a water separator and if you don't get one. By having the water separator you will keep out water and unwanted humidity, which could easily ruin a paint job. Drain the compressor, there's usually a plug on the bottom of the tank to drain out the water and any other unwanted debris that may have got caught in there over the years. Add on a regulator, which will keep the air flow coming out of the compressor at a constant pressure.To fully understand where your car is in most need of body repair is to pressure wash it. By washing your car it's going to knock off all paint chips, dirt, oils, and other toxins that will make it easier to see what needs work. Now you are ready to get down and dirty.
The best place to do all of the body work, sanding, and painting is in an enclosed area where all of your tools are located. By being in a garage or an enclosed building you will keep down on wind, dust, humidity, and other environmental factors that could delay or harm your car. After you get your car settled in and you are ready to start pull out the sanders and turn on that compressor. Just as if you were washing your car, start on the roof. By using an orbital sander you create less flaws on the sheet metal. Keep your sander moving in a circular motion and sand evenly. You don't necessarily have to go down all of the way to bare metal, but make sure it is all sanded evenly. After you have sanded the car down to your desire use your air line and blow off all of the dust that's laying on or around your car. This is the best time to look for any dents or dings. These will need special attention to achieve a professional paint job.
Repair all of those dents and dings from kids and shopping carts. When you go to apply your first layer of epoxy just remember that it doesn't have to be perfect, but make sure that you fill the area completely. After you let it dry completely, sand it down. Make sure the lines on the metal are lined up. Every car has a different design, therefore they are all different. Unless you drive a box there are going to be different curves and angles to the body of the car, just keep that in mind when sanding. This may take several coats and several days of epoxy, just think about how it will look when you are done. After you are satisfied with all of the work you have done it's time to tape and tack.
Again use the air line and blow off everything on and around the car to make sure the tape sticks. Go ahead and tape up all of your windows, motor compartment, wheels, and anything else you don't want to get paint on. Some hardware may also be taken off. After you're done with the tape, blow the car off again, but remember it's taped don't get too close. Now you want to take a tack cloth over the car. By using a tack cloth you will pull off any additional dust, dirt, and oil off of the car. Now it's time to paint.
You will want to have your guns and paints all setup and ready to go. Make sure you read and understand all of the ratios before applying. Every paint has a different ratio to use to get the best color, depth, and shine from that particular color or product. Once you are comfortable you can go ahead and start with the primer. Do a couple test strips to make sure you have the right mix and amount of paint coming out of the gun. Generally, your spray should be about six inches wide. With the original spray on you will want to overlap about 50% of the next spray on top of the first. After some tedious painting you will finally finish laying the primer on. The primer should dry for at least a day before going back to fix any spots that you either could have missed or you have found more flaws on the body. If there are any flaws you should go back over and fix them as soon as the primer is dry. Then, of course you will have to layer more primer on it. Time for the paint.
There are of course many different color options when painting. The most common is a base coat of color with clear coat over it for that deep shine. To do this you will first have to paint the base color with at least three to four coats of paint. After the final coat of paint you will want to leave it flash, which means it will still be tacky. This is usually about fifteen minutes or so, be sure to refer to manufacturer label. Now throw some clear coat over it, letting each layer flash for about fifteen minutes. Most clear coats are applied four to five times depending on how "deep" you want the paint to look. Now it's time to sit back and wait, let the car dry completely. After about two days the paint will harden enough so you can't easily get scratches. Now is the time to take off the tape, put it all back together again.
With this handful of tips you should be able to painlessly paint your car or you are having second thoughts and are going to let the professional up the street take a look and give you a quote.
