How to paint your car... Redux

Well since some douschee tried making money out of my original thread I feel like I need to put steps and pictures! so here we go

The cheapest way to paint a car is to find the best alternative cost in materials. So you need to know what you do and don't need from the get go. So we'll begin with a simple paint job. if your car is to mangled up and it's from let say late 80's... THROW IT AWAY but if you love it who cares... ok enough rambling. the tools and materials needed are

1 $9 harbor freight hvlp gravity spray gun or look for a yard sale for any siphon fed "binks" gun they might be old as the universe but they work. model 7 or 2001 are best.

2. a 30 gallon minimum air compressor. 8 to 20 can be used but you have to paint panel seperately to get correct spray pattern (which takes forever)

3. a 9mm inside diameter air hose

4. a $8 dollar vaper air regulator. it works and is as accurate as a sata's digital air regulator so you know its good

5. NIOSH approved gas mask 3M makes one for 20 bucks

6. 1 paint mixing cup that has 8:1:2 mixing ratio 8:1:1 can also work

7. 5 320grit sand paper or 3 red "maroon" scotch brite sanding pad

8. butchers paper (green) $3 and masking tape which is like $1 or something

----so if you have an air compressor and hoses and stuff great! if not try to borrow one from a friend ----

Ok now paint and stuff...

ok now we're going to use the cheapest paint that still gives the best look for the money. In economics this is called an Opportunity cost so it does make sense. What we're going to use is a paint called "Single Stage Paint" but there are two types. The one that sucks butt and the one that is actually worth a damn. and they're like 10 bucks appart in price so who gives a *** right? what we need is Nason ful-thane 2k single stage paint. Now imagine any color that you can think of and it won't exeed the 240 dollar range in price. And that's using Mercedes Benz AMG LeMans Red as an example of the 240 price range. OH YEAH WE MAKING THE RIGHT PATH NOW!  so the list

If you're gonna do a full car (color change) inside the jambs and everything 1 us gal. for a different shade of the color it has 1/2 gal since people don't really notice the door jambs and stuff. so lets imagine a full car change of color

1. 1 gallon single stage Nason 2k paint 80 to 240 dollars

2. 1 quart single stage activator

3  1 quart nason (depending on the weather) fast(cold), medium ).(eh so so), slow(hot) Reducer. DO NOT GET LAQUER THINER AS A SUBSTITUTE IT'LL DESTROY IT!!!

4. Nason wax and silicone remover

5. Paper towels.

6 tack cloth

Steps of application on part 2!!!!  

PART 2!!!!

so lets imagine that we already did all the *** work and everything that you wanted painted is sanded down evenly and most importantly propperly. Remember we don't need to go back down to metal and primer is only used to cover anything that has putty or bondo on it so no need to use it. Bet you didn't know that *** for best durability everything that used to be shyny on the paint should look dull. And everything you don't want painted is masked away properly and without too many creases or bolds where overspray particles can roam about.

steps:

1 wipe everything down with the tack cloth and I do mean anything that comes within 8 inches of the spray area.

2 wipe everything with a paper towel moistened with the wax and silicone remover

3 after it dries wipe eveything lightly with the tack cloth to be safe

Now comes the preparation stage. make sure the air compressor is bled from water and that the hose is clean. Now to the important stuff. Disassemble the paint gun.  I don't care if you bought it new disassemble it.

Make sure you take off the needle first and DO NOT EXPOSE IT TO PRESSURE OR BENDS!

make sure the inside of the air cap (the thing with the horns) is clean and every orifice is also free from obstruction,

and the fluid tip (the thing where the needle sits) is also clean

Last the gun itself make sure everything checks out.

Now put it back together and make sure the needle is the last thing you place back in. Also make sure the air horns on the cap are horizontal as best you can. when you reistall the needle pull the trigger backwards as you gently screw the needle bolt back in. When it stops turning you're good to go.

On a HVLP 25 to 29 or (2 bar if your regulator has it) is recomended. if you have a conventinal gun 45 to 60 psi is needed. on a HVLP you have to keep it at 6 inches away and on a conventional gun 8 inches is recomended. The best bet for you is do that stupid surfer hand sign with your thum hitting one of the air horns and your pinky touching the paint.

Mixing the paint!

On Single stage paint gloss comes included so no clear is needed.

Grab the mixing cup! go to the 8:1 ratio meter. Put in the maximum amount it gives you in the "8" part of the reading with the paint. Be careful at first since it'll most likely spill. the on the "1" reading match the number you put and it'll be far less as you can see, with the activator. Stir the mixture for about 30 seconds and then you can put in your "reducer" (never use mineral spirits, laquer thiner, paint thiner) on the other "1" OR "2" reading and mix for about 10 seconds. Now i know I forgot to mention this but you'll also need paint strainers which are like 5 for 500 so yeah no biggie there. put the strainer on the gun and slowly pour in half of the paint.

Make sure you start on the hood, trunk, roof area first since they'll be hard to get to if you try to reach over when the sides are painted.

Lets begin at the roof. make sure you check the fan size of the gun to make sure it is fully open then on a piece of butchers paper at the correct distance spay some of the paint and make sure it is an even spread and now uneven spots are present. It should take 1 second to get really wet on the test paper and it should not puddle. if it does lower your pressure and check your distance. put the hose over your shoulder and level yourself out completely with the pannel. make sure the distance is good and MAKE SURE YOU'RE WEARING YOUR GAS MASK this *** will catalyze in your lungs and it might destroy them. ALL PAINT DOES EVEN SPRAY PAINT! Now start as far in as you can go and divide the roof in half as you move left and right and outwards towards the doors.

To give the roof a good coating diligence is needed. there are rules here this isn't vietnam... give yourself "counts" it should be no more than 3 to 4 seconds to complete your whole arm spread. Now here comes the the important part. the trick is in the wrist: Make sure you wip your wrist outward in a quick swooping motion and only release the element part of the trigger since all guns have the air and air-element stage of the trigger. press alil you get "air" press alot and you get "paint and air" OOOOOOHHHH! LOL. Move your gun down 1/2 the distance from the total size of the fan spread and go the other way. remember diligence and a clear mind go a long way.

Another thing tht is necessary to understand is this. paint spreads so do not try to get to close if I said 6 inches its six muthahugging inches. You do not want a run with single stage homeboy! Make sure you take a close look at your pressure every once in a while and make sure it is well kept. Loss in pressure is loss in quality. As you move down into the hood make sure you start also at the gegining and count the pase of your arm and keep the overlap even. When you move into more complex areas like folds or creases including the doors hit those first even is half the fan is spraying the paper since you don't want a thin layer of paint there. and remember pace your self. Don't speed up cuz you think your a badass you'll only fudge things up... Single stage paint is done at a slower pace of the arms than other paints but you gotta pay attention to the spread of the paint and know how far down to move the next pass and how fast to go as well as the distance. This is specially true in high metalics since the flakes will give you away.

tips

1 keep the gun as flat against the panel as possible
2 don't get to overcooked in there we're painting a car not surgery
3 stay cool, if you mess up you mess up bad here.
4. Really respect the 10 minute flash time

Ok now you have a so so covered first coat and you really give it 15 min flash window and your gun has a lil bit of reducer in it to keep the paint from drying up inside of it. of course you used more than half a cup of paint but we didn't over cacked it with paint either since we can still see some of the original color. Now we begin our steps anew and this time we're mindufull of the side of the car since it is still very much wet and subceptible to touch marks.

This time you'll notice you can better see the wet and dry parts of your fan and you can better compensate for the fan and distance distribution. Don't get to overworked if one lil strip looks a bit dry since we can buff it out later. On single stage paint the second coat should be the finisher and don't believe the "medium wet coat" BS since it just distracts you. Remember make sure the gun is in fully open settings so don't spray bullets and a steady hand is key

 

If you really want a glass finish wait 30 min after the 2nd coat and apply one last coat with a 20% over reduction and be really careful since you could really get a run! but you could just wait 2 weeks and give it a really good polish so it's up to you  

I'll be doing this next week on an el camino and will be following your guide.  Great tutorial!  Thanks, and wish me luck.