paint prep question

[C92hatchX]

when preping a car for paint, how far should we sand to...just take clear coat off?, take it down to factory primer?, or to bare metal and respray primer?

[cmgogo]

when preping a car for paint, how far should we sand to...just take clear coat off?, take it down to factory primer?, or to bare metal and respray primer?

 

Depends

Are you doing a show room job or a garage mechanic job or a maaco job? Respraying same color or different?

 

If doing show room you should remove all possible body panels, interior, engine, etc. PMB (plastic media blaster) all panels and chassis down to bare metal, fix any rust/dents, then start painting

 

if your doing a garage mechanic job go down to factory primer, bondo and glaze any large dents, mask off stuff you dont want painted and go from there

 

if your doing a maaco job wash car, lightly sand, wash car, 1/2 ass mask off stuff, and spray 1 thick coat.

 

But ill tell you 1 very important tip: The prep job makes the paint job. You can have the best prep job in the world done to your car and have maaco paint it, and it will look better than if you had the best painter in the world paint you car with a crappy prep job.

 

Im telling you this from both a personal and proffessional view point. I painted aircraft for 4 years, and painting planes is alot harder than cars.

[nnoossss]

The only main reason why sanding is needed before painting is bcuz u want the paint too stick. It helps with the quality of the paint if there dirt in your other paint or uneven coats anywere. You only need to sand it like you did wen u did ur hatch. And wet sand it, just helps you get better quality. Are you just sprayin that fender or the whole car. If you just spraying the fender, then your going too have fun trying too match the paint, without a a scale.

 

O and you dont need to spray any primer, since your not going down too metal.

[C92hatchX]

we are doing the whole car...after we painted my buddies car (other post)..we got three paying people wanting use to paint theirs...

 

and another question, after the paint do we wet sand before or after the clear?

[nnoossss]

i normally dont wet sand after i paint. Do it after the clear i dont recomend wet sanding it unless u have a motorized buffer. Put 2 too 3 coats off clear on it. I give clear 15 minutes in the booth between coats. I dont know what you painting conditions are in. Just make sure its good and dry. Like i said dont wet sand it unless u have a buffer that can get scratches out, since you dont want too be stuck with foggy paint lol. Clear will also hide most off the orange peel. Reason why i say a buffer that can get scratches out is because it melts the paint causing it too flow into itself again.

[CRG7]

we are doing the whole car...after we painted my buddies car (other post)..we got three paying people wanting use to paint theirs...

 

and another question, after the paint do we wet sand before or after the clear?

 

after the clear, then take a buffer to it

[nnoossss]

yea thatll give you pretty much the same outcome.

[CleanGSR]

after the clear, then take a buffer to it

 

after the clear, wetsand, then take a rotary buffer to it. Just a buffer without wetsanding isn't going to do a whole lot.

[C92hatchX]

alright gotcha...thanks guys