DIY Auto Paint

tuna55 said:

About the lacquer, I have to paint my truck soon, and my wife corrently ponts out that a 72 GMC isn't supposed to be deep and shiny, like a BC/CC, or even flat and shiny, like a SS. The lacquer seems perfect, and cheap. Has anyone used it before, with the understanding that it's going to look like lacquer? That could be a good choice for me.

Whoops

/end hijack

I only use Lacquer. I'm too lousy a painter and value my lungs too much to use the modern stuff.  
Most High dollar cars on the lawn at Pebble beach are Lacquer.  

Did you know early cars were brush painted with lacquer? We're talking Rolls Royce, Bugatti  Duesenburg , the old horse and buggy's.  
it's all about sanding. Not a special brushing technique 

There was someone on here (probably not you?) who went into detail on how to brush paint a car like the old days.  As I remember there was some technique, but it was also critical to use a very good brush. Mostly it seemed like it required a lot of patience (much slower than spraying).

In reply to aircooled :

Yeh that was me. A good brush is helpful but not absolute.  It's about the sanding. Start with a reasonably smooth body. Properly thin the lacquer , brush it on keeping a wet edge. Let dry 24 hours. Start color sanding probably with 320 wet or dry on a good sanding block.  Make sure your hands are comfortable  and go from 320 to 400- 600- 1000- 1500- 3000 - 6000  then start with rubbing compound.  Fine then ultra fine.  
That's for a great finish. 
show quality put a second coat on only use a wash coat. That's mostly lacquer thinner  but a slight tint of color.  Start out  with 1000 grit - and work your way to 6000 grit.  Only use ultra fine rubbing compound. 
The pure Carnuba wax 

minimum of 4 coats and don't you dare use a buffer. 

And because this thread is years old, I'll be the guy that suggests vinyl wrap. You can get the unloved scraps from vendors. Make a multicolor livery. Pretty cheap

I think you are going about this the wrong way. What you need is to come to terms with how much prep is required. It took me close to 26 hours to prep my 550 spyder and it came to me in primer already. Nothing is going to hide crappy prep and honestly I had zero idea how good it had to be to look good when I started this process. 

Some other learning. With good prep you can get really good results with spray paint. Better then anything I could get messing around with the water based paints and low voc stuff we have in California.  You can sand down runs and other issues. Its not hard to fix mistakes when you have too much paint on the car as long as you  like sanding. 

I've spent this past summer touching up a 30 years old base coat/clear coat paint job with DupliColor  cans of spray paint and then spraying clear Urethane over it.  The urethane does require a hardener and you have to take care by waring a good resperator and eye protection. After a couple of days I can wet sand it with 600/1200/2000 grit in that order and then buff it to a high gloss.

If your have a bit of dirt, dust, bugs, or runs you can sand them out provided you put enough coats of clear on your project. I don't have a spray booth, just a garage. There were even times I sprayed with the big door open. Blending the clear is no problem and if your carful you can even blend the  color paint so that the slight change in paint color; 30 year old to new;  is hardly noticeable.

I've painted with lacquer paint years ago and also with enamel and  and both required me to sand and buff to get a shine so in the future I will always end up putting a clear coat over anything I paint from now on.

If the color goes on OK you know that you can always fix the clear without affecting the color.

jwdmotorsports said:

Am I right in thinking that you could use a smaller compressor, you would just have to keep stopping while the tank fills?

Yes, possible, depending on the paint.  Some paint flashes super fast and might not like the stop/start while you wait for a tank to fill.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Let me add the better base you start with the better the paint job and the longer it lasts. 
 

Race cars paint jobs have a harsh life. On the track they are constantly sandblasted with grit, rubber, oil, grease, and fuel. Worse is garage rashes and sometimes trailer rashes Not to mention dropped tools and whatever else happens 

At some point that "patina" just looks bad. With lacquer you sand things smooth. spray  another coat back on,  and go back racing.  You can do all that quickly because the speed lacquer dries. 
 

Now lacquer won't let you do color shifting tricks or  a lot of other things those mega expensive ultra toxic  paints will.  But simple safe lacquer will give you a deep classic finish. 

This is Duplicolor Paint Shop series lacquer mentioned on the previous page.  I used their primer, color and clear, but have not buffed it as I really like the satin metallic thing I created.  This car looks pretty darn good to me.  It's a 3 to 5 footer.  It's the first car I painted, I used a $15 HF gun and I did it in the driveway under our "soccer tent" (roof, no sides) to keep it out of direct sun.  I am very happy.  Get an old hood or something from the JY if you dont have one already to set your gun on.  I took the "98% is prep work" to heart and I believe that was the key.  And each different step, reset the gun for that product.  Even using primer, paint and clear from the same company's line required different adjustments.  Also I used a HF 8 gal compressor and had no issues because it lasted long enough to do a section and refilled while I refilled the paint cup.  I used $3 moisture filters, funnel screens, gun and primer/filler rattle cans all from HF too.  The color of the car is brilliant silver that my son and I custom mixed by adding black to it.  The trim is all painted with the black we didnt mix in the silver.  325 sanding discs to get the POs Rustoleum, bondo etc smooth, maybe 80 hours total from disassembly to driving it, although possibly more. Primer, color, metallic clear and gloss clear, bondo, sanding stuff, plastidip for the stripes, masking tape, thinner, wax and grease remover, spray tint for lights, etc, ALL IN including the gun and EVERYTHING involved was about 400 bucks.

PS YouTube and advice from others was absolutely necessary and made a BIG difference.

In reply to Justjim75 :

Good comments. My only suggestion is you mentioned nothing about color sanding.  Now  if your paint was an enamel it doesn't apply. What you spray is what you get. If you get runs the whole panel needs to dry then be sanded and resprayed.  
 

Some finishes can be spot sanded to eliminate the run  and then color sanded. I only know about Lacquer but I've seen some two part finishes use the process. 
 

Color sanding is the process of block sanding with  with finer and finer grit wet or dry sand paper. Using plenty of water to flood the dust away and keep from clogging the paper.  
The process produces a deeper and deeper shine. Without the plastic looking coat of clear 

Time to color sand depends on the complexity of the shape of the car.  For example a Miata sized/ Shape would probably take less than an hour per grit ( and never skip a grit if you want that deep forever shine) 

The finer the grit though the faster it goes. If the 600 grit takes an hour the 6000 grit will take about 1/2 that time. 
The good part is you can stop at any point so it's a prefect weekend type job. Listen/watch a race pausing during the interesting bits sanding during commercials and boring parts. 
 

One other hint;  use a garden hose that you wrap towels around tie a knot over the end so it doesn't scratch and wrap towels around the hose that is draped over the car. The weight of those sopping wet towels will keep the hose in place just run enough water to have a steady gentle flow of water over the whole area. 

In reply to Justjim75 :

You're not helping my ability to resist getting a compressor. I also have thought that a much larger capacity is needed when with the options I've checked. You did a fantastic job, silver is one of the most difficult colors to lay down.

I didnt mention color sanding because I didnt/couldnt do it with metallic.  That's a what you spray is what you get job and that paint system is technically a base/clear lacquer.

No stripes, no runs, first try.  Well after the test fender and hood

In reply to Justjim75 :As others have said congratulations on your first attempt.  You are right metallics are really tough to do. You're a better man than I am. 

Thanks all for the compliments! I'll see if I can dig up the "need advice from the hive" thread and link it here

Anyone interested check this out:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/best-hf-paint-gun-for-baseclear-which-primerbaseclear-products-for-first-timer/173487/page1/

In reply to frenchyd :

Anything I said that sounds like bragging was intended as an "if I can do it, you probably can too, just do the research and put in the work"

Justjim75 said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Anything I said that sounds like bragging was intended as an "if I can do it, you probably can too, just do the research and put in the work"

That's exactly how I feel. I'm really not special. Well except an old geezer who's done a lot. 
I like to share with others hoping they will get the same please and satisfaction I've enjoyed.