Body/paint cliff notes

Discussion in 'Color is everything!' started by hugger, Jan 12, 2018.

  1. Donuts & Peelouts

    Donuts & Peelouts Life's 2 Short. Live like it.

    So you can vouch for PPG? What are the other tried and true brands?

    What grid are you wetsanding with and whats the logic behind it after painting?
     
  2. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    I Love ppg products , and just certain primers and undercoat materials.

    Lots of grits can be utilized during wet sanding from 600 to 5000, but the object is to level and enhance gloss in general
     
  3. Donuts & Peelouts

    Donuts & Peelouts Life's 2 Short. Live like it.

    And the proper level can been seen or felt?
     
  4. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    Hard to explain, the feel of the paper drag, and just experience
     
    1967 Big Buick likes this.
  5. Donuts & Peelouts

    Donuts & Peelouts Life's 2 Short. Live like it.

    I know i get it. My grandpa painted and he would have me feel his paint jobs, during and complete.
     
  6. stump puller455

    stump puller455 1970 GS 455

    Beautiful workmanship thanks for posting hugger
     
  7. TorqueMonster1

    TorqueMonster1 Making My GS Great Again!

    Following and Learning from this thread. Thanks for the info! Mark
     
  8. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    bump
     
    69GS430/TKX and Dano like this.
  9. 69GS430/TKX

    69GS430/TKX Silver Level contributor

    I appreciate this thread. I need to learn the basics of doing bodywork and paint the right way. I have already mastered doing it the wrong way. :)
     
    Dano likes this.
  10. agetnt9

    agetnt9 Agetnt9 (Dan)

    Is it ok to sand after just a few coats of paint, Paint some more, sand, and clear in a few days or clear before paint cures? also a rough time between paint coats and clear, depends on temp and reducer i would guess.
    you da man. I would rather weld and repair than sand/paint.
     
  11. hugger

    hugger Well-Known Member

    you can sand the base and re coat as needed but you do lose some of the chemical cross link properties.
     
  12. Smartin

    Smartin antiqueautomotiveservice.com Staff Member

    You don't want to sand base and clear over that, though. If you sand, you must re-coat before clear.
     
    69GS430/TKX likes this.
  13. 69GS430/TKX

    69GS430/TKX Silver Level contributor

    I was gonna start a new thread with a Newbie Painter question, but since this thread is still active, maybe I can ask the pros here:

    For an amateur painting his own car, what color and TYPE of paint is easiest and best at hiding imperfect body work? I am thinking lacquer for the type (because you can fix runs or other booboos easier than with enamel), and white for the color. Am I on the right track?
     
    Dano likes this.
  14. NZ GS 400

    NZ GS 400 Gold Level Contributor

    I am an amateur and painted my own car. I used base/clear. Base is easy enough to spray and small imperfections can be carefully sanded then resprayed. Clear can be challenging to spray without peel. Doesn't matter too much though cuz you can wet sand and buff it smooth. Working on gun technique is key for good finish I found. Just remember any paint will magnify imperfections. Why spray over a surface that you know has imperfections? It won't look good.
     
    BuickV8Mike likes this.
  15. 69GS430/TKX

    69GS430/TKX Silver Level contributor

    Thanks for sharing your experience, Ed. I am leery about putting a clear coat on my car, because I have seen too many others crack and peel after a few years, paint jobs done by both pros (including the factory paint that was on the car from the dealer's showrooom) and amateurs.
    Literally all those defective clear coats were put on by people with more skill and experience than me, so I can't trust myself to do a clear coat that would last more than 2 years. And a deteriorating clear coat looks horrible.

    The one time I painted a car--it was the 80s--the way for an amateur to get a good looking paint job was to use lacquer, because you could sand or buff out any mistakes and just spray it again, with no waiting needed for the previous coat to dry and stop being gummy like you would have with enamel. With lacquer you could apply as many coats as you wanted to get depth, and wet sanding between coats could end up minimizing waviness from imperfect block sanding. If it oxidized after a few years due to no clear coat, you just buffed the oxidized layer and voila, shiny lacquer again.

    The downside was the man-hours involved, compared to just hitting the car with one or 2 coats of enamel and calling it good. So that is what I did--acrylic enamel (the catalyzed stuff with isocyanates in it), with no clear coat because the car (a Corolla whose factory paint was peeling) wasn't anything special and was mainly for me to practice painting. It was easy to spray and the spraying part was done in an afternoon, but since I was a noob I had a lot of orange peel. But the paint held up for years with little to no fading or peeling or cracking. It was still in good shape up to the day the car was totaled in a wreck.

    This time, it's my GS I am painting, so I want a better paint job than the Corolla got. Doesn't have to be show quality. I am aiming for a 10-footer, quality-wise. I know that paint technology has improved over the past decades, but I haven't done my homework to keep up with it. I am still in Lacquer Mode. I don't mind spending time sanding 5 coats of lacquer, if that will make up for my lack of hours in a booth learning to be a good painter. But I plan to skip the clear coat part.
     
  16. 69GS430/TKX

    69GS430/TKX Silver Level contributor

    Hugger, when you have a minute can you share your thoughts on my intended plans for painting my GS? I appreciate all comments from everyone here who knows this stuff. Which is everyone, probably :)
     
  17. NZ GS 400

    NZ GS 400 Gold Level Contributor

    Well, it sounds like you have a plan. I thought about doing lacquer too. The way I see it, now that I can paint it myself, I am not worried about failure of the paint. I know that my prep was good. If it gets damaged, I will spray it again. Probably will be better than before because of the additional practice. Seems to me that as my car will be a driver, I am better off using more durable modern technology.
     
    69GS430/TKX likes this.
  18. wkillgs

    wkillgs Gold Level Contributor

    Jeff, what color are you planning on using? If it's a solid color, a single-stage urethane is a great option to the base/clear. You still have the option of adding a top clear coat or mixing some color/clear together to give it a little more depth.
    If you're using a metallic color, your best bet is base/clear. You could do a single-stage metallic if you are not planning on wet sanding the final finish and leaving some orange peel. If you're confident you can lay on a smooth final coat without much peel, it's certaintly a lower cost option.
    Metallics can require a little more care during application to prevent a mottled/blotchy appearance. Heavier wet coats are not recommended, a dryer coat will produce a more even metallic but may have more orange peel.

    Catalyzed enamels are kinda similar to the modern urethanes, just an older system.

    With the base/clear system you need to be aware of recoat time between the base and clear..... wait too long and adhesion can suffer. Water based paints had their problems in their early years, likely the reason for the bad rep for factory clearcoats.

    Lacquer is still an option for a garage kept car. I painted my blue 66 in 1984 with lacquer and it still looks fantastic after all these years.
     
    69GS430/TKX likes this.
  19. 69GS430/TKX

    69GS430/TKX Silver Level contributor

    Yeah, it's a "plan" but I don't know how good my plan is... :)

    I think I need to get up to speed on the modern technology before deciding for sure what to do, since my painting education stopped 30 years ago. Thanks for commenting.
     
  20. 69GS430/TKX

    69GS430/TKX Silver Level contributor

    Thanks, Walt, and to everyone else for the helpful suggestions. "If I were a rich man," my 1st color choice would be a dark maroon--I have seen some 65-69 GS's in that color that looked awesome. But those were professionally done, and for the most part were 5+ coats of lacquer. So I am leaning towards white, because a white A-body with a black interior looks pretty good, too, and because I read that white is a good choice for hiding boo-boos if the sheet metal is not perfectly straight. My GS has been through WW3 so it will never be a trailer queen, unless the trailer is from "Bring a Trailer.com."
    And since I am a novice, with tools (esp. spray gun) that aren't pro-quality, I am thinking white will help things look okay.

    I have owned cars with metal in the paint and liked the look, but I am happy leaving the metal out, especially since it will make the job easier.

    I don't remember using a respirator back in the old days. I was young and on a small budget. Now I know better.

    Thanks for the info. Yes, my car will be in a garage for 90% of its future existence, so I will keep lacquer on the option list.
     

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