Painting tips with automotive paint

[77 Mud Buddy]

I'm interested in trying to paint my junk with okay grade automotive paint. I know very little about doing a good job with automotive paint and am looking for tips / steps. The first vehicle I'm thinking about painting is my trail rig 77K5. It has dents and a little rust where I have drug rocks across the sides / back. I'm not worried greatly about body work and stuff, I just want a decent solid color on the old girl. My other ride is just a 94 Toyota Tercel that I dont like the current mint green color. Straight body no rust. I also have access to okay spray equipment so I think I have that part covered. So here are my questions.

1) Where can I get automotive grade paint.

I've looked around and found www.eastwoodco.com / "House of Kolor" paint. Does anybody know about the quality of this paint. Looks pretty good from reading about it.

2) prep work for vehicle #1 (trail abused 77K5)
It has some rust and multi colored paint right now (white and blue). I'm assuming i'll need to sand either down to the metal or down to it's original primer before painting on top of it so the multi colors dont show through the final paint. Right? And as for the little rust on there, take that to the metal and prime it before painting?

3)prep work vehicle # 2 (mint green Tercel no rust) Can I just wet sand this vehicle and paint over the old mint green paint? or do I need to take all the paint off down to the primer before spaying it? Also, plastic bumpers.... just wet sand those too and then paint? Or dose plastic require different steps to paint.

4) top coat.... I know nothing about top coats. How many coats? What should I look for? ...

Links would be good if sombody knows of some good ones.

Thanks for any help rendered.

 

[ryoken]

theres a ton of tricks to proper prep, masking, spraying, etc..

house of kolor is a good brand. just make sure you do urethane, not enamel. look in the phonebook for "bodyshop supplies"... PPG is a good brand with varying levels of price per quality.

you can spray over old paint. just watch how your first coat reacts to paint/primer edges... watch out for cringing. overly thinned firstcoats will do this cuz the reducer eats into the substrate..

be aware that thick paint has a tendency to crack, etc.. usually one paintjob on top of original paint is about all you want in paint mils.. also you "can" use paint as a primer. paint it. sand it out and overcoat it..

for primer, sand from 80 to 150, prime, sand, paint.. for single stage urethane, you can sand with 320 before spraying....

most modern urethanes are flexible enough for plastic parts. but they do make a flex additive for most urethanes.. and yeah, wetsand with 320 to 400, shoot...

 

[k20]

I used PPG when i painted my inside (hope to do outside sometime soon), anyway, House of Kolor is good paint, but i believe its pretty pricey. What I did was prime the whole inside. Wet sanded it ( I 4get what grits I used though). Reprimed, sanded again and then primed a third time. Then shot on a color coat, and wetsanded it mostly off. Then I put 2 or 3 more color coats on, and then 2 clear coats. It looks really good in my opinion only orange peel is on the door edges, not the jambs, the edges of the door, mostly cause its impossible to sand with all the ridges there but the outside will be easier. Take your time and you cant really screw it up.

 

[gm4x]

If you're painting your trail rig, use enamel paint, maybe throw in some hardner. Red is one of the more expensive colors, due to pigment used. I wouldn't dump a ton of $$ into high-dollar materials on a trail rig (if that's what you're painting?), or on a first time paint job.

 

[4xcrazy]

shake repeatedly, spray about 6-8 inches away from surface. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

 

[gravdigr]

If you aren't going for show and are not picky on color I'd suggest an industrial paint. A local surplus store would be your best bet. Around here the stuff sells for $20-$30 a gallon in colors like john deere green, caterpillar yellow, furd blue, gloss black, etc... I repainted our dump truck blue and that paint was the easiest single stage enamel I have ever used. Sprayed on very smooth with little orange peel and covered very nice. I recommend hardener as well as it seems to resist scratches better. Make sure wherever you get your paint you also get a material data sheet with it that gives the mixing ratio for paint, hardener, and reducer. Also make sure all components are the same brand. Mixing brands can have some adverse effects. Also whenever you use primer make sure you thin it with paint grade laquer thinner. They sell a lower grade laquer thinner for cleaning but if you thin primer with it you will get bad resin kick out. I strongly suggest precticing painting on vehicles which won't break your heart if the job doesn't turn out perfect (like a trail rig) before trying the family car. Also once you are comfortable switch to the base/clear coat system. It is more expensive to use but gives far better looking results when done properly than 1 step enamel.

 

[77 Mud Buddy]

All some very good info. I've done some reading on painting and everything said seems to make since. I think it's just time to give it a try.

I was thinking about painting the 94 Toy first but a good point was made. May be I should practice on the one that doesnt matter as much.

More questions.
Rust removal. About 99% of my rust is just serface rust so with that said, are power tools / sanders best for this (wire wheel with a grinder, sanding disk with grinder, sanding disk with die grinder) or is it just a matter of elbo grease and a bunch of sand paper.

 

[gravdigr]

I use a 4 1/2" grinder with a heavy wire wheel for light rust removal. Then if necessary you can either leave any pits, or fill them in with glazing putty or an epoxy primer/filler then sand em smooth. If it is serious rust that will require body work I use a flap wheel on the same grinder.