Need tips on painting

[AccordAddict]

Ok i need to touch up some scratched areas. i have a huge set of HUGE scratches on the bottom right side under my bumper. and i also need to repaint my hood (last time i didnt primer it i just spray painted over the old paint). does anyone know the best method to get a decent looking homade job for cheap. thanks. i dont have a paint gun also. so whatever i can do without will help. thank you.

[NXRacer]

1 - if the scratches in your bumpers are into the plastic, then you might as well get a new one since you can't fix it.

2 - if you want a paint job that will look even halfway decent you NEED to sand it. Sand and sand again. You can do your own paint job. If your current paint is in really bad condition, you cant really hurt anything by practicing. If your hood is in bad shape, practice on that first. Im sure you can find books or articles on line outlining how to paint your car. and if you dont have access to a paint gun, practice doing it with spraypaint. I had a friend who painted his whole truck with a rattlecan and it looks pretty damn good. Not as good as a proffessional shop (obviously) but it looked a lot better then it did before.

[Justin86]

yea for the bumber you better off getting a new one, to hard to fix them. for the paint if you want it to be the original color you will need a paint gun. If you just want to fix the spots and rattle can primer it for now, then have the entire car painted down the road.

[AccordAddict]

bah. hold on. ok its not in the plastic part, i have a black bumper, and under that it all turns back to paint, then under the bumper is the turn signals, then under that is the grill. my scratches are to the left of the grill (facing the front of the car). i dont know how deep but i need to get that shit covered up. are you all saying, i sand down the area, then i primer it black, and then spray the grey spraypaint on the primer? does primer come in spray paint cans or is it in a can that you brush it on. do i brush the primer on and then spray the spraypaint over it? oh, and will the hood look better if i just keep it a black primer instead of priming and then painting?

[Mike's89AccordLX]

Maybe you should goto walmart and take a look at what they have. primer, sand paper, and etc.. I know for a fact that there are tons of threads about painting your car parts.

[tatmark1]

AutoBody101.com

[AccordAddict]

Ill probably get spray paint cuz i dont have a paint gun. Should i get the cheap shit like duplicolor or are there any other better brands in local shops like walmart/pepboys/home depot that arent expensive (more than $5 a bottle). and ive never worked with primer what is its purpose???

[tatmark1]

dude you should let someone else do it

[AccordAddict]

ive already sanded down 7/8th's of my hood so far, got dark. finish sanding down tommorow then ill put a coat of spray primer on, then i goto go buy the right paint. I duno if i should get spray paint or the liquid in the cans. i want to get the liquid in the cans and brush it on but there would be brush strokes right?

[tatmark1]

brush it on???lmao

[AccordAddict]

Does anyone know the best way to avoid spots because i tried my best last time and i ended up with lots of spots... and dont say spray gun.. i got a spray gun handle that clips on a spray paint can so it doesnt hurt your fingers.

[88Accord-DX]

If you have a paint gun & compressor, get 2 stage acrylic paint. Urethane is more expensive, but looks better. Just make sure you mix it up (acrylic) with little more reducer. I know from experience. Sounds like you want a quick fix. Other than that, make sure you have all the equiptment if you want a good finish.I would use some rattle cans,if I was you, if don't have little more experience working with paint. You will end up trying to fix runs and what not than you want to mess with. One last thing, when you paint with a paint gun; make sure it is set with an even spay that lays on even. Make sure you spay evenly with each stroke. You will avoid overspray and causing any runs.

[AccordAddict]

ok so what im planning on doing is spraying one coat of grey primer, then spraying one coat of black paint over it, with even strokes if i can. do i need to add more coats or anything? and after the black paint is on do i need a clear coat or is it fine???

[88Accord-DX]

No, you don't do clear coat untill you have a final finish paint job. There is no need to put 2 different colors of primer, but if want, cool. Just make sure you sand your' final coat of primer to at a minimum of 320 grit, little bit finer would be better. If there're is any uneven spots, fill it in with fine coat of bondo, and sand it down to a even "smooth" feel. Clear coat is a final finish after you have what you're "happy" with. :)

[AccordAddict]

man im so mixed up. ok i accedently got grey primer cuz my car is grey and i didnt know if i wanted to leave it primered grey or primer gray with glossy black over it. i guess what im gonna do if its ok is primer it grey, then get a glossy black spray paint and paint over it. then if it looks good i do the clear coat? or is clear coat even necessary? and what did you say about spots?


Oh, and does primer get spots?

[88Accord-DX]

Oh, and does primer get spots?
Primer shouldn't have no spots if you lay an even coat, sand it down properly, & put an even final finish on it. There are few variables if don't know what your doing. If you're just painting your' hood, I would take it off to paint it. The problems you might be experiencing with spots is that you're not covering the surface evenly. Rattlecans is hard to put a good "even" coat on if your inexperienced with painting. Hope I can help you out :)

[AccordAddict]

ok ive sanded down my hood to the metal so far. or at least i think its the metal its a silver finish thing. and then i put a coat of grey primer on, and then i fine sand that down ? then i add another coat of primer? do i sand down the second coat? if i had spots and i sanded it down wouldnt that make it look ugly? i dont understand how to get a good paint job doing it yourself. bah!...

[88Accord-DX]

ok, since you sanded it down to the bare metal. You will definitley need a few coats of primer on it. Make sure you have a even coat along with covering all the "shiny" metal you uncovered. I would recommend at least 3 coats of primer on that part. After you get a final "even" coat. Sand that down with "320 grit" if you want a nicer finish, sand down with finer. Trick is, you need to cover all the "bare" metal. That will show up in final job.

[AccordAddict]

i dunno if its BARE METAL. its like silver and ... maybe its a primer. its not really shiney it actually looks grey with no shine. i dont know what it is. i just dont want spots!!!

[88Accord-DX]

ok, scroll down, one coat of primer with plenty of sanding. Should be good to go. Spots is uneven coats, could also be not moving paint gun/can fast enough. So, if you're going to avoid spots, practice on something first.

[AccordAddict]

ok thanks man. do you know if its hard to take the hood off or not? i think i'll do well, if the finished black coat has a few spots, is it ok if i sand it down ? will it look ok?

[MrBen]

I'm going to be flat out honest with you. Painting is an art. Unless you consider yourself artistic, don't attempt it unless you plan to live with your mistakes, because you will make some. I painted my trunk and it took me the better part of a month to get it the way I wanted it, working off and on. Now you cannot even tell it was repainted, much less an accident. It looks almost perfect. So just keep in mind, don't rush, don't have lapses of brain activity, and plan it out. It will pay off.

Also, those spray cans are really hard to get a consistant coat on large surfaces.

[88Accord-DX]

I'm going to be flat out honest with you. Painting is an art. Unless you consider yourself artistic, don't attempt it unless you plan to live with your mistakes, because you will make some. I painted my trunk and it took me the better part of a month to get it the way I wanted it, working off and on. Now you cannot even tell it was repainted, much less an accident. It looks almost perfect. So just keep in mind, don't rush, don't have lapses of brain activity, and plan it out. It will pay off.

Also, those spray cans are really hard to get a consistant coat on large surfaces.
Finally someone knows where I'm coming from. :welcome:

[88Accord-DX]

I personally have painted my wifes' car and mine. My car was the first to get painted and I learned that you have to have a quality paint gun (devilbliss) or equal. You have to make sure you get a good primer coat along with sanding the primer with some 320 grit paper, or finer. My car was the first paint job I have ever done, I went by the directions it came with, and ended up with some minor orange peel. Now I'm in the proccess of sanding it down again after learning that the directions suck, but when I painted my wifes' car. I used ALOT more reducer which seem to smooth the paint out evenly, after learning the hard way. It takes some practice with the paint gun to get a good even coat with out any runs, they are a pain to fuck with. I want to say that paint and all the stuff that it comes with (reducer, hardener, etc.) isn't cheap, depending if you go with acrylic or urethane!! The clear coat that goes on top of urethane paint is not cheap either. Also, if you paint your car with urethane, it easier to correct a mistake than acrylic paint. IF you paint your car in a garage, wet the floor so most of dust settles to the floor, get some air flow going with filters if you want a quality finish without any flaws from dust. If you don't have ventilation, make something that will go over the top of your car after painting it (2 x 4 structure with plastic covering it will work) If you have the equiptment and time, you can come out cheaper. Practice first!! Newbie here, hope I could help out.
:)

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[SuperStuff]

I usually just read postings on this forum, but I thought I should add my 2 cents on this one. Urethane paints are fantastic, but very dangerous to your health due to isocyanates. I recommend letting the professionals use this paint unless you have some kind of self contained breathing equipment. You could have some serious breathing issues later in life. Acrylics are not as durable, but much easier to finesse with final wet sanding to knock down the high spots to more evenly to the low spots.

[AccordAddict]

FUCK my hood looks HORRIBLE!!! damnit! i put a first coat on and there were a few spots, so after it dried i sanded it down a little with 320 (all i could find) and it made some bad scratch marks, thought i'd cover em up with some more paint. nope. then later on it got more spotty and some areas are brighter than others like somes grey and somes partially white! god this looks horrible, i have to stop now cuz its raining and have to goto school tommorow so tehrs no time to do anymore. well since its so ugly now, if i put a nice grey coat or black coat of glossy paint on will it cover up all the scratches/spots. oh and also the can exploded a few times and some runs got everywhere had to sand them all down and wheni painted over them you can still see the shit. god this shit is UGLY! so if i put a glossy paint over it will it all still show? plz help, thanks

[SuperStuff]

I've looked in to spray can painting in the past, but never actually done it. A few tips I thought sounded interesting were:

place can in pot of luke warm water to thin out before spraying
always start/stop spraying off (not over) what your spraying
start your first two coats fairly dry on the surface (quick coats)
after the first two coats are dry lay down a third coat fairly wet (slower pace)


You may want to wipe down your surface with a solvent like acetone to remove any oils on the surface before painting. Your fingers alone have enough oils on them to prevent good adhesion. I don't know about your area, but it's too humid in my area right now to even consider painting a car from a spray can. You can't adjust the additives for speed of cure from a spray can.

[jonrichert]

make sure you wipe off the tip of the spray can with a paper towel every now and then, paint will often build up... that may be where your blotchy spots are coming from.

[AccordAddict]

ok thanks for the tip. ill probably put another coat of primer on slowly. and Maybe paint black over it.

[tatmark1]

after you sand and before you paint you need to clean the metal. they sell stuff for this where you got the paint but you can use rubbing alcohol. you do this and you shouldnt have spots.

[88Accord-DX]

That is one thing I did forget to say. You have to prep the finish sanded job with a "prep" solvent. I personally get a "sticky" wipe cloth (5 @ $4.00 at auto paint store) before preping with solvent. I don't mess around with Autozone or Wall-mart when it comes to painting, so a "rubbing" alchohol might work as a good prep prior to laying on a final coat of paint with a good final sand.