Another paint thread

So for those not paying attention, and who can blame you it's another miata, I've been delayed in painting my car a bit more than anticipated. The good news is that it's finally covered in primer. The bad news, is that I'm finding lots of contradictory information about the next steps.

So far: I stripped pieces to bare metal that needed it, and also just cleaned and scuffed other parts, and piece primed. Sanded that with 400 grit before spraying with acrylic primer, and a bit of what had been primed came off under the 400 grit. It looked alright though so I left it.

Now that it is primed though, what should I do to get the primer ready for paint?

It definitely needs sanded again. 800? 1200? Dry? Wet? It seems to vary based on the website I go to, and the paint itself isn't very clear on the subject. Should I just leave it, paint it, then color sand(whatever that is)?

Acrylic primer is over filler primer currently, and it's an acrylic enamel paint.

I've been going back and forth between just taking it to maco or a body shop with my paint and letting them finish it, but I've already put so much time and work in that almost feels like giving up.

So I turn this over to you, a fairly trusted, much more experienced group, that I can interact with instead of faq pages and several year old forum posts. What's next?

In reply to revrico:

More sanding and priming would be my guess. Block sanding a guide coat will tell you how good of a job you did feathering all the edges in. But if you just want to get paint on it I would block sand it to 800.

Can you clarify the part about a good bit of the primer coming of with 400 grit but it looked alright? Are you saying you smoothed a lot of it off or it peeled off / sanded through to metal..... It makes a difference. And did you prime the bare metal with self etching primer or just high build? Also makes a difference....

In reply to itsarebuild:

The parts that were taken to bare metal were hit with self etching primer, then with filler primer.

Where it "looked alright", I had some glue on the primer from where my numbers were taped on, and I got a bit heavy handed trying to take it off. Wound up getting it back down to paint in those sections, and made the edges smoothish, but didn't use filler primer before I sprayed it.

As it sit's now, it's mostly smooth, there are just some places I know need sanded down because of sweat beads, dialing in the spray gun splatters, or miscellaneous debris that blew out of cracks even though I washed and tack clothed the car before starting.

I've already accepted the paint job is going to look like crap when I'm done, just trying to make it not suck so bad. There are too many problems with the body and I'm way too unskilled/impatient/cheap to make it look great.

If the amount of primer it took is an indication, I've got enough paint to do 3-4 coats, so it won't kill me if I need to redo it, I'd just rather not.

Honestly it sounds like mascot is the best bet. But only based on your comment that you know it's going to come out as not sucking so bad and you realization that you don't have the patience to change that.

So I agree with nick, hit it with 800 grit till you say your tired of it and bring it to maaco

I've heard if you do all the prep work to a good quality level and then have Maaco spray the paint you can get a nice paint job out of them. Where they usually fall down is the prep.

I asked my boss his opinion on this since he has been painting cars since before i was born. He said if your happy with it, hit the entire car with 800wet and spray it.

In reply to dropstep:

Alright. That's turning into the plan. I figure absolute worse case, I can sand again and get maaco on it if I do it that way and it's terrible.

Can't believe how much more money I've spent on sandpaper than seriously everything else for this project.

I agree with you and drop step. There is only one way to get experience. I you have already lowered your expectations, you can't go wrong. Have a it.

revrico wrote: In reply to dropstep: Can't believe how much more money I've spent on sandpaper than seriously everything else for this project.

I've painted a couple cars and bikes. After the first one I tripled the budget for sand paper.

This was my first attempt at painting a car. This car was very rusty, lot's of cutting and replacing sheet metal took place. I went over budget, both money and time and rushed it at the end but it came out decent. Spraying the paint is easy, it's all in the prep work. I worked every weekend and at least three nights a week on it for over three months before I even sprayed the fist coat of primer on it. Then three more weeks with high build primer and block sanding before I just called it good enough and sprayed it.

I'd consider acrylic urethane instead of acrylic enamel based on experience. I've sprayed both, the urethane resulted in a much nicer finish.

Whatever you do say no to maaco and definitely no to roll on paint. That is all.

Source: experience

Ok, so after procrastinating for the better part of a week, I went and got a good rubber sanding block and wet sanded the car with 1000 grit. No one near me stocks 800, seriously not even home depot.

But I'm wondering how bad I screwed up. It only took like an hour and a half to go front to back. I can tell it did something, when I started water kinda beaded and fell off, not it's staying wet. I'm probably going to do it again before I paint, but that just seemed really really quick to me.

Thousand grit wet dry paper, hard rubber block. Soaking the paper for 5 minutes in a bucket of water and dawn soap before putting it to use really helped, as did using my hose instead of a squirt bottle.

Maybe I'm over thinking, just feels like it went too quick.

Nick: forgot to reply, that bimmer looks fantastic. Much much better than I expect the miata to look, especially since you actually cut crap out instead of just trying to make it pretty. I'll be satisfied if mine looks half that good.

These are my instructions. Already kinda broke part of them, by spraying with an acrylic sealing primer, and wetsanding with 1000.

I just want to make sure I'm translating this to English

Spray one medium wet coat to cover solid, then spray full wet coat at 40-50psi, then dust on a third coat as you go

Medium wet to cover solid means mix it thin and spray at a high PSI?

Full wet coat means mix thick and spray at recommended PSI?

Dust on a third coat? I have no idea. Do a fender, then the door, then go back to the fender again for a light coat?

And what the hell do I do with the hardener? It's not mentioned, unless that's another word for "Retarder"

Actually going to spray this tomorrow, finally, so just crossing my I's and dotting my T's.

Do not mix it thin! The medium wet coat should just barely give full color coverage. Do not sprat it too heavy and let it tack up very well before your second coat. It looks like the recommendation is 50 psi. The hardener will slow the cure if too much is added. Ask your supplier for the right ratio. The final coat should be to achieve wetting about 6-10 inches behind your application. Adjust your speed accordingly. Above all, don't rush. If you don't allow enough tack time between coats the solvent will penetrate all the back through the paint. Spray a test panel to get a feel for how the paint lays out. Good luck!

Thanks. The place I got it from was great price, package, and shipping wise, but totally lacking in a FAQ or customer help department. Of course there is a big label saying not for sale to the general public, to be used by trained industrial professionals on the can, so they probably expect people to know what to do.

The hardener just throws me off because it comes in the kit, but there are no real instructions for it. Looking at 85F with 60% humidity tomorrow, so I might have to do a practice fender to get it squared away before doing the whole thing.

revrico wrote: I've already accepted the paint job is going to look like crap when I'm done, just trying to make it not suck so bad.

Only after disaster can your paint be resurrected. It's only when you've lost everything, that you're free to do anything.

You have to realize that some day, you will spray paint. Until you know that, you are useless.

Music!