Auto Paint

[RPGonzo]

Thought I would see if there are any paint junkies that could lend a hand.

Father and I have always done all our own work with cars from turning wrenches to laying paint.

I have a car I'm getting the body work done on and with all the more modern versions of paint out there thought I would see if anyone had some insight that could help.

Traditionally our older projects were all steel bodies and we would just lay some lacquer primer down block out the car and paint. In the past years I got involved in the sport compact world so these cars have a combination of steel and plastic parts, which is not so much a big deal but sometimes influences things.

But I started Goggling for sources for the materials and it looks like everyone is going to a urethane based paint and using a epoxy based primer. Now we have always known epoxy primer as more of a finisher primer than a high build primer so we just normally never use it and have had good results thus far, using the lacquer/enamel route.

However I also understand sometimes its best to learn the modern ways instead of just leaning on the old school all the time. I'm by no means any type of expert in auto paint my dad did paint and body for MANY years but of course it was "back in the day", so some of the methods I have learned from him could be considered "dated".

Again this is more of a probe for information, if we should just stick to our old ways and paint and not think twice or maybe explore the new types of paint and primer. What are your takes and what would you recommend?

 

[gmartin73]

im a professional painter been doing it for about 12-13 yrs. forget about lacquer primer for anything, its ancient technology and urethane wont stick to it properly it doesnt chemically bond together. epoxy isnt for high build it is used on bare metal then put high build urethane on top of it. the collision industry really hasnt used anything lacquer for years. actually waterborne paint is the newest thing out now, but a urethane base clear system is what i would recommend for you. if you have any more ? just pm me maybe i can help you out

 

[RPGonzo]

Thanks I'll shoot you a PM cause I'm at the point I need to buy the materials!

 

[RPGonzo]

I sent a PM but nothing is in my PM sent box so I'll post it here as well. Sorry for the double if it sent lol

Just as a little background here the car still has OEM paint on about 60% of it that we planned on stripping back as much as possible. Not sure if we planned on going to bare metal but if need be we can.

It has new fenders, hood and bumpers. The Fenders and hood have the primer that comes on the new parts when i ordered them. The bumpers are just straight OEM style plastics with nothing on them yet.

I just got done shaving the engine bay and I'm about to start the body filler stage to smooth out all edges on the grinding and so forth. Nothing thick just thick enough to smooth out the places that need smoothing.

Than its on to paint. Now we are painting in a home garage and have a pair of HVLP guns, nothing fancy just good enough to work.

We had sharp siphon feed but the damn thing is so old enough it literally just fell apart when we took it out a few weeks ago lol.

Our main concern is sand-ability of the epoxy primer. Mainly over the areas of the car that received some body work for dents and shaving. Just to make sure its smooth of course. Is this stuff fairly easy to dry/wet sand?

From what I have read the epoxy primer has a paint window. Is this something that can be worked around? Would it be as simple as laying a fresh "sealer" coat of primer block it and paint if we can't make the window?

I greatly appreciate your knowledge on this, We love doing things ourselves but would like to do it right when all possible.

MUCH APPRECAITED!

EDIT:

After reading a bit on the 2K primer it looks like that's what took the place of the traditional (in our mind) lacquer high build primer. I'm still researching a bit on what it takes to spray it and so forth , the epoxy is just the sealer of the metal. Amazing what you learn when you know the right keywords to Google .. IE high build urethane lol

 

[dk55belair]

I am a hobby painter, do a couple bikes and cars a year is all, but I agree 100% with gmartin73.
The only thing I might add is.......if you dont have access to a nice spray booth, consider spraying the car in pieces and make the job a smaller, several step process, which cuts down on overspray and dust leading to a slicker finish and then just water sand and buff the urethane like you would do with lacquer

 

[RPGonzo]

We are essentially going to turn the garage into a booth ... will make a plastic garage inside the garage ... it only houses my project car and my bike so disconnecting the garage door opener will not effect anything. And the bike can go to my buddy's house which is about 4 doors down lol.

So we can dedicate the garage to painting for as long as needed.

Thanks for your input though and the buffing tip is def appreciated .. didn't know if you could "finish" it the same way.

 

[dk55belair]

Buffing is a must if you like the show car finish.

The epoxy primer should be used for the bare metal only and does have to be topcoated within so many hours or you have to sand it back down. I would use the urethane 2k primer, thats all i use and mainly since lacquer primers hold moisture and can release after the paint is done.

Check the back of the epoxy primer as you probably can thin it down and use it as a sealer(final step before painting). Ditzler works that way, I know. Good luck

 

[RPGonzo]

The epoxy primer should be used for the bare metal only and does have to be topcoated within so many hours or you have to sand it back down. I would use the urethane 2k primer, thats all i use and mainly since lacquer primers hold moisture and can release after the paint is done.

Just to clarify it sounds like even on bare metal you don't use the epoxy primer? There should be no bare metal anywhere on the car, even the parts that were shaved are mostly going to have some body filler over the bare metal to smooth out the grinding/welding.

I think after reading about the 2K primer, We may just get a good sand on the OEM paint not stripe it all the way back, and shoot a coat of 2K over it.

 

[dk55belair]

You can even pick up a can of spray expoy at the supply store for those small areas and then apply the filler.
This is my car painted about 10 years ago.

 

[RPGonzo]

Thanks for all the info!

Now I just need to get the materials purchased and start prepping.

I will post back with some progress

 

[gmartin73]

of couple of my truck i painted about 3 yrs ago. mky old 1000 i painted to match. and 5.0 painted same color blue. ya i got a little carried away.