Hello fellas.

my FC's body needs some work ... actually LOTs of work.

Yeah I know its not FE but I might have to do the same thing to my 8 one day ...

Looking for a good sander right now to remove/strip the paint and bring it to a smooth finish for primer. Will this do ?

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_101...1217000P?mv=rr

or this

http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_101...3&blockType=L3

as for paint, I was gonna use Duplicolor, but no store has my FC's Stock color (Crystal White, 8801148), can I call Duplicolor to order some paint? guess not ? hmm do you think parts store like Autozone/Advance Auto Parts would order them for me? (its not listed on their web site)

Why dont I just let a body shop to do it ? I just asked one and they want 1.8K-2K just for 2 doors & Front & rear Bumper. nothing else. Yep, no Roof, and no they won't Take my hood out to repaint the whole thing.

I know most cost comes from labor. and I have lots of free time. why not do it myself? Im ready to learn

FC will be the perfect platform for "Trial and error" ... lol !

 

dustless eh? never used one of those. I would imagine that bag would get filled in no time.
Just make sure you hold the orbital flat and dont use the edges the orbital to work out stone chips and stuff like that. otherwise you're whole paint job will look wavy. especially the hood you'll notice. do you know what grits of sandpaper you're using?

 

thinking to use 800-1000, that should be enough to sand the paint off without killing the surface.

 

Are you wanting to paint completely by yourself?

I would get a large ish air compressor to start with as you will need that for painting anyways (I bought a 33 gallon 1.5 hp craftsman compressor, about 300 dollars) awesome tool and once you have one you will use it more and more).

as for the the sander I would def recommend getting one that uses air because you can really adjust the speed (not to mention air tools cost no more than electric). If you do not use air and use electric use the second one as it has a variable speed adjustment.

The pads that the sandpaper attaches to on most random orbit sanders are made out of some form of rubber compound which allows you to use the edge. Not to mention the circular sandpaper usually extends beyond the rubber pad. With all that being said for uneven surfaces that is particularly why you wet sand with 400 grit in between your final layers of primer and the start of your basecoat, that is what prevents the uneven surfaces. And final color sanding takes out uneven surfaces as well.

I would get sandpaper until you read the tech sheets of the primer that you are going to be using as each has a different requirement for scratch marks, the ones I like to use typically are 400 grit scratches. 80 grit if you plan on using fiberglass resin or bondo to fill/even out areas (only do this after primer).

With all that being said you need to start off with a good epoxy primer (also is there any rust on the vehicle? if so I suggest taking it down to bare metal otherwise you will likely just be wasting time as the rust will come back relatively quickly). The epoxy serves as a self etching primer and is designed to seal against bare metal fiberglass and plastics.

After you lay down several coats of epoxy primer (dependent on the manufacturer) you can leave it sit as is, however you will need to wet sand if you let it sit past 7 days before spraying the next primer. After epoxy is when you do your bondo/fiberglass work, once this is done another layer of epoxy needs to be put over top of the epoxy (it is always best practice to bondo after epoxy for better adhesion).

Once your bondo/fiberglass and epoxy work is finished you need to use a good 2k high build primer to help seal and fill all the tiny pinholes or imperfections. After this even if you are going to directly spray the body color you hsould wetsand that way you get that perfectly smooth surface to start with.

When spraying body color it is very important to let the coats flash and not to rush to prevent uneven color and smooth surface with no run. if you plan to two tone this is the step when you tape off the care (just let it flash for about an hour then it should be safe to tape but this is dependent on temp/humidity). go right into spraying the next body color over the old and once you are finished immedietly pull the tape off so it doesnt dry to it and so you can start laying down the clear.

The clear coat is one of the most important to your overall finish. To little and the result will look dull regardless of how much you buff, to much and your looking at a nightmare in regards to orange peel (not necessarily a bad problem just causes more work). This step is once again very important to not rush and let the coats flash, not letting them flash is a root cause for orange peel (I will try to find a post from another forum about how to deal with orange peel)

As for the paint I would recommend this and in this order

Southern Polyurethanes (SPI) epxoy
bondo/fiberglass resin
SPI 2k high build
Dupont base/color
SPI universal clear

Also make sure you have a few different guns with different tip sizes because different paints require different tip sizes (you can get away with a really cheap set about 100 but it will cause more work at the end as in buffing because of orange peal). And make sure you do a thorough cleaning of your paint guns immediately when finished, if they arent clean they wont spray right and your finish and work will all turn out to crap.



There are several techniques for painting/body work but the best way is to just go out and do it and get some practice.





im sure I missed something in all of this so just let me know if something sounds off

 

my advice...If you've never done this sort of thing before, you might not be happy with the end result. you may end up with runs in the clear. But if you insist on doing it yourself, stay away from cheap paint! Duplicolor is not the way to go. I use R-M, which is made by BASF. They make terrific stuff and for the most part are cheaper than DuPont and PPG. Your going to need an air compressor big enough to handle the needs of a DA sander, other wise your going to sand for like ten seconds and then wait another minute for the air compressor to fill back up.

800 grit will take off paint but it's going to take FOREVER!!!

I constantly see articles in magazine telling people about ultra cheap paint jobs but in the end:
1. it probably doesnt look very good
2. probably wont last very long

If you want something that looks good and will last a long time but dont want to pay a body shop to do it, there's only one thing to do: Bring the car to me!

 

^I disagree,

I strongly feel that the average do it yourselfer is more than capable of laying down paint. The reason why most people have runs and drips is due to impatience and attempting to spray to much to fast, not a tough problem to overcome.

and a good looking durable paint job has nothing to do with a body shop, but in the steps that you take.

The only thing I agree with is that no your results wont be perfect from the first job but most likely if you take your time you will still have good results, maybe not perfect but good none the less. And after you take the plunge and do you first paint job the easier it is for the next. You will see your mistakes and learn so much from that first job.

So a good tip is get the cheap paint at first and a spare body panel. practice before laying down on a real car. Just go to a paint supply store and the people there will hook you up.