Technical Removing the mystery of painting your car yourself

Hey, guys... Well, I jumped off the edge and decided to plunge ahead and paint my car myself. Partly due to the expense, partly because of my own ego, I figured I could satisfy both driving forces by doing it myself. LOADS of folks keep saying that Lacquer is BS, horrible, crappy, and other criticisms, I figured that I'd go against the grain and proceed. Keep in mind that I'm old, and probably have a limited time left on the face of this lovely earth, so a "40 year paint job" isn't necessarily one of the driving forces in finishing up my car. And by the way, that $16.00 paint gun at Harbor Freight works JUST FINE. Don't throw your money down the drain on a 500 dollar or more gun.

Here is what I learned from watching dozens of YouTubes, reading everything I could on this site and others. First of all, take your time. Be sure that your substrate is good and solid, and thoroughly clean, dry, and has cured out. I used a heat gun on all body putty patches to assure that there would be no bubbling of anything. It WILL puke up bumps if there are any solvents or water present. (Some did bubble up, so I just ground them back to metal and did it over again - learning curve.)

Keep in mind that I've just "started" the painting process - lower grill lip, rear bumper lip, front fenders, and hood so far, and/but I'm more than pleased with the way it is turning out. It takes LOTS of hand/muscle work to sand it out - but polishing is very, very quick once you get to the point that you've sanded out to 3000 grit.

Even the fact that a few gnats landed on the clear coat didn't cause a problem, as they completely disappeared during sanding and polishing.

Check it out:
Body Work
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/Body-Work/

Gas Filler door
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/Replacing-the-Fuel-Filler-Door/

Hood Hinge Retrofit and Reshaping the Hood
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/Hood-Hinges-Retrofit-49-to-505/

Painting the Car
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/Painting-the-Car/

And of course, the "main page"
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/

 

interesting, looks like base coat/clear coat? I painted a car with lacquer in the 80s, it was just one can of paint, no clear.

I like the "jump in there and do it" attitude!

 

Good for you Looks great and you picked the easiest paint to spray ,,,Lacquer..as you know the hard part is proper prep,,I paint my own stuff, I will tell you a GOOD gun spraying Urethane sprays a who;e lot better than those HF guns especially in pattern size.

 

For a "1 time" deal as you've presented here your advice is probably ok. As to a $500 gun being a waste of $$$? I guess we can tell even more so your 1 time hobbyist status. Like anything, if you can't see nor appreciate the differences then more power to ya. You need only please your self, but most really want more regardless of what words are used. Most simply won't pay for it either. Hope you have fun with it.

A quick edit, I see you reduced the clear "50%"...? If you mean 50-50 that's 100% in paint terms. Most clear lacquers require a minimum of 150%, 200% is the norm which is why we've read over the years, "20 coats of..." It's because of the solvent required to lay it out smooth. Much less and it will "string" or spray lumpy. Lower cost material already has a lot of solvent in it so maybe some get away with less.

 

Keep the gun moving - I hit the side mirror once, made a great run in the paint. Get all the light you can, and three light-to medium coats are WAY better than two (failed) heavy coats. Have fun. I am self taught (plus the hamb), and enjoyed learning and doing as much as I have.

 

congrats on the project and tackling the task of learning a new skill
I teach this to HS students and wish all of them had you courage
lacquer only sucks to folks that don't understand it
I don't teach lacquer because it is not used in modern body shops
I do prefer modern undercoats such as epoxy and polyester primers to the older lacquer primers
the biggest problem with lacquer primer is folks trying to apply it like modern primers (user error)

that HF gun will serve you well, I use them at school mainly because they are cheap and if a student ruins one then the class is only out $10
but when you make a living doing this a $500+ gun is $ well spent
my snap-on tools greatly outperform my craftsman and trade day tools

 

My posting was not meant to address nor to give any advice to "professionals" who paint cars all the time as ya'll already know everything there is to know about painting a car, so, yah, you guys might spring for a 500 dollar paint gun. But I assure you there are thousands of "older" guys (and lots of "younger guys") who are building cars who will paint only one car in their life - and that includes me. After all, if a spray gun delivers a good even fan pattern and the quantity of paint/air ratio and lays down a good layer of paint, why not use it? The paint doesn't care how expensive the delivery device is. They both do exactly the same thing.

As for the mixing ratio, the data sheet says 50/50, and it works just fine. No strings, no lumps. So much for superior knowledge.

 

Any lacquer today is an acrylic lacquer, nowhere as hot as it once was, but it goes on nicely. I have a heavy hand when I paint and lacquer or acrylic urethanes are more forgiving than enamels. I did some recent work with a cheap Harbor Fright HVLP gun, figured for $9 I could toss it out when I was done. But it worked well. I took it all apart, cleaned the crap out of it and replaced this one cheap plastic washer with a good o-ring.

 

Luckily, when I bought the car, it already had a fairly good application of Epoxy primer on it, and sat outdoors for at least five years, so whatever was going to deteriorate had already done it. Yeah there were a few spots on the roof that did not get good coverage, but the impact is minimal with just a bit of surface rust, and in those areas I've taken it back down to bare metal and started over.

 

correct, the HF gun will satisfactorily apply paint
I have used the HF gun, the Wal-Mart CH gun all the way to the newest SATA and Iwata guns
there is a difference
the higher end guns have better transfer and atomization + built from better materials
the atomization is very important for doing blends, spot ins, and lays the clear down better
all this means less time and $ on the buffing side of things + the base coat for light colored metallics looks smother/less grainy
this makes happy customers, less re-dos and more $ in the long run

 

I've painted a few recently with acrylic enamel, the downside is that they seem to all use a hardener these days...and of course, when they didn't, you had to wait a long time for it to dry.

I can see benefits to using lacquer. Especially for someone in your (or my) situation. Not having to worry about making money on a job, can really change how you approach it.

 

I was doing interior parts, firewall, cutting in door frames, painted the door edges and so on. So it didn't have to be 100% perfect. Also did my trunk and inside floor pan with Duplicolor lacquer. That was nice stuff. You're right about the paint and paint gun relationship. For a HVLP gun, 40-50 psi at the compressor and 8ish at the gun are close. Make sure the compressor can keep up. Any mixing ratios are right on the paint cups or just ask where you get the paint.

 

49 ford coup.I agree with you with the Harbor Freight paint guns.I did the roof of my long roof{in WHITE} and the paint layed out nice. I cant wait to see how the rest of the car turns out.{going back to the original light blue} and it sprays a lot better then the old metal spray guns.{LESS OVER SPRAY} Bruce.

 

All the black under the hood and trunk, etc., was done with Rustoleum gloss black rattle can. The frame and under the car was done with Rustoleum truck bed liner rattle can then gloss black over that as the truck bed liner paint, though tough as nails, is rough and catches dirt and dust something terrible.

 

Yes having sags and runs suck .Got to wait for it to dry and resand it and then repaint the part. Bruce.

 

Anothy. I agree with you .If you make your living painting cars and trucks it well worth it, but for guys like me the H.F. gun works fine. When I had my shop I had a high dollar paint gun too. Bruce.

 

It would have been great to have all of this thread included in the painting at home in the garage and driveway thread.

 

Looks good, I doubt this car will see winter, or sit in the sun for years, i dont think youll see any issues with lacquer. Any concern on laying metallic on panel by panel, are they matching up?

I use HF guns about half the time. They're fine for what I do with them, shooting primer, suspension etc.

Pull out the nicer guns for some jobs, definately shoot topcoat with the best gun I have. Color sanding and buffing takes a long time, if I can save even a couple hours of that it was worth the gun cost.

 

I can see benefits to using lacquer. Especially for someone in your (or my) situation. Not having to worry about making money on a job, can really change how you approach it.[/QUOTE]

Also, not having to please a customer, can really change how you approach it.

A professional painter has a reputation, an amateur is just an amateur!

 

I love threads like this where the debate between the $10.00 Harbor Freight spay gun and $500.00 spray gun goes on with both sides being right for different reasons and each convinced that the other may be wrong. I have respect for both sides. Timex and Rolex make watches. Both tell time. Interestingly, I don't wear a watch because everyone else in the universe does and I can ask them for the time. Now that people wear Apple watches, I have to listen to how many steps they've taken, total calories burned and what their heart rate is. I'm considering buying a watch. Probably a Timex. But back to the Great Paint Debate....

My involvement with Stock Car racing taught me that some people valued looks and some valued performance and spent their resources accordingly. There was a legendary oval track coupe racecar in the New England area (#3 Ole' Blue) that used to show up and it looked like it was painted with a mop. A dirty mop. Probably had sags and runs. Not sure about orange peel as every panel was wrinkled and didn't reflect any light. It had bungy cords to keep the hood in place and used several hundred rolls of black electrical tape as wrap on the steering wheel and holding the roll cage foam in place. I should mention that in spite of bad paint, the car was F-A-S-T.

Car spent so much time being photographed in victory lane that the paint was fading from the constant exposure to the camera flash.

Never heard anyone care or ask what kind of spray gun Lenny used to paint his cars...

 

What's next, open heart surgery?

 

'Never heard anyone care or ask what kind of spray gun Lenny used to paint his cars..."
that's funny
I have heard that dozens of times, but not about Lenny
poor Lenny

 

Also, not having to please a customer, can really change how you approach it.

A professional painter has a reputation, an amateur is just an amateur![/QUOTE]

hahaha... well, some amateurs have reputations, too, ya know.....and it's not "worry about making money", it's "worry about spending money"....and for the 8 to 10 thousand dollars I've been quoted, I'll take all the time I need to make it just about perfect, ---- so it's kinda like making money if ya do it yourself...

 

I did the same thing about 25 years ago. I'm still doing it the same way. The first 4 cars I painted were done in the front yard under a huge oak tree with my TP Turbine system. My paint jobs still turn out better than the last two I paid a "professional" to do with all the fancy equipment.

 

Question,
Since you are painting such large body parts in separate part off the car.
Are you shooting the paint in the same direction as you would the rest of the car?
Eg. have the front fender propped up as if it were on the car? So your body and sprayer is hitting it in the same direction as when you hit the door?

Just wondering if it affect the overall look when you put the car back together?

The POV for which way the paint was laid down may matter.

So far looks good.

 

^^^^^very important with metalics and pearls^^^^^^

 

As long as the gun is held about 6" from the surface and the same speed is maintained, the orientation of the panel is immaterial. There seems to be no difference in the metal flake - - even with the slow thinner it dries within a couple of seconds. No runs so far. By the way, saw on a YouTube if you have a run, you don't have to sand it. You take a straight razor, and rub it backwards a few times over some 1500 paper, making a "scraping lip" on the razor. Then you slightly bend the razor so that when you scrape, the ends of the blade don't scratch the surface - be very careful and simply scrape the drip off till the surface is smooth. Have not had to try that trick yet...

 

I don't mess with metallics....I tried a sample, didn't turn out well. Besides, I really like the looks of solid, bright colors.

but then, I wear a vacuum tube wrist watch

http://www.cathodecorner.com/index.html

 

you must have a magic paint gun
ever metallic or pearl panel I have ever seen sprayed in a non natural position had a different shade/side cast than the panel next to it that was sprayed in its natural position

but I have never sprayed a lacquer metallic color
who knows

 

That was Len Bohler, he had some of the scruffiest coupes and later on the newer style modifieds. Different color fenders and hoods, dents, scrapes and so on.