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Anyone Piece Paint a Whole Car?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Dick Dake, Aug 25, 2008.

  1. Dick Dake
    Joined: Sep 14, 2006
    Posts: 788

    Dick Dake
    Member

    Money is tight and I was thinking about doing the fenders, hood, then doors, trunklid then roof and quarters but buying all the paint at the get go. My kids have bad lungs so painting at home is out of the question but having a painter do it for me. BC/CC instead of single stage. Anyone try this?
     
  2. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 32,081

    The37Kid
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I used to really bother me that a locol shop would paint the body on the rolling chassis and the doors at a later time along with the hood and fenders. NEVER was a dead on match! I'd get everything in finish prime and spend one day shooting color, mix it all in one batch.
     
  3. Shifty Shifterton
    Joined: Oct 1, 2006
    Posts: 4,964

    Shifty Shifterton
    Member

    You'll ultimately spend more. I'd say yes, if you're doing the painting yourself so it's only wasted labor. But paying someone, no.

    If it's any kind of pearl, metalflake, candy, whatever effect that's dependent on mixing or application to achieve the result, the answer is just plain no.
     
  4. Bear Metal Kustoms
    Joined: Jul 31, 2004
    Posts: 1,857

    Bear Metal Kustoms
    Alliance Vendor

    I would not do it... Even bases and clears etc.. can change a bit due to mixing differences and outside temp when shot... Jason.
     
  5. Doc Squat
    Joined: Apr 17, 2008
    Posts: 1,375

    Doc Squat
    Member
    from tulsa, ok

    Bad idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Not enough room here to tell you why not to do this, and I'm not a painter.
    __________________________________________________________________________
    Like I told the kid, "Your music's not too loud, it just sucks and painting a car a part at a time really sucks!"
     
  6. allstarderrick
    Joined: Jul 23, 2007
    Posts: 603

    allstarderrick
    Member

    If you start off with one batch of paint, enough to do all of your pieces, use a controlled eviroment (paint booth) consistant spraying procedure such as air pressure and volume, and lay the parts out in the manner they would be if they were bolted on the car (doors painted upright not flat on a stand etc.) you should be OK. Every car I paint seems to need more area than my spray booth has to offer resulting in multiple separate trips into the booth. Even with pearls and tricoats I've had good results.
     
  7. M_S
    Joined: Feb 20, 2008
    Posts: 542

    M_S
    Member
    from SoCal

    We sprayed my El Camino this way (deep red metallic/pearl) and it was good enough for the cover of PHR. It was a huge pain, checking temp/humidity for good days to spray.
     
  8. southdiver1
    Joined: Aug 23, 2007
    Posts: 182

    southdiver1
    Member

    I have done two cars in "peices" kinda like you are describing.
    The latest one was a few months ago. a 1971 Buick Convertible.
    Anyway, it was not so much the money as it was the TIME involved.
    We started at the trunk. Removed all the chrome from the trunk, fixed all of the rust spots and primed/painted the repaired areas white to match as closly as possible the rest of the car. We then "burned" in the clearcoat and a wetsand and buff made it look perfect.
    The inside of the trunk was painted blue as that is the color that the car would eventually be.
    We worked the entire car, panel by panel the same exact way. When you tackle just one panel at a time, it is not so overwhelming. When we did the doors and hood, the door jams and under the hood went to blue.
    By the time we were finished with all that, the entire car was ready to be stripped, sanded, masked, and painted.
    We took off on a Friday and a Monday and got started.
    We started by cleaning the car with White Lightning to get all of the crap off of it.
    Then we took off the remaining chrome such as the grill, bumpers, marker lights, ect.
    We hit the car with 1500 grit sandpaper... and again.. and again.. and then cleaned it again with white lightning.
    Remember when I said that we had done all of the repair work over a long period of time.
    This was the payoff as we did not have to fill in any spots at all.
    We taped the car off and called it a day.
    Saturday morning, we hit the car with gray Valspar primer using my HVLP system.
    Keep in mind that the door jams and the insides of the trunk and hood had already been painted so we were only doing the outside of the car.
    It took about 45 minutes to prime the entire car.
    2000 grit sandpaper and it was ready for paint.
    We were able to put the first coat on in about 1 hour and the other two coats took about 45 minutes.
    By 4:00 PM, the car had three coats of paint and three coats of clear.
    Sunday morning was wet sanding and buffing and by Sunday lat afternoon, we had it put back togather and were driving.

    My advise would be to prep/prime each panel one by one but, paint the entire car at once.
     

  9. I agree completely!! I have painted several cars in pieces with no problems at all. A good painter can pull it off. Make sure the air pressure is consistant, have the panels standing the way they are on the car. That means do not lay the door down, the metealics will lay differently and change the color.

    I once did a 68 Camaro Marina blue and had no issues. It can be done.
     
  10. Primer sure.
    Paint, No Way.
     
  11. UnIOnViLLEHauNT
    Joined: Jun 22, 2004
    Posts: 4,826

    UnIOnViLLEHauNT
    Member

    My friend painted a 70 Chevelle piece by piece in his attic. He hoisted the stuff up, set up a spray booth up there and did a panel at a time. No joke.
     
  12. brandon
    Joined: Jul 19, 2002
    Posts: 6,372

    brandon
    Member

    i've done a couple....the orange 48 was shot over a couple days....the truck was shot over a couple weeks....the orange one was hok paint ...10 quarts...the truck was centari....the penny was shot at one time in a bunch of pieces ...only the painters picked the metallic issues....:D
     

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  13. 4-pot
    Joined: Aug 12, 2005
    Posts: 181

    4-pot
    Member

    Have done several never had a problem. Am doing one now the front clip, doors and deck lid done this summer all at different times. The main body will be done next year. But I only do solid colors I don't like metalics.
     
  14. Shaggy
    Joined: Mar 6, 2003
    Posts: 5,207

    Shaggy
    Member
    from Sultan, WA

    Stick with black and it should work
     
  15. stude_trucks
    Joined: Sep 13, 2007
    Posts: 4,754

    stude_trucks
    Member

    I am no painter by any stretch of the imagination. But had to have my wife's car that is only a year old repaired because somebody opened their door on her in traffic and took off the mirror and dented the passenger door. The other driver's insurance covered it and a repair place they recommended fixed it of course - fortunately just down the street. They replaced the mirror and 'fixed' the small dent and repainted just the door and the mirror. I was not happy about it and pretty skeptical of the potential results, but it's a daily so I decided to just let it be what it is going to be and worry about more important stuff.

    When it was done, I have to say you would have to be a visual genius to see any difference in the paint from factory to repair and the car is a dark metallic charcoal. I am one picky perfectionist mf'r and it looked like new and couldn't tell any difference to me. They did it all in 1 day start to finish. That was about 6 months ago and still looks brand new. About $800 for the whole thing.

    Just my experience for reference and not that I recommend painting a whole car that way or not, because maybe with ever panel different it is a lot more variables and maybe easier to see. My gut feeling as others have said is to maybe do prep work piece meal, but do the final coat(s) in one spray - maybe just the final clears might do it.
     
  16. Shaggy
    Joined: Mar 6, 2003
    Posts: 5,207

    Shaggy
    Member
    from Sultan, WA

    Its also a deal of how picky you are, i saw a show car that had 2 parts painted with 2 guys using 2 different guns at the same time in the same booth and mixed in the same batch, turn out slightly different colours, very few people caught it though

    But like i said, black is black makes it easier atleast in laying the paint, in my amature opinion
     
  17. SlowandLow63
    Joined: Sep 18, 2004
    Posts: 5,958

    SlowandLow63
    Member
    from Central NJ

    I would say absolutely not. If its any kind of pearl, metallic, or kandy, you won't have anywhere near the same effect or shade. Those paints need to have all the adjacent panels shot in the same pass, no breaks. Of course it does depend on how picky you are. If its a solid, use single stage and the difference will be minimal however noticable. Its all in how consistent you are.
     

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