Is300Tree2

Im in the prep stage of painting my 1st gen GS. I am starting with 220 grit and going over the whole car. The car has lots of minor scratches and a few medium depth ones. No major body work. Any tips or recomendations? Just wanna get feedback from some experienced painter as im a Mechanic not a painter lol. Im really trying to do a quality job.

Is300Tree2

Also I am using a power sander and so far a few spots have gotten past the primer to bare metal....is that ok? I planned on 1 layer of grey primer.

Is300Tree2

Bump...still waiting. Just talked to me paint guy at my old job ...lexus of towson... and he said its fine to just make sure I primer of the metal areas well. Anyone else have any tips? Do i need to sand the entire car? Or just make sure the whole thing is smooth.

Guitarman

From the description of the old paint, 220 is way too coarse, which is getting you into trouble and breaking through the primer.

Normally, with no major bodywork present, you want 400 at the lowest prior to basecolor, but I'd prefer to see you use 600.

Unfortunately, now you're going to have to use a primer/ surfacer, because those areas you went thru to metal will need to be filled and feathered out to the old paint, otherwise, you WILL see undulations and layering when you paint over them. Also, 220 sanding scratches will usually show through the basecoat...sorry, that's just the way it is.

Buy a quality ( PPG, DuPont etc) primer surface, and then sand it with 600 and both a foam and rubber BLOCK...the foam block is for rounded areas and contours, the solid rubber for flat areas.

There's really so much involved in the prep that I don't have time right now to go through it all, but Google is your friend.

Any oem car paint in decent shape merely needs to be degreased well and scuffed (de-glossed) with ~600 to 800 grit and sprayed over. I've done it many times this way...


Hope this helps

99rx

iTrader: (6)

I am in an Auto Body class at school and I am actually in the process of painting the front bumper of the RX. Since i am not filling any of the minor imperfections, i sanded the whole thing with 180grit and i used a dual action sander. Today i put 2 coats of primer on the bumper and tomorrow hope to final sand with 400grit and paint. Gray primer, which i am using as well, can easily cover 180 grit scratches. So for now I am driving around with no bumper...haha. Let me know if you have any other questions... I can answer.

Is300Tree2

Thsnkd. So i did realize that i didnt need to go thst far the whole way around the car hehe. SO i plan to do a color change so is it neccessary to scuff up the whole car with 600-800?
And ive been goggling every day and watching videos on youtube. lol
And i take it that i only have to primer the areas that i sanded too far?

Guitarman

Well, if it were ME, and my car, I'd scuff the entire car with 400 and then spray a primer surfacer (AKA "high build primer") over the whole thing, That will fill in the places that are uneven/ broken through and all the minor scratches. You'll then sand that with 400 or 600 (make sure you use a block-not your hand behind the sandpaper).

You may have to spray the primer a 2nd time in some spots, and re-sand.

Only you know just how **** you want to be on the details, and how far you go on the prep...you really need to spend 3x on the prep and 1x on the spraying of paint.

Make sure you've given everything a good degreasing multiple times. Sometimes going over the car with Comet cleanser, rinsing well, and then using Prepsol or another silicone eliminator/ degreaser and a tack cloth just prior to painting makes a difference.

It's so much work it's silly really, but that's why QUALITY car paint jobs cost $5000 to $20000...