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I've done three complete paint jobs in my garage now using a spray gun. I just finished my BMW, and it turned out really well (in fact, the guy who was helping me set the trunk and hood is a retired auto paint sales rep, and he thought I had already wet sanded and buffed the panels).  I got a discount on the materials for this car, but I think the walk-in prices were about : $700 for paint and hardener (my first single stage paint job) $300 for Urethane 2k primer/surfacer and hardener $400 for epoxy primer Then add in body filler cost ($25/gal for filler, $40/quart for glaze) and $$$ for sandpaper. I have about 450 hours in the paint and body work for this car, and that isn't too far off of reality. The panels were in bad shape everywhere. For the hood, trunk, and fenders, here is an approximate time breakdown: ~60 hours of body work ~20 hours of wet sanding and other prep ~10 hours of spraying For sanding filler, I went 36grit, 80grit, reapply until straight (many, many, many times in most cases). Skim coat with metal glaze, 80 grit, 120grit, 220grit, 320 grit. Wash with soap water, clean water, then wipe with cleaner, then spray a few coats of epoxy primer. Sand that with wet 400 grit, 600grit, then 800 grit. Wash with soap water, clean water, then wipe with cleaner, then spray a few coats of primer/surfacer. Sand that with wet 400 grit, 600grit, then 800 grit. Wash with soap water, clean water, then wipe with cleaner, then spray a few coats of top coat. I drape plastic all around the walls of my garage, and open a window in the back with a box fan outside the window, pulling air out. I also open my front garage door an inch or so to get so air flow.  It is quite a bit of work, but the result is a factory orange peel:  The other cars I have painted were both metallics, with base/clear. I used Omni basecoat and clearcoat, and I will not use the cheap basecoat again. It took 5-10 coats for good coverage, and that is time and material wasted, with more chances for bugs and dirt. Decent paint is definitely worth it. The Omni clearcoat is supposed to be OK though. Doing big panels without air tools would be torture. All of the finish sanding (120grit or higher) and about half of the sanding with 80 grit is by hand, but there is a TON of time spent getting things straight and smooth with the pneumatic file board. Here is the truck:  Here is the Scout:   I have never gotten around to wet sanding the topcoat on anything, so all of those are as-shot. (My misc. project thread is here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3484624 )
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Jul 9, 2014 02:07
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 01:12 |
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Mat_Drinks posted:I'm confused, I thought single stage meant no clear, but then you mention a clear? Or am I mixing up how you painted the different vehicles? I shot base/clear on the Scout and F150, both of which were metallic paints. I shot single stage on the BMW since it is a solid color, and that is what the paint rep suggested/gave me. It is less work to shoot, and there are fewer chances for dirt and bugs to get in the paint. Restoring a car is a ton of work. Most people don't understand what 500-1000+ hours is (3 - 6 months of 8 hour days), let alone spending it on very tedious steps- not the fun stuff like disassembly, which takes about one day. Just painting a car that is in good shape is way easier, but still very time and labor intensive. I would not touch a restoration project without a massive compressor (a straight repaint would probably be OK with a good 3hp unit with a ~60 gal tank). I have a 7.5hp IR with 200 gallons of air. Air sanders, grinders, and the sand blaster put it to work, and when you are spending literally days sanding, it is best to have the tools running at optimal pressure, without having to wait for the compressor to catch up. The actual painting is no big deal. I can usually shoot about 1400 to 2800mL of material without needing to run the compressor (depending on the fluid tip size on the gun). Painting a car is a kind of torture. Everything takes forever, there is no corner cutting, and any tiny mistake can result in huge time/money loss. You can rough in body work with air sanders, but there is an equal or greater amount of time required to finish by hand sanding. I am too OCD/cheap/poor to have someone else do it, though. Plus, I don't get any joy in driving something someone else built. Some people get more joy out of driving than building, so to each his own. One bit of advice I can offer is to shoot in the early morning, because there are fewer bugs out. If you try to paint in the late afternoon/evening, especially as it gets dark, your brightly lit paint area becomes a bug magnet. There are almost no bugs flying around in the early morning. CatBus fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Jul 9, 2014 |
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Jul 9, 2014 06:57
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