I am going to paint my car by myself but i got some questions.

What kind of paint to use? Ive seen Arcrylic, Enamel, and Latex.

I am confused, they are all used on autos, but which is the best, and why?

And any advice on how to paint or anything?

Yes i am using a airbrush, and i am getting my paint from house of kolor. Any advice on how many coats and how many clear coats?

you only have to options in terms of the type of paint. You can use acrylic enamel or base clear. I would go with a base clear, but if you have never painted before, you'll have a difficult time spraying the clear. The prep work has to be perfect, it will make a ****ty paint job look good and a good paint job look excellent. When you rent a booth to paint, try to rent a full down draft booth. It'll be hard to find, if not make sure its semi-down draft. Anything less than semi down will leave you with a ****ty finish. Use an epoxy primer. ****ty primer may have a chemical reaction with the paint and you'll have to repaint the area. Spend the extra money and do it right. 1 or 2 coats of base should give good coverage. When spraying clear, depending on what brand you're using while decide how many coats. I like a deep finish so 4 coats was what I went with. But they were all wet coats. Do some research on the different spray techniques. This is the hard part. Some clears are harder to spray than others. In general the better clears are hard to spray but give the best finish if done right. Watch out for orange peel. Another note about the spray booth is see if you can get an oven baking system.

haha laytex, thats house apint silly.. This might help.. http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqpnt.htm

http://www.diynet.com/diy/ab_auto_body_wor...2278674,00.html

It's all about prep work and having a decent gun. A good sealant can also mean the difference between a nice smooth job and a pitted job. I've sprayed a few cars (with decent results) and prep work shows. A clear coat is not always neccesary, so some of that can be disregarded. Most toyota paints don't use clears. I reccomend a urethane paint over an acrylic cause urethane has less of a tendancy to ooze and drip and it sticks much better. You don't need several coats of paint. It depends on the job... but if it's your first time... I don't reccomend anything too fancy. Usually, one coat is enough to ensure a decent paint job, assuming you're using correct tools...

The bottom, car in my sig (AE86 20V) is my completed paint job. One coat, with pretty poor prep work. It looks pretty good overall. No drips or anything.

i have the car primed now with, over the counter primer. just your basic $4 a can hot rod primer, dulplicolor. So are u saying i have to strip it again, or can i re prime over the old primer? or do i even have to re prime it?.

I stripped the car down to bare metal just over the summer and primed it. so im thinking it should be good, maybe just prime over it again and wet sand.

im going with just a black color paint. so should i use just a base coat black, and then a few coats of clear coat?

-sapperk+Dec 5, 2004 - 3:28 AM
Grime builds up. I would re-sand and use an automotive paint sealer before the actual paint job...

sounds good, now i just gotta find a place to use a paint booth in MO

if you want black and you are doing a basecoat /clear coat i suggest 2 coats ppg basecoat black the deltron series, with concept urathane clear atleast 3 coats incase you get runs then you can sand them out with worry, i would suggest resanding the car down to metal and priming with2 coats ppg self etch primer to help prevent rust and dependign on what you sanded the car down with , if you have noticeable scratches shoot some ppg k36 primer surfacer- 2 coats and either dry sand with 320 on a da or wet sand with 500 grit then move on the the color and clear , if you have no scraches very deep after self etch just spray with ppg k36 primer sealer and then move on to color and clear, that problyl hard to understand but if you need help just let me know i can get all exact part numbers and amounts needed if you would like, , i say ppg cause i work with it almost every day and no problems , just let me know

Do not sand your car down to the metal. Its a waste of time and I almost gurantee that your paint job with come out ****ty. You'll put so many scratches in it that'll require putty to fill in. The only reason you'd have to sand down existing paint is if the previous paint didn't have proper adhesion and is peeling. Since you already sanded down before this primer it is probably too late for this. If ever a car needs to be completely stripped of paint and stuff it is done by sodium blasting which is like sand blasting, but a lot milder on metal.

Ditto. He's absolutely right. I do bodywork for my living, and the only time you need to strip to metal is paint peeling or if theres more than 3 paint jobs on the car. Even still it'd be best to sand down a few of those paint jobs than all of em.

i was just suggestign that he sand i down cause he used over the counter cheap rattle can primer and better safe then sorry, the paint shouldnt look like **** if as long as he didnt sand it the first time with heavier then 80 grit , cause k36 surfacer will fill up to 80 gritt


This post has been edited by pxcr440: Dec 7, 2004 - 12:20 AM

i used the duplicolor primer. is it possible to just use another primer over the primer i put on?

This is what you should do: DA the car with 320grit. Then reprime it with a 2 part urethane primer. I used Omni brand 2K primer (ppg). 2 coats of that and you'll be straight as far as priming it goes. Before you do anything though, make sure there are nooooo sanding scratches in the work. If the last grit of sandpaper you used was 80 or 36 grit, you do have scratches. In that case sand them out with 180, or use a primer that can fill em like pxr440 said. At any rate finish of with 320 before you reprime.

just go to macco.... $200 and they can paint your car...


















that was sarcasm by the way >>

hahaha maco