How To: Prep & Paint Process

Miikeremains · Feb 14, 2006

I took the time to make a how to. Its too big to post here, so I made it a HTML doc. Heres the link..

How To: Prep & Paint Process

Mod's will hopefully sticky this one..

clwilcox33 · Feb 14, 2006

Mike, I don't have time to read all of that right now but rest assured I will read it in the next day or so; but I did want to post right now to tell you that I (we) appreciate you taking the time to donate your knowledge and time to our hobby. Thanks alot.

Miikeremains · Feb 14, 2006

No problem. I understand everyones confusion when it comes to this stage.

I hope some of you find my article useful. Many of you are going to say "Well this guy told me to do it this way" or "I heard to do it another way".

The fact is that there is no one way to paint or do bodywork. Its an art form. And everybody does it differently and has ways of doing things that work for them, but may not work for someone else..

This is my method. This is what works for me. And it has never failed me.

smith69z · Feb 14, 2006

Mike,
Great article!!! I am just about ready to paint and have a folder full of posts on how to prime, sand, base and clear. Instead, I will follow your steps to the letter!
Whats your opinion on strips. I was planning to b/c, buff and come back with the stripes in a couple days. Since I will be renting a booth for the b/c I thought I could use a second day rental for the Z strips. Any problem with waiting. Trying to tape, b/c all in one day seems alot without having to layout strips, tape and paint them as well.
Again, thanks for the great info!

Miikeremains · Feb 15, 2006

You do not buff basecoat. Never, ever. Dont even think about it.

According to most paint reps, You only have a 24 hour window with basecoat before it has to be sanded again. Although i have waited as much as 3 days while doing custom work on a motorcycle tank before with no problems. But i really wouldnt push it.

Base your whole car the main color, let is dry for at least an hour then tape your stripes and base them out too. Remove the tape for the stripes. If your dealing w/ non-metallic colors, you can lightly run some 1000 grit sandpaper (dry) over the edges of your stripes to cut down the paint edge a bit. Then clear.

smith69z · Feb 16, 2006

Sorry, didn't mean to say buff the b/c but to complete the base and clear, let it sit a week, wet sand and buff then come back to the spray booth for the strips. But as you replied i MUST apply the stripes on the base then clear. No other way? Again, I have to rent a spray booth so braeking these steps up would be much easier.
Thanks again for the GREAT support!

Miikeremains · Feb 16, 2006

smith69z said:
Sorry, didn't mean to say buff the b/c but to complete the base and clear, let it sit a week, wet sand and buff then come back to the spray booth for the strips. But as you replied i MUST apply the stripes on the base then clear. No other way? Again, I have to rent a spray booth so braeking these steps up would be much easier.
Thanks again for the GREAT support!

No you do not have to put the stripes under the clear. You can do it either way. I just assumed thats what you were aiming for.

merch120 · Feb 17, 2006

For clearcoat in this article, were going to use CC-639 . It is the best Sherwin Williams clearcoat in my opinion. This Clear offers a one coat technique which you should not try if you are un experienced with the product. The basic technique is a two coat application. But on a full resto I would do 3. But DO NOT go more than that. The most common misconception is that more clear is better. WRONG. Too much clear can cause clear shatter. Another misconception is that you sand between coats. NEVER. Those days are long gone

.

I felt like I should add to this. If you are looking for a "show quality" finish I would not hesitate to put 2 full coats of clear down, wait a week, sand with 500, and put a flow coat on. Not only does this make it easier to sand and buff, but it also allows you to correct any dry shot or excessively orange peeled areas that occurred while spraying. It will also allow you to use 2000 or 1500 grit paper to remove dust nibs and any trash in the clear- and man does it make it easy to buff.

I also have never heard of "clearcoat shatter". These clears are modern day urethanes. Although you can't put 8 coats on top of another coat, if each coat is sanded in between, the only determining critieria is mil thickness.
I have seen 10-12 coats on showbikes, and have personally applied 8 coats on a few bikes with heavy graphics. As long as there is a way to check mil thickness, there won't be a problem. Even at that, your main problem is a softness in the clear, not it shattering like a piece of glass.

Miikeremains · Feb 17, 2006

You do not need to put an extra coat on a week later in order to sand out dirt with 1500-2000. I stated to put an extra coat, a third coat, to allow for enough material to work with as far as dry spots and such. There is no advantage to having 8 coats of clear. If a paint job is wheeled out correctly you will not tell the difference between a finnish with one coat, or 10 coats. Shine is a reflection. Does a puddle of water reflect the sun stronger if is 5 inchs deep rather than 1?

And i have personally seen clear shatter. A guy brought a car to our shop that he had done by a friend in florida. The guy put alot of clear on the car. He didnt know how many coats, but he said alot. The front of the hood and bumper were all shattered. Like cracks in glass. A closer look and i realized this was caused by rocks. There were center points where u can see was an impact by pebbles. What could have been an easy fix of chips, turned into a stripping the panels.

merch120 · Feb 18, 2006

Miikeremains said:
You do not need to put an extra coat on a week later in order to sand out dirt with 1500-2000. I stated to put an extra coat, a third coat, to allow for enough material to work with as far as dry spots and such. There is no advantage to having 8 coats of clear. If a paint job is wheeled out correctly you will not tell the difference between a finnish with one coat, or 10 coats. Shine is a reflection. Does a puddle of water reflect the sun stronger if is 5 inchs deep rather than 1?

And i have personally seen clear shatter. A guy brought a car to our shop that he had done by a friend in florida. The guy put alot of clear on the car. He didnt know how many coats, but he said alot. The front of the hood and bumper were all shattered. Like cracks in glass. A closer look and i realized this was caused by rocks. There were center points where u can see was an impact by pebbles. What could have been an easy fix of chips, turned into a stripping the panels.

I didn't say you had to put another coat of clear on in order to sand dirt and dust out.

I said for a show quality job, its recommended to use a flow coat. Look it up in HOK tech manual.
Sure, you can add another coat and sand 2 coats off to remove orange peel and dirt if thats what you want- I prefer to not do it that way.

PPG states that you need 1.5 mils minimum AFTER sanding and buffing to keep your warranty. 2 coats at 1.0 mil each (typical HVLP applied spray build)will not give you the required film build after sanding. 3 coats will barely get you by, and you may be in trouble if you have a lot of orange peel or dirt nibs.

There could be a lot of advantages to 8 coats of clear- depends on if you are trying to hide edges in design or art work. Not common on most cars, but I have seen it. You actually don't end up with 8 coats, because you are sanding between applications. But, you are correct, I wouldn't dump 6 coats (or 5 for that matter) one right on top of another.

As far as the clear shattering- it sounds as if they put too much hardener in, or possibly too many coats of clear without the proper wait time.

Miikeremains · Feb 18, 2006

My how to is based around Sherwin Williams paint. High solids clear.

How To: Prep & Paint Process

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