Photoshop CS or CS2 will let you do that.

He's right, you can use Photoshop. However, since Photoshop is raster based it's not as simple as selecting you car and changing the color. you will have to use a seperate layer or cut out the section of the the car you want to change the color of and adjust that channel. Photoshop is a fairly complicated program that can do almost anything you want it to do. As long as you know how to do it. I use it alot and definitly would recommend it. A cheaper solution to the $699 photoshop program is build a model, more fun too!!!

so i am new to this forum, i was linked along time ago through the pirate4X4. I have read the entire first thread and am about halfway through this one.

I have been experimenting on an old mustang body i have lying around in preperation for a second mustang that i will restoring in the near future.

I have been using rustoleum profesional gloss black, and have been following the recomended procedures. I have a couple of questions though (keep in mind this is my first experience doing any paint on a car)

when i wetsand, even with 600 grit, it takes me forever. To sand half a hood took me over an hour to do with a sanding block. My paint comes out very smooth and uniform with very little or no orange peel, and i wetsand until the water no longer beads up on the surface and the paper slides smoothly over the surface. When i do this i still have lots of tiny glossy spots left, so i sand the rest of those out too until the surface is completely smooth and flat (looks kinda like primer) Any ideas why its taking me so long? Am i wetsanding too much? I read that it takes people 20 minutes to do a panel, so i think im not doing something correctly.

also i did about 8 thin coats and finished with 1500 grit paper on my final wetsand, and when i went to polish (10 inch random orbit and no. 7 polishing compound) i got ZERO gloss. I spent about 30 minutes in a small area about 1'X 2' area with no success at getting any shine. It came out looking no different than it does when i wetsand it. Any thoughts on what i might be doing wrong here?

I have been reading online articles and books about wetsanding and polishing and havent found any answers, im just poor broke college student trying to get some respectable new paint on my car so any advice is greatly appreciated .

on a side note i have been working outdoors and it as been an average of about 20F to 45F during the entire time ive been experimenting with the paint, if it makes a difference.

thanks again
gaven

Mate, if you want to paint your car black then your wet sanding needs to be pretty close to perfect. And that certainly sounds like what you are doing.

Forget what the other people are doing with their 30 mins of wet sanding. If they can do an entire panel in that time then the quality of their work won't even come close to what you are achieving.

If you just want a quick paint job then go for the 30 mins of wet sanding per panel. If you want a really good black paint job that looks like glass then keep doing what you're doing.

As for your polishing, what type of 10" buffer are you using? If it is a 'cheap and nasty' polisher then you will probably have to polish it all year to get it looking ok. Go back a few pages and have a look at the two pics that I posted on my polishing experiment. The first pic shows what a $150 fixed speed RO polisher could do and the second one shows what a variable speed RO (with similar specs to a PC 7424) can do. If you want to get a really good final finish then you will need to use either a PC 7424 or a rotary polisher, with the correct cutting/polishing pads.

thanks for the reply, the polisher i have is just a fixed speed random oribit. I will look into getting a porter cable soon, but for now what compounds should i be using, and in what order to acheive a shine on my paint, because right now it looks flat like primer. i rattle canned some clear rustoleum over my first test peice and it looks great. i have a hood im working on now though and would like to get a decent shine out of it without using the clear.

thanks again for the advice aussie

The great thing about wet sanding, is that it is one of the few things you can do to your car outside in the rain

K, i moving to brightside, in red. I want to clearcoat it just because i want to add some pearl that i have.

Will this do?

web page


Any thoughts?

Steve

"To sand half a hood took me over an hour to do with a sanding block."

I've been using 600 grit for wetsanding my test panel ('88 Monte Carlo SS trunk lid) and it does take me a good hour and some change to just do that, plus whatever additional time after the first pass dries enough to see what I missed.

So don't worry, you're not alone in by any means in that department. But it certainly makes the next coat go on smooth as a babies... well there isn't as much orange peel to sand down at any rate when the orange peel from the previous coat was good and taken care of.

Can anyone explain why one needs to wetsand between coats?

Surely you only need to wetsand the final coat and polish it? Since layers will build up and its only the final layer that counts?

I do want the best finish possible but it just sounds like a waste of time if its going to be covered by another layer of paint.

I think wet sanding also helps it to cure faster. You break the surface and allow the solvents another chance to dry. Like if you had a big bowl of pudding in the refrigerator and it forms that skin that you have to remove to get to the wet stuff.

mmmmmm....pudding

Long time listener, first time caller.

I've been reading this thread with great interest and would love to start rollering one of my vehicles ('95 Caprice, ex-cop car). The problem is I know that I won't have the dedicated stretch of time the project requires. Yeah, I know I can do it panel by panel -- but doing it right will mean things like removing the windshield and rear side-quarter glass which will make the car un-driveable for a while.

So, I've been wondering about a Modified-Maaco approach. That is, would it be possible to get the cheap, single stage spray at Maaco (assuming that I identify a shop which does decent prep) AND THEN follow up with a fine grit color sand and polish?

Questions which arise are:
1. Is the Maaco prep work still going to suck?
2. Would the color sand have to be really aggressive to get rid of their orangepeel and imperfections?
3. If going this route, what type of paint would be suggested from Maaco (or any other body shop)? Part of this question is that I don't understand how the final sand/polish on a BC/CC finish really works. (I mean, if the problem is in the color coat, how can smoothing out the clear coat help?).

Worst case, if I have to get real aggressive with the Maaco paint, I might end up still rollering 1 or 2 coats of Brightside to achieve the end results -- as opposed to many. I could see doing this panel by panel, but not doing the complete ground up work panel by panel. (I'm starting a new job and I can't be driving a half painted car...)

I guess the other reason I'm thinking along these lines is that the car is Black -- and I'm doubtful on my time, skill, patience to get the prep right. Figure a body shop will have better results than I will first time.

If choosing to do a color change to avoid the perfect prep which Black requires, them I'm looking at even more coats to cover the Black decently.

I supposed the other choice would be to pay a body shop for initial prep and primer -- and then go about rollering and finishing from there. Not sure about this approach. Willing to hear opinions on this, as well.

I guess the one thing to add is: Yep, I'm sure that it might be easier given the params I've outlined to get a good shop to do it all. Problem is I really, really want to do this to achieve a better than normal result at a less than expected amount of $$. Looking for a reasonable way to compress the project time so that I still can have a hand in the result -- and not end up with a stalled project!

This was a long post, but hope to hear what you guys think.

I'm sure this has been answered somewhere is this massive thread....but can someone tell me how long I need to wait to wet sand after painting the light coats? I thought I read that for enamel, it had a recoat time of between 1-2 hours or then 5 days! So what is the sequence and times between steps of multiple coats, sand, multiple coats.

Thanks.

keith

If the weather is not too cool you should be able to wet sand after letting it sit overnight. I have been able to apply a coat in the morning, and another coat after supper and then wet sand in the morning on a couple occasions. That was the recipe that 69charger gave us at the beginning of all of this.

Gerbs

BlackMariah - The problem with the MAACO approach is what happens if you sand a bit too much to level out the MAACO orange peel? I have only been working on a hood to perfect my technique, but I have gone through several coats trying to get it level on occasion. The easiest part of this technique is the painting! Let me repeat that - The easiest part of this technique is the painting.

It is the initial preparation and subsequent wet sanding that is work. I can't see farming out the easiest part of the job.

BTW - I have pretty much finished with my van hood for now. I was never able to get an exact color match, but hey its an old knock-about van so...

I decided to try my hand at another car and color while I am waiting for the van hood to cure enough to polish. This one had a severe case of clear coat peel on the trunk lid. I dreaded having to sand all that clear coat off, so the thought struck me to use a 98 cent plastic scraper from Home Depot to get off as much as I could. In 20 minutes I stripped half the trunk lid that way. In places you have to sort of bend the scraper a bit to give it enough bite, but that clear coat has almost no bond to the base coat at all. Here are a few before and after pictures (half way done). Notice the large flakes of clear coat on the scraper.

With a new coat of Rustoleum that old base coat should be fine. I am hoping for a better color match here. I am also wondering if maybe I should just do a bit of wetsanding with 600 and put on a new clear coat.





Have fun.