Planning priming/painting a car in the next few months and need some help choosing materials and amounts. I've sprayed one car already, however it was with rust primer and rust paint(tremclad/rustoleum). Came out pretty good for a beater and it really helped to give me a feel for doing the body work and spraying. Now ready to try one the right way. I've actually got a really good dupont brand body/paint manual, but it's from the late 80's so there's not really any info on modern urethanes.

Not going for a show car, car will be daily driven, but I still want it to come out decent. My plan thus far is to sand the car down, not entirely to bare metal but to the factory finish with some bare metal areas, then do my sheet metal work. Then hit bare metal areas with either the acid wash or etching primer. Then coat the whole car in epoxy primer, apply and work any filler as needed, then spot topcoat the filler with a coat of the epoxy primer. Then several coats of 2k urethane surfacer, blocking and reapplying until I'm satisfied with the finish. Then move along to a urethane topcoat.

Does this seem like an appropriate sequence and selection of materials? Can I apply a urethane based topcoat directly over the urethane 2k surfacer or does it need to be sealed first? I'm new to this and don't have anyone to show me this stuff, but I've been doing a lot of reading and checking out the ppg omni p-sheets. And believe I do have a suitable hvlp gun(devilbiss finishline series), air supply and booth setup to do this at least half-way decent.

Color will be a regular non-metallic. But later on down the road I would like to do a metallic on a different car. I was thinking an acrylic urethane single stage would likely be the easiest for a newbie like me to do, especially the first time? Or in the end is a base/clear going to be easier?

Will be doing a b-body car, engine bay, door jams, trunk and the body. How many gallons of primer, paint, surfacer(before mixing with activator, reducer, etc) do you think will I need?

Like I said I'm pretty new to this stuff so please correct me on whatever I've got wrong.

Go to Southern Polyurethanes website (SPI) and read their instructions on a perfect paint job. You will be WAY better off using a basecoat/clearcoat system as well. Much more forgiving to us newbies!

some of the primers can also be used as a sealer, you will have to check the manufactures specs on that one. As far as single stage or base/clear, I would go base clear, if you screw up it is easier to fix. With single spray after you are done spraying if you have any runs you pretty much need to respray the whole panel. I am in the same boat as you right now except for I already have my car primed. In the next couple of months I will be ordering the paint and spraying it. I looked at omni and the price is good however I will probably go with the shop line (basically the same thing as omni but from a pro dealer).
I have a dart and to paint the doors, body, trunk and fender I figure its going to take about a gallon of paint and clear. really depends on the color and the brand as to how much you need.

Since you're not squirting metallic I would go with single stage. As far as a run/sag/orange peel its easy to fix by cutting and buffing. (For a run you take a new razor blade 90 degrees to the surface and scratch the high spots down flush and then 2000grit and buff.)
I've used a fair amount of Omni, while certainly not top shelf stuff, its probably the best value for the dollar. I will use it for certain projects as long as its still available.

UH OH better call Macco

When you get ready to buy your paint you will want to use there "system" which will tell you what types of material you need to use. Using an epoxy primer is not really nessessary if you plan on color coating fairly quickly and have a dry spot to keep the car. If this is a project over several months the the epoxy primer is what you will want. I have a hood that has been stored "outside" for 3 years covered in epoxy primer that is still in good shape.

The only reason that you need a sealer will be if the "substrate" is weak. Basically if you rub your hand over the existing paint and you have stuff on your hand. Your sealing the "substrate" so it doesn't bleed through.

95% of the paint job is prep. Filling, straighting, leveling "SANDING" is where the work is. Paint will not fill dents or scratches.

Using a highbuild primer over the whole car then "blocking" it out will give you the best look. 320 to 400 grit for your final sand prior to color will leave enough bite in the primer to allow the paint to stick.

Wipe down your car with a "silcone remover" and 6 to 10 clean rags, only wipe a 1/4 panal at a time, wiping with a wet towel and drying with your other hand. The idea is to "remove" the oils and silicone from the surface. Use rubber gloves since skin oils will mess up paint also.
Use a "tack" cloth prior to painting, do not try to blow it off with an air hose, all your doing if you do that is putting the dust in the air.

Mask everthing your not going to paint. This keeps "paint" out and "dust" in. For example if you are not intending to paint the area behind the grill mask it off "dust" will hide in there.

Paint door jams, under hoods, and hood seams a day early then shoot the rest of the car the next day.

If something gets in the paint while spraying, leave it there until it drys. It a lot easier to fix when its dry.

Ther are 100's more thing to think about.

I still have paint over the factory finish on most of the car, however there will be some sheet metal work and a small amount of filler needed. The car will go straight from body work to primer to paint fairly quickly, while being stored inside my dry garage.

I was planning on going with the PPG Omni system, I have a couple local autobody supply places that carry it. The omni MP182 2k urethane surfacer p-sheet indicates it is able to be applied over etch primed bare metal, scuffed oem finishes and body filler. "Sounds" like this would fit the bill perfectly for me, however I know the p-sheets are notorious for not vounteering the info about whether they are suitable to cover large areas of etch primed bare metal or large areas of oem finish. The two omni paints I was looking at, the MTK acrylic urethane single stage and the MBP acrylic urethane base coat both indicate they can be applied over the MP182. I just want to be sure I'm not taking an over-simplified idea out of what the p-sheets are saying.

Will a (mixed with reducer) gallon of single stage or base coat be enough or should I be buying enough to do 1.5-2 gallons(after mixing)? What about the surfacer if I wanted to be able to do 3-4 coats of surfacer?

Thanks all for the info so far.

Stick to the name brand companies like Dupont, PPG or others. Use there complete system. Primers, sealer, color and clear. They desing there products to be used together. Miss matching products can cause problems now or down the road. Don't try to skimp on paint materials. You get what you pay for. Cheap paint might look fine the day you paint it put will look like doo doo down the road. Good product will hold out for many years.Don't rush the job and don't skimp on materials and you'll be very pleased when done. It will be worth it.

2 good heavy coats of urethane primer was between 3 and 4 quarts on my '73, so if you are figuring a gallon you should be fine. If your car is bare, then 3 coats. I stopped using sealers, the modern 2 stage urethane primers are nearly bullet proof. On color coats it is about the same amount, but with base/clear you will need a gallon of each, of course. Base mix goes pretty far, but I always figure on a gallon to make sure that I have leftovers for future repairs. Today's clears are so user friendly compared to 20 years ago, you should do fine, and I usually shoot 3 medium wet coats with a tad extra reducer, to flow it out. The reason is to avoid runs, if you bail it on there is always that possibility, and they are only easy to fix when they are in a good spot, which is usually NEVER!! My runs always seem to end up on body lines, by marker light openings, lower rear quarters, or anywhere that the razor blade or sanding method of repair is USELESS!

If you get a run in the base coat, but only notice after you've applied clear coat and it's dried, how do you go back and fix it? If you wetsand the clearcoat over top of the run, will that usually successfully hide it without burning right through the clear or would you probably end up having to redo that area?

If you run the base coat then you have a real problem somewhere. Either in the gun or how you shot it. Base does not go on thick. If you do you have to sand it and reshoot base over the panel, like entire door.
Clear is where you might get runs. It goes on wet. PPG is great stuff. Use the Omni base and then spring for the top of the line clear. It is awesome and you can buff it out to look like glass!

I agree with Mike, and you will see when you put it on.......basecoat doesn't go on like regular paint. Yes, you put it on the same way, you can even dust it on, but it will dry to a semi-gloss, even flat finish. And it dries too fast to run, unless you hold the gun in one spot and bale it on purpose. Try it on a spare panel, you will see.......the only real hard part about base/clear painting is the clear coat.

Okay, I think I get it now. So basically with the base coat you're only concentrating on getting a nice, even finish right? Any tips on applying the clear? How many coats of clear are you guys doing?

When spraying a whole car(body, engine bay, door jams, trunk), what's the easier way of doing it? Painting everything seperately, then assembling it? Or assembling the car, painting the engine bay/door jams/trunk, then going back and painting the body after?

Also, a question about metal prep. I've been thinking I might want to use chemical paint stripper on my engine bay and the area between my core support and grill, there are several layers of paint, seems a previous owner repainted the engine bay red when he did the car and decided not to sand the old paint first . There are a lot of weird angles in there and no real way to effectively get sandpaper in there all that well, at least not enough to get through all the layers of old paint. If I do this and end up with large areas of bare metal, should they be etch primed before being hit with the surfacer?

I don't know if am supposed to do this and I don't mean to get anybody upset but this is how I learned. this is a forum much like this one but it's all body shop and paint guys http://www.autobody101.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5

If you do base / clear make sure to get the same coats of clear on all the body panels (if they are not all fitted on the car.) I painted my hood off the car and it has more clear on it than the fenders, and in the right lighting conditions you can see the extra clear makes the hood look slightly darker than the fender. I'm a novice at painting, so I will let others comment on the recommended number of coats of clear. I think three coats would be the minimum because you will want to sand and buff the clear.

I used chemical stripper when I did my engine bay also. For the same reasons it worked very well butt it was still alot of work getting all the paint off of the metal, and I still sanded it once more to make sure there was no residual chemical left on the metal then also used etching primer (spraybomb metal etch) and it is holding up fine so far. I then masked it off and painted it seperately from the rest of the car, then moved on to the rest of the car. I was well pleased with the end result. As far as painting the rest of the car IMO I like to paint the panels seperately, then the roof, quarters and jams together so the job doesn't seem so big. Also I am no pro and it lets you get the feel without messing up on the whole thing at one time. On one more note I too used the shopline and it turned out great for me, 1 gal base, 2 gal primer, 2 gal of clear is what it took for me after redoing a couple of things I wasn't happy with. I also think the base clear method was made for someone like me that don't know what the h@!! thier doing.

I've been leaning towards the idea of painting it with the whole car together, doing the engine bay/under hood, trunk, door jams first, then comming back later and doing the body. I think I would have a lot tougher time putting everything together without damaging something, not to mention chipping up the paint on all the bolts for the hood, doors, trunk, etc. But I'm sure the pros have their ways around that too. The door jams and trunk I'm not as concerned about, but would you mask off the engine bay after it's painted to prevent getting overspray when going back to paint the body?

The last 3 cars I've done, I jammed out everything while it was apart...then assembled it all. Then painted the engine compartment,trunk and door jambs. You just need to make some stops to keep the hood and decklid from closing and sticking. Shoot all the base, and then shoot as many coats of clear that you are going to use in the jambs first. Then leave them shut and clear the rest of the car. The clear in the engine compartment,trunk and door jambs will still be wet enough so that it will blend when you spray the outside and it won't appear as oversprayed. Last car I did was my GY3 Challenger. I stripped it to the metal, and primed it with PPG DP90LF, which is epoxy primer. I waited about 3 weeks, and lightly scuffed the areas needing a little filler. It was the first time I had done filler over epoxy, but it worked well. It was only a few places, and was so thin you could read a newspaper thru it You can also use the DP90LF as a nonsanding sealer. Good thing it has dual uses....it costs out the ying yang! I used PPG K38 primer and wet sanded it with 400,primed it again and wet sanded it with 600. I bought Omni base, and used the good PPG clear. It turned out nice.....even if it is mine Good luck