...and I suspect the results have been close to the same.

I tests small amounts with different mixtures Eventually settling on what I'd call 75 percent paint, 25 percent mineral spirits (and just a splash of Penetrol. It worked like a dream in the white Rustoleum pro, but still seems a tad thick for my orange (which was Coronado, so the chemistry is likely off a touch.)

The off-the-cuff description of mixing until the paint runs like water really is the best. Any thicker and you slow down the process. Of course, if you're painting in Sacto in the summer, you should have a nice sunny environment to bake the paint quick.

Matt, if you haven't practiced with the paint on some spare metal somewhere, please stop and do that first. When these guys say the paint lays down differently, they aren't kidding. An afternoon of practice saved me a lot of time making up for some sloppy mistakes.


Above all, take your time and enjoy the transformation. I'm only about halfway done and folks are already walking up and complimenting the truck. Can't wait for the weather to clear to get back to it!

Cal: is that the royal blue I had sent you links to or did you go with navy? It looks light, like royal.

You shouldn't use 80 grit on the whole car just to scuff the paint. 80 grit is for shaping bondo or removing paint quickly. You can safely sand the whole thing with 240 and scuff the paint quickly without putting the deep scratches the 80 grit would put in.

That is a nice post! You can see the microscratches in the sunlight reflection, but he could probably get those out with more polishing or using a different compound.

anyone experienced dust being on the paint after a whjile the car being finished with new paint?

Ok, I'll be picking up some more sand paper, prob 220 since thats what I know HD has and start prepping, still my only question is, I know sanding makes a ton of dust and crap, would it be better if i just swept it off with a hand brush, or to just rinse it off with some water?

As to doing a test section, I haven't done that yet, but the car is a friends of mine and we are bothing going to test it out tomorrow on one panel first and see how it lays down and stuff, then proceed from there.

I keep finding dust particles or something like it in the fresh paint of panels I rolled. i think it is most likely microscopic parts of the roller coming off. I dont see any in the cowl and grill i painted with the foam brush only.

Bob

If you read my message above... you will note the lengths to which I go prior to laying a fresh coat of paint on to the car.

The only time there should be sanding dust in your work area is when you do the final body prep prior to laying down the first coat of paint.

Once you start laying down coats of paint you will be doing 'wet sanding'. The one beauty of 'wet sanding' is that all the sanded areas get trapped in the water and form a mud like material.

Hence there shouldn't be any dust being generated from the sanding process.

Now... there is the possibility that your work area may have dust in it. That is pretty much the norm for everything except a clean room with reverse air flow and filters.

What I did to minimize the effects of any dust created during the pre-sanding prior to laying down the first coat of paint was to HOSE DOWN my garage. This got all the dust, grass, dirt, wood chips, dead bugs and other crap lying on the floor out of the work area. The beauty of this being the water from the hose not only traps the dust etc.. but it also makes it easy to spray it right out of the garge and leave my floor clean and small particle free.

Now... once you complete your 'pre-sanding' of the body... prior to laying down your first coat of paint... you should put the car outside ( if you can ) and wash the entire car down with a bucket of water ( with a few drops of dish detergent ) and a towel to slosh it around on your body. Then HOSE the body down thoroughly. You can then put the car back in the garage and let it dry. As a final measure prior to laying down the first coat of paint... you can give the body a wipe down with a clean white cotton rag that is wetted with mineral spirit. This will ensure that any contaminants that might adversely affect the initial coat of paint ( like oil from your hands etc ) are removed from the body surface. Then wait and let the body thoroughly dry out and move on to your initial layering of paint.

.

Now as for the mysterious 'dust particles' that might be making their appearance on your freshly painted body... you might be surprised to find that they 'might' be coming off your clothing or your head.

It's surprising to see how many head hairs magically fall out and land on your freshly painted body. I guess the only solution for this is to wear a baseball cap or a food preparation 'net' on your head.

The other thought that struck me is dandruff... yuppper... some folks are constantly shedding dandruff while they are hoverin over their body laying down the paint.

And depending on how you 'snack' prior to going and painting your car.. there is also the possibility of 'food crap' that was clinging to your clothes and magically decides to fall off your clothing while you are working away on the body.

Unfortunately 'dust', flying bugs and other mysterious crap are bound to keep appearing in the area where you are working with paint.

There is probably some 'Murphy's Law' that says - " When you paint, magic dust and bugs will be drawn to the area that is freshly painted'

Now... one thing I would agree with you on is the potential for the 4 inch rollers to start self-destructing. I noticed this 'self-destruction most on the rounded end of the roller when I was working in tight areas. I guess the combination of mineral spirits and body edges leads to a premature failure of the integrity of the roller. That is one reason why I have used a brand new roller for EACH TIME I am about to lay down a new layer of paint.

Hope these rambling thoughts help out...

.

Hi,
Been following this from the beginning.
Haven't started yet, was going to go with black but am now sticking with original color of car(white) to avoid doing the engine bay, trunk, etc... Three questions,
1)I do have light rust, some medium rust, do I need to bondo these areas or use rust-killer? I am afraid to just paint over these areas and have the rust come back.
2) Should I do a light sand(230 or so) to scuff the existing paint?
3) What is the best product to do a whole-car preclean with? DuPont Prep-Sol or anything else someone can recommend? I've heard something about VarSol maybe?
Waited for the warm weather again, it's here, can't wait to get started!!!!!!!!!!!!

what i mean is...my paint is already dried and such, but i didn't drive it for couple days, and it got dirty/dust, and when i put my hand on it, it feels like a very rough surface instead of very smooth like it was when it was first done, i wipe it with a wet tower, the dust was gone but the surface remain rough(like sand paper)

For the rust use a good rust converter, Scrape sand the rust then soak it in the converter the stuff I have from permatex has a sandable film that forms almost like an epoxy sealer, that can be sanded as well.
Yes do a Pre sand with the 200+ grit. After the sanding I used The mineral spirits to wipe down let dry and went to paint. There is a product called Wash and Wipe that I've used as well and it gets all wax and oils off without wreaking havok on paint finish.

Have you done the final wetsand? You wont have a smooth finish until you do your final wetsand and polish. The little bubbles left behind from the roller I find leave the "rough" surface. this in turn collects the dust you are talking about.

if u look at these pic i posted on page 3 of this thread, u can clearly see that i wetsanded it throughly with 2000grit and wax/polished, the surface was super smooth until i let the car sit for a few days and it collected dust and it seems like it's making the smooth surface rough again...even after i washed off the dust, i can still feel that it is rough

Fast thought on the problem some folks have reported with their WHITE PAINT turning yellowish when used on the car...

You might want to try adding some drops of ROYAL BLUE ( or very dark blue ) to your white paint. This is an old painter's trick for stabilizing white and eliminating yellow. You just need to add a few drops of dark blue per liter/quart of white paint.

Hope this helps someone

.

I finally got my camera out to take a couple of pics on how the car is looking after two sessions of this process ( total of 4 layers of paint )

At the point of 4 layers of Fire Red paint I can still see ghost of the black primer. This was expected and is no big surprise at this point in the layering of the red paint over the black.

But otherwise the red is shiny, smooth and doing quite well.

There is a minimal amount of orange peel located on the passenger rear quarter. It will be gone following the wet sanding this evening.

The following pictures are not as good as seeing it the car live and in person. But hopefully it will share with you the results I am obtaining so far. And yes... the paint is HARD as nails at 4 coats..

Front drivers quarter :
http://www.snpx.com/mclaren/mclaren/mclaren1.jpg

Front drivers side profile :
http://www.snpx.com/mclaren/mclaren/mclarendriver.jpg

Front passengers profile :
http://www.snpx.com/mclaren/mclaren/mclarenpassenger.jpg

Rear drivers quarter :
http://www.snpx.com/mclaren/mclaren/mclarenrear.jpg


The car will be baking in the sun today. Hopefully no birds will poop on it. Then it will be going back into the garage to cool the body temperature down. Then I am going to start hitting it with 1200 grit wet sanding prior to adding the 5th and 6th layer.

I can't wait to get it up to 8 or 10 layers

.

I've been following this thread from day one, and just had a question.

Ummm, I'm no paint and body expert, but shouldn't everyone be removing all moldings, ground effects, mirrors, and trim, rather than painting it all on the car? Seems like the paint will tend to fill in all the cracks, and make sanding difficult...

Just wondering.

VM

to get the best job yes. I did that on mine. Otherwise you miss stuff. Older cars it's probably not as bad. I drive an eclipse spyder it has lots of curves and cracks so I had to take off the stuff.

Marq-excellent advise, i'm glad your here to really take the time to answer all questions, you obviously are very knowledgeable in this department, and relaly help out with great advice, i agree with 100% of all you advice.

use a new roller every time you paint, they're cheep, plus hose your garage, be very clean, the more time you take to prep and work in a clean enviroment the better job you'll end up with. also i completely dissassemble my cars, windows, bumpers, handles, chrome, emblems, mirrors, everything, it adds 2 days of work, but the result is 100% better.