Painting a Car? Follow along as I paint an 88 GT

[JD1969]

Alright here we go. This is going to a series were I will document the painting of a 1988 GT. First I need to make a few things clear. 1. If you are going to try and paint a car yourself, do not take my info as gospel, there are many variable when dealing with paints, primers and fillers. 2. Please obey all local laws dealing with the application and disposal of paint and chemicals. 3. This is VERY IMPORTANT!!! protect yourself, by that I mean make to wear a respirator, and have good ventilation when dealing with this stuff. Keep in mind that this stuff is poison! Ideally a fresh air mask is the way to go. 4. By reading this post and taking on such a project, you agree not to blame myself or Mustangforums for any time, money, or having a poor end result. Also I am making it known that this stuff is hazardous to your health so please take the right precautions. OK enough of that BS. Painting your own car can be a rewarding process or it can be a horrible thing that ends up costing more money than if you had it professionally done and you car ends up looking like a bad Dali painting. The key to a good good is prep, prep and prep, and more patience than Mother Teresa. Things cannot be rushed , and I can't stress that enough. I promise there will be times when you want to skip that last round of block sanding or that you might be tempted to add a little extra hardener to the filler so it dries faster. Do not be tempted, your rewards for being patient will worth it. OK on to the project.

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[JD1969]

In this first installment I am going to show few pics of the car and talk a little bit about the tools you will absolutely need and some that you will probably need but are not considered 100% mandatory.



Well here it is Eriks (aka Sidwayz6.0) GT. While at first glance it might not look too bad, the only "good" thing about the body is that it is 100% rust free, and that is a HUGE deal, in fact it is the only reason he bought this car. At one point it was put into the ditch which pushed back the core support a bit, it also ruined the front bumper cover, and both fenders were messed up quite a bit. The car was taken to a body shop were it was straightened out by a pro ( I highly recommend that you never attempt to straighten a frame at home) the front was not far off so only a little was needed. While the car was there we also had them hang the new fenders and bumper cover. Erik will be able to chime with the costs involved if he feels comfortable giving out that info. At this point I would also like to point out that the old fenders were fixable but given the amount of time they would take to fix right, a set of repro's was deemed a better (ie cheaper) alternative.

[JD1969]

Now on to what you need for tools to get you started.
You will need a decent air compressor. The key is to get one that has enough CFM (cubic feet per minute) to keep up with the paint gun you will be using. You will see two ratings on most compressors CFM@90 psi and CFM@40 psi, these tell you how much air the unit can flow, the higher these numbers and the larger the tank, the less the compressor will have to run in order to "keep up" with your tools or gun. Upright or horizontal is tank is more a space thing than anything. as either will work just fine. The HP rating on the motor is also a conderation as it will have an effect on how long it takes to fill the tank, and in particular how fast it will recover and deal with higher pressires, a 3-8 hp motor is generally fine for home /hobby use. An HVLP (high volume, low pressure) gun will need about 7 CFM @ 30 psi, regular gun will need less CFM, but in the end an HVLP is a much better choice, they waist less paint and IMO spray nicer.'Next on your shopping list should be a D/A (dual action) sander, this will greatly increase your productivity and really save your arms. Also grab a couple of hard rubber sanding block (I like the ones 3M makes) and a wide assortment of sand paper. You will need special sand paper for the DA sander, it usually comes in a roll and is sticky backed so that all you do is stick right on the DA's pad and your ready.
At this point you will have spent about $600-1000 on tools and sand paper, unless you already had some of the tools or are able to borrow stuff from a friend. The good news is that the most expensive part, the compressor is one of the greatest tools on earth and will come in handy for years down the road.
Ok next I am going to get into some actual work on the GT, which I still need a catchy name for, any ideas?

[CLEAN 03]

Hi ! I just have a small question. Do you work in a body shop or is this from your own do it yourself experience?

[JD1969]

I have been painting cars for myself for about 10 years, I do work in a shop that builds hot rods, but I am not painter. The info I am giving though is the same things we do (for the most part) to our show cars. In this case the Stang did not need to be striped down to bare metal, it only had one paint job (the original one) and the paint was not failing. Of course if this was a true "show" job it would be striped downto bare metal.

[bransdaman78]

yea you don't have to strip it unless the paint it coming off - really all you have to do is fill dents and take down the clear coat a little bit - use a high build primers and your results will be as good as you can basically get - the fact of the matter is that no paint job is perferct - no even a 100,000.00 one - just depends on how good the evaluator is

[JD1969]

Updates on the project are coming, I just have not had time latley to write more stuff.

[JerseyGirlRacing]

I AMbody woman and i will let you know that you are correct with your "badly painted peelercar".

If you have a "peeler" or something sun damaged, you just hit the car with a DA (Dual Action) sander with 320/420 grit and scuff it down to the primer. Once it's scuffed, you wax & grease remove (if you don't have the chemicals Dawn Dish Soap is fine), and prep it to paint.

In my professional opinion,Ido NOT reccomend doing ANY painting at home unless you are in a climate controlled professional booth. Paint companys have certain specs guaranteed on paint...it has to be a STEADY seventy degrees with very little humidity...if it's 40 degrees or 80-90, if not, paint doesn't cure right.

As for doing the car at home, I have a compressor, and I had my paint gun set at all the proper settings and PSI's and shot two Chevy truck fenders in red enamel....and guess what??? I still got dust particles in my hose from it blowing thru the compressor. And guess what? You can't sand Enamel..it's 1 stage with clear coat built in... so, I had to DA it all back down again with 420 and re-shoot it at the professional booth at work. A waste of paint and of time.....

[04MustangGT]

So what happened to the project?

[sowaxeman]

OK I'll bite - this has been a sticky for 6 months why [&:] JD, I'd love to read more and see the results.