I will "soon" be painting my "gold" seven white. the hood is already noble white but i am going to Crystal white, which is almost pure white.



i am also shaving my side moldings using fiberglass. the guy at the paint shop said that i should only prime and sand the areas that i fiberglass, and i should seal the rest so that i geta continuos color across the car.



when i do paint it i plan to do it all in one day starting in the early morning until it is finished. i will be doing it in an enclosed outdoor environment (tarps and such) i believe, should i worry about temperature???



any tips on painting from experience?? should i use dry ice on my small door dings?? i have a small rust spot or two, what is the best way to get rid of rust and seal it from coming back???



thanks

Justin

Taking off your side moldings and using fiberglass? Your going to fill the whole area in with fiberglass?

Only sanding and priming the area you fiberglass- you have to sand the whole car.

This "continuos color" thing I dont know whats that about either.

Doing it outside- as long as it stays fairly warm and dry, no way you are going to do it in one day if you are going to fiberglass those moldings. I dont know about where you live, but here, at night, it usually gets very damp, some dew forms on the car, not good if your going to be painting.

Who is doing the bodywork and paint?

Dry ice- new one on me, cant help you there.

Rust spots- cut them out and weld new panels/pieces in properly or sandblast and treat the metal then do the bodywork.

This really isnt a job to just do on your own in your yard with some tarps.

Your welcome by the way



Do people post these things then never come back to check on them?

sorry i am busy i just got back to this.



i am not filling the whole area in with fiberglass, i am covering over the gap with fiberglass. on the front bumper i am going directly over the existing molding.



he told me to sand the whole car and prime only the fiberglass work, then use a sealer over the whole car.



then i use 2-3 basecoats and then 2-3 clearcoat layers. i think my friend has an indoor place to paint



i am doing the bodywork and paint.



dry ice when put on door dings causes the metal to contract and flatten.



i am just going to sand out the rust and then prime it, and use bondo to make up the difference in paint levels.



I am from the South and southerners can do ANYTHING with some tarps in their yard.



thanks

Justin

Body work and especially paint is one thing I do not reccomend for a do it yourself project.

No way you are doing this in one day, by the way, lol.

It looks so easy, but it isnt, trust me.

If you really want to try it, try doing it without this fiberglass project to see how you do. Once you start this fiberglass project you will regret it, trust me, I do fiberglass and paint for a living and what you want to do isnt the hardest thing to do, but it is hard to make look good. You will probably end up with a mess on your hands, one that no one else will want to clean up after. You will have to grind the metal and the bumper for the glass to stick to it, then apply the glass and resin using proper procedures. Maybe you can get a hold of a used fender, who cares if its dented or something, just to try your luck out, then at least you wont go to town on the car and have results you arent happy with.

I would love to see this dry ice thing, why shops dont use this method is beyond me, probably because its a urban legend, maybe it works 1:10000 times or something, I dont know.

If you do infact do this fiberglass thing, then you have to also try your hand at bodyfiller, which again is one of those things that people THINK looks sooooo easy, but it isnt. Unless you like a lumpy,bumpy,wavy car. Wherever you glass and do your bodywork, you will have to prime, I dont like spot priming, especially if you are using basecoat/clearcoat. Its VERY VERY important that the surface where the primer and the car meet is perfect, otherwise it will show up as a scratchy ring around it, the original base coat "lifts" all around the primer, and when you put more base on top of it, it looks awfull. If you have ever seen some re-paints that have this problem, you know what Im talking about.



Prime the whole car with a good urethane or epoxy primer that is meant to be sanded after, this way you can go back and sand after the primer dries and make corrections to your sanding/prep mistakes and you will insure that the surface is as good as you can get it.

If you make a mess of the car, it will be THAT much harder to correct after and a shop probably wont want to get involved in it, no good shop anyhow.

Ye of little faith....



thanks for the advice, but what makes you so sure i havnt done these things before??? i am pretty familiar with all of the body work and i am good at painting, i have just never used a basecoat clearcoat before.



i dont have to grind into the body to make the fiberglass stick but i will have to drill. my good friend sells CF stuff on fc3s.org so i think i have a good amount of experience behind me



thanks

Justin

If you have done them before, then what exactly is your question then?

And if you havent sprayed BC/CC, just spray it single stage, your only painting white, it will probably age better single stage anyhow and not yellow.

Grind that metal, dont drill little holes, they arent drilling holes in car bodies anymore, not even to pull dents out so why would you drill holes when you can just hit the surface with a grinder? You have to remove all the paint anyhow to insure proper adhesion of the glass to the metal. I would use epoxy resin by the way instead of polyester.

i dont think i want to do a single stage incase i do any later mods to the body.



i was going to use epoxy resin anyways, that is all i use. i dont see why grinding the metal would cause any better adhesion than on rough paint.



my questions were on the timeframe i was told and the use of primer vs sealant.



thanks

justin

What does single stage have to do with doing mods later on to the body?



Grinding the metal increases the surface area, all those high and low spots from grinding with a 24grit disk, plus the resin will stick better to the metal then it will to paint, you arent even supposed to put body filler over paint.



Prime the whole car.

How are they pulling dents out now? I eventually want to get my car painted, and it has many small dings, and I was planning on minimizing the work (therefore cost) the shop will have to do.

I DO NOT recommend filling the trim area with fiberglass. Metal and Fiberglass have a different co-efficient of expansion. Over time in the HOT GA SUN the fiberglass will crack at the joint. The only way to do it right is to weld (TIG) a metal filler in the gap and fill/smooth with conventional body filler. I did a set of molded in flares for a guy on a 2002 BMW, guy wanted them filled/molded in. I recommended against it, but the customer is always right, so I did it. Followed all MFG's recommended procedures etc. ^ months later the joint cracks, gues who lost in court?

if you have a car with faded/peeling clear coat, do you want to strip the car beond the factory primer?



mike

If you are going to strip faded/peeling clearcoat, I would either Plastic media blast or soda-blast. Neither methods will warp sheetmetal (If done correctly) and you don't end up with adhesion problems when you chemically strip. the blast operator can also control hw much material is removed, so he can leave the factory primer and E-Coat. {This is a good thing}. Unless you have rust present never strip to bare metal. IMHO!



More info can be found at www.paintucation.com

No, if the primer is in good shape leave it on there, the factory treats the metal with inhibitors and what not so sometimes going down to the bare metal can be worse.

Either the use the old fashioned way and tap it from behind, or they use stud guns that basically weld a small rod onto the car and then a slide hammer is used on that rod to pull the dent out, when you are done you just knock the rod off with a grinder and fair the panel in as usual, no holes.

They used to drill holes and use a slide hammer to pull dents out, not no more.

They even have stud guns now that use a special adhesive almost like hot glue instead of welding a rod.



By the way I of course agree with Bonzai about the fiberglass, but do as you please I guess.

"prime the whole car" i was looking for a little more explanation as to why this guy told me to seal rather than prime.



single stage is harder to match up in case i ever dent it or mess it up. i jsut dont want a single stage.....thats it



i will probably just weld the strip then. what gauge should i use for the strip? how do i keep the weld from rusting out from behind??? what do i do about protecting the back of the metal??



thanks

Jsutin

I have no clue why the guy told you that. No shop I know or myself for that matter uses that method, maybe thats just the way 'the guy' likes to do things.

Single stage is not hard at all to match up, maybe someone who doesnt know what they are doing cant match it up, but I do almost every single day. BC/CC can be harder for a do-it-yourselfer to work with but use what makes you happy https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png

I dont weld so I cant help you there.