Guest 400 ci 280z Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 i will be painting my car sometime in the future and was going to do it in my garage. do i need to make something to surround the car (like a big tent to paint in)? also what is a good gun? also anybody have tips with spraying metallic (flakes) paints? sorry about all the questions, but i know you guys know a lot about this stuff. thanks, chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 Here is my two cents worth about garage painting. You will need ventilation to to exhaust out of the garage and not enough to stir up dust.. A good squirrel cage or maybe two blowers at ground level> If you are using an old style gun/overspray will get on everything without some sort of adequete ventilation. Also before painting wet the floor and every thing down good but do not let it drip from the ceiling. I would suggest a temperature of around 6o to 70degrees . Standing water on the fllor will not hurt the dust problem. With this two part paint ,color sanding and clear overcoat and a lot of elbow grease , you should get a nice job. There are a lot of good painters on this site to give you the nitty gritty. I prefer Dvibliss and the little detail gun is almost fool proof with a heavy hand like mine on small jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 400 ci 280z Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 what is the best way to do the ventalation? i will get one of the HVLP sprayer and it will most likely be a dvidliss or how ever you spell it. thanks for you info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 One way is to open a window or a garage door for a "small intake" of air and then place a fan to force air out of the garage in another location in an opposite location of the intake. The old cooling axial computer fans will push more air than they look capable of. A few of these strategically placed under a garage door may evacuate sufficiently. You just do not want a lot of dust particles flying around and some experimentation maybe in order before painting.You need a lot of lighting and explosion proof lights are in order beacause things could go boom in a hurry.A friend and I would paint in early morning hours before much wind would be circulating outside with the garage door slightly open with two squirrel cage fans used to evacuate air from a public toilet blowing outside and one window open to let in fresh air window. We had a bunch of flurescent lights with explosion covers to see by. You will need a lot of "SAFE LIGHT" After the final coat or between coats //get out! and keep traffic to a miniumn. Go slow or stop for awhile if overspray particles accumulate in the air. Priming will give you a lot of practice to get it set for the real stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 400 ci 280z Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 thanks this will be a big help when i begin to paint. as for a calm day, i live in okla. a calm day is 20mph winds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 If I were going to do a garage paint job, to be honest I'd look at the one stage paints. We used some SW one stage on some honda bike panels while I was at my brothers, it turned out pretty darn shiny and very hard. The hardener is added to the paint (I'm told its really to extend the flash time a bit actually). Several coats with a little wet sanding and I was impressed with it. Just an opinion, but the less steps in getting the paint on the car in a garage situation the less crap will get stuck in the paint as its sprayed or drying. Before I left he bought paint for his 54 merc, its like a bright red, top of the line one stage SW paint, on sale for like 40 a gal, normally 160.00, the catch is the catalyzer was about 80 bucks instead of 37 for the cheaper one stage paint. Anyway, for a daily driver or even nice weekend driver I wouldn't rule out one stage paints either. Just an opinion of course, flakes, pearls, ghost flames and color changers all work for me as well though. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 To me ,two part paint is the paint and hardner(catalyst) and I agree that getting it on and drying before dust particles settle is very important. What is great about the catalyst paint is you can clear up your mistakes with sanding after painting It is a lot of "elbow grease" and time but worth the effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike kZ Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 I painted my car in the garage, stripes and all. I used the dual stage, base coat/clear coat, because I used two different colors. The base coat went on great, and dried fast. The clear coat was the bitch to spray. It's hard to get it to lay smooth. I had too many runs on my drivers door, and later re-shot the base and clear on the door. After a lot of wet sanding and buffing it came out pretty good, especally for a black car! If You are doing a single color I would use a single stage, you can still wet sand and buff. I hung plastic from the cieling to floor around the car to keep over spray off everything in the garage w/2 box fans at the garage doors. I also used a HVLP gravity feed gun. Check out the links below, this was shortly after I painted it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 400 ci 280z Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 mike that looks really good. i am going to do the two stage(base/clear) because i am going to do the paint job like the gt500 from gone in 60 sec. Does any one know the code for the silver on that car? thanks everyone for your input so far. chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 Don't most of those box fans use brushless motors? If thats the case, I think you'd be ok, brushes on a armature tend to arc which as you mention might be a bad thing. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 19, 2002 Share Posted March 19, 2002 I've heard from several sources that the cheapest way to get the best finish is to do just the prep work yourself (sanding, filling, smoothing, priming) everything and then take the car to a local body shop and let them do the color. I have never done this but i guess that most of the paint cost comes from the prep work so by just haveing them do the color it is much cheaper and then you also dont have to invest in all the expensive paint guns and stuff. Also the finished job will be nicer because the body shop will have experienced painters and also all the right equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 I'm going to do mine soon too. I've setup a booth in my garage with PVC pipe and plastic tarps. As for a gun, it depends on your compressor, make sure the compressor has enough output for your gun. Lowest I've seen on a gravity feed HVLP is the Sharpe Platinum which can be bought refurbished. I've also got 40ft of copper tubing and water traps but still need a better filter. For primer I've used a Harbor Freight knock off $50 HVLP gun, 1.4 tip. Sprayed DPLF90 this weekend and had no runs, etc. I'll be getting the Platinum for colors and clears though. One thing you may want to consider is the paints themselves, if they contain isocyanates, you're gonna get sick. There was another post like this earlier. I bought a Hobby Air 2 which feeds me forced air from another compressor, it's good for sandblasting too. This is getting long...but about those explosion proof lights, if you wanna go that far, better get some explosion proof fans too. Once the paint builds up on the fan motor, who knows what'll happen? My setup will be fans mounted to a box with filters pulling air from the booth in a siphon effect so no overspray ever touches the fan. I've got two fans blowing in as well. You'll also want a DA sander, Airvantage makes one that only consumes 3.5cfm! Add all this stuff up and it gets expensive real fast... Once my internet connection at home is working again I'll post some pix of my booth. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 The problem with this is that some shops won't gurantee the work because they didn't do the bodywork. Better make sure before you slam the money down on the table. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 400 ci 280z Posted March 20, 2002 Share Posted March 20, 2002 some of the places i have called do not change the price anyway because the say that they go back over it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 This is great! I love this site. I just got some fender flares and I'm thinking about doing it myself (as well as removing what came with the car, the bumper strips along the side and the black stripe along the bottom). My major concern was the finish paint. Just with what I've read here, I"ve got the confidence to just go for it! One question I have is the difference between two step and one step(?) paint. I went to an Auto body paint store and they matched the color and set me up with a quart of paint with separate hardener (that's how I painted over the naca vent cut-out and all). Is that step one paint? If so, it was really shiny and really easy. Can you put a clear coat over paint like that to make it even better? Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 Two step painting is base coat followed by a clearcoat. The base coat being the color and it actually dries semi-gloss or flat but when you hit it with clear it jumps up in brightness and depth. Another advantage of two step is if you put enough clear on you can color-sand and buff to near show quality and it hides dirt and insect body parts. (unless you know where to look) As someone mentioned earlier you can color-sand and buff a single stage paint as well as base-clear (two step)but your prep-work had better be excellent. I've found through my experience that base-clear is more forgiving. If you do it yourself be sure to get a premium face mask. I would suggest letting a pro with an excellent booth squirt it though. If you use same name premium materials through out the job (Dupont, PPG, House of Kolor,R&M, Sikins, Martin Senior, etc....forgive me if I left your brand out)and prep it yourself and provide like same brand premiun paint, a commerical shop shouldn't have any problem squiting the finish coats for you and if they get squirley about the liability offer to sign a waver. If you use premium materials from the get go you wont have any problems because the mfg. warrants their materials. Any auto paint store will tell you exactly what products to use through out the entire process from bare metatl-prep to the end. Go make friends with a good body shop tell them what you intend to do and ask what brand of materials they prefer that you use if they will agree to squirt the car for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 Thanks for the advice Bowtie. The shop out here sells PPG brand products, are all the brands you listed of comparable quality? Thanks again. jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strotter Posted March 22, 2002 Share Posted March 22, 2002 Something I havn't seen mentioned here yet, but should be, is that if you're going to paint with one of the modern "catalyzed" paint - the ones you add a hardener to to start the chemical reaction that will cause the paint to "kick", like an epoxy glue, such as PPG and many others - is that you ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY TOTALLY HAVE TO HAVE A FORCED-AIR RESPIRATOR! This is *NOT* optional. The kind of respirator you hook up to an air pump or a compressor. A face mask with a couple of filters on it isn't good enough. One of the active ingredients in many of these paint is cyanoacrylate, one of the chemicals in Crazy Glue. It's a little teeny molecule, and can pass right through a filter, carbon-activated or not. One whiff, and I mean ONE, can cause problems from your brain to your liver to your boy-parts(!!!!). Permanent problems. Debilitating problems. Let me tell you a little story... Two years ago I decided to paint a Subaru as a learning project. Got the PPG paint, did all the prep work, so on so on. Shot the car in a garage with the door open, small window fans pushing air in through some linen filters. Not a great deal of air movement that morning, but the fans cleared everything out just fine. Used a brand new, expensive carbon-activated /small particulate face-mask type respirator. Shot it early in the morning, everything came out happy-dappy. Two weeks later I go to the doctor, just the normal annual checkup, we're talking about one thing and another, and I told her about my car-painting project. She stopped what she was doing and said "You used a forced-air respirator, right?" I said no, just a good filter type. She thought about it for a second, and said "Tell me, did you *smell* anything while you were painting?" I said, "Well, yeah, you can smell that stuff right through the mask", to which she replied "If you can smell it, you breathed it. I'm taking some more blood, we'll see if you dosed yourself". She was real frowny at this point, and clearly thought I was and idiot. Well, a week later the bloodwork comes back, and sure enough I had a variety of stuff in me doesn't belong in a landfill. Not enough to hurt me, but enough that it didn't take any special tests to find it, just the plain old blood screening. And the line between "not enough to hurt you" and "Mr. Smith, your liver isn't working" is apparently very thin, indeed. So the moral of my story is: read, and then ACTUALLY FOLLOW the instructions that come with the paint, INCLUDING the expensive instructions, like "use a forced air respirator", because the people that make the paint ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 400 ci 280z Posted March 23, 2002 Share Posted March 23, 2002 scott thanks for clearing that up. you NEED a forced air respirater!! i remember hearing that a man died painting something in his garage. i think i read it on this site, but she was right saying that IF YOU CAN SMELL IT THE MASK IS NOT WORKING AND YOU ARE INHAILING WHAT EVER IS COMING THROUGH. i have never used this paint before but i have heard some scary stories from my dad. he works in an E.R. believe me this stuff can kill you and quick. hopefully everybody who does not know this needs to be told before they use this stuff. chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted March 23, 2002 Share Posted March 23, 2002 Thanks for the safety info!!! That's exactly the paint I have. Racerx, I'm dealing with Ned's. They are really helpful. I may just ask them if they know anyone that would spray the car for me... Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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