Hello,

So I have spent the last couple of weeks reading magazine articles on how to repaint your car. Seems like its not a really cut and dry topic... to make matters worse the paint supply shop I am purchasing my supplies from is telling me the exact opposite of what i am reading online. If someone could point me in the direction of how to proceed I would appreciate it.

PICTURES TO FOLLOW TOMORROW!

I have an 86 Iroc that was originally black. It had been repainted by the previous owner a number of years back and the paint did not hold up. The clear coat was shot so I decided to repaint it. I am not laying the paint myself, a local body shop is but they would like me to strip and prep the body first (part of the deal I worked out on price). I have minimal experience in this field, but i did work for a body shop back in 2005 for a few months. For the previous paint job, the car was clearly stripped down to bare metal, primed with a cheap primer and then painted. It was SO easy to sand the car down with 80 grit dry on a DA,... the paint and primer was so thin the car was in bear metal in 3-4 hours. There is absolutely no bondo or rust on any part of the car except oddly enough the passenger door which I have since decided to replace to make the car all metal. The whole car is pretty much down to either spots of primer or bare metal.

I am confused on how to proceed. The car has dings all over it and they will need to be filled with body filler, or pulled although I have no idea how you would pull or work them out. None of the dings are really substantial which is leading me to believe the best thing to do is just fill them. I have not touched the bumpers yet. The rear one is perfect - no chips or cracks, just faded. I am not sure if I should sand it or chemically strip it. I don't want to create sanding groves that will show through the paint. What should I do to prep it? I am painting the car PPG Jet Black Solvent based Urethane BC/CC. The paint supply shop says I should get the whole car to metal, coat it with a primer surfacer, run lines of filler down the panels, block it, ----> high build primer --> guide coat and block, wet sand with 600 grit and send it in for paint. I was under the impression filler bonds best to bare metal and should not be laid on top of primer or primer surfacer?

So the cars in bare metal - how do i proceed??????????????

DG

 

do not use any chemicals on the rear bumper, it could easily eat through it, you could take a red scotch bright pad and rough it up good so the primer will adhere. as as a rule of thumb body filler is not to be laid more than a dime thick , but there is some leway there

 

the body shop is correct with what they told you to do, however i dont think you should have to coat the whole car with filler, just put filler on the dings before you do any priming. Rough cut your filler with 80 grit sand out 80 grit scratches with 180 and finish sand the filler with 320, 80 grit scratches on the metal are pretty rough for primer/surfacer to fill. If it were my car i would sand to a minimum of 180, put a light coat of epoxy primer down and then primer/surfacer. block the surfacer with 220-320 and reprime, then wet sand with 600-1000. Black will show ANY defect in body work underneath. As for the rear bumper i would just 180 it down to the original primer, you want to get the oxidized paint off of it so your new paint will stick. Good luck

 

Hey thanks for the advice and reassurance. Your post is pretty much on par with what I have been told to do... a little better explained actually! I have a few dings in the car I am not really all that concerned with, however, when the car had paint on it, the doors had an odd wavyness to them. Black does show everything so I am really concerned about this. Do you think Using a high build primer and blocking that down would correct this issue. I was told I could use a extremely light skim coat of filler on the doors and block that down to get them flat, but that might just create more of a mess than necessary. Note: you cannot feel this wavyness with your hands, you can only see it in paint.

DG

 

Update:

Well I got the car down to metal. 80 grit on a DA got the job done pretty quick. The whole car is pretty much disassembled with exception of the passenger door which I will be replacing with one I found for $50. The passenger door is bondo from one end to the next and of course its right down the body line so there is no hope of ever getting it to look right. The drives door has little dings all over it so I am going to finish sanding the door down to metal with 80 grit on a DA, coat that door in evercoat quantum 1 large panel repair putty and and then block it down. The only other panel I will do that to is the trunk lid as it has a lot of dings too. Then I will hit the car with some PPG Epoxy primer, Either feather fill or one of the other high fill primer fillers, and then block the whole car down. That should be enough to get it flat the first time???? I can only hope. The hood and fenders (which are not pictured) are replacements from another car... all original GM parts.