Any painters in here?

[90Notch]

I’m prepping to pull the front spoiler, rocker mouldings and lower rear valence to paint them gloss black. I’m also painting the stock lower grill and RTR hood vents. Roof is getting wrapped w/ 3m gloss black.

I pretty much have the process down thanks to a good friend that’s a painter (lives too far away to do it for me) but wondered if anyone had anything to add. Adhesion promoter will def be used.

Getting a quote from a buddy’s brother that’s head painter at a good local shop. I’m guessing they’re gonna want a fortune though so I’ll prob end doing it myself.

These pics sold me...

Sponsored

 

[HN401A]

Sub'd. Curious about this as well, been wanting to do it for a while.

 

[LFSoccer2k6]

Subscribed too. Wanting to do gloss black accents for my 19 velocity blue as well.

 

[90Notch]

I already have the RTR vents and am picking up a stock lower grill today at lunch. I'm going to prep and paint them sometime during the next week as practice for the moldings. I'm not going to have time to pull and paint the moldings until the weekend of the 16th. Plan is to pull and prep Friday night, spray Sat, buff and re-install Sunday night. May have to wait until Monday to re-install. Don't want to rush it or if I run into any issues while painting.

 

[ctandc72]

I'm not a professional painter by any stretch of the imagination, but I've painted my share of cars / parts and I am pretty good friends with guys who have painted for years.

I'm assuming you are going with base coat / clear coat? Do you have an air compressor and a decent HVLP spray gun? If ALL you are painting is what you listed, you MIGHT want to consider another option...

If you have a decent auto body / paint supply store near you, see if they have the machine where they can load aerosol cans. I've done several repairs and painted several motorcycles going this route. Mainly when I didn't have access to a booth and partly because I HATE cleaning my spray guns.

The right supply shop can actually load base coat in an aerosol. It's not lacquer it's actual base coat. For clear a good place should also have the Spray Max 2K clear coat in an aerosol can. It's an actual urethane chemically activated clear with hardener. You hit button on the bottom of the can which releases the hardener. Shake it up and spray. Takae the same precautions (Respirator) because this is the real deal urethane clear.

I did a bumper repair on my last daily driver. A buddy who paints for a living didn't believe me when he saw the results and I told him it was all spray can.

That's the bumper I repaired after sanding and then some scuffs of filler.

Here's after adhesion promoter, primer in bare plastic spots, base coat and clear. Ignore the potato camera pics...

If you are using spray guns and compressor. MAKE SURE you have at least one moisture trap on your air line. Nothing like watching water spit out on a freshly painted surface.

Use a scrap bumper or panel to set your spray pattern and get a feel for the material you are spraying.

Follow the manufacturer instructions for mixing (temp, measurements etc) and the follow the flash times between coats etc.

Temp is important when buying hardener and activator (slow, fast etc).

Clean the crap out of the gun before changing to the next product.

Great thing about base coat clear coat? As long as you have enough clear on the final product, don't sweat a bit of orange peel etc - wet sanding and buffing will make it look great. But BE WARNED once you fall down that rabbit hole you'll start seeing imperfections in every painted vehicle you come across.

Good luck

 

[90Notch]

First, thanks for the detailed reply! That bumper turned out great.

Yes, base/clear for sure. I do have a good compressor, moisture trap, respirator and decent gun. I have some experience airbrushing and using a HVLP setup on gun parts and small car parts but I like the idea of the aerosol cans. I'm going to check some shops out over the next week and find one that can do base/clear in aerosol cans. That sounds much more up my alley and takes most of the variables out of it. It's not too many parts - hood vents, lower grill, front pp splitter, rocker molding, lower rear valence - so that makes me feel more confident about tackling it. Hardest will be the grill and rear valence but I think I can manage. Worst case, my buddy is 1.5hrs away and I can drop them with him to fix hahahaha. It's my daily driver so I'm hoping to avoid all that.

Sponsored