Paint day coming soon

[632 Regal]

The clear is mostly gone from the roof and trunk plus fixed a dent in the quarter panel. Have everything to do it, just an immense job to be doing on a driveway.

Has to be sanded, primed, painted and cleared pretty much all at once. Have to avoid bugs, dirt (15 feet from the road), wind, sun, cold and hot.

Since I'm at it I should sand, touch up dings and scratches and respray clear on everything else to all look good. Almost forgot both bumpers. Not looking forward to this at all.

Painted many cars and I'm even good at it, just never under these circumstances. I will take some pictures.

[632 Regal]

Update zero. Between the weather and circumstances I have been reading so much new conflicting information on what I should do I decided to ignore all that hysteria and just wing it. I mean I have painted probably 35 vehicles but never in a dirty drive with not much room to spray lol.

Kid got pneumonia and infected me with the crud so a willingness to proceed has held me back. I think I will start with taping the roof, or trunk, not sure. Would like to do it all at once but not sure if that's possible. Anyways I'll make a guess tomorrow what area I want to start taping and inspect what I am up against first. In my feverish brain fog just not sure how to proceed.

Stop thinking and just do it already! Yep that's where I am at. Might rain or not. I'll tape, worst scenario is I pull the tape and paper off. Blah...

[632 Regal]

Yep raining. Since I haven't restored anything in like 3 years I was reading about sandpaper grades and get so much conflicting info I decided to do a recap of WTF are these guys talking about. Sanding before base coat and clear and waiting times etc...

Found out P-800 is about 500 grit US. I am in the US and never knew about the P-ratings til today. A P600 is about a 400 grit. A P1200 for prior to sanding a clear is about a 600 grit paper. Visited a bunch of sites that do not say where they are from or specify grits. They also do not specify US vs EU specs. Huge difference if you don't know this common knowledge?

I was thinking how the F can you use a 1200 grit to level out any orange peal? Well P1200 is about 600 grit.

The P factor is EU grades. It's kinda like US vs metrics which there is no formula to make sense. They are close until you hit 180 then it gets jacked.

240 is like P280
320 is btw P360 and P420
400 is like P800
600 is like p1200
800 is like p1500
1500 like p2500

So for any old school people this is the ratings when we go to shop for sandpaper. I all ways do research even if I know what I know but just more info or details of what I am into.

Anyways, hope this helps someone. You can search a chart but I think I am pretty spot on.

Yep on, I do not know anything about the finer papers at all. I have used 2000 papers before and the was cause I didn't want to polish anything. I waxed it and was like glass. Yeah probably not right but was dead nuts.

[Rustam]

Yeah let's see some before pictures, u kin du it while it rains. I haven't painted much, but guessing proceeding as carefully as possible, and then maybe touch up spots on bugs and dirt may do the trick acceptably well?? What color are you going with, your car is black, right?

[632 Regal]

Yeah let's see some before pictures, u kin du it while it rains. I haven't painted much, but guessing proceeding as carefully as possible, and then maybe touch up spots on bugs and dirt may do the trick acceptably well?? What color are you going with, your car is black, right?

Yep just going same color for this job. Dent picture is gone, I have like 10 but can't find any. Been converting my knowledge from what I knew to what I learned back to what I know on sandpaper grits. That slowed things down lol. I have Fri-Monday to attempt something. The entire car needs to be touched up and cleared but might just work on the roof and trunk, oh yeah and the quarter panel and bumper. While at it I can spray the whole thing in clear is my point. 1 hour vs 2 hour, I have plenty of clear, paint and primer. Just the prep time may turn into an issue depending on weather.

[shogun]

Table comparing sandpaper grit standard in Europe and USA
The below table is originally from Wkipedia, but with some slight changes. What it shows is two colored sections, a section where the difference is small enough to not matter too much (green) and a section from where difference is huge and must be thought of (red). As can be seen, it is only when using finer grits that the difference need to be considered. But in the fine grits, the difference is huge.
http://www.mibnet.se/home-improvement/sandpaper-grit-size-comparison-between-european-and-us-standards.html

[632 Regal]

Not going to comment on each pic, just summarize it here.

My old DA sander is at least 35 years old and needed another coat of duct tape to refresh it so I just got a new one.

Block sanded the dent, very good first try, primer will finish any spots and stuff, very straight. Can't tell in the pic. The rest are of the trunk lid.

I thought (hoped but know better) I could just sand the clear off but after trying that I realized I needed to cut the paint off. The sun really ate into it and not worth the chance after all the work to get to that point. Started with 220 US grit but that was short lived and I jumped to 120. About 8 sticky papers to just do the lid part. Took about 1.5 hours just for the top. You should be able to see the shiny looking black spots with flaws. It is actually very smooth but not something I want to paint over.

I'm low on 80 grit but think that's what I will use on the roof, then cut with 120 to help smooth the sand paper grooves.

Notice that there are 2 primer coats under the clear and paint. There were 4 low areas, or dents and they sanded out almost completely. I used some SEM spray filler primer on those areas which I will 220 before real spray gun primer so it will be real smooth. The areas that cut through were actually high spots, looks like an amateur with a new DA sander did it but it feels like glass by hand now. We will see in the end.

This is basics that need to be done before priming for paint. It's not hard but if you never did it before it could turn into something real ugly fast lol. Watch a bunch of videos before you try it.

[632 Regal]

Now that I look at the pics, I do understand the low spots but WTF are all the high spots? Could never see them due to the paint finish or didn't notice that before. Definitely not pushing on the Da, real strange but whatever. Time to ignore and move on.

[632 Regal]

That difference really confused me. I figured the P designation was a brand or quality thing until I looked into it. I printed out a chart and just wrote what was recommended at the different grits.


What it shows is two colored sections, a section where the difference is small enough to not matter too much (green) and a section from where difference is huge and must be thought of (red). As can be seen, it is only when using finer grits that the difference need to be considered. But in the fine grits, the difference is huge.
http://www.mibnet.se/home-improvement/sandpaper-grit-size-comparison-between-european-and-us-standards.html

[bimmer nut]

Looks like way too much work for me. You need three more sets of hands IMHO. Unreal, but good luck, I'm sure it'll turn out great. Can't wait for the finished pics.

[Rustam]

The pictures make a great addition here. So generally speaking, start with 80 - 120 grit US?

[632 Regal]

The pictures make a great addition here. So generally speaking, start with 80 - 120 grit US?

That was 120, going to do the top with 80.

[632 Regal]

So today I was thinking about a primer coat. Thinking not doing cause I am absolutely anal about everything. Took all the badges off and license plate and lights etc. washed it good. Might sand but changed my mind after reading about the cheap TCP spray gun I bought last year. People saying that it is full of grease that needs to be cleaned out. No biggie 20 mins should be mint... WRONG. Can take everything apart but the air mixer part. Thing wont budge.

I am on borrowed time man, powersource is bad in this PC so doing what I can.

88378838

Heated it up with a torch and it came loose. It was held by loctite probably due to the surface of the sealing area. Inside... Yep full of grease. The seating surface is jacked so I filed it a bit and decided to use spray gasket for it to work.

Anyways hopefully tomorrow I can sand and prime the trunk. Really want to get an idea how this new cheap china gun works. I used to have an old Dodge Boys gun from my uncle but some lowlife stole it. Just the handle, not the cup... whatever.

[632 Regal]

Been real cold here. If anything before winter it be a paint and hide thing. I want a garage back. This sucks.

[632 Regal]

Yeah well, no garage sucks. Got the trunk primed but not going to sand anything until I can. Got a set of staggard M-pars so that gives some motivation. Still beating myself about the garage thing. Everything sucks about it. The existing has a stanchion in the middle of it holding the top from collapsing and it is sinking through broken concrete. I need to address this ASAP. Even after I fix that no room for a car. Driveway concrete is about a 12 inch pitch from front to back. It's all wrong lol.