How To Paint Your Car In A Weekend And Make It Seem Like A Party (Part 3)

“Every good painter must have started with a first paintjob somewhere along the line. Hopefully, that painter had a better electrical system than we did. We blew a lot of fuses. It was like, ‘Hey, Jesse, you want the compressor or the light?’”

We used the Summit Racing HVLP Spray Gun (GN SUM-02-12018)

20.  The car looks better already! Spraying paint (or primer or sealer) is definitely one of those “easier said than done” types of activities. The goal is to keep the spray even and moving, at a constant distance from the body panel. Each pass should cover nearly 75 percent of the previous pass. That overlap prevents zebra stripes, lines of thin paint application form the edges of the spray pattern.

The car looks better already!

21.  Finally, color! Color choice affects coverage, and red pigments are notoriously transparent, which means you need several coats before you start to get an idea of the final color. Knowing this, we chose a light- colored primer/ sealer. Dark primers might change the final shade. Don’t forget to clean the equipment when you switch to a new layer, and change gloves as well.

Finally, color!

22.  Flash time (the time it takes for the solvents in a paint to evaporate) varies depending on product and outside temperature. Make sure you get, and read, the product info sheet with any paint products you are using. With the big Impala and the outdoor booth, the paint on our first panel was just ready for a second coat as we finished the last.

“It was a nice day of bonding with the HOT ROD staff. We found out Elana makes great chicken wings and Julia thinks it’s OK to climb onto the hood to sand a cowl. In the future, my advice would be more bonding and less Bondo-ing.”

“Looking back, I would have done everything differently. Cleaning, air hose placement, calm hands, and clear head. You only have one shot at the paintjob”

Flash time varies depending on product and outside temperature

23.  Since matte finishes remain popular, we decided to up the difficulty level in our project, and instead of the gloss clear that came in the Summit kit, we chose a satin finish, also available from Summit. The pro to the satin is that it’s more forgiving of our hurried bodywork. The con is that it won’t allow us to sand and buff out minor mistakes. Good thing we won’t make any mistakes, right?

Good thing we won’t make any mistakes, right?

24.  Applying the clear is basically the same as the previous layers. Dennis suggested even more overlap of strokes, nearly 90 percent. Don’t start any panel in the center. Begin at an edge and go as far as you can along that place. If you get a run on a vertical surface, don’t panic, let it trip down the panel so you can remove it from the bottom rather than having to sand directly in the center of your fender.

Applying the clear is basically the same as the previous layers

25.  At the end of day two, we had a bright-red Impala. With the masking removed, we installed Rocket Wheels’ retro as-cast wheels called Rocked Strike in 15x7 and 15x8 and Coker Tires’ Silver town whitewalls in 215/65R15 and 255/70R15 a combination that remains controversial. But the car looks pretty darn good. Just don’t get any closer. It isn’t perfect, but it isn’t green, and we learned a lot and had a lot of fun. Some people throw football parties, we’re all about the painting party.

It isn’t perfect, but it isn’t green, and we learned a lot and had a lot of fun

Fail

We promised we’d be truthful, so here’s where we went wrong. Hopeful, a close look at our mistakes will keep you from repeating them when you do your first paintjob.

Laziness: We didn’t bother to mask the underside of the car or the wheel wells. This caused us grief in two ways: First, the undercarriage has red overspray that will have to be painted over with back; second, if we had run the paper skirts down to the ground, it might have prevented some of the water splash back on the door from the puddles in the booth.

Clumsiness: We caught the air hose on a wheel and laid a big glossy spot in the center of the hood. We bent a trim piece through overenthusiastic prying.

Impatience: It’s really tempting to start at the front of the car, because it looks so cool, but you’ll get better as you go, so start in the back. That way your mistakes won’t be right there on the driver-side front fender. J. says, “I was like Goldilocks. On the front fender I made three big runs from too much product, then the door had some orange peel from not enough, but the quarter-panel was just right”.