A Basic Backyarders Guide to Spraypainting.

[DAKSTER]

Subscribed. In the same process aswell on my kingswood its nice to see how others do it. Im sort of self teaching with the net

When you do, remember there is more than one way of doing this. Generally speaking, its easier to do the entire car in one go. First fix all dents, then undercoat the whole car, slap some guide coat on and rub it back, base coat the entire car, and clear coat it all at once too. It will save you a lot of work.

On the other hand, doing it panel by panel ensures that you get the best job possible, because you pay more attention to the detail. Removing the front and rear bars for instance not only means you do a much better job on all those nooks and crannys, but the joining edges will be sprayed before being attached, rather than just painting over a joint between car and bar and watching the paint crack along the joint in time.

Doing the bonnet, I found 4 or 5 dents that I may not ever have even seen until I started to apply top coat, simply because it was getting closer attention than it would have if I was doing the whole car at once.

Thats my theory anyway, which is why I do it this way lol

 

[anarklov3r]

Just thought id share. When it comes to painting around windscreens and rubbers, you can actually buy these little plastic adhesive hooks, that you hook under the rubbers, and stick to the windsheild, and it just lifts them up and away. once you're done, remove them and rubbers fall back down. Any automotive paint supplier can get you these, and they are cheap.

 

[DAKSTER]

Just thought id share. When it comes to painting around windscreens and rubbers, you can actually buy these little plastic adhesive hooks, that you hook under the rubbers, and stick to the windsheild, and it just lifts them up and away. once you're done, remove them and rubbers fall back down. Any automotive paint supplier can get you these, and they are cheap.

Yeah I have used those.

An even easier way is to get a length of 4mm nylon rope and jam it between the rubber and the roof. You can push it in far enough to get a good 5-7mm gap under the rubber and get paint under there. You will still need to tape up the rubber of course, and you wont be able to get the entire roofline with the paint, a few mm will still be blocked by the rope. It does mean you get a better finish by not having a paintline along the edge of the rubber, it will be underneath the rubber instead.

It doesnt let you inspect inside the windscreen recess for rust damage though, and lifting the rubber will still allow you to see the paintline that is clear evidence of a respray. Its a simple and easy way of doing it, but still a little dodgier than it needs to be IMO.

The seals are only 30 bucks each, IF you damage one. On the VS, they all came out easily and undamaged, and will go back in. On this car, they both got damaged, go figure. But for 60 bucks, i get brand new seals, which will look a lot better, and I will know that no paintline will exist, and I have had a thorough inspection of the cavity for rust.

Just my preference, the hooks or some rope will certainly be enough for some people.

 

[gradz]

Dakster,
I have a great little handycam for movies if you would like me to do my impression of Darryl F Zanuc (?) while you lay down the final coats. Also, you still looking for $3,000? I may have a buyer for you.
Cheers

 

[DAKSTER]

Thanks for the offer mate but I will get the mrs to do her bit eventually. My daughter also has a nice little camera but I live in the renovator out woodford way and the family lives in the house in caboolture so nothing is where it needs to be usually lol...

3 grand is the planned price, registered and roadworthied. I had figured that on the day of sale, the buyer would get a quote on 6 months rego and we would just subtract that from 3 grand, so the buyer would get the benefit of the whole 6 months. They could then just take the RWC and bill of sale down and register it, come back with the plates and drive it away.

I'll see how it all comes together, I know 3 grand is slightly on the high side for a stock VR but its a pretty decent car and if it looks good enough then I will be sticking to my guns on the price. Lets face it, ANY car with a RWC and 6 months rego is worth that these days in SEQ, and a brand new quality paint job is a big selling point. If the paint turns out well, the price will be pretty firm.

My daughter needs a car soon, she is on her L's and if I cant get enough for it I will sell it to her instead lol.. at least I know she will be buying a decent car.

I've been considering adding some extra metallic, by floating a layer of holo flakes between a couple layers of clear. This will give it more sparkle, and a subtle colour changing effect as it drives by, without actually changing the main colour. Its not going to look like Harlequin, that colour changing paint you see on some cars, but the metallic will have various colours in it that will sparkle as it goes past. It will still look the same colour as it did originally except for the extra sparkle.

How does your buyer feel about that? Not too over the top?

 

[gradz]

That sounds fair to me. Leave it with me and I'll get back to you maybe tonight or tomorrow. The prospective is my daughter's boyfriend, he's coming around this arvo to have a look at your blog. I'll have a better idea of his budget etc. then too.

 

[DAKSTER]

OK well the basics are its an auto buick VR Acclaim with no changes made at all that I am aware of. It has non-original front seats.. these ones are height adjustable, I suspect from an upmarket VS. It will have a basic older model Sony CD and 4 decent speakers and a small 6" sub. Odo shows lower due to a broken cog (now fixed), I believe it has about 190k on the clock in reality. Everything works and the car is a pleasure to drive, and appears to have quite a bit of poke for a stock buick. I have known the car for years, it belonged to a middle aged couple who are friends of mine. Its been maintained reasonably well and never thrashed.

 

[gradz]

The boyfriend is very interested and it is in his price range. Any chance of a viewing, say, next Sunday? You can pm me at [email protected] if you don't want your address splashed all over the cyber world.

 

[DAKSTER]

I'll check with she who knows best, and ask her what my schedule is lol, but I dont see a problem with that. Kind of puts the pressure on me now to do some work !!

I'll email you

 

[DAKSTER]

Gave it a couple more base coats today, then a handrub with a 500G RO pad, then a 2000G RO pad.

Sorry the iphone is letting me down as usual, I will see if I can get better pix tomorrow.

The object here is to get this satin sheen. We dont want gloss, that will affect the bonding of the clear. The satin finish is dead flat, absolutely none of the little hills and dales we call orange peel.

Tomorrow afternoon, on with the clear.

Where the car is parked, it gets full sun in the morning, so I really cant start spraying until maybe 2 pm when it has been in the shade for an hour or two. This is cool, I can sleep till lunchtime It does limit how much I can get done in a day though, especially now the days are getting shorter. I leave the major rubbing back jobs for night time.