Okay, my 240's clearcoat has bitten the dust. I need to repaint the car, and im gonna go big with this one. Anyways, after i sand the dents, pound em out and fill em in, is there much more to it before i do a final sand and paint? How bout any pointers? my dad knows some about painting, but hes not much help. I know that after i get the body straight and filled in, i need to put some primer on the bondo. After that i need to take at least the clearcoat off of the car, and put down a basecoat. then wet sand and repeat and eventually put my new clearcoat on. is there anything i need to watch for?

 

I wouldn't primer the bondo until both the clear coat is sanded down and everything is flush. THEN primer the whole part, and after, the basecoat. wet-sand with progressively FINE grain paper (should be black) using a sanding block. paint about 3-5 light coats. same with the clear-coat.

If I am not mistaken...I believe you wet-sand the primer before painting the basecoat.

 

Wish I could help you, but I'm not on my laptop, I had a link to this site that would help a LOT. I'll get on it soon and see if it'll help you out. Got a lot of stuff about painting on it.

 

sweet. i didnt plan on priming the whole car though. Though all that was pretty much what i had in mind. actually i was talking to my dad's uncle, who built 2 old school corvettes that won in car shows, and he said that he used 4000 grit paper on the last wet sand. geez. well his vettes are smooth as glass.

 

^i'd go with that guy too!

 

Heres that link I was talking about, you can definitely go here and troll around...they have a lot of stuff on autobody repair/painting. It's another forum.

Cheers.

http://www.a2zautoforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

 

ORDER OF EVENTS:
fill in the dents, sand, prime, w et-sand(no greater than 400mil paper), basecoat, clear coat, wet-sand(1,200 then 1,500mil) and buff

make sure you use Wet-sand paper, obviously

 

im using some 320 grit paper to get it prepped for some primer right now. i sear by 3m, they make good stuff when it comes to sanding.

 

grind dent(s) down to bare metal, metal work (knock em out\straighten), fill, DA surrounding area (about 5" around the filled area) with 400 on a 16/32 DA sander, polyester prime the damaged area, block w\ 400 finish sand with 600, scuff and sand entire vehicle w\ 600 and a grey scotch bright (i've heard of people using higher than 600, but it's so unecessary. You get the, "corvette smooth like glass" feel by countless hours of cutting 'n' buffing. Besides, higher grits induce running- the flatter and smoother the surface you're painting, the more likely it will run). Spray base till coverage, spray 2 full wet coats of clear (don't run it!). Let it dry\gas off for a week, then sand with 600 again. Spray with another 2 coats of clear (full wet) and you'll have a nice build, durable for agressive cutting 'n' buffing, and you'll also be left with almost no texture. This technique is used on many show cars; it's called "flow coating".

By reading your post i've assumed you want a show finish. If you odn't do it yourself, expect to pay at least 6k for it. And that's a modest estimate. Anyhow, good luck! Let me know if you have any questions!

 

im having 2nd thoughts about doing the painting of the car myself. bldywork is one thing, but to paint, you need a sterile environment pretty much.,.. well at least dust free. i dont have a paint booth, and i was gonna paint it at work... but theres too much dust. i might go to one of the local bodyshops my freind told me to go to. Im going to fill all the dents and such and do most of the prep work myself though. I found that sanding down where dents need to be filled is best done with a flapper disc (bout 80 grit) on a grinder works well.