DIY: How to Paint (Professional Amateur Results)

Rigby this thread turned out to be really helpful when I was painting some side skirts for my cousin's integra. It was a rattle can job start to end but turned out mint.
Heres how many coats I did:
- Primer: 4-5
- Base Paint: 5
- Clear Coat- 4-5

Now i want get the shiny finish. I bought some Kitten cutting compound and started buffing with the pads provided. The shine is slowly coming out but I feel that it's not enough to get the shiny mirror like surface.

- Do I need to use an electric buffer?
- What other compounds/polishing liquids do I need?
 
You let it cure for days before cutting yeah? Just needs a really good cut and polish to finish it off. If its not shiny enough you need more clear.
 
Yep it was sitting for almost a week, mainly because I got lazy.

On top of the cutting compound, do I need polish as well?

You reckon 4-5 clear coats is enough?

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I usually do about 6-7 coats of clear so I can go really hard at it with the cutting and polishing, since cutting rips up the top layer of your clear coat. After a really good cut you polish it to get all the marks out of it. If your cutting isn't leaving the clearcoat a bit cut up, you aren't doing it hard enough. The polish is what brings it back to smooth + shiny.
 
Couple of questions as I am doing a full closed door respray on my car as I fixed my air compressor and have a garage to do it in.

What brand paint should I get? Will the standard Septone SCA stuff be fine??

And do I just need to sand the current paint smooth or do I need to get it to bare metal? Will spraying over peeling clear coat give me issues even if I sand it smooth?
 
For primer, SCA brand is fine. For colour you want to get your colour code mixed up (2L might do it) and the same amount of clear and like 4L of thinners. Sand the current paint smooth, doesnt matter if you get to bare metal. But if you do get to metal, use rustproof paint before primer. Since you're doing a full spray you need to sand back your entire car, and you need to sand it all back until smooth. If that means your clear coat needs to go on that panel, so be it. Will save you future issues for sure. And you'll most likely find that if your clearcoat is really bad, it will flake off as you try to sand it back and make your job a lot easier.
 
So for primer a few litres of SCA is fine. What brand/where from for base and clear?

And as for rust proof paint, I thought primer was supposed to seal/prohibit rust?
 
Brand is not important, you need quantity. Mitre10, SCA, and any paint shop will be able to mix it up for you. Same with the clearcoat. For primer you can just grab like 5 or so cans of SCA primer and see how that goes. Might need up to 10 depending on what kind of coverage you get from them. If it's cheaper to buy it in bulk, 1L is fine, you'd have to ask SCA employees if they can mix that much primer for you
 
Just wondering about bumpers.

Need to tidy my front one up and SCA has some of their brand primers on sale this weekend, wasn't sure which ones to get.
It has some minor scratches and stone chips so I was thinking some spay putty?

Just want to get some of the paints and stuff together to do it in the coming weeks.
 
If the chips are big you may need to bog it a little, but shouldnt need that. Sand it back until smooth, then regular primer is fine.
 
Ok I have a couple questions.

This one might be good to add into your primer section: Which kind of primer be used? Surfacer, filler or etch? I believe self etching primer is use when there is bare metal showing and is the first thing to use. But what about the other two? I assume I will be getting down to bear metal in a lot of areas around the car, getting every last bit of clear coat of the car will be a challenge!

Next, what exactly is 2-pac/2K paint and how does it compare to using regular Dupli-Colour acrylic paint? And where can it be bought from?
 
2pack paint means it's a mix of two parts of the paint that doesn't harden until mixed. It is also poisonous so ventilate well if using it and don't get any on your skin. Also much stronger than acrylic. You will need 2pack mixed at a paint shop.

Etch primer is for bare metal. Surface and filler is to fill imperfections after sanding or bogging. If your bare metal isn't smooth/flat, you would bog it, cover the bogged areas in filler, then etch primer the rest (and over the top of the filler), then colour, then clear.
 
If like me your Lancer body colour is Nares Blue (which is metallic) and you have sanded down to bare metal in some places and use etch primer you need to use surface primer over the top of that because you don't sand etch primer but you will need to sand surface primer and maybe even have to surface primer and sand again if not good enough (most seem to recommend between 600-1000 wetsanding) because if you have a metallic paint you can't sand it. You have to apply all the clearcoat layers and when it's cured if you have orange peel you than wetsand it going up 1200- 1500-1800- 2000. It's advised that you do not skip a grade e.g 1200-1800. You really do need to be careful and have heaps and heaps of clearcoat layers so you don't sand through it edges are a fing pain in the butt. For my spoiler because of small size I used the micromesh wetsanding pads which go from like 1500 to 10000. Came up good when polished. The plastic parts are much easier to do than metal surfaces.
 
I don't think I need to use etch primer? If I put body filler on all the bare metal and then a couple of coats surface primer on the whole car should work shouldn't it. Why would I use etch primer is all the bare metal is covered with filler and surfacer..?
 
I think I need to grind off all the rust, spray rust converter, then use fibreglass filler then sanded and topped with body filler and then sanded and sprayed with primer surfacer. Sound about right?

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y52 ... c812a3.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y52 ... e217d7.jpg

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y52 ... 6b69b8.jpg

Then for all these spots where there was peeling clear coat where I assume there will be a low I think I need to fill with bog and then, sand surface prime and then base coat.

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y52 ... 6b69b8.jpg
 
Holy cow does your car go swimming at the beach, that rust hole is huge. You could just buy a used hood with no rust and get your colour code for your paint ad redo it.
 
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