How To Properly Prepare Your Car Before Spray Painting
How to correctly prepare your automobile before spray painting
Preparing your car for paint spraying is no quick task so make sure you have the correct equipment for the job and enough information. 90 percent of spraying a vehicle is preparation it is a long task but it must be done and done correctly there can be no shiny surfaces on where you’re going to paint before you start painting, if you use too rough a grade of sand paper this will be seen through the paint, too smooth a grade of sand paper and it will take a very long time to rub down correctly.
Please remember to wear the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) before beginning.
There are many this technique s in here that can also apply for using oil based paint around the home
Preparation is key
1. Wash the vehicle down with water or water and degreaser mix remembering to wash out the door checks and all the gaps in the areas you are going to be spraying in.
2. Blow the car dry with pressurized air including all the gaps, this will get rid of any loose dirt from around the vehicle
3. Rub the automobile down with wet and dry sandpaper grit 240-400. Use the sandpaper wet and with warm water and rub down only in the places where you will apply the primer i.e. bare metal, filler or where stone chips were. Use wet and dry sandpaper grit 800-1000 in the places you’re not priming in as you will go further than you expected to go ( If the automobile paint work isn’t too bad and not down to the bare metal there’s no need to apply a primer use wet and dry sandpaper grit 800-1000 )
4. The finish that you will be looking for is a smooth not shiny surface, this is be achieved by a rubber sanding block, if you are using your hand to rub down keep your hand as flat as possible and do not spread your fingers as this will be seen through the paint in the form of high and low spots.
5. Once you have finished one area wash it off with clean water, I use personally use a cellulose sponge and a chamois then a microfiber cloth. Blow the automobile off again then use white spirit and two clean new rags one in each hand and one with white spirit on it and the other one dry and in a motion of the karate kid wax on wax off.
6. Masking up the automobile use masking paper and masking tape try and buy a slightly better quality masking tape as paint and primer will not run under it and it comes off the roll easier. Masking up the car for primer is rather simple because it does not have to be perfect, just cover the areas that primer over spay will go and blow off the vehicle one final time but reduce your pressure on the regulator or you will blow masking paper off just a gentle breeze, and use tack rag but don’t press hard very, very lightly because paint doesn’t stick to wax.
7. Apply the primer to the areas necessary. Spray painting with paint is similar to priming, the this technique is the same but primer is a thicker use a lager nozzle and needle about a 2.0 if you have one .I tend to turn the pressure up a little bit and build up the coats going further and further out each time, give it at least 3 good coats, primer is heaver and less likely to run anyway the primer gets rubbed down again, so this is a good time to practice on your this procedure.
8. If you don’t know how far to rub down the primer use a little spray paint from a spray can, any colour as long as you can see it against the primer (very light coat just a speckled pattern) Rub the vehicle down with wet and dry sandpaper grit 800-1000 and if you used a little spray paint rub it down until only the primer is left. (If the primer is covering body filler then I always use a very, very light coat of spray paint) Use the sandpaper wet and with lukewarm water. Using the sand paper wet reduces dust and lubricates between the paint and the paper, there are products for dry sanding but I’ve never really taken to them.
9. Clean the car off with clean water, cellulose sponge and a chamois then a microfiber cloth. Blow the car off again spend a good length of time on this water and paint don’t always mix then use white spirit as before do not let the white spirit dry in itself make sure you dry it off with a new clean dry rag.
10. Mask the vehicle up using the masking tape first thing is to take your time doing this and think about where the paint will go if you don’t cover it well enough, pull down or take out any rubber seals or as many parts as possible. If you can get your hands on foam masking use this around the inside door frames as this will feather the edges out better. Use sellotape for any coach lines/go faster stripes as this reduces the paint high end edge. Ask for a friend to help with the masking paper if you’re struggling, and make sure there is no paper flapping about it should be stuck down tight pretty obvious really but I’ve seen countless times where paper is flapping around. Cover the full engine with paper (unless you have taken it out) lots of dirt can fly out of there no problem and no chance of over spray either. Make sure you cover the wheels and tyres as well.
11. Wet the floors and walls where possible (not the ceiling or the car) and don’t have big puddles either, sweep up any puddles if there are some, this process can be done before or after the masking up period.
12. Finally before you start spraying use the white spirit this technique twice and then the tack rag this technique with a little gently air this will eradicate a lot of dust particles.
Why we rub down- we rub down to form a key or a surface for the paint to stick to if we didn’t the paint will most likely flake off.
Why we use white spirit-we use white spirit to eradicate oil and grease some of this comes from our oily skin.
Why we blow the automobileoff- we blow the car off with high pressure air loosen any dirt that may come back when painting and to get rid of any trapped water around the automobile. The compressor must be drained at least once a day or water traps installed in the pipe work.
Make sure you have the correct painting spray gun before you start to paint and it does help if there is a micro air regulator on the spray gun as well.
Please remember that this practice is not set in stone and there are other various ways of doing things this is a good this technique thou and has always worked for me and I have been working as an apprentice spray painter since 1991 and finished my apprenticeship 1995 and the rest is history.
I hope that this article has helped you and good luck.
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