paint

[kevin73]

how long does it take to sand and prep a car for paint?

[bmxmon]

along time.

[2001GTPEWTER]

Should take a couple of hours depending on the size of the car, you'll always wanna wet sand it though, which means you gotta soak the proper sand paper in water over night. After you've sanded the paint off and then sanded the car smooth its' all easy from there. Primers take no time to apply.

[6T9PONY]

A couple hours? HA! If you only spend a couple hours prepping a car for paint, that will quite possibly be one of the worst paint jobs of all time.

What do you want out of the paint job? Do you want something that's going to look good enough for a car show? Look good enough at 30ft/30mph? It all depends on what you want out of it and how much time/money/effort you're willing to put into it.

Depending on the initial quality of the car and how often you can work on it (nights, weekends, etc.) a show quality job could take months to prep, if not longer.

[2001GTPEWTER]

Months??? We're not talking about BUILDing the car first...Wet sanding per panel with the right sanding block can take several minuets..After that sanding with a finer grit paper goes even quicker. After my 2001 GT was in an accident this January, my body shop decided to remove the base coat/clear coat which I had Macco (huge mistake) put on last year. With only one person working on it at a time they restored the factory color and shine with wet sanding, primer and 2 stage basecoat paint job. True if you do it too fast you'll get peeling, popping, bleeding and blushing but thats' what Macco specialists train in. I would never let them paint another car of mine, I would'nt let those guys paint a set of shelves.

[bmxmon]

Also depends on the color, white your body work can suck and it will still turn out alright, while with black you can think your body work is great until it is sprayed. A couple minutes per panel??! That would be nice. When I helped with my brothers camaro, i spent a couple days just on one door. Soaking your paper in water??! Never did that, I just used a spray bottle. I would think if you soaked your paper it would rip apart instantly.

[6T9PONY]

"Prepping" a body for paint doesn't just mean wetsanding and spraying the paint. This was posted in the classic forum, so I'm guessing it's a classic car. That would mean that unless the body was already recently restored (doubtful) it's going to need a healthy amount of work that's going to take a long time, especially for an amateur. This isn't a brand new, perfectly straight Mustang we're talking about here.

If it's an old Mustang, there are going to be hundreds of dings, waves, rust spots, etc. that will take a lot of time to fix, if you do it right. Wet sanding over a ding doesn't get rid of the ding. If you do it right, it'll take at least three passes of puttying and block sanding to fix it (putty/sand/putty/sand/putty/sand). That could take over an hour in itself, just to fix one little ding on one little body panel.

You only spent a few minutes per panel wetsanding? Either your paint is probably already peeling or you don't know what you're talking about.

There's no need to soak the sand paper over night. All you need to do is make sure that the surface you're sanding is wet, the paper is wet, and BOTH SURFACES ARE CLEAN! Don't let a bunch of sanding residue build up on the panel while you're sanding. Even if you're using very fine grit paper, the residue will gouge the surface. This means that you constantly need to be rinsing off your paper and the surface that you're sanding.

Another good thing to keep in mind when you reach the block sanding stage (one of the last before spraying) is that the point isn't to sand off primer, the point is to level the surface. You have to use a very consistent, very light touch.

[Rev]

I would buy a good book on painting and read it cover to cover more than once. You'll see that good body work and preping for the paint involves a whole lot of different steps and a lot of expensive materials. I spent months of weekends getting my car ready for paint.

That included a lot of disassembly as well as repair work. It started with completely stripping off all the old paint (a major job in itself). Then the body work involving patch panels welded in and the Bondo work. Then the primer sealer and then the sandable primer with block sanding and more sandable primer. After everything was as straight as I could make it, the primer sealer was applied. Then came the color coats and the clear coats. And finally the color sanding and compounding.

Are you catching my drift here? It's a lot of work and it takes a lot of patience, and an extreme amount of work, especially for a do-it-yourself job. Mine came out only OK. A pro with a body shop and a paint booth could have done it better but with a fee of $6000-10,000 after all was said and done.

Rev

[Elvis]

I agree with Rev. It took 3 weeks of full days to get mine ready for primer. A huge job. E.

[rwhite65]

Rev and 6T9PONY are providing good advice here. Basically, the better quality job you want, is going to depend on how much time you spend prepping the car first.

On my old farm truck, took me and my father a good day prepping the cab....and it is only a farm truck, so the paint is not a show quality kind of job.
hope this helps,
Ryan

[nitrousboy]

Should take a couple of hours depending on the size of the car, you'll always wanna wet sand it though, which means you gotta soak the proper sand paper in water over night. After you've sanded the paint off and then sanded the car smooth its' all easy from there. Primers take no time to apply.

how long have you beeen doing this.{i hope never}

first it should take a long time some people want there cars to look nice my car has been two yaers and it still has not seen final coat of sealer.


you do not soak the paper over night. you get a buket with watter then keep the paper wet wile you sand.

if the primer dose not take time to put on the you must like runs in that stage you should put it on like your painting you shaould never rush any body work procces

i have been doing this for two yaers now. {how about you?}

if you sand with 500 or roughfer then you need to seal and re prime then befor you paont put sealer over the hole car

[nitrousboy]

{bleeding and blushing} what are you talking about bleedin you mean runs?

when your car was wrecked it was in the shop for what 2 weeks write? if not how long?

if it was a shorter time send me pics beacuse i know there are sanding scrates.


{wet sanding, primer and 2 stage basecoat paint job}

what they most likly did was ground the damiged area then body worked it filld it with bondo i some low spots then wet sandeed the hole fender just enuogh so the clear was off the spot primed were they body worked it then wet sandeed back tell they started to see sanding scrates then sealed the primer then blended the color they were spraying to the fenders color then re cleared the hole fender and yes you do have to re clear the hole fender or you will have a thing called a haylow witch is a ring that appers latter down the road and it is caused by the clear being blended into each othere

told you i have been doing this for two years

[2001GTPEWTER]

Soaking the paper helps control the amount of water you get on your newly sanded surface, it also helps you use one piece of sandpaper longer than with one dry piece, the soaked sand paper fills up with paint slower than with dry. It also helps your eyes cover the surface you've sanded and keep track of how you're doing. Getting the entire car wet may result in your job ending up uneven after the first sanding, you want to sand more than once.
My car was in the shop exactly one month...only because he was so busy. The actual work as far as prepping and painting only took a few days. I'll try to post a picture but every time I try it this server tells me the picture is too big...I'm not digital-camera friendly. Believe me I'm sure classic car owners WILL take several weeks or months to prep and paint (not fix and assemble) but its not completely necessary.

[6T9PONY]

Originally Posted by 2001GTPEWTER

Soaking the paper helps control the amount of water you get on your newly sanded surface, it also helps you use one piece of sandpaper longer than with one dry piece, the soaked sand paper fills up with paint slower than with dry.

What the crap are you talking about? It is necessary to keep the paper and the surface extremely wet/clean, but there is no need to soak the paper overnight. That is ridiculous.

Originally Posted by 2001GTPEWTER

Getting the entire car wet may result in your job ending up uneven after the first sanding, you want to sand more than once.

Huh? Have you EVER even done any of this crap you're talking about?

Originally Posted by 2001GTPEWTER

Believe me I'm sure classic car owners WILL take several weeks or months to prep and paint (not fix and assemble) but its not completely necessary.

Right...it's only necessary if you don't want a paint job that looks like trash.

[Gearhead999]

The more time you take and the more care you take in the prep work, will definatly effect the finished product.

If you plan on spending a total of, "a couple of hours". You might as well just get a good new "roller" or "floor mop" to apply your paint. LOL

[2001GTPEWTER]

First off watch your mouth, tuff guy. Second, yes. I have'nt painted an entire car yet but I've done this kind of wet sanding and single stage/basecoat paint on parts that I've sold...I'll use the sand paper first, then I'll use a sanding block with glue-backed paper to smooth out the surface for the primer and tape for the low spots while I'm sanding. I started doing that because after my 2001 GT is completely done UNDER the hood I'm gonna take the car apart and paint elsewhere, that way I can get the parts of the car closer together and dont have to use 10 rolls of tape. Try it on an old non-rusted non-damaged part, you might be surprised. I'm done here.

[nitrousboy]

i wasa just thinking about this today will i was at work and well you proved my piont that you are a dum***

Originally Posted by 2001GTPEWTER
Soaking the paper helps control the amount of water you get on your newly sanded surface, it also helps you use one piece of sandpaper longer than with one dry piece, the soaked sand paper fills up with paint slower than with dry.


know he says, "Soaking the paper helps control the amount of water you get on your newly sanded surface," this is not true all wet sanding dose is keeps the paper cleaner and gives you a smoother sand

but he most likly dose not know this


Originally Posted by 2001GTPEWTER
Getting the entire car wet may result in your job ending up uneven after the first sanding, you want to sand more than once.


geting the entire car wet is the best thing becuse you can see the high and the low spots all he is doing is proving my piont


YOU USALLY ONLY WET SAND ONCE

Originally Posted by 2001GTPEWTER
Believe me I'm sure classic car owners WILL take several weeks or months to prep and paint (not fix and assemble) but its not completely necessary.


you ask any body shop owner it will take several mounth i can garentie you that

YES IT MAY EVEN TAKE THAT LONG TO FIX AND ASSEMBLE

if you think it is not necessary then i would love to hear you say that to a autobody shop owner in person

is there some way to vote somone off the board? if there is let me know i wonder who i would vote off?

it sounds like this guy would not even know what wet sanding was if we would not of told him.

oh i want pics of the hole car top to bottom side to side

autobody technitio for two years i think i know what i am talking about how about you

the othere people on this board do to

who is up for a vote?

on 0
off all

[nitrousboy]

you are a ideit

[Elvis]

Hmmm, I wonder who the ideit (sic) is? E.

[bears4ever]

Wow you boys having fun. I just got my car back and here is what It took. Both lower rear quarters were replaced. It took the body shop about 1 1/2 weeks just to cut out from the door pillar back to the valance.Putty and sand. It took them another 3 weeks just to get all the dents and dings out of the car. There was not that many to start with but as you start to putty and sand you find ones you never knew you had. This was a good body shop doing this work. When i look over the car now I can still see some imperfections. I would have to agree that I think if you want a show car it is going to take a long time and patience. Do it right so you don't have to do it again. Who cares about time anyway, it's what you want to do and that is enjoy working on your car. It has taken me just over 2 years to do a complete rebuild from bare metal to a completed car. Dont ask how many hours as my keyboard may not allow me to type that large of a number. Enjoy it and be proud of what you did. Just a thought.