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How To Paint A Car In Seven Days

Learn How To Do Car Painting With Step-By-Step

Instructions By Andrew Carlsberg

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Copyright © 2012

All Rights Reserved

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Table Of Contents

Learn How To Do Car Painting With Step-By-Step Instructions

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Warning:

Things You Will Need

1 - Stripping The Paint

2 – Metal Work, Fixing Dents & Removing Rust

Fixing Rusts In The Car

Patching Up Small Holes

3 – Smoothing And Filling

Types Of Fillers

Applying The Filler

4 – Initial Painting

Sanding

5 – Final Paint

Options For The Top Coat

Applying The Final Top Coat

Final Buffing

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Introduction

Painting a car is very expensive, but sometimes we have no choice

but to have our cars repainted. In most cases, you can consider yourself

lucky if you are able to dish out at least $3000 for a “fairly decent” paint job.

But in reality, you will most likely dish out twice or even thrice that number if

you want a quality paint job for your beloved ride.

Of course, you can try to do things on your own, which is exactly why

I created this book to help you accomplish that task. How To Paint A Car In Seven Days is a complete, step-by-step instructional book material that

will teach you how to paint your own car in under seven days (assuming

that the weather favors you of course). By following the instructions that I

have laid in this book, you don’t have to dish out tens of thousands of

dollars for repainting your car. If you turn out to develop your skill in car

painting, why, you can even do car painting as your main source of living!

Warning:

Please consult your doctor before trying to follow the instructions on

this book. Some people might be irritated by the chemical compounds

included in car paint and other materials that are used in car painting and

your health is more important than anything.

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Things You Will Need

Here are the things that you will need for a car-painting project:

1. Gloves 2. Goggles 3. Face mask 4. Chemical stripper 5. Grit paper 6. Sander 7. Welder (not necessarily needed, unless you need to weld-in parts to

replace rusty sections of the car) 8. Welding mask (for welding) 9. POR-15 Paint 10. Paint spray respirator 11. Paint gun 12. Masking paper / masking tape(for covering the car while painting) 13. Filler 14. Paint 15. Fiberglass cloth (just in case you need to cover in some holes) 16. Painter’s suit

These are the minimum requirements that you must have, but these are not all the materials you will use. More will be introduced in the book, and not all of them will be utilized because each car will have its own different sets of problems.

Having said that, let’s start learning how to paint a car!

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1 - Stripping The Paint

In any car painting project, the first thing that you must do is strip the

car of its old paint. Decide on how much of the car you want to take apart

(to strip paint from underlying parts) and how far you will go in stripping the

paint. The best paint jobs must have all the old paint stripped and as much

as possible all moldings, trim and bumpers removed. There is no need to

remove suspension, engine, interior or anything else as these items are

easily masked off. If you do the total restoration then you would be

stripping the whole car to the shell, but for an external paint job it is not

necessary.

Strip the car in whatever means that you want. Chemical strippers will

do a nice job, but they require careful washing of the car to remove all

residue (not to mention they also make a mess on the floor). Any small

amount of stripper left in some corner can ruin a paint job. And besides,

chemical strippers are usually smelly and they burn the skin if not handled

properly. Just to add, strippers will damage any plastic filler so all filler

must be removed and replaced. The alternative is to use abrasives to strip

the car. Using a 9 inch sander with 24 or 36 grit papers, sand the car until

you see the underlying metal, but do not sand it too much because you

might create some deep scratches or vents if you overdo it.

If the paint job was an old lacquer job or you used a lacquer primer, a

simple razor blade may be used to remove the top layers. This method will

remove some filler as you hit it so you must be careful. Once you hit the

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metal, use an 80-grit paper to rough up the metal for better paint adhesion.

If the filler is over 10 years old, or from an unknown paint job, then it should

be removed and replaced. You can either use the 9-inch random orbit

sander or a knotted wire brush on a 4-1/2 inch angle grinder. I prefer the

wire brush, but the choice is up to you.

There are some more exotic methods if paint removal if you have the

finances. Media blasting with Walnut shells or dry ice pellets works well but

is not recommended unless you are doing a total strip of the car. NEVER

sand blast a car body. The sand acts as a peen (this is how they shot peen

rods) and will make body panels look like the ocean in a hurricane. You

can also acid dip the car which will remove all rust and paint, but the car

must be entirely stripped.

2 – Metal Work, Fixing Dents & Removing Rust

After you have the car stripped, the metal work should start next.

Metal work means fixing the small damages that he body of the car might

have sustained. This is important because paint cannot hide the dents and

scratched in a car. Small dents can be worked out by using a hammer and

dolly or a semi pointed probe worked across the metal on the back side. I

worked out several small dents this way and did not have to use any filler at

all in those places. Larger dents have to be banged out using the hammer

and dolly the best as can be done. Unless you are an artisan then you will

have to use some filler on large dents. Be sure to not have any high places

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in the metal or you will have a bump in the final paint finish that cannot be

sanded down.

Often, high areas can be "shrunk" by using a pick hammer with a

dolly in the back side. What you must do is to exchange the large dent or

bump for a whole bunch of small bumps that are easier to fill and cover.

Lightly just tap over that rise area working from the edges to the center and

the bump will slowly disappears. This may take some practice to get good

at. If you drill holes to pull out a dent, then you must weld up the holes

when done to prevent moisture from getting to the back side of the filler

material through the holes.

Fixing Rusts In The Car

There is only one way to fix rust. Cut it out, remove it and weld in

new metal. Completely remove all rusty metal from the car, don't cover any

up or the rust will grow. I use a Plasma cutter to cut the metal but quality

tin-snips or a nibbler will work just fine. If your car has some surface rust

than this is OK as the paint will completely seal it and prevent it from

growing further. Cut a piece if 18 gauge metal to cover your rusted area

that is about 1/4 inch larger than the hole. This metal should be plain steel

and must not have any coating (e.g. galvanized coat). The base metal

should also be very clean for at least an inch away from the weld. Use wire

brush or sander to prep the metal.

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As an option, you can add a depression to the body metal for the

patch to set in. A tool is made to do this but. This tool only makes 3/4 inch

long ridges at one time and can cause some warping of the metal around

the patch area. The new metal must be completely welded in using a good

MIG (metal inert glass) welder. Low current 110 welders just don't do the

job with the exception of the Lincoln SP100 or SP125. I use a 200 Amp

Century. Turn the welder up to a voltage that would normally melt holes in

the metal if welded continuously. Then tack the metal in place using short

bursts of weld (1 second) about every 4 inches around the patch.

NEVER try to push the metal in place while welding. The metal

should fit the contour of the body naturally with only a very slight pressure

needed to hold the pieces together. If you press hard while welding then

you add stresses to the patch and will cause warping in the welding

process. Once the piece is in place you can start welding it solid. This is

very important to do slowly. Weld in about 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips around the

patch with one hand on the surrounding metal about 3 inches away. Each

weld spot should spaced apart around the patch area. You keep doing this

until you fill all the gap in. If the surrounding metal gets too hot to hold your

hand on then quit till you can lay your hand over the area that is being

welded.

This process may take 20 minutes for a 6-by-6 patch area. If you

rush the welding then the metal gets too hot and warps. Sheet metal under

about 12 gauge is made by a cold rolling process. This process puts stress

on the metal released in the welding process which ca cause warping.

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Keeping the head down reduces this possibility. The welding should be

continuous and not just spotted. Moisture can come in from the back side

and cause rust to grow under the filler material and cause the filler to lift off.

Grind the weld lightly when done to reduce any high spots in the weld.

Before applying filler, rough up the metal with a 24 grit disk on a 7 inch

grinder so the filler has something to stick to. You may also want to use the

pick hammer and slightly dent the metal in around the weld area so that

less filler is needed to cover up the patch.

Patching Up Small Holes

For surface rust in areas like the floor board where dents have gotten

deep or there are some Swiss cheese-type holes less than the size of a

pencil, an alternate to welding can be done. Use a wire brush to remove all

loose scale and sand away paint from the surrounding area for about 6

inches. Clean up all dust with a vacuum. Apply POR15 metal prep to the

area to etch the new metal that is not rusted. POR15 will not stick to clean

metal unless chemically etched, but it sticks very well to rust. Apply a

heavy coat of POR15 paint over the entire area. Lay a layer of fiberglass

cloth over the rusted area and coat with another heavy coat of POR15.

After the paint is dry to the touch, add another coat and a layer of slightly

smaller fiberglass cloth. After it has dried to the touch then add 2 more

coats of POR15 alone waiting till the paint has dried to the touch between

each coat. POR15 is an amazing paint. It does not ever fully get hard. It

dries faster when it is damp out. It will not lift with the formation of rust like

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normal paint will, and is so strong that you will NEVER be able to peel that

fiberglass cloth off again.

The patch will be nearly as strong as the original metal. The stuff is

not really paint, but they call it paint for lack of a better word. You can also

use it for areas of heavy rust on the body that has not gone completely

through. Simply paint a couple of coats over rusted metal before filling and

painting. If you are going to top coat the POR15 then you need to spray a

light coat of primer on it before it completely dries or sand it so the top

coats will stick. You don't need the fiberglass cloth on an area that does not

have holes through. I also recommend using it under fenders where rust is

on the back side and over the back side of the welded-in patches.

POR15 is not the same as rust converters (e.g. "Extend"). It does not

convert the rust, but instead covers it up which helps in preventing moisture

from getting to the rust which stops any further rust spread. Don’t forget to

wear plastic gloves. POR15 sticks to skin like crazy glue. If it dries on your

hands you will wear it for about 2 weeks. (I tried Acetone, Xylene, Toluene,

Methel-ethyl keytone, Tricholrethene, gasoline, Alcohol, Lacquer thinner,

Carb cleaner, Brake cleaner with Hexane, sand paper, and soap to get it

off. Nothing worked.)

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IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REMAINING CHAPTERS FROM THIS GUIDE, KINDLY VISIT

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