my car was originally green, then it was painted red and then bronze. i decided i am going to macco the car but prep it myself. i wanted to sand it down atleast to the red paint but i was told it is unnecessary so i did the rest of the car sanding only the bronze paint down. so to those of u who have done prep work urself, please give me some suggestions.




Modified by andrew714 at 5:57 AM 6/22/2006

 

you have to feather the paint with a DA sander so all the layers of paint (clear, base, prime) all that **** will be uniform and then where the circles form (dents) fill it with filler... then sand it smooth and prime again and spot putty it then prime one last time and then wetsand

 

Don't let Maaco do your paint job after you do all the hard work. There's really nothing I've seen from any of them that's been even satisfactory as far as I'm concerned. You're doing 90% of the work, might as well rent some **** and finish.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Archidictus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Don't let Maaco do your paint job after you do all the hard work. There's really nothing I've seen from any of them that's been even satisfactory as far as I'm concerned. You're doing 90% of the work, might as well rent some **** and finish.</TD></TR></TABLE>

couldn't have said it better myself.

 

yeah after all that body work... you might as well try painting yourself.. see tips on here how to lay the paint on and stuff..

 

Jesus, what did you do? Block it with 36 grit!?! You need a lot of primer and a DA at the bare minimum

 

my friend sanded his car by himself and he didnt even get to the base coat. all he did was scuff his white paint, macco finished it up for 300 bucks and it came out very clean, the only problem was paint on the molding. the macco here really isnt that bad. i am speaking from experience because i have had parts painted by mobworks before and it chipped while his white eg painted by macco hasnt chipped or faded yet, hard to believe, but honest truth. do i need to use filler for those circle spots? there was never any dings or dents before.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DOWNwithHT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Jesus, what did you do? Block it with 36 grit!?! You need a lot of primer and a DA at the bare minimum</TD></TR></TABLE>

what u see there is 80 grit. i will wet sand it with 600grit before i send it in.

 

The thing is, if you just sand the paint with 800 grit and scuff the edges, then you can just go ahead and paint. But if you put putty on the car and sand it with say 80 grit, then you are going to need to bump up to 180, then prime, then sand with 320(or a similar type of stepping up) otherwise you will have sanding scratches and pinholes all over the car

 

BTW, this sanding should be done with a dual-action sander(DA)

 

lol, so i kind of did it backwards. interesting. what do u suggest i do now before the shop touches it.

 

If it was me, I would do this(as long as the bodywork is straight):
-Get a DA with a softpad
-Sand the 80 grit scratches out with 180 grit
-Prime all the areas that have been sanded with 180
-Lightly spray the primer with cheap black spray paint(This makes it much easier to see where trouble spots are)
-Sand the whole car with 320(try not to burn through the primer)

Since it is going to Macco, this should be fine enough

 

Also, if you find some bad spots when sanding the primer down, you can spot putty those areas and reprime the spots. Repeat as necessary

 

what do u mean by prime it down with 180 ? i dont have a DA, i am doing everything by hand, is that okay?

 

What I meant was that you need to put primer over the areas that you have sanded with 180 grit. The primer will fill in the scratches, but you need to let it dry for a day or so to make sure it settles in.

 

You could prob get a DA for like $50. I guess if you use a lot of primer, then you might be able to get away with doing it all by hand(God that would suck *** lol). Just use a block as much as possible when sanding down the primer and it should come out pretty straight

 

koo. can i use spray can primer? if so how many cans should i buy?

 

oh yeah, my main question was never answered. do i need to sand all the car to the red paint?

 

I don't know about the spray can primer because I haven't tried that, but if it is all you can get, then it has to be better than nothing lol. Also, no you don't need to sand down to the original paint as long as the car was painted properly in the past. The key with prepping a car is just to make sure the surface is free of deep scratches, pinholes, and abrupt changes in elevation.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by andrew714 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my friend sanded his car by himself and he didnt even get to the base coat. all he did was scuff his white paint, macco finished it up for 300 bucks and it came out very clean, the only problem was paint on the molding. the macco here really isnt that bad. i am speaking from experience because i have had parts painted by mobworks before and it chipped while his white eg painted by macco hasnt chipped or faded yet, hard to believe, but honest truth. do i need to use filler for those circle spots? there was never any dings or dents before.</TD></TR></TABLE>
the circles mean that there is a dent.. a slight one maybe if you cant see if with your own eyes..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by opiumdaze &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the circles mean that there is a dent.. a slight one maybe if you cant see if with your own eyes.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

also called a "low spot"

getting ready to prep my car for paint this week.. very helpful info

 

yeah i wasnt sure what it was called.. but if you use a DA and lay it flat on the body when you sand you will be able to spot all of the dents and start repairing!

 

trust me. those circles are not dent its not even a circle.... i just got tired sanding. so i will go back at it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by andrew714 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">trust me. those circles are not dent its not even a circle.... i just got tired sanding. so i will go back at it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by andrew714 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">trust me. those circles are not dent its not even a circle.... i just got tired sanding. so i will go back at it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL, I don't know whether I should feel bad for you or the car. I nominate you for the $50 paint job. Then maybe you could afford to get a DA and a couple blocks