How to paint a hood? Everything...

[mavster 10+ year member]

Well after waiting for my bumper to be painted, i picked up a quick interest in learning how to paint a car/bumper....

The body shop pretty much gave me damaged hood to show express my interest on.

So I have a surface to paint...

Now I want to learn how to paint...

I have a compressor, and I can get a cheap spray gun from harbor freight...

What do I need in terms of primer, basecoat, clearcoat...? etc...

and how to do it?

thanks

Click to read more...

 

[pitbull12887 10+ year member]

you will need mineral spirits or acetone to thin down your paint for it to spray good...just practice on something until you get your gun where it sprays the way you want it to.

 

[blackhawk 10+ year member]

For basecoat you'll want the basecoat itself, reducer, and hardener. For primer a siphon feed gun works fine, but for the paint gun I'd suggest a gravity feed, preferable HVLP, you can buy a kit with it for like $70-90 bucks at Unclaimed Freight or auto parts stores. It's not high quality but it'll work unless you plan on doing this to other people's cars.

Go to your local body shop and ask them for tips, and you may want to rent their booth for spraying, a garage works for small stuff too though.

 

[Weeznur32 10+ year member]

im interested in this as well as I plan on painting my car flat black in the near future.

 

[silvercookie 5,000+ posts]

make sure you sand down all the old paint first.

 

[Ferendon 10+ year member]

im interested in this as well as I plan on painting my car flat black in the near future.

There are few things more difficult than a flat black paint job.

And you'll need a flex agent as well, if the paint doesn't have it already. If you're more worried about method then madness, then you can get Duplicolor

s Paint Shop system. It's premixed, ready to spray paint. It's not too expensive, and you can get it at O'Reilly. It'll give you a chance to get down the technique, before you start spending tons of cash on mixing your own stuff.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/paintshop.html

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

First, get yourself setup with an entry level HVLP spray gun. Look at Devilbiss, they carry a nice line of guns, Sata's are the best but they are pricey. A Devilbiss Finishline III will be a good start. Puts out a decent pattern, kind of heavy on the outside, just needs more pressure at the gun than higher end guns.

Basecoat- If your working on a budget just get a lower end line of paint from a good company...i.e. PPG

The basecoat you will have to reduce with reducer. Check on the can of base or on the companies website to see how to reduce it. Most of the time its like 2 to 1.

Clearcoat- Again you can get a lower line of clear coat, Ive sprayed PPG Shopline and it works fine for the money. You will need hardener to mix with the clear and it should say on the can what the mixture is.

Spraying- Prep work is crutial. If your painting bare metal you need to spray a Primer Sealer first. A Primer Surfacer is used over body work, like bondo, to build up the surface for sanding. Then a Primer Sealer would be sprayed over that, before basecoat.

If your spraing over paint thats in decent shape, sand up the surface with 400 grit. This will ensure a good bond for the basecoat. Spray each pass with 50% overlap each stroke and use the distance of the width of your fist to keep the gun ~ 6 inches away from surface and staying at a 90 degree angle.

Spray the jams and all non-beauty surfaces first followed by the outside beauty surfaces.

Disassemble the gun completely and clean it with thinner. Oh, also, use Wax and Grease remover after sanding and before spraying your base coat.

Any Q's ask away

 

[NMBR1SPT 10+ year member]

First, get yourself setup with an entry level HVLP spray gun. Look at Devilbiss, they carry a nice line of guns, Sata's are the best but they are pricey. A Devilbiss Finishline III will be a good start. Puts out a decent pattern, kind of heavy on the outside, just needs more pressure at the gun than higher end guns.
Basecoat- If your working on a budget just get a lower end line of paint from a good company...i.e. PPG

The basecoat you will have to reduce with reducer. Check on the can of base or on the companies website to see how to reduce it. Most of the time its like 2 to 1.

Clearcoat- Again you can get a lower line of clear coat, Ive sprayed PPG Shopline and it works fine for the money. You will need hardener to mix with the clear and it should say on the can what the mixture is.

Spraying- Prep work is crutial. If your painting bare metal you need to spray a Primer Sealer first. A Primer Surfacer is used over body work, like bondo, to build up the surface for sanding. Then a Primer Sealer would be sprayed over that, before basecoat.

If your spraing over paint thats in decent shape, sand up the surface with 400 grit. This will ensure a good bond for the basecoat. Spray each pass with 50% overlap each stroke and use the distance of the width of your fist to keep the gun ~ 6 inches away from surface and staying at a 90 degree angle.

Spray the jams and all non-beauty surfaces first followed by the outside beauty surfaces.

Disassemble the gun completely and clean it with thinner. Oh, also, use Wax and Grease remover after sanding and before spraying your base coat.

Any Q's ask away

Thanks, I was about to right a book on this...... I used to paint high end vehicles