Paint Prep work on body panels and car itself. Questions.

[TheTSiGuy]

A Couple of questions about prep work and sanding...etc..

I just finished sanding down a fender I had gotten from a buddy, because the one on my car is all bent, jacked up and rusted out. I plan on getting it painted by someone, maybe maaco, and wanted to cut costs.

About sanding, i used an electric orbital sander. Seemed to do the job pretty good. I kept sanding till i got to almost bare metal. I'm assuming I got enough clearcoat and paint itself off. the fender was black, and now its more white'ish grey

I plan on having the car painted by Maaco soon, for a cheap paintjob that'll last at least a couple of years. I've heard that by doing your own prepwork, you can save quite a bit on the total cost of the paintjob. I've also heard that alot of what what makes Maaco a shitty job is their prepwork. Someone once said they just rub the paint a bit with a scotch pad or something? Is this true?

And what does good prepwork mean for good paint? If i were to take my time and do a quality prepjob by sanding EVERYTHING down very nicely, what would I accomplish?

My buddy and I are thinking about taking a weekend off and just going to town sanding and primering my car. How much would this cut off total costs for a paintjob? Like I said, I've heard prepwork is most of what costs in a paintjob, because good prepwork will be labor intensive.

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[n0c7]

If you are going to goto all that hard work prepping the car, you may just want to fork out a few hundred extra bucks and get a decent paintjob. I had a car painted by Maaco a couple years back - in the exact same position you are in. It looked cool for my first car being painted, but after a couple of months the dust spots, orange peel, and the fading of the color really made me reconsider the next time around.

 

[TSiGoesPsSsSst]

Well you dont want to strip down the paint to bare metal.If you do so you'll have to primer whatever panel you prepped,to avoid DA marks and sand scratches.Just use a 500-800 grit sand paper which is good enough for the paint to grab.You can even sand it by hand if your doing one panel,but when you start sanding as whole car its alot easier to use a DA.If the paint has cracks though you will have to sand the paint down to bare metal and primer everything.Once you prepped everything you should take it to a local bodyshop and have them spray it.You'll save alot of money that way.Me personally,I wouldn't deal with Maaco.Good prepping makes a paintjob,but the painter is a big part also.You dont want any fisheyes,runs,or alot of orange peel.

 

[HighPsi92GST]

if you do all the prep work and then take it to macco, your probably not going to save much money at all if any. the reason people do their own prep work is because macco flat out doesnt do a good job on body work. they are trying to get at many cars painted as fast as possible. so if you spend hours on end doing body work, use that money you are saving by doing your own work to pay for a better paint job. hate to see you spend too much time on body work then have a crappy paint job put on over it.

basically what im saying is, a good paint job is expensive because the biggest part of a paint job is prep work. a good paint job starts with good prep work. thats removal of all trim and eveything like that, then sanding/filling all that stuff. macco doesnt take that extra time, thats why they are cheaper. so in turn, if you do all your own body work, the expensive good paint job is a little bit cheaper, since they no longer have to prep the car for you, and macco stays the same because they were never planning on doing it in the first place.

 

[pinknuggit]

put the sandpaper down.

Go to auto zone and get this stuff called either "auto stripper", or "aircraft remover".

Take your front and rear bumper covers off.
Take your plastic side mouldings off.
Cover up your tailights, marker lights, headlights, and anything plastic.
Hose the metal parts of the car down with a thick coat of the stripper.
Wait about 30 minutes.
Watch your entire coat of paint peel off down to the metal. (my paint peeled off in about 4 gigantic pieces).
Apply your body filler if necessary.
Go to your local sherwin williams and get enough Etching primer to cover the metal parts of your car. While you're there, pick up a quart of Urethane flex additive.
Put a good coat of primer on all of the metal panels (leave your bumper covers alone.)
For your front and rear bumper covers and side mouldings, you're going to have to use sandpaper. All you need to worry about is sanding down past the clearcoat into the basecoat. As long as your basecoat is roughed up good enough by the sandpaper, you will be fine.
Go to auto zone and buy a can of "Adhesion promoter". It's a clear primer.
Once you're done smoothing your bumper covers and side mouldings, cover them with the clear adhesion promoter.
Put the bumper covers back on.
Use some sandpaper between 400 and 500 grit and go over the whole car and sand the "roughness" out of the primer, making sure to take as little off as possible.
Follow suit with 800 grit sandpaper until the whole car feels smooth as a baby's ass (even the bumper covers).

This is just what I would do. I've found it ALOT easier to do it this way as opposed to sanding on the whole car.

The reason the maaco paint sucks is because they use cheap paint. If you talk to the right people, you can get one of the employees who sprays the cars to paint your car in his offtime. That way, he won't be rushed and he can do a good job.
I would buy the paint you want from either www.paintchip.com, www.paintforcars.com, or get your paint from your sherwin williams and have the selected painter use them. Have him spray your side mouldings when they are off of the car and put them on the car whenever he does the car. Make sure you give him the urethane adhesion promoter and tell him to mix it in with the paint that is going on the bumper covers. If he does not put this in your paint, the coat on your bumper covers will crack and flake over time from your bumper flexing.

 

[HighPsi92GST]

very well said pinknuggit