I am getting ready to paint the beast. Any suggestions on what brand of paint? I painting it factory black (no idea of the paint code)

it is an 85 c4

 

PPG makes two types of base coat/clear coat. I forgot the actual names but I can look them up for you. The more expensive one is better for color matching on touch ups and such. If you are doing the whole car the less expensive one will work great. Its just a little bit more than lacquer and it has a much better finish, look, and durability.

I cant think of the other line of paint but I used PPG DBC colors on two jobs I did and they came out great.

 

Awesome thanks Please get me a link. Now excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb question

Lacqure does that require clear coat? also do more clear coats equal a better shine?

 

I dont have a link at the moment. I get my paint from a local shop. You are right lacquer does not REQUIRE clear but it helps protect it and gives the pain more depth. However I would not go with lacquer because it requires more maintenance and fades easily. Lacquer was used in the 70s and earlier. With base/clear applications it is more durable and looks better.

As far as coats go 5-8 thin coats will be better than 2-3 thick coats. That will give you a better finish with less "orange peel" and will buff to a better shine.

Is this your first paint job? How much time/effort are you willing to put into this?

 

It is and I have all winter, an air tank and my weekends free so pleanty! I know black shows every thing. I am not looking for a show car finish but something that looks good

 

Ok I will see if I can get some paint numbers for you sometime soon. I would start by taking the car apart. Lights have to come out, trim, molding, door handles.. anything that you dont want black. Seeing as you are going from black to black I would say you would be ok to leave the hood on but the bumper have to come off because you need to get an additive for the paint to do the urethane bumpers.

I would get as much of the old paint off as you can. You dont have to go down to bare fiberglass, just make the body look straight. After fixing any minor imperfections with body filler (big ones will need duraglass or more fiberglass for really big ones) sand it smooth with about 320-400 grit sandpaper. Primer the car in a thick filler primer. I would get a dark grey color to make sure the black covers it nicely. Sand that smooth (you are going to find more imperfections with the primer on). If you break through in one spot either it is a high point on the body or a thin area in the primer. Either way stop and move to a different spot. Be very careful when sanding. It is easy to change the shape of corners and tight areas so go slower and light in these areas.

Once you have a good layer of primer make the final sanding with a 600 grit but if you break through apply more primer.

Its hard to get all the details in a post. If you have any questions in the process let me know but this should get you off to a good start.

 

PPG Concepts is a real good quality paint, Dupont makes some nice stuff too.As far as I know there havent been lacquer paints made for many years, maybe an expert can pipe in. Omni is the cheaper of the brands out there.
I was told by a few body shops out here recently (thanks EPA) that all the nw paints now are required to be water based. Might vary depending on your states regs.

 

Yeah in California you must spray a waterborn paint; the rest of us in the U.S will be following suit in another year or two. Since you are not matching paint you can spray the House of Kolor line of paint; you don't give up anything as far as durability or quality but you will save some money (and if you want to change the color they make the coolest ones). DuPont ChromaPremier is pretty expensive/good line but mostly geared towards the body shop (collision repair) environment so many of the features (their snap clear can be handled in 2 hours) don't apply to you. The best advice I can give you is to buy the best paint you can afford; there are big differences between PPG's Omni Line and the Deltron or better lines. This forum has a paint and body section that you can search; most of the guys posting in there are "old school" and tend to disagree with those of us that got into the industry in the last 10 years or so...

 

This is the first I have heard of water based paint. I havent bought any for about two years or so. I live in Ohio. I agree with posting in the paint and body section. Once you pick paint Im sure there are many that can help with the procedure also.

 

A good gun is key to the paintjob -- right behind prep work. What kind of gun do you have/plan on buying?

 

Dupont fan

My Vette Restore

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=2028913

 

I have a glock 9mm I have no clue what to buy I did see the walmart paint pack set for like 80 bucks

 

wow you did a great job did i read that right you paid some one elese to spray it?

 

That will probably last as long as this job takes you and then no more. Whatever you do buy I would get one with the tank on top of the gun. It make it easier when spraying the roof, hood, and anything else pointing down.

 

Paint gun selection will be the hard and expensive part. If you have enough air compressor you will want to use a HVLP (high volume low pressure) model; you will need at least a 5hp 2 stage compressor to paint the whole car with a HVLP. Now you get what you pay for in paint guns but you will probably have to draw a line somewhere unless you have a good budget. Arguably the best paint gun on the market is a SATA Jet, but, running in the neighborhood of $680 a copy they tend to only be used by professionals that make money with their guns. A gravity fed unit in the $300 range should do you just fine for your topcoats but you will need to buy another gun to spray your primer with. You could get a larger fluid tip for your topcoat gun but there are guns made to only shoot primers and they do work much better. Again, it all depends on your budget as to what you are willing to buy. If you have any other questions just ask; and on having the high school kids do it, I would be uncomfortable with it for one main reason. Repainting an entire car (sanding and prep’ing take a lot of time and effort) is something that most kids have never done. Now it easy (and often times very tempting) to take the easy way out and skip over a few steps here and there once you begin to tire of the job. I feel that you would be better off doing this yourself, you gain the experience and tooling; hell that's how I expanded from just building engines into body and paint (my personal race cars needed paint and we started doing them and found out we were good at it and enjoyed doing it). Just my .02

 

Yes I did all work and had some one spray it. Did not want to mess around with dust / dirt, or my rookie errors. Now its nice !

 

Shamdave,

Hey I thought you said a couple weeks ago that your vette sucked? You wanted a mustang or something

 

My 87' is going in next week for paint. I was going to spray PPG myself, but was talked into using a water based Sherman Williams product. The auto body instructor where also teach wants to use it as a class project. They have painted a few vetts and have turned out some very fine work. My E-Bay corvette project is finally coming to an end. Summary: Although the car is essentially new from the wheels up and the overall cost is under $6K, I would not do this again. Unless you can do your own restoration work, you could loose your shirt.

 

Get a good HVLP. I've got a Devilbiss, and its a real easy gun to use. Cost around $200, but I don't skimp on tools when doing the work myself. A good gun, and good paint, are worth their weight in gold.

 

You are right. You have to have tools rated to deliver the finished product. I have both Devilbiss and Binks guns of assorted sizes. My car is in the queue to be 87' blue tomorrow. Using the Sherman Williams water based product with a clear coat. I am interested to see how this works. In test, it looks milky at first then clears up nice. Putting in the weatherstripping is going to be interesting. Trying to decide which glue to use.