Author : David Atkin
Ok boys and girls, now that you have the filler put in the car, and finished to 180 grit sand paper, it's time to shoot the primer to the body work areas, and the first thing that you want to do is make sure that your spray gun is 100% clean, you don't want to aim the gun and spray a bunch of crap on the car, this one the best ways that I can think of to make your job harder when it comes time to sand the primer, smooth primer is a basic necessity for a good out come on your paint job.
After you make sure that your gun is clean, you can begin to mix the primer, I recommend that you use a urethane or epoxy based primer for the best results, now when it come to missing that primer, you'll need to follow that instructions on the can of primer that you buy, or ask the people at the store where you purchase the primer what the mixing ratios are for the particular brand that you bought, and also if you've never mixed paint or primer before, you may want to ask them to show you how to read the mixing cup, as this can be just a bit confusing to t first time painter.
When mixing the primer the first thing that you want to do is, get out the mixing cup, and read the ratios on the side of it, be sure that you understand how these work, if you don't, then do yourself a favor and drive back to your local paint store and ask again, these guys really do know their products, and their usually glad to help you, some will have a 4:1:1 mixing ratio and others will have a 2:1:1 ratio depending on the manufacture, in a nut shell this is how that ratios work, for this article let's say that the product paint mixing ratio is 4:1:1, this would mean that in the mixing cup, you'd first pour the primer, and on the mixing cup find the 4:1:1 ratio, make sure that you pay close attention here, now that you have located the correct ratio, you can add the primer to the mixing cup.
Depending on how big the spots that you need to prime are you can mix as much as you need, so let's say for this article that you just have some small spots, let's say three of them about 6 inches wide by 6 inches tall, so you take a look at the mixing cup, the area is relatively small, so you pour the primer in to the mixing cup, until it reaches the second mark on the 4:1:1 ratio this means that you have your 4 parts of primer that the manufacture calls for, now you'll add the reducer to the mix, remember that the mix is 4:1:1 so it works out to a ¼ mix, this would mean that you add the reducer up to the next mark in the 1 column and then max it with a stir stick, and last but not least add the hardener to the mix, and it will also be up to the next line in the 1 column, and then stir it until every thing is mixed correctly.
Ok now get your spray gun, and put a paint filter in the top of it, and pour the primer in to the gun, once the primer is in the gun, plug the gun in to your air source, and pull the trigger to the first setting, where just air is coming out of the gun, and look at the pressure gauge on the gun, this should be set at 30 – 35 psi for proper paint flow, next you'll want a piece of masking paper, or something that you can do a test spray of the gun on, you'll want to hold the gun from 4 – 6 inches from the spot that your spraying, now that you have the gun at about the right distance, you can pull the trigger, what you'll be looking for is a spray pattern about 6 inches wide that has full coverage, or no bare spot in the middle of the spray pattern, ok now that you have this done, you can begin to spray the spots that have body work done on them, I usually get 3 coats of primer on the spots that I have worked before spraying the entire car with 3 coats of primer, when you spray the primer you'll want to wait about 15 minutes between coats of primer, so it will get the correct adhesion between coats, don't think for a minute that spraying paint or primer is easy, you will run it on your first try, until you figure out the speed that you need to move the gun along the car at, if you move to slow, you'll get runs, to fast and you won't get enough product on the car, now that you have your body work areas under primer, you'll need to wait for the primer to tack up, and then you can primer the entire car, with no less then three coats of primer.
Ok now that you have the entire car under primer, you can spray the guide coat on the primer, basically guide coat is just a special black paint that makes it easier for you to the how level and smooth the paint is, what the guide coat will do is, after the primer has dried for 24 hours, and it's time to sand, you'll bust out a hand sanding block, usually these are made out of wood, and they come in a range of sizes, your going to load the block with 180 grit sand paper, and sane the car in an "X" pattern to assure smoothness, now that you have the sanding block loaded, you begin to sand the primer, and you will go through the primer on the first sanding of the car, so don't worry about it, what you'll notice first of all is that some of the guide coat is not coming off of the car.
That is because the guide coat is staying in the low spots, if these areas won't sand out, then you'll have to add some more metal glaze those areas, and again, don't worry about this, you will be adding more primer to the car, once you have gotten the whole car sanded, and there is no guide coat left, your ready for your final prime, and if your looking for a ultra smooth paint job, you need to pay close attention to how smooth the car is before you do the final prime on it, this will make all the difference to how your paint looks, you can't spend to much time on this part of the process, good prep means good paint.
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I've been in the automotive business for about 20 or 25 years, I have worked in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, all different makes and models, I just want to keep people interested in the old cars because it's where my heart is.
Keyword : classic car restoration, muscle cars, american cars, classic cars
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