New to forum and painting

[design tek]

I am new to this forum. I spent the last hour reading a lot of the posts here and this forum alone posts a lot of great info. I have a car that I wetsanded down. There are some metal spots showing and some bondo spots that i filled in. I'm familiar with body work already but not too familiar with the painting area. I've spent most of my time helping my friend preping panels n bumpers. I just never spray painted before. I'm going to attempt to do my car panel by panel. So this is going to be basically my first paint job project on my own car. The reason i'm repainting is because a drunk driver hit my car and it messed up my front end. So basically I want to redo my whole car over since half of my car needs to be worked on. In the meantime i'm shopping around for an air compressor. I'm going to be doing everything at home. I'm looking at the husky 60gal compressor by hausfeld. Claims to pump out about 11cfm w/ 6.5hp. This body shop told me 10cfm is minimum n shoudln't be a problem with the hvlps. I am planning to buy a hvlp sata jet 2000 digital and a cheap primer gun. My paint is dbc, tri coat. Basecoat is white, mid coat is pearl (gold) (Lexus white gold crystal), and transtar clearcoat.

What type of primer would I use to patch up those metal spots and bondo spots? Is there an all around primer that will cover it and let u sand it so it has a smooth surface for the basecoat?

What is the best way to mix accurately? I've seen my friend just poor a bit of paint into a cup and poor a lot of reducer than paint into the cup n mix it.

I want to be more familiar with spraying coats. Like basecoats n clearcoats. I hear a lot about medium wet coats and then flash times. I hear about overlaying 50%. I don't know what it all means. It would be very helpful if I could have some good pointers to help start on my project. I'm planning to just paint old car panels to pratice on before i do my car. Please give as much input as you can for me thanksss !!

 

[TAZ]

Hello Design Tek,

Spraying a 3 stage pearl white will be almost impossible to get every panel to match the adacent panel.

You'd really be better of just spraying a regular basecoat/clearcoat white. Especially since this is your first job.

Though I have panel painted white pearl, I wouldn't attemt to do all panels like this.

The more pearl you put on, the "yellower" and darker the color gets. Too many variables to get every panel exactly the same. Air pressure, reduction, gun setup, how far you hold the gun, how the paint lays out... all these (and more)come into play.

Just my two cents worth though!

 

[design tek]

Some painters told me that white is the easiest color to do. I asked this one guy that works at this autobody supplies shop if pearl can be done seperate. He said its not a problem. Just that metallics are harder to do seperate. What if I painted all panels the same way? I'm going to pratice on an old fender. I'm going to do all the small pieces first before I start doing the quarter panel on my car.

 

[shaunboy]

good on ya for wanting to try this
But the type of paint job your talking about on a lexus is something even some tradespeople may have trouble with.
a 3 layer white pearl is a very tricky one ,like scott said they way you apply the paint can change the apperance dramatically.
Not being rude but to save yourself money and grief i would not attempt this at all for the first time .Even if you practice on a single panel and it may look good it is a different story doing the entire vehicle.
One mistake while applying the pearl coat over the white 1st coat can be disastrous

 

[design tek]

yeah i'm gonna finishing preping my car and pratice on my friend's primered mr2 that we call a pratice car. Do you know what type of primer to use to cover bare metal along with some basecoats, and filler? I wetsanded my doors and quarter panel and there is some metal spots showing. I hear about all these different types of primer. Is there one primer that applies for all those scenerios?

 

[shaunboy]

by the book it says that all bare metal should be covered with epoxy etch.
But if its only a small amount like rub throughs on small repairs you can just use a normal 2pot primer/filler and reduce it to whatever filling capacity you need it for.
A paint supply store will tell you what to use, but if you know anyone in the body repair trade try and but a little bit off them if thats all you need.The guys actually working on the cars seem to have a better understanding of what you can get away with for the same rusults

But I say this meanining only the guys who do proper quality repairs and not some of the cowboys that are out there.