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Table Of Contents
Learn How To Do Car Painting With Step-By-Step Instructions Table Of Contents Introduction Warning: Things You Will Need 1 - Stripping The Paint 2 Metal Work, Fixing Dents & Removing Rust Fixing Rusts In The Car Patching Up Small Holes 3 Smoothing And Filling Types Of Fillers Applying The Filler 4 Initial Painting Sanding 5 Final Paint Options For The Top Coat Applying The Final Top Coat Final Buffing
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Introduction
Painting a car is very expensive, but sometimes we have no choice but to have our cars repainted. In most cases, you can consider yourself lucky if you are able to dish out at least $3000 for a fairly decent paint job. But in reality, you will most likely dish out twice or even thrice that number if you want a quality paint job for your beloved ride. Of course, you can try to do things on your own, which is exactly why I created this book to help you accomplish that task. How To Paint A Car In Seven Days is a complete, step-by-step instructional book material that will teach you how to paint your own car in under seven days (assuming that the weather favors you of course). By following the instructions that I have laid in this book, you dont have to dish out tens of thousands of dollars for repainting your car. If you turn out to develop your skill in car painting, why, you can even do car painting as your main source of living!
Warning:
Please consult your doctor before trying to follow the instructions on this book. Some people might be irritated by the chemical compounds included in car paint and other materials that are used in car painting and your health is more important than anything.
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10. Paint spray respirator 11. Paint gun 12. Masking paper / masking tape(for covering the car while painting) 13. Filler 14. Paint 15. Fiberglass cloth (just in case you need to cover in some holes) 16. Painters suit
These are the minimum requirements that you must have, but these are not all the materials you will use. More will be introduced in the book, and not all of them will be utilized because each car will have its own different sets of problems. Having said that, lets start learning how to paint a car!
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stripping the whole car to the shell, but for an external paint job it is not necessary.
Strip the car in whatever means that you want. Chemical strippers will do a nice job, but they require careful washing of the car to remove all residue (not to mention they also make a mess on the floor). Any small amount of stripper left in some corner can ruin a paint job. And besides, chemical strippers are usually smelly and they burn the skin if not handled properly. Just to add, strippers will damage any plastic filler so all filler must be removed and replaced. The alternative is to use abrasives to strip the car. Using a 9 inch sander with 24 or 36 grit papers, sand the car until you see the underlying metal, but do not sand it too much because you might create some deep scratches or vents if you overdo it.
If the paint job was an old lacquer job or you used a lacquer primer, a simple razor blade may be used to remove the top layers. This method will remove some filler as you hit it so you must be careful. Once you hit the Produced By Painting-A-Car.com 7
metal, use an 80-grit paper to rough up the metal for better paint adhesion. If the filler is over 10 years old, or from an unknown paint job, then it should be removed and replaced. You can either use the 9-inch random orbit sander or a knotted wire brush on a 4-1/2 inch angle grinder. I prefer the wire brush, but the choice is up to you.
There are some more exotic methods if paint removal if you have the finances. Media blasting with Walnut shells or dry ice pellets works well but is not recommended unless you are doing a total strip of the car. NEVER sand blast a car body. The sand acts as a peen (this is how they shot peen rods) and will make body panels look like the ocean in a hurricane. You can also acid dip the car which will remove all rust and paint, but the car must be entirely stripped.
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in the metal or you will have a bump in the final paint finish that cannot be sanded down.
Often, high areas can be "shrunk" by using a pick hammer with a dolly in the back side. What you must do is to exchange the large dent or bump for a whole bunch of small bumps that are easier to fill and cover. Lightly just tap over that rise area working from the edges to the center and the bump will slowly disappears. This may take some practice to get good at. If you drill holes to pull out a dent, then you must weld up the holes when done to prevent moisture from getting to the back side of the filler material through the holes.
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As an option, you can add a depression to the body metal for the patch to set in. A tool is made to do this but. This tool only makes 3/4 inch long ridges at one time and can cause some warping of the metal around the patch area. The new metal must be completely welded in using a good MIG (metal inert glass) welder. Low current 110 welders just don't do the job with the exception of the Lincoln SP100 or SP125. I use a 200 Amp Century. Turn the welder up to a voltage that would normally melt holes in the metal if welded continuously. Then tack the metal in place using short bursts of weld (1 second) about every 4 inches around the patch.
The metal
should fit the contour of the body naturally with only a very slight pressure needed to hold the pieces together. If you press hard while welding then you add stresses to the patch and will cause warping in the welding process. Once the piece is in place you can start welding it solid. This is very important to do slowly. Weld in about 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips around the patch with one hand on the surrounding metal about 3 inches away. Each weld spot should spaced apart around the patch area. You keep doing this until you fill all the gap in. If the surrounding metal gets too hot to hold your hand on then quit till you can lay your hand over the area that is being welded.
This process may take 20 minutes for a 6-by-6 patch area. If you rush the welding then the metal gets too hot and warps. Sheet metal under about 12 gauge is made by a cold rolling process. This process puts stress on the metal released in the welding process which ca cause warping. Produced By Painting-A-Car.com 10
Keeping the head down reduces this possibility. The welding should be continuous and not just spotted. Moisture can come in from the back side and cause rust to grow under the filler material and cause the filler to lift off. Grind the weld lightly when done to reduce any high spots in the weld. Before applying filler, rough up the metal with a 24 grit disk on a 7 inch grinder so the filler has something to stick to. You may also want to use the pick hammer and slightly dent the metal in around the weld area so that less filler is needed to cover up the patch.
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normal paint will, and is so strong that you will NEVER be able to peel that fiberglass cloth off again.
The patch will be nearly as strong as the original metal. The stuff is not really paint, but they call it paint for lack of a better word. You can also use it for areas of heavy rust on the body that has not gone completely through. Simply paint a couple of coats over rusted metal before filling and painting. If you are going to top coat the POR15 then you need to spray a light coat of primer on it before it completely dries or sand it so the top coats will stick. You don't need the fiberglass cloth on an area that does not have holes through. I also recommend using it under fenders where rust is on the back side and over the back side of the welded-in patches.
POR15 is not the same as rust converters (e.g. "Extend"). It does not convert the rust, but instead covers it up which helps in preventing moisture from getting to the rust which stops any further rust spread. Dont forget to wear plastic gloves. POR15 sticks to skin like crazy glue. If it dries on your hands you will wear it for about 2 weeks. (I tried Acetone, Xylene, Toluene, Methel-ethyl keytone, Tricholrethene, gasoline, Alcohol, Lacquer thinner, Carb cleaner, Brake cleaner with Hexane, sand paper, and soap to get it off. Nothing worked.)
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IF YOU WANT TO READ THE REMAINING CHAPTERS FROM THIS GUIDE, KINDLY VISIT PAINTING-A-CAR.COM AND START LEARNING MORE CAR-PAINTING TIPS AND TRICKS!
DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT THESE AMAZING SET OF CAR PAINTING VIDEOS TOO!
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