screw it. I'm repainting my car (again). Need a couple

[Gro Harlem]

You all saw how it turned out. Not really "bad" for a first try, but not "good" either.

Well, after trying to sand my farking roof and fenders clearcoat smooth, I gave up realizing it was going to take me 40 friggin hours to sand the whole car down. I already plan on repainting the doors, hood and rear bumper, so I might as well just repaint the outside of the car, and not worry about the door jambs, and radiator support since I already sprayed them good.

I have a couple of questions for you paint/body guys that I need to know.

Basically I determined the reason my clearcoat orange peeled so drastically is b/c I had WAY too narrow of a beam pattern on my spray gun when I sprayed. I was spraying from 12" away, and if I held the gun in one spot, the coverage would probably be between 6x6" and 8x8".

Question 1 & 2:

HOW FAR do I hold the gun away from the surface being sprayed when doing the clear coat (and basecoat?) to reduce the orange peel?

How spread out should teh beam pattern be at that distance?

Someone told me to hold it 6-8" away and adjust the beam pattern to a 12x10" area at that distance. What do you guys suggest.


Question 3:

I'm going to resand the existing clear/basecoat I already sprayed on the car. Will the 3 extra layers of paint (on top of my old red paint) need to be sanded off? or should the new paint adhere to it if I sand it smooth using 220-320 grit?

Question 4:

I'm going to completely strip the passenger door of all paint, its old red paint was chipping off beforehand, and you can see where it chipped under the new paint a little. I don't want this to affect the quality of the paint later down the road. What attachment or grit sandpaper should I use with my dual action sander to COMPELTELY REMOVE the paint from the metal. I want to get it down to bare metal. I noticed when I was using my 80 grit sandpaper pads with my DA sander, they would get loaded up so fast, that I would barely be able to remove any paint from the focking metal.

Thanks guys for your help. I will be doing this towards the end of may after I get out of skewl for summer vacation. I already bought 3 qts of base and a gallon of clear (got it all for just 110 bux, i got da hookup).

[mx3TT]

You should be holding the gun at about 6 inches away, with a pretty wide range of spray. Not exactly sure how much, I just know by sight. Never hold the gun in 1 spot or it will build up and run. You will not have to sand down the 3 layers of paint you just did, just sand through the clear coat. Using a DA is fine to do so.

[JoBoMX3]

I know you want answers to your questions so this reply may piss you off, but I wouldn't mind seeing pics of what you've already done.

Jordan

[Gro Harlem]

http://projectmazda.com/host/paint/ daytime pics, note the uneven doors and "faded" appearance. (faded looking b/c of the orange peel, the clearcoat doesn't reflect like your used to).

http://projectmazda.com/host/newpaint/ pics at night w/camera flash. can see rear bumper isn't covered properly, and a few other spots.

[marshmallow15]

about ur 3rd question, you mean the basecoat thats over the red paint? well i wouldn't see why you'd have to strip it off since you're the one who shot it, so you know if that layer is good or not. one thing, however, is that if you did a bad job laying the paint and you just do a good job repainting over that existing paint, those layers of bad painting could mess up and crack on you and chip your new paint in the long run.

[mitmaks]

ok here it goes..
distance how far you're spraying depends on how fast you move your spray gun, I prefer spraying close 6-8 in away but i move fast and paint lays down uniform and not orange peely, also orange peel depends on how your gun is adjusted, if it has too much air pressed, then air just blows paint away, making it dry/orange peel

sounds like you got lots of paint there already, if i were you id strip whole car and start from scratch. id use chemical stripper, works fast and id say less costly than buying all sandpaper. of course use proper protection, itll burn skin.
another choice is just scuff up existing clear coat you have with red scuff pad sold by auto body shops. then you can spray sealer over that and paint on it. but live ive said if i were you id totally strip it,
1)you got too much paint buildup already and as it gets thicker it wants to flake
2)besides you said that it chips already, so just strip it. good luck, ask more questions if ure not sure, and i never said your first paint job looked good, sorry, but it was horrible. id just pay someone to paint it right first time instead of wasting time and money doing it over again.

[johnnyb]

Question 1&2:

what that person told you was good. the distance and the spray are both apporximately what they should be.

Question 3:

you should be taking off as many layers as you can, when paint gets too thick it can flake and chip off with the vibrations of the car.

Question 4:

buy yourself a paint stripper... I believe they make one for an angle grinder it takes all the work out of stripping the paint and then you use sand paper to give the bare metal a rough finish for the primer to adhere to.

<small>[ April 24, 2004, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: johnnyb ]</small>