Ok i realise there have been a few threads, but can someone clarify what paint can be used for what?

Im gonna repaint my grille and eyelids gloss black (enamel i believe) -

-do i need a primer coat?
-do i sand with wetndry or dry sand paper?
-dow far do i sand down?
-what grit do i start with and finish at?
-how many coats of paint?
-how long between coats?
-do i need a clear coat?

Yes you need primer
Yes you sand with wet and dry
You have to learn this yourself and find out how to do it
buy many grades and learn yourself, depends on how rough the surface is etc, usually start with 600
2?
Read the can
Yes

;1041509']Yes you need primer
Yes you sand with wet and dry
You have to learn this yourself and find out how to do it
buy many grades and learn yourself, depends on how rough the surface is etc, usually start with 600
2?
Read the can
Yes

legend than you master o' paint.

also i didnt know what grit of paper to buy....so i have 2 sheets of wet n dry 180, 1 roll of 400, 1 of 600 and one of 1200....eh ill just wing it and see how i go.

got a heat gun? they make life alot easier especially when painting in winter...

;1041517']got a heat gun? they make life alot easier especially when painting in winter...

lol nope - got a hairdryer./

i was gonna buy one too! ah well...

BTW you said enamel? if your using that $3 paint i wouldnt even bother prepping it. use the right type of acrylic primer, paint and clear coat.

1. Will need to sand down for primer,i would suggest dry sanding for primer with 240 dry but do repairs first.
2. Once it is primed and dry,you can then take on the wet sanding process to prepare for painting.
3. Make sure the panel(s) are clean prior to spraying.

;1041522']BTW you said enamel? if your using that $3 paint i wouldnt even bother prepping it. use the right type of acrylic primer, paint and clear coat.

Nah i just read the can, it is acrylic...it cost 14 bux a can, so im guessing its good stuff.

Powerplus & Septone products for primer, paint and clear coat.

please do not get that Australian Import brand clear coat, its not that great.

i use Acrylic topcoat clear from septone and that comes up well.

depending on the brand of paint, but septone only takes 5min each coat to clear where as Powerplus is 20min.

Powerplus & Septone products for primer, paint and clear coat.

please do not get that Australian Import brand clear coat, its not that great.

i use Acrylic topcoat clear from septone and that comes up well.

depending on the brand of paint, but septone only takes 5min each coat to clear where as Powerplus is 20min.

yeah the "export" brand paint is crap... make sure you use an acrylic top coat on acrylic paints.

what about painting glass?... ie headlight glass

what about painting glass?... ie headlight glass

Can be done with 2pac

Aussie export is enamel and not intended for automotive use, even says it on the can...

Why acrylic?
Hardly any gloss plus requires more coats and alot more cutting and buffing to get shiny.
2pak is the way to go if ya want a instant shine and better quality job the first time and im pretty sure you can buy the 2pak clearcoats now in a can but once you use them,they activate as they have a air drying activator that mixes once the can is shaken up and some of them have a plastic cell under them that when you push it up into the can,the hardner mixes with it.
Alot more finer preperation required but well worth it.
Septone has good quality products for quick jobs so no probs using that stuff.

Nah wasn't aware of any 2 pac paints in can!
I say acrylic as it's the easiest for a beginner to use. 2pac is obviously superior in many many ways but if people just want to do small odd jobs I reckons acrylic is fine. I did my old front bumper entirely in acrylic primer, color, and clear coat cans, lets just say, not a good move:P alot of prep, alot of sanding, and doesnt really withstand many stones.
But yeah for beginners acrylic is fine...

;1042311']Nah wasn't aware of any 2 pac paints in can!
I say acrylic as it's the easiest for a beginner to use. 2pac is obviously superior in many many ways but if people just want to do small odd jobs I reckons acrylic is fine. I did my old front bumper entirely in acrylic primer, color, and clear coat cans, lets just say, not a good move:P alot of prep, alot of sanding, and doesnt really withstand many stones.
But yeah for beginners acrylic is fine...

There goes that idea.

There goes that idea.

I know the condition of your bumper....honestly...Just go wreckers and get another one from a KR. I've seen a few in that color (JA isnt it?) not worth re-spraying it unless well, unless you want it mint, then again I'm pretty sure your car needs a good polish (last time i saw it with anthony anyway...while back...)

;1042452']I know the condition of your bumper....honestly...Just go wreckers and get another one from a KR. I've seen a few in that color (JA isnt it?) not worth re-spraying it unless well, unless you want it mint, then again I'm pretty sure your car needs a good polish (last time i saw it with anthony anyway...while back...)

Yeah I gave it a good cut a while back and the paint came up so much better... now I just give it a good polish/wax every now and then... Wondering, do you know if any of the wreckers you frequent have a good bumper and bonnet in the right colour? Both have dents/marks/chips in them and I am in Melbourne quite often these days.

;1041874']Can be done with 2pac

Aussie export is enamel and not intended for automotive use, even says it on the can...

and if said headlight is on would it be a blackout or would it illuminate?

Ah...Use a clear on top it will be fine. Done it a few times at work on some dodgey lamps...they were plastic lenses though

also what do you mean by blackout and illuminate in realtion to covering headlights in clear

;1043268']Ah...Use a clear on top it will be fine. Done it a few times at work on some dodgey lamps...they were plastic lenses though

also what do you mean by blackout and illuminate in realtion to covering headlights in clear

will the headlight illuminate the paint or will it be blacked out?
i wanna paint the useless section of my headlights to give a more agressive look that only exposes the sections that are doing something

Why acrylic?
Hardly any gloss plus requires more coats and alot more cutting and buffing to get shiny.
2pak is the way to go if ya want a instant shine and better quality job the first time and im pretty sure you can buy the 2pak clearcoats now in a can but once you use them,they activate as they have a air drying activator that mixes once the can is shaken up and some of them have a plastic cell under them that when you push it up into the can,the hardner mixes with it.
Alot more finer preperation required but well worth it.
Septone has good quality products for quick jobs so no probs using that stuff.


nearly all basecoats are acrylic...

speaking of painting plastic trims and grills etc etc..

what i did when i painted all my TL dash facia trim and consol was buy a can of plastic primer, 2 small powerplus 'dark silver' touch up cans (which is acrylic)...

gave them a quick rub with some 1000 (cos it's plastic, and really i could have just used a scouring pad, but didn't have any left)..

quick plastic prime as i rubbed through the original light silver, and i was paiting over the tackey woodgrain KJ centre peice..

it only takes about 1 min for that stuff to dry.. you shouldn't leave it took long before applying the basecoat.. dust on the base coat.. have to be carful with this stuff cos you can get metallic buzz / fry up quite easilly if your not carefull!

dust it on from different directions and quite high above it like 30-40cm away.. this allows the metallic in the paint to kinda settle like dust on the coat.. gives it a better metallic fleck (i hate using that word)

then i just mixed up some 2K clear left over from painting the father in laws cortina, which is actually the good **** lol.. (about $1300 trade price for 7L (mixed)) just enough for about 3/4 to 1 full pot in the gun.. and applied 2 coats of clear.. i put some fast hardner in it to help.. but it's not that much quicker.. still takes a good few hours at ambient before you can move it..

i did this in the garage, on clean horses/bench and tac clothed everything, wet the floor a little (stop kicking up dust etc etc) and honestly there is only a tiny bit of crap that settled in the clear.. not tooo bad at all, most of it to the untrained eye won't even pick it up unless your really looking :)

same as what i did with that starlet i had for sale.. i painted that in my garage the same way :) but that was just a solid 2k white.. not clear over base..

anyway.. here are a few pics..

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1617/insmall2v.jpg
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/2006/insmall3r.jpg

will the headlight illuminate the paint or will it be blacked out?
i wanna paint the useless section of my headlights to give a more agressive look that only exposes the sections that are doing something

if you can't see through it, light won't come through it. it won't be like tinting


nearly all basecoats are acrylic...

speaking of painting plastic trims and grills etc etc..

what i did when i painted all my TL dash facia trim and consol was buy a can of plastic primer, 2 small powerplus 'dark silver' touch up cans (which is acrylic)...

gave them a quick rub with some 1000 (cos it's plastic, and really i could have just used a scouring pad, but didn't have any left)..

quick plastic prime as i rubbed through the original light silver, and i was paiting over the tackey woodgrain KJ centre peice..

it only takes about 1 min for that stuff to dry.. you shouldn't leave it took long before applying the basecoat.. dust on the base coat.. have to be carful with this stuff cos you can get metallic buzz / fry up quite easilly if your not carefull!

dust it on from different directions and quite high above it like 30-40cm away.. this allows the metallic in the paint to kinda settle like dust on the coat.. gives it a better metallic fleck (i hate using that word)

then i just mixed up some 2K clear left over from painting the father in laws cortina, which is actually the good **** lol.. (about $1300 trade price for 7L (mixed)) just enough for about 3/4 to 1 full pot in the gun.. and applied 2 coats of clear.. i put some fast hardner in it to help.. but it's not that much quicker.. still takes a good few hours at ambient before you can move it..

i did this in the garage, on clean horses/bench and tac clothed everything, wet the floor a little (stop kicking up dust etc etc) and honestly there is only a tiny bit of crap that settled in the clear.. not tooo bad at all, most of it to the untrained eye won't even pick it up unless your really looking :)

same as what i did with that starlet i had for sale.. i painted that in my garage the same way :) but that was just a solid 2k white.. not clear over base..

anyway.. here are a few pics..

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1617/insmall2v.jpg
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/2006/insmall3r.jpg
looks good man.

as matty said, you can just put 2k clear over acrylic base coats. you can also use a 2k undercoat. paint the whole thing in 2k isn't advised if you are a beginner. if you make a mistake it is much harder to fix. and acrylic can give a good result that lasts. my brother in law has painted a few of his cars in acrylic with 2k base (and no clear) and they take a fair bit of punishment (2 of them are 4wds which see regular offroad use through 4wd tracks) and they still look good. he has also painted his tinny with acrylic and it still looks really good and it gets taken into the mangroves and gets bashed a bit when pulling in crab pots.

and i am (hopefully) going to be painting my commodore on the weekend so will post pics up of how it turns out with acrylic undercoat, base and clear.

nearly all basecoats are acrylic...

speaking of painting plastic trims and grills etc etc..

what i did when i painted all my TL dash facia trim and consol was buy a can of plastic primer, 2 small powerplus 'dark silver' touch up cans (which is acrylic)...

gave them a quick rub with some 1000 (cos it's plastic, and really i could have just used a scouring pad, but didn't have any left)..

quick plastic prime as i rubbed through the original light silver, and i was paiting over the tackey woodgrain KJ centre peice..

it only takes about 1 min for that stuff to dry.. you shouldn't leave it took long before applying the basecoat.. dust on the base coat.. have to be carful with this stuff cos you can get metallic buzz / fry up quite easilly if your not carefull!

dust it on from different directions and quite high above it like 30-40cm away.. this allows the metallic in the paint to kinda settle like dust on the coat.. gives it a better metallic fleck (i hate using that word)

then i just mixed up some 2K clear left over from painting the father in laws cortina, which is actually the good **** lol.. (about $1300 trade price for 7L (mixed)) just enough for about 3/4 to 1 full pot in the gun.. and applied 2 coats of clear.. i put some fast hardner in it to help.. but it's not that much quicker.. still takes a good few hours at ambient before you can move it..

i did this in the garage, on clean horses/bench and tac clothed everything, wet the floor a little (stop kicking up dust etc etc) and honestly there is only a tiny bit of crap that settled in the clear.. not tooo bad at all, most of it to the untrained eye won't even pick it up unless your really looking :)

same as what i did with that starlet i had for sale.. i painted that in my garage the same way :) but that was just a solid 2k white.. not clear over base..

anyway.. here are a few pics..

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1617/insmall2v.jpg
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/2006/insmall3r.jpg

Nice man!
The only acrylic products we are still using in the refinishing game are the one-shot primers,etch primer and gmh black.The basecoats of today are nowhere near like acrylic,most paint companies use the 1:1(50/50) mixing ratio for the bascoats but alot of companies are 2:1 and 1:0.8 mostly now to lower the reducer emissions plus believe it or not,acrylic is more volatile than 2pak because acrylic requires a 1:1 mixing ratio were as most 2pack basecoats are 2:1 so its half the reducer but it needs to be done in a controlled environment aswell as acrylic has to be aswell by law! Acrylic is a thermo-plastic aswell which means that when it heats up,it gets soft were as 2pak has hardners(isocyonates) to harden and give build and gloss to the finish but be careful preping any panel or part cause if you dont rub the edges properly,2pak hardens and pulls in on edges so if they arent rubbed good,flakey flakey!