Painting. Options

[dabbill]

I am getting ready to do some body work to fix, a few dents / scratches. Around the first of the year I am going to try for a body kit. I am going to repaint it the same color, cause for one I like teal, and two there is like no teal ones where I live. My question is should I just shoot the car, or should i sand it all down, and primer it then shoot it. I would think I could just shoot over the old paint, sence I am not changing the color.

[WannabeGT4]

at the very least do a light sanding so that it sticks.

[dabbill]

Yea I know to do a rough sanding, or light sand blasting to the car just before painting so that it sticks good. I just mean, I dont wanna sand the whole car to bare metal, primer just to paint it the same color, even know that is probly the right way to do it.

[Drocay]

nope theres no real reason to take it to bare metal but it wouldn't hurt.

[flipside97LTD]

There is absolutely NO reason to take it to bare metal and you'd be a fool to do that. You'd open up the possibility of rust and you'd be wasting A LOT of time to sand 3 or 4 layers of paint off.

If you sandblast any metal on the body of your car, you're going to warp the metal up so bad, you might as well drop your car off a bridge. That's like totalling your own car on purpose. Don't even think about sand blasting it. '

DA the areas to be painted with 320 grit sand paper and then wet sand with 500. That's all you need to do to repaint the car.

[turboinduction]

[flipside97LTD]

Well if your doing any body work, with filler and fixing dents and stuff then you should prime the areas you fixed with 3 coats of primer and the rest of the car with 2 coats. If you're changing the color and not fixing any spots just 320 and wet sand it. Only prime if you've had body work done.

[dabbill]

Why would I want to primer the whole care if I am leaveing the car the same color? About the sand blasting, my dad has a low powered sand blaster that he hooks up to his air compressor. He used it to take some surface rust, and paint off his mustand, and it didnt mess up the metal at all. I know about primaring the areas that I do body work to. Still just a little confussed about why i would want to primer painted areas that are going to stay the same color.

[turboinduction]

[dabbill]

I think what he ment was if your going to change the color, 2 to 3 coats of primer, but if your leaveing the car the same color you just need to sand / wet sand the paint will stick. Am i right? Sounds good to me /shrug.

[flipside97LTD]

Well if you've done body work, and you just prime the areas you've worked in with 3 coats, then those areas are going to be three coats taller than the areas you don't paint. Think of it like a pyramid. In fact, do this: Put the first coat of primer on the area you fixed only. Then the second coat spread it out over a wider area. The third, spread it out even further. If the whole car isn't primered, it's okay, because you've smoothed the 3 layers into your current paint. That's what i did to my car. In fact I didn't prime the top because of not doing body work there. So techically you don't have to prime the whole car.

As far as sandblasting goes, I know you can blast a car with like baking soda, or walnut shells, but I do a lot of sandblasting myself and sand gets very hot and will warp metal. At any rate, there's no need to sandblast your car I don't think.

If it's staying the same color and not having any body work done, then yea you don't need to prime it.

Ryan