TerryN68

After reading Lars excellent paint tech paper, and reading as many painting posts as I could find, I'm left with a few questions.

I'm painting the whole car including the door jams. The prep work is getting close an I have a feeling I've gone to far with the sanding. The whole car has been wet sanded with 320 grit. Is this too smooth for the PPG DP to get a good grip?

What order shall I paint in? In other words,do I paint the door jams first and then install the doors and paint the rest of the car or do I hang the doors and try and paint the jams with the doors on?

How do I get good coverage on the headlight doors?

Terry

:confused:

TerryN68

TTT

74-Roadster

If your planning on color sanding and buffing the clear coat, then painting the jambs and other hard to reach areas first (with the base coat) will work best. If your spraying metallic paint, then rehanging the doors, hood lights etc. is a must. With solid, not nearly as important, I prefer to spray hoods off the car in a vertical position when a solid color is used. Metallics can shade on you if they aren't painted at the same time in the same location. Talented painters can ensure the paint is mixed properly and the gun set up will and can pull it off, but I don't like trying that unless I'm just painting a panel.

After wet sanding the base coat, apply the clear coats to the body. I prefer to wet sand after 3-4 coats and then again after another 3-4. After the first set of clear coats on the body, spray the jambs etc with 2 coats, wet sand the whole car and repeat the process. This way, any overspray from the jambs is on the top of the body clear and will be wet sanded off.

CF6873

Terry; I thought a long time about how I wanted to do my jambs and also asked some professional painters that I deal with, and this is what I did. I painted the hinge pillar jamb and the door edges with the doors off. Then I hung the doors and masked off the areas that were done. This leaves the door striker pillar jamb to be done while spraying the car. This way you get no edge from the 1/4 panel to the jamb and while opnening the door you can hit the spot on top of the door that fits under the sail panel. I had the latches out so it was easy to push the door closed. For around the headlight doors I used my detail gun and made sure I got paint in the edges as I was painting the car. I left them closed. I also painted the hood off the car so I didn't get a edge at the fenders but my car is white. I don't think I would do that if it was metallic. 320 should be fine under sealer. Good Luck, Craig

TerryN68

Thanks guys,

I'm not using metallic, just a basic red base/clear coat.

I'm thinking I'll paint the car with the doors removed. and paint the doors, vent and wiper grills,t-tops and hood as seperate items.

Those wiper doors are still worrying me.

Terry