Can anyone illustrate in detail the process of painting. I plan to deliver my 76 coupe to a body shop and just want to know what to expect. What are the advantages and disadvantages of normal paint over metallic?

The process varies on how much you pay. but here goes.

take the body and strip it bare (for a good job) and etch or epoxy prime.. this has to be done with minimal exposure of metal to air in this weather (humid).

a cheaper job, they may just scuff back the old paint only.

carry out all necessary repairs (welding in patch panels for rust repairs, knocking out dents etc).

apply filler.. rub back.

Hi fill / guide coat. rub back

this process is repeated until the guide coat shows it as smooth.
working down to 600 wet rubbed prior to base.

apply base coat (if metallic).
or colour coat (if solid).

Clear coat (if metallic).

Of course this is just a very basic summary.

no advantage of metallics as a paint, but they are applied as a "clear over base" .. advantage is colour choice is generally greater.

non metallic is reffered to as solid 2K.

Of course, the more hours they spend, the more you pay, the better the result.


here's a tip.... strip your body for them.. saves hours.

clean your car with a high pressure hose.. make sure there is no grease or dirt.

be wary about who you take your car to, most places only know how to "remove and replace" with untrained monkeys and a spray painter.

Here's my process nowadays, sand cut rust big or weld metal in, grind flat , bog, sand primer and then spray can it.

Works ok for quick jobs

To have a nice straight body, fill all dings, paint with black primer and sand with a long board. Primer will show your low spot. Fill, primer and sand again. Keep doing this until your primer sands away evenly. The key is the long sand board. Nothings better than a nice straight car.

ed74 thanks. thats a lot of info. Guys from what im seeing there are a lot of ways to do this... both quick and lengthy high quality means of doing this. None of you have mentioned anything to do with costs? Whats the range for a good good job to a bad bad job?

How longs a peice of string? You can get a paint job from 1500 to 15000 depends what your after mate.

And coats pend on color and type
Eg my car will have 4ltr hifill then 3 coats of color and 4 clear as I have flake going in first clear but may need more base color coats pending on coverage!
I once painted my sedan in Gmh black in x2 coats as said pends on color

Take ed's advice & either strip it yourself w/a DA, chemical peel, etc... or pay someone $600 - $800 to media blast it completely - DONT use soda!

Then SCRUB the car down with Dawn dish soap as prep for the paint shop, that way it'll of been d-greased really well from the start, they'll do it again anyways (at least they should) - matter of fact I wouldn't tell them you did that as they may opt to skip that step. You'd hope they wouldn't but you never know.

quality paint & body work cost money, no way around it.

cost... the age old question.

labour hours add up quickly.

so the better the starting material, the less hours spent.

getting a car to show quality straight takes many hours of sanding.

I paint all my own cars and the cheapest I have done was for 1500 for materials only, over a good solid body with only scuffing back, hi filling and solid 2k white. this is my current driver.

there were about 50 hours at least in the rubbing and minor repairs... at say $90 hour, this woudl have come out as a$6000 job... this was using VG auto cheap ass paint.


the 1200 ute I recently painted, cost me $2700 in materials, about 200 hours in repairs and prep. so the maths suggests this would have cost about $20k if I shopped it out at full rates. using all Protec paint.


I had a show car once and I did all the prep (100's of hours), I used PPG paint which cost a couple of thousand and had the gun work done by a pro. this would have been a 30-40,000 job shopped out.

my current project (42 Ford), I am doing it all myself and will probably just finish it in a suede finish.. for a few thousand, plus booth rental etc.

if you want to save big dollars, do all the prep yourself and pay for a painter and booth time where it counts. or go acrylic and maybe have a go yourself.

hope this helps.. im not a pro body/paint guy.. just a self taught hobbyist like you guys.

Cheers

ed

Thanks Ed and everyone else. Very helpful.