painting your model a ford

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kevinmac/toledo

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what kind of paint do you guys use for painting the whole car.....i need complete refinnish....rusty right now...thanks for all replys...kev:o
 
kevinmac/toledo said:
what kind of paint do you guys use for painting the whole car.....i need complete refinnish....rusty right now...thanks for all replys...kev:o
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wow, you're going to get answers of every kind on this one...

ya want it to be exactly like the original? use what Henry used.

ya want it to look so shiny that you can use it for a mirror? find the local custom shops and ask them what they use.

If you just want it to look nifty and dont care about perfect wet-look or it being identical to the original, chat-up your closest auto-paint supplier, tell them what your painting experience is and what your desired result it and go with it. If you're new to car painting, get small quantities and spray some sheet metal just to get the feel for it and see if you like it.

bottom line is, if you like it, it's perfect for you :)

My Fordor is a driver, it's black. My car is not stored in a garage but it's in a well-sheltered carport with a lightweight fitted cover.
I often use a catalyzed urethane from Poly-Fiber but only because I paint planes with it and I'm used to it. It's a wicked wet-look paint but you can use a reducer to tone it down (I have to do that on vintage plane's sheet metal parts so it matches the fabric's low-sheen or it looks silly)
I've also used the acrylic enamel from TCP Global they sell under their Restoration Shop label. It works VERY nicely and they have a lot of colors - i've had great success with it using that Harbor Fright cheapo purple spray gun and an ordinary compressor (keep it drained). It's a one-part paint with a thinner, uses laquer thinner to clean up. Lower cost too.

all that being said, I've seen more than one rattle-can job that looked awesome.. I'm sure someone will pontificate about how that doesnt last too long but my friend's fire-red Krylon-painted F100 still looks sweet after 15 years so....
I just cant hold the can's button down that long before my index finger feels like it's going to fall off :)
 
You want to put down a quality epoxy paint direct to a properly prepared surface. By properly prepared I mean following the directions of the manufacturer.

A good paint job is as much the paint as it is the preparations.

I found the primers and filling primers from Southern Polyurethane (SPI) to work great and are not costly. The owner of the company is willing to spend time to answer questions too.

For top coat you have the options of going base coat clear coat or single stage. The problem with BC CC is they are just too glossy and do not look right (my opinion of course) on the A.
Single stage paints properly laid down can be too glossy too. What seems to give the best mix of the reliability and era look would be buffed out single stage. The buffing takes out the shine to be more like the buffed out lacquer.

Now the type of paints. A major name brand urethane paint will give you the best life. I have been using PPG Concept and find it works great and is not horrible to color sand and buff. But I will be honest to say I am not the best painter. Cheap paints are cheaper because they put in less solids and they do not cover well.

Now for any paint that you are putting a hardener in you must have proper protection. This means covering your skin and having a well fitting organic mask or MUCH better a positive pressure air fed mask. You also want to move a lot of air in the area you are painting to keep the vapor and overspray away.

The 2K paints (paints with isocyanate hardeners) which include the primers and top coats, have the big advantage in they set up rapidly and do not shrink over time. They have a chemical reaction that essentially makes the paint be one big molecule. Enamels oxidize to set over a longer time so you must let them set for weeks before you can buff them. Lacquers are just melted plastic and will always shrink. Rustolueum paint is oil based and like all oil based paints they are forever letting the oil come out and slowly shrinking. Shrinking means that the top layer shrinks faster as the oils come out quicker than lower levels. Paints like POR-15 work differently, I think by pulling oxygen from the surface, they create more of a impermeable shell that does not always bond as well as you might think.

I suggest you wander to autobodystore.com and other auto finishing forums and read what others have to say. The autorbodystore site has some tutorials too.

In the end, you can make your car look nice in many different ways. In each case there are things you have to do if you want the paint to look nice for a long time. Some paints are going to last much longer then others.
 
Kevin, if you're going to refinish the chassis and undercarriage areas, you might want to look at a product called KBS Coating. I use this stuff because it is very hard and nearly indestructable. It has a nice gloss to it, comes in most basic collors and only has to be cleared (with their topcoat) if it is exposed to UV. You have to either sandblast, use a needle scaler or wire brush all the loose rust, blow and/or wash the surface and then put the KBS right on top of the rusty metal. It does not have to be taken down the the bare metal. It's nice if you can get down to the bare, but that's not always possible. Check this product out. They located in Indiana, with other outlets. Great folks to work with too...It can be brushed or sprayed. I brush it on. DON'T GET IT ON YOUR BODY, IT DOESN'T COME OFF......FOLLOW THEIR INSTRUCTIONS, GLOVES ETC. Good Luck
 
Just had mine painted with ppg concept single stage urithain. I asked this same question about 6 months ago and that seemed to be the favorite answer. I'm very happy with it. Not as shinny as base/clear coat.
 
Rattle painters,
Friend Ed bought rattle cans for his wheels, along with a handful of the "BETTER" type spray nozzles, you know, the ones with a slit instead of a pin hole, along with a squeeze handle that pops on the can. I sprayed on a bucket to show him the proper stroking method, like, squeeze, come in to the surface, stroke uniformly to get good coverage, stroke past the area, then release the trigger. He "GOT" it! As I left he hollered, "Should I do the front or the back first?" I flipped a coin & said, "BACK FIRST!"
Long story short, his wheels came out beautiful and would pass for being powder coated! Bill W. (It's amazing what we can sometimes accomplish if we're just "BRAVE" enough to try!) Just don't use cheap paint.
 
My opinion is if your gonna do it, do it the best way possible if you can afford it. Don't try to be cheap. Get the body sand blasted by a professional or get it chemical dipped to remove all the rust. Replace the metal where it needs to be replaced. As far as paints and primers all I've ever shot is sherwin Williams top of the line paint products and I like how it they turn out. But my grandpa used ppg with good results too. I will say that for a durrable paint job you should shoot base coat clear coat. Yes it will shine, and be glossy, but it will give you the longest life on your paint job, and it will be the best investment if you want to have a paint Job that could last many years past what a single stage could. But if you don't have a lot of extra money laying around, single stage paint would be okay. But it will not hold up to weather, sun, and other elements as well as bc/cl. That being said we spray single stage on all chassis parts and on the inside of the bodies where interior panels will cover the sheet metal. We do
This because it's more cost effective, and the inside of the body will never see sun or weather. Base/clear is sprayed everywhere else.

I wouldnt waist money on spraying a lacquer. It doesnt make since to me why people still use it when there's better methods available that are more durable over time.

The nice thing about paint, is if you mess it up it's relatively easy to fix. Don't be afraid to do it by yourself. Read up on some guidelines, and talk to a paint rep at the store and they will be helpful in explaining everything. By the time you spray a few coats of primer on everything and spraying color your chassis pieces and inside the body you will have the hang of painting. It's not hard at all, anybody can do it with some practice and determination.
 
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