Note: In many cases, a car painted with a roller gives a less satisfactory result than a spray paint can.
Guide to Car Spray painting — How to do it like a pro?
Tarnished paint, scuff marks, scratches: the paint on your car needs to be redone. It’s not a very difficult operation. Above all, it requires good preparation, a lot of care and a dust-free room. A low-pressure spray gun and excellent products are required. Its role is therefore both technical and decorative.
A well painted car is one that is more resistant to corrosion and therefore lasts longer. But it’s also a more beautiful car, therefore more pleasant, and which will keep its resale value. Indeed, for the potential buyer, the quality of the paint is interpreted as a sign of the vehicle’s overall good condition (which is not always true).
Second-hand car dealers are not mistaken, since they prioritize their renovation efforts on the outside, knowing that a poorly presented vehicle is unsaleable.
When buying a new car, you have to be particularly careful about the color and type of paint you choose, and don’t pay too much attention to taste and fashion. The following points should be kept in mind:
- A dark paint is much messier than a light one.
- A bright color (e. g. red) passes over time, making it difficult to connect later.
- An unglazed metallic paint is difficult to maintain, because it’s difficult to polish it.
- The very original colors, sometimes associated with limited series, quickly go out of fashion, it’s sometimes difficult to find them again several years later.
- It’s almost impossible for an amateur to touch up a varnished paint.
Repainting your car is a challenge. That’s why spray painting your car is a good idea.
As a general rule, several thousand dollars are spent on this work. Depending on the type of your car and your objective, you can do it alone but the result will not be perfect. If you decide to go to a specialist workshop for this, you can save a lot of money by preparing the work at home. In this guide, you will learn everything you need to know about repainting your car at home as well as the spray painting techniques.
Repaint your car yourself — Know the limits
Before you start repainting your car, you need to have an idea of the results you will get. New paint or professional repair lacquering can only be undertaken with suitable equipment and training. It’s totally illusory to believe that you will achieve the same result with household products and homework, as with professional spray painting and work in a specialized workshop.
That’s why, don’t do the job yourself when:
- You want to be able to resell your car.
- This is not about your car.
- The car has a representative function.
- It’s a high-quality car.
If you repaint your car yourself, this is always noticeable and, in many cases, leads to a considerable loss of vehicle value, except for commercial vehicles. If you want to repaint a vehicle yourself in order to resell it, limit yourself to tractors, bulldozers, heavy trucks, or delivery trucks. Rusty Sprinter, Transit or Ducato cars are also perfect training objects.
If you’re wondering if there’s still a way to get a good result, that’s the case. And for that, you need to understand the technique.
Working conditions
Painting is a delicate job, which requires all the right conditions to succeed. A number of precautions are essential:
- Always work in a clean, dust-free room.
- Don’t spray paint in a draught, especially outside.
- Avoid spray painting when it rains, as ambient humidity mixes with paint mist.
- Don’t paint your car below 15°C or above 25°C.
Preparing
Prepping for custom paint is no different than for any other painting project, and because this is plastic, washing becomes critical. I triple washed the surface. First with soap and hot water to remove as much of the mold release agent as possible. Then, I did the second wash and scuffed the surface with sanding paste and a gray scuff pad, rinsing it with lots of clear, clean water. Finally, I cleaned it with a plastic wax and grease remover.
Just to make sure it was clean enough to proceed, I pulled a gloved finger over the surface, looking for a streak. If one appeared, even a slight one, I’d repeat the process.
Allowing the paint to flash for the proper amount of time also is critical to avoid solvent popping. Quick multiple layers of solvent-rich paint can quickly build up and cause popping when the clear is applied.
Again, because film build is critical, the choice of silver color (value) is critical. A light gray is applied, so the basecoat won’t need to compete with the sealer color for coverage.
Silver base
A metallic base needs to be applied. It will act as the shimmering effect of the blue candy that will be applied. The helmet was sprayed with large-flake metallic silver with no other pigment. Large silver metallic can be tricky to spray, and proper gun technique and adjustment is needed. It helps to practice on masking paper. Making sure the gun is operating correctly will assure the silver will spray on without streaking or mottling.
Apply only enough silver metallic so the sealer is covered. In this case, two coats did well. Look over the paint job well following the base coat for imperfections caused by light coverage. If none are found, let it dry before the intermediate step.
Intermediate/colorless base
For painters with experience and confidence, the application of a colorless intermediate basecoat could be skipped. Many painters use one, though, for two main reasons. First, it provides a barrier coat for everything that has been done so far. If something has to be repaired when the stencils or subsequent colors are applied, everything underneath this layer is easier to keep intact.
When spraying paint that may need to be left longer than suggested when the surface is scuffed, the paint underneath will remain in good shape, so if it’s near the end of the day, or if the remaining paint applications may be tricky, a coat or two of intermediate clear should be applied. It should be allowed to dry, while the stencils are prepared.
