Depending on the purpose of your project, you might select different types of paint. With restoration projects, many hobbyists opt for acrylic lacquer or acrylic enamel to replicate the original factory finish. If you’re looking for durability, urethanes, base coat/clear coat finishes and water-based finishes are great choices.
Car Painting/Auto Painting Tips & Tricks from Pros
This car painting tips page is not intended to teach you everything you need to know to paint your car. Its goal is merely to identify the basic steps, and some useful tips and tricks to help make the job of painting your car more successful.
Car Painting Tips: Table of Contents
Before You Get Started
- Check into your local environmental regulations regarding spraying paints at home. Even if you decide not to do the entire job yourself, you can still get a better paint job and/or save a lot of money by doing the prep work yourself – using the following information. Read more here in our article about 6 key tips for how to paint a car.
- Make sure you have all the paint gallons and auto paint supplies ahead of time. Here’s our articles on types of automotive paint, trends for popular auto paint color, and also our guide to car paint supplies.
- Remove as much trim as possible. One of the best car painting tips we can give you is to remove as much of the trim as possible from over and around the areas to be painted.
- Exterior. If you’re doing an exterior-only paint job, this means trim, bumpers, mirrors, grille, and other exterior items. If you’re painting all or part of the interior, you’ll have a lot more to remove.
- The next auto painting tip is to thoroughly clean every nook and cranny. (Not just the painted areas, but also any areas that dirt could be dislodged from while painting.
- Start with detergent. Then, follow that with a quality wax and grease remover on areas that will be painted.
- Apply a thick layer of tape. Then apply a thick layer of tape to any areas like the windshield molding that may not have been removed. This will protect these areas from the sanding you’ll be doing next.
Sand Down the Old Paint
- Next, you’ll want to sand down the old paint, (or, at least to the original paint level) using a dual-action (DA) orbital air sander, which is less likely to dig in like other sanders.
- In general, use sandpaper finer (a higher number) than 120 grit. You may need to use coarser grits for removing rust or excess fillers. More info here about how to sand a car for repainting.
- Repair information. In this auto painting tip guide, we’re not going to get into the details of body repair (welding, fillers, etc.), but obviously, these repairs would have to be made if there is damage or rust. Even minor pinholes have to be properly repaired.
- Acrylic glaze information. Another important car painting tip is to avoid the temptation to use large amounts of acrylic glaze. The surface glazes over quickly, but thick areas take longer to dry and often shrink back a lot. After a thorough cleaning of the car (and the mess you just made), it will be time to mask off the car for the primer/filler coats.
Things to Consider:
- Do you have a place to prep and paint the vehicle?
- Do you have (or are you willing to purchase) the needed tools to paint a vehicle?
- Are you painting the complete vehicle (door jambs, trunk area, underhood, etc) or only the outside?
- Will the vehicle be stripped to bare metal, or are you going to paint over the existing finish?
- What type of paint do you plan on using?
Single stage, base coat/clear coat? Urethane, acrylic enamel, acrylic lacquer, water-based? - What brand of paint system are you going to use?
If you’re considering painting your vehicle, first think of where you’re going to prep and spray it. Do you have a dry place to store the vehicle while you are prepping it? Ideally, you’ll want to spray in a clean, dirt-free, temperature-controlled environment. Are you going to rent a spray booth, paint in your garage, or paint in your driveway? Is it legal to spray a vehicle there? All of these factors must be considered before you think about picking up a paint gun. Tip: if it’s illegal to paint your vehicle in the area you live, you can still strip it down and prep it for the body shop. It’s a good way to save money.
The Right Gear
You’ll need the proper equipment to paint a vehicle. At a bare minimum, you’ll need a paint gun, an air compressor that can meet the demands of your paint gun, and a moisture separator. The moisture separator will ensure that you have a dry air supply (moisture in your air supply is an easy way to ruin a paint job). Another option is a turbine paint system, such as the 5 Stage Turbine. It does not require an air compressor, and ensures that you have a dry air supply.
There are two general paint gun designs: HVLP gravity-feed and siphon-feed. Gravity-feed guns have the cup mounted on top of the gun, and siphon-feed guns have the cup mounted under the gun. Due to environmental rules these days, most paints are formulated to spray with a HVLP gun, and luckily for home users many of these spray just fine with a smaller home compressor. For more on types of spray guns, check out this expert blog post on the Eastwood blog.
In addition to the spraying equipment, you’ll also need safety equipment like painter’s coveralls, an approved respirator, goggles, and disposable nitrile gloves. For a much more comprehensive explanation of painting safety gear, click here.
How Much to Take Apart
When deciding to paint your vehicle, how much will you take the vehicle apart? Are you going to remove the hood, trunk, doors, glass, etc., or are you going to tape it up and paint while it’s together? Taking everything off allows you to make sure there’s no hidden damage, and it allows you to get paint into nooks and crannies. However, you’ll have to deal with gapping the panels, reinstalling glass, replacing seals, etc.
If you decide to paint the vehicle while it’s still together, remove as many of the small parts as you can: antennae, door handles, lights, locks, wipers, etc. If you’re leaving parts on the car that are not going to be painted, be sure to use high-quality automotive masking tape and masking paper. newspaper doesn’t cut it.
Tip: to get paint under installed seals, take some nylon clothesline or coated wire and put it under the seal, and then mask off the seal. This will lift the seal enough to allow paint to spray between the seal and the body of the vehicle.
