[mainejohn]

i just got my first mustang, its a 1992 GT. very good shape except that the owner never waxed it and the black paint is all faded bad. so i have sanded it down to the base paint and ready for paint. i have never painted a car before, but i am thinking about doing it. watched videos and doesn't seem too hard. but iam sure it really is. what is the best kind of paint and clear coat to use? how much for paint and clear coat? if i put 3 coats of base on, how much would i need to buy? thanks for any help

[mxnate116]

go to a local paint shop and tell them what your plans are and they will give you exactly what you need

[mainejohn]

so i guess a urethayne paint. is mettalic paint any different to paint then regular solid paint?

[travis_afx]

Yeah, youll want to go with a urethane paint. Metalic paint is alot different than spraying a solid color, there are a ton of variables you have to control when spraying metalic paint or youll end up with tiger stripes(dark and light lines), blotches here and there, and just a poor looking paint job. For your first paint job i would highly recomend you just going with a solid color, it will save you alot of headaches because you don have to be quite so exact with your gun control.

As far as what kind of paint to use, that is really a personal preference type thing. MY paint product list goes like this: 1st House of Kolor, 2nd PPG, 3rd Sikkens(akzo nobel), and then ill paint with dupont if i have to. Im not saying dupont isnt a good product, I just prefer other paints over it. Whatever paint system you choose, stay with that system for everything(sealer, primer, base, clear)

[mainejohn]

okay sounds good. how much base will i need to paint my gt? a gallon or less? how much clear coat? will a cheap 80 spray gun at napa work okay?

[travis_afx]

The napa gun will work, but just dont expect it to preform like a nice quality gun. Meaning it will probably have a low transfer effeciancy and probably wont atomize your paint as good. And check what the fluid tip size is, I like a 1.2-1.3 for base, 1.4 for my clear and sealer, and a 1.8 for primer surfacer. Im just gonna asume your gonna want to just get one gun with one tip, so a 1.4 tip would be the one to get. Better to have a little bit to big of a tip with your base, than having to small of one and starving the gun when spraying the clear.

For the base, you should be fine with three quarts of base, cause it will also be reduced so the rts(ready to spray) amount will actually be more than three quarts. But on the other hand you might wnat to get a gallon to be safe cause like i said the transfer effeciancy might be pretty bad on a 80 dollar gun.

Clear coat, you should be safe with a gallon of clear(and the reducer and activator for the gallon), a tack coat, and three wet coats, and that will give you enough to sand smooth and buff it.

You really should also consider getting a couple quarts(and reducer and activator) of sealer, and put a coat of sealer over the whole car. That gives your basecoat a nice consistant "base" to adhear to.

[Lefty]

^Good info Travis

[mainejohn]

Thanks for all the great advice. how long before each coat of base to dry and also same for clear coat?

[travis_afx]

Every paint manufacturer will have a set amount of time to wait between coats, it will be something like 15min@70degrees or something along those lines, and wherever you buy your paint should be able to give you a copy of the tech sheet for that product and it will have all that info on it. Just remember when looking at the tech sheet if it is a time at 70 degrees and its not 70 degrees where your painting you have to account for that.

Now with that said I'll tell you how i do it.

Your base coat should be put on as medium coats, meaning it shouldnt really look "wet", just almost wet. I know that sounds confusing but you want medium coats of base because it is desinged to be applied in thin coats, unlike clearcoat that is sprayed on "wet" because it is desinged to be put on in thicker coats. After you put on a coat of base, using about a 50-60% overlap with each pass, and it has enough time to flash off(time to dry) the basecoat will have a dull look to it and is dry, completly dry to the touch. Making sure its fully dry is important because you will want to wipe down the entire surface with a tac rag before starting and between every coat of paint(clearcoat excluded, because its still wet when the next coat is applied).

So when your basecoat has a nice dull finish over the whole surface and is dry to the touch its ready to be tac raged off and another coat applied.


Now for the clear coat. Let me start by telling you to put a tac coat of clear on before you apply any wet coats. It will reduce your chances of getting a sag or run in your first coat of clear by giving the clearcoat something with a little profile to it to adhere to, instead of the smoth basecoat. What i mean by tac coat, is a light coat of clear over the entire car. And it truly is a light coat, you are just spraying enough clear on the surface to make it tacky. And then after you spray your tac coat, immediatly start with your first wet coat of clear, because it is such a light coat, by the time you spray one on the whole car it will be dry enough to start your first coat. Then after you have sprayed your wet coat, do the stringy test to see when its time to put the next coat on.

Stringy test: choose an area that is masked off near the painted surface, and press your finger on it. When the clear is still wet it will feel kinda like sticking your finger in some sryup, that is to wet and you need to wait longer. As it starts to dry, it will become stickier and stickier. To the point to where when you press your finger on it and pull it off there will be strings going between your finger and the cleared surface. How i tell when it is time to put the next coat on is when i can press my finger on it and there be many many strings between my finger and the car. Like for example when it first starts "stringing" there might only be two or three strings, but when it is dry enough to put the next coat on , there could be twenty or thirty strings. Do it in a few places around the car. I hope that makes sense, its kinda hard to explain.


Now I like to have a little more overlap with my clearcoat passes, so i usually use a 70% overlap on my clear coat passes. Except for the tac coat, where i use like a 40-50% overlap, cause your not really trying for a really even coat, just a quick light coat to make it tacky.

[R3dFyre02]

so travis... Paint much? good info. Im not brave enough to try it, but Im sure some are.

[travis_afx]

I might have sprayed a couple times before

[mainejohn]

great info, i think will give it a try. thanks for all the help!!!!!!