Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

These steps are mainly for a repair, you'd skip past the first half for a respray, scuff up the old paint with 800 or something and apply primer from there.

As for lightening paint, no can do mate, its paint fade. All you can do is make sure you either do an entire panel and blend to a line where light/reflection changes, or consider a full respray. A great finish on new work will be more noticable for the colour difference, so maybe dont buff as hard ;)

My only thought, is that, this seems like alot, I mean ALOT of work to get a single panel finished, so is this the same sort of process used for an entire car respray? because if it is, I would never have thought they did all this :(

How'd ur panel turn out?

How'd ur panel turn out?

Only been able to sand it down at the moment, it has rained a bit here and Ive gotta go out and get some more paints as I am empty now haha, will be re doing it soon though, will let ya know :D thanks.

  • 3 months later...

Only been able to sand it down at the moment, it has rained a bit here and Ive gotta go out and get some more paints as I am empty now haha, will be re doing it soon though, will let ya know :D thanks.

Much luck or give up?

Ok, so here's wat i've worked out so far. (excuse the obvious being pointed out, a mate of mine yesterday was sanding back a layer of paint from a front bar with the dry 60 grit sandpaper for timber) so i'll try be thorough.

As much as the damage "doesnt look too bad" with some shiny paint left intact in places, be brutal. Its gomna be fixed, so dont try and preserve anything. Always easier to do a bigger area than blend a repair.

I usually start with 220 grit (wet n dry for all this, paper or sander in one hand, bucket and sponge in the other) for taking back paint, but for removing old bog or fibreglass, might go down as far as 80.

Take off a few layers of paint and see what you're up against, bog always binds better to bare metal too.

You can obviously mix bog correctly, fill and shape, its the sort of thing you'll wanna let dry overnight to be sure its set, everything takes time.

Fill holes with "metal fill" its a cross between fibreglass and bog. Harder to sand than bog, but so much stronger.

Once overfilled (always over compensate the shape you want) start sanding back with either 220 or 600, depending on the area being done, 220 for something the sander is going to have a lot of movement over, 600 for finer areas and corners.

Hopefully by now you have the shape you want, if not, repeat bog step above, only using 600-800 this time, being more particular to fine ripples or dips.

"Spray Putty" in a can is a godsend. Its a spray on, fine layer bog ideal for getting rid of stone chips or scratches. Allow about 5 hours for a generous coat of this crap to dry though, it can also undo a lot of hard work by "peeling" the whole layer off if u sand with too much pressure before set overnight.

Sand with 800 now, focusing on imperfections, air bubbles (you see these when the job is dry, so its important at this stage to keep washing down with water n sponge, and rag drying) and overall job finish. Ask yourself, is this ready for topcoat? By now it'll be looking pretty alright, but mulitcoloured. Base coat prime 2-3 coats now, and allow a few hours to dry.

Now that its all 1 colour, you're probably cursing at those spots you didnt feel or see earlier, so again make friends with the spray putty and sander. Get it right at this stage, or no amoutt of polish at the end will get you out of the shit you end up with.

Once happy, give a final coat in surface primer, allow to dry for a couple of hours, and give a light sand back with 1200 to smooth over. You're practically polishing it here, not removing paint, so focus on removing any scratches, and dont stay on the one spot too long. Wash with water and a sponge, allow to air dry, then use "prepwash" or similar to wash off remaining paint dust.

Happy with how it looked buffing with that shiny liquid? No dents, good shape? Buff dry, and check for pinprick holes from air bubbles.

Topcoat time.

Any acrylic in a can will do, but autobarn can mix any auto colour to a paint code, usually no more than 30 bucks.

3 even coats, allow a few hours to dry, then 1200 it smooth, wash with sponge and water, prepwash and allow to dry.

Clear coat is this process repeated, but dont touch with paper once sprayed.

48-72 hours is time required to dry for clear to be cut back.

Start with 600 to remove orange peel look, then 1200 to remove the 600's scratches, then 3000 to remove the 1200's scratches.

Finally buff with a cutting compound, and finish with a polish/wax.

This was originally a PM, but good info to share here. Feel free to add anything i left out or go into more detail. Hope this helps. :)

Great post explaining the process.

As a spray painter, It makes me sad when people still use acrylic :(

I'll second that! Acrylic should have been outlawed 20 years ago lol. Na it is good for guys who want to have a bit of a muck around but not much else. As for the title of this thread the only way to get that perfect paint job is to leave it to a professional and not just anyone do your research on the painters previous work. I'm all for people having a go and the more you do the better you'll get but painting 'perfect' 2pak is a skill that takes years to perfect.

yeah, 2 pack requires a booth and breathing apparatus if you care for your health. certainly not worth it for some doing a minor touch up or painting something like a grill or mirror.

Yeah you definately want an Airwash hood for resprays but no need with the smaller stuff. 2Pack is not the best for your health thats why I quit lol.

At the end of the day it's all about the finished product so if it turns out well then alls well but you would only ever blend solid colours half way through a panel and even then you need to prep it correctly or your edge will show/peel back when polishing the blend.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
    • But first....while I was there, I also swapped across the centre console box for the other style where the AV inputs don't intrude into the (very limited !) space.  Part# was 96926-4GA0A, 284H3-4GA0B, 284H3-4GA0A. (I've already swapped the top 12v socket for a USB bulkhead in this pic, it fit the hole without modification:) Comparison of the 2: Basically to do the console you need to remove the DS and PS side console trim (they slide up and back, held in by clips only) Then remove the back half of the console top trim with the cupholders, pops up, all clips again but be careful at the front as it is pretty flimsy. Then slide the shifter boot down, remove the spring clip, loose it forever somewhere in the car the pull the shift knob off. Remove the tiny plastic piece on DS near "P" and use something thin and long (most screwdrivers won't fit) to push down the interlock and put the shifter down in D for space. There is one screw at the front, then the shifter surround and ashtray lift up. There are 3 or 4 plugs underneath and it is off. Next is the rear cover of the centre console; you need to open the console lid, pop off the trim covering the lid hinge and undo the 2rd screw from the driver's side (the rest all need to come out later so you can do them all now and remove the lid) Then the rear cover unclips (6 clips), start at the top with a trim tool pulling backwards. Once it is off there are 2 screws facing rearwards to remove (need a short phillips for these) and you are done with the rear of the console. There are 4 plugs at the A/V box to unclip Then there are 2 screws at the front of the console, and 2 clips (pull up and back) and the console will come out.
×
×
  • Create New...