Steps to DIY sanding car back ready for respray....

[drunkenmaster]

If you do go for a full respray (ie. bare metal) then I recommend you sandblast as i did on my car below:

http://www.teamazm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4063

I did a previous car by hand and will never waste that kind of time and effort again.

[KILL HSV]

can i ask why you want to go back to bare metal?

[Boostn247]

i dont really want to go back to bare metal!

i just want the easiest, cleanest way of giving my car a new repsray in vx commodore panther mica black...

[KILL HSV]

good choice then, way more work involved in bare metal resprays

[Cubes]

It sounds good in theory to do the job your self but in reality if you don't spend lots of time preparing and do it properly the result will be a crap looking paint job.

I've done it on my first car... One half of one side of the car I spent my time on and looked like glass. Got frustrated and a very very sore arm resulting in the rest of the car looking o.k looking.

[madmoomoo]

Hey Boostn247,

one thing you might want to do is either go to a decent book shop, or even your local library and look up some books. I went down to my local library and have borrowed an informative book on painting etc. I was quite suprised they even had it there. Bonus!

In regards to one of your questions, you asked about driving around with the primer on the car (after the bog filler). From this book I've got, it says that primers generally aren't water proof, and if you go driving around, it's bound to cause problems later on. However, they say that there are two-part epoxy primers that should be used if you're working on the car outside or are going to wait a while before getting it painted.

Hopefully this may be of some use to you.

Good luck with the prep work. Let us know how it all goes, I'd be keen to hear your experiences.

Cheers.

[46n2]

Great stuff on the prepwork info

When it comes to painting and finishing, how do you get the paintwork to gloss-up.

I've done some smaller touch-up jobs and cut the paint back one dried, and it does not come up as glossy as the rest ofthe panel.

Prepwork: I sanded the panel back so surface was even with rest of bodywork/paintwork with ~120-160grit paper. Prepwash and wiped off with a clean rag.

Painted with a spraycan custom mixed to match my paint code. Applied 3-4 light coats, left to dry for ~15 mins between each coat.

Cut back with cutting compound once completely dry (next day), and removed overspray. I was hoping that this would give it a gloss finish, but alas, not the case.

What's the correct procedure?