Well, its time to fess up... I did something stupid, well some things stupid.

First off, I tried rolling my truck out of the garage a little bit to get some extra workspace around it. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, however I had the hood up and the garage door handle scarred it as it went under.

Second, we had the gate up on our driveway and I was lazy, but mostly bored and tried to find a way around it through the trees that it intersects. I couldn't fit through any gaps so I backed out. Well the tires got hung up on something, and when they finally broke lose, it threw me into a tree. My back bumper has crushed my rear driver's side fender, so now I have to replace that.


Onto the questions.

I got a new airbrush kit for Christmas which can spray up to a 2" line, and I am wondering can I could paint these large parts with it, without getting "tiger stripes?"


Being that I don't feel like trying to mix up colors, and I am pretty sure Dark Shadow Gray is not a cheap paint, I was thinking about painting part of my hood silver, similar to Zabeard's paint job.

If I Bondo up the scarred area and tape things off, can I paint right over the rest of the hood, or do I have to sand through the clearcoat first?


Last question, if I can do all this, what would I mix the paint with, and what would I mix the clear coat with to get a nice even spray?

 

Paint thinner would work. However, this fawkin sucks!!! I need to see if my hood would hit my garage thingey too so I don't make the same mistake!

 

I spray using can spray paint. All I can say Is REAL THIN layers. Dont apply all at once (which im sure you know) but cant stress enough "LAYERS"

And I believe ya have to sand the clear coat off to get a better adhesive for the paint.

 

ouch! that sucks winks....

 

Yes, you have to remove the clear coat. If you are planing on pianting the whole hood you should remove it. Then sand with 400 grit to remove the clear coat. I would not use the airbrush but instead get yourself a spraygun. The airbrush would not cover as much and has to little power. Make sure the bondo jobs gets a good sanding to ensure to the flow of the paint is even. Remove the clear coat on the entire hood than re-clear after all is said and done. This will ensure an even coat across the entire hood. You must mix paint with a reducer. Ask your local paint supplier what the manufacture recomends.

 

wow that sucks, but




:


you had to know someone was gonna do it.

 

Can you elaborate on the airbrush having too little power? I don't care if it takes me longer if it will still come out the same. Money is a big issue for me right now, so I cannot afford a spray gun.

How do you know when you've gone through enough of the clear coat to do the painting?

 

to bad u live so far away, we coulda done it at my house.

I think what he means by too little power is that your not moving enuff air to properly atomize the paint so u dont get a super fine finish. I havent done alot of spraying, but i have done enuff to know that if your not running enuff air pressure, and your not atomizing the paint correctly, the end result is pretty crappy.

I good air compressor, and a professional spray gun will give you a MUCH better job, for the same amount of work.

Rattle cans work nice, I have used them a bit, the prob with those is that they put on a VERY VERY thin layer of paint. and you gotta build it up without getting thick spots. Which im sure you could very easily run into with a air brush. air brushes are mainly for specialty work, and small jobs, not painting whole hoods. While with enuff time and patience it would work, the prob is time and patience, you may wanna talk to a body shop and see if you cant get it atleast the body work done, and the hood primed cheap. that will save you a ton of work and time.

 

Well thanks Dave, glad I would have had the help if it were near by.

Being that my hood is already f*ed up, I think I'll give the airbrush a shot, I can't screw it up much more than it already is.

Aaaaaannnddd... I don't have the money to go to a shop. Saving for a house.

 

Another few questions, if I sand down the clearcoat until I get to the paint, do I have to use primer before spraying the new paint?

Also, what should I use to remove the clear coat, should I do it by hand with my sanding block, or should I use my Ryobi cordless sander?

 

to remove the clear do a wet sand......i can't tell you how to do it, i just know that is how to remove clear and not screw up the paint under it.....

 

How big is the compressor that you run this airbrush with? I wouldnt recommend the airbrush at all, but if your compressor has a high enough SCFM @40 PSI (it should be listed somewhere) you can get a cheap touch up or even a full size gun at any home improvement, Sears, or prolly even Walmart. Then Id follow the advice of the others and sand the clearcoat off (correct me if Im wrong guys, but as long as he scuffs the surface isnt he good to go?) Since your truck is already a silvery color I wouldnt recommend painting the hood a slightly different color, to me, (and Im a cheapskate also) it would look worse than leaving the problem to begin with.

What about this idea, depending on where the dent is in the hood, why not some black ralley strips? Get some pics of the damage and Im sure someone can photoshop something up for you.

 

before u even TOUCH the hood, I would remove it. As far as power versus hand, Youd prolly be ok with a palm type sanded with low grit, something in the 500-1000 range. I said primer only cause that will give the most uniform results over the entire area. Your prolly gonna bondo some areas, and be the sounds of it, you may have cracked/chipped? the paint off in some areas? thos areas will need to be built up with something, easiest is bondo, once the area is built up and filled in, feather it out a bit around the damaged area, and make sure you sand really well, ESPECIALLY on the edges, you want the damaged area so smooth that when u run ur paw over it u cant tell a difference between the affected area and the unaffected area. if your paws are rough, have your gf or wife do it and see if they can tell a difference. this is important cause if you have ANY inconsistancy it WILL show up in a high gloss finish.

I say to prime the whole hood for one reason, well two reasons actually.

given my total lack of body work experience, and a good amount of plaster repair experience, the two feilds are pretty close in alot of areas (I say this cause my dad whos at the top of his trade can do shop like body work, yet has little to no body work experience)

the bondo is 'new' material and is pourus, where as the rest of your hood is NOT pourus. if you DONT prime at all, your two - 3 coats of paint will look fine until u get to the damaged area where the sheen will be off, could be off a little, or ALOT depending on how the bondo sucks up the paint. I think what happens in body work also happens in new work on houses, the bondo acts like a sponge sucking the moisutre out of the paint causing the new area to dry faster than the rest. causing a non uniform finish.

if you prime the damaged area first, but not the rest of the hood, now you have another problem, the damaged area now is 'higher' than the rest of the hood cause theres an extra coat of paint on it. so u hafta prime the whole thing to get uniform coverage. the primer will 'seal' the bondo so that the finish coat doesnt 'suck in' to the bondo and will dry uniformaerly. then u can do the whole thing.

and when you spray, spry in a way that u hold the trigger down PAST the hood so u actually spray some of the floor too. this will avoid short stops on your work, cause you cant touch them up, so starrt BEFORE you hit the hood, and end AFTER you pass the hood, this will ensure complete coverage, sure ull waste like a lil bit of paint but atleast ull get the most coverage. as far as which direction to travel im not sure, like whether u should move away from you, or move torwards urself whan you spray, someone else will hafta chime in. also, when you spray, if you miss a spot dont try to touch it up if you have already left the area, let it dry and hit if on the next coat.

It maybe worth your while to drive around to some body shops and talk to a few people, dont be afraid to ask questions. and dont be a smart ***. u may be surprised at the people who give you tips and advice on how to do it.

My dad was like that, sure if the customer wants to do it themselves go for it, give em some tips and tricks to do the work and hope for the best, lots of shops have the same attitude, the thinking behind this is, when they ***** it up, hopefully theyll come back to u for u to fix it.

 

I will get some photos up this week so you can see the damage I've done. I don't have any free time to check out any body shops for a while, so I'm screwed in that aspect.

Dave, I plan on painting up to the points where the angles on the hood come together. I figure that I wouldn't have to worry about the level of the new paint height vs. the old paint height because of this. I also plan on bondoing the scarred area, then primering over every place the new paint will go. How does that sound for starters?

As for the cfm of the pump, it is adjustable, and I might be able to run 40psi. However I am a stubbron son of a... very nice lady, so I am going to stick to my guns and try out the airbrush first. Hey, its better than a rattle can... I hope.

 

Anything is better than a rattle can.

Im not sure what cfm you need to spray paint, i know for sprayed ceilings u need like 19cfm....

thats iffy as to whether or not it will show up, cause its not a sharp downturn, tho it may also work in your favor for the simple fact that it ISNT a straight down edge, and more bevelled. Like I said, im not expert here, and those with shaving experience and stuff would be much more hlepful if theyd click on this thread!

 

Hey John,

First off, you're welcome to use my compressor. It's 15 gal, 4.9 SCFM @ 40PSI / 3.5 @ 90PSI. I don't have a sprayer though.

Do you have any defects in the paint that could be covered under factory warranty? Go over your hood really well. If you do, you could get the whole job covered. Maybe they'd just charge you for prepping the damage you did. I had a lot of stone chips in the hood of my '96 Blazer and I had a spot the size of a nickel that had some hairline spider cracks. Since the cracks were considered a defect, the whole job was covered, this was in 2000. Hmmm... I wonder if a torch on the bottom side could cause the same kind of cracking I had. Second thought, it would probably discolor the paint.

In the past when I've needed panels and such painted, I'd get the parts on my own and take them to a local body shop my family has dealt with for years. They're pretty reasonable on what they charge and I think most other shops would be too, most of the cost in this case is just for the paint. When you take individual parts to them to be shot, they don't have to worry about the labor involved for removal (rusty/stripped bolts, etc) and reinstallation (alignment issues) or whatever else they may damage/scratch when doing the job. They factor all of this in when you just drop the complete vehicle off. If you're doing the labor yourself, just painting it is easy money for them.

Ask them what it would be for them just to paint it alone and then how much also for the filler and sanding work. It may be worth it to have them do it in case you botch it and have to have the redo it.

I did it a couple of times and I think I paid $35 one time and $50 the other. It wasn't worth it for me to go out and get the all the tools and other materials and hope I got paint that matched exactly.

Good luck. I don't have any prep work experience, but I'll give you a hand with whatever I can.