1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

You just noticed that

 

No. I’ve known for a while.

I get random 3-4am texts from him.

 

I don't but that's probably cause I just lie or threaten his avocado tree

 

Threaten to steal all of them off the tree for personal use or something? You really not like them or just like giving Bartmaster crap? A lot of us ate them before those kids started making toast with em

 

Alright so looking more into it i’ve come up with a somewhat game plan. Right now with everything going on I have more time than anything in this world.


SHOPPING LIST:

The things I surmise I need to get are as follows;

Set of Durablocks in all different shapes and formats. Flat blocks and rounded.

DA electric sander.

Electrical grinder.

Long-board rolls/cut pieces of sandpaper in various different grits,

32-40 for the really rough, or rusted spots.

80 for cutting body filler.

120/180 for smoothing filled panels.

320 for finishing before poly primer.

Stud welder, thinking something cheap from harbor freight to do the job and perhaps a glue pulling kit.

Ball peen hammer and dolly, seems to be an abundance of shitty products on the market and I am not seeing the right set for me.

High quality body filler

High quality poly style body filler (spot puddy, glaze)

3M products, everclear, UPOL?

Base coat ( I want to do something pewter or a grey with a metallic base)

Clear coat

Buffing and cutting products

This is where it begins to get confusing to me.


My plan of attack is to bring it down( current paint )as far as I can and spray with an epoxy primer ( I will touch more into the spraying further on). Follow that with body repairs and smoothing/floating of panels and imperfections, then hi build primer? This is where I get lost in the stages leading up to base coat and clear.
How am I going to spray primer without a compressor.......

It also seems inevitable I will need to get a compressor and a couple of guns to do this. The compressor thing is a whole rabbit whole I have read into. I really don’t want to kill my total budget of 2500 start to finish by getting a rather expensive compressor, but it seems like I’m going to need to build filler on primer throughout the whole shaping of panels to achieve smooth and good looking body pieces. I’m guessing it would be somewhat difficult to get away with a cheaper compressor for the spraying of primer at my house, I imagine i'll just need to show up to the rented booth with my own gun and air/filtration is taken care of.


Thats basically all I can think of at the moment.


/end long post.

 

a SERIOUS question to go with that. Am I over thinking this or is this a thing where it seems like there are a million ways to skin a cat, Guy A says do this, but B completely disagrees with A, but guy C doesn't do xyz the same as either and its correct as well? I suffer from this when I research things to a deep extent. I'm a little overwhelmed. But I am convinced I can do this. Repetitive work like this is always something i've been good at.

 

You want me to pull up the records? You are usually the one who texts me first.

 

I’m a random schmuck who painted a trunk in his garage with no prior experience.

Before:




After:



This is a reflection of my garage door off the deck lid:





From start to end, I used: 36 > Body Filler > 36 > 80 > 120 > 180 > Hi Build Primer x3 coats > 400 Wet Sand > Base Coat x3 coats > Clear x3 coats > 1000 > 1200 > 2000 > 3000 > Aggressive Cut Compound > Medium Cut Compound > Fine Cut Compound > Wax

I am very happy with how it turned out. The body shop quoted $4,500 to fix the collision damage on the car and I did it for under $400.

Durablocks are super helpful. Get the multipack along with several rolls of various pressure sensitive adhesive sandpaper.

As for air, you really cannot do this job without air tools. Other than making your life incredibly easier, you cannot spray a car without an HVLP. I used an Inline sander to smoothen the bondo, a DA to sand the old paint and body before base coat, and a palm sander for the 1000+ grit polishing.

After polishing with the palm sander and paper, I switched to a 7” variable speed electric polisher with different pads for different compounds. This step is important, it brings out the shine.

IMO as a shadetree bodyshop expert electric tools won’t cut it for this. You should invest in a good compressor. I bought my 60 gallon Campbell Hausfeld compressor for around $400 used. It runs on 240v 30amps and it’ll run my spray gun, sanders, and air tools all the live long day.

Used 60 gallon compressors are dirt cheap. The larger, the better. Ask me any questions about compressors I know more about them then I really need to.

Go make friends with your local auto body supply shop. I have one down the street and it made this job way more easier. They mixed all the paint for me and had all the materials too like the PSA sandpaper, mixing cups, filters, Durablocks, etc.

You don’t need a fancy spray booth to paint a car, and I doubt any body shop will let a rando use their paint booth. Put up traps in your garage with some box fans. Remember, any dust that gets on your paint will not be a big deal once you polish the clear coat.

This is my garage. I just threw traps up on the wall and on the floor.



Go ask @Blue92 for advice too. He helped me a lot and I can’t thank him enough. I learned a lot doing this and I have massive amounts of respect for people who do this for living, because it isn’t easy. But immensely rewarding.

 

I am replying in the quote in Bold.

@Blue92 any thoughts? Out of all auto things I have always been the most interested in paint and body, finally I've come to the point in my projects where paint is the next step and I'd like to succeed.

 

I was in your shoes. I was overwhelmed when I was researching this stuff too. I’ve come to the conclusion every body shop guy has a different way of doing things, however it all ends up the same way. You’ll just have to do it and learn along the way. That’s how I found my method to the madness. As long as you know the basics, you don’t need to need to pay attention to what different people do.

Some say you sand the base coat before clear, some say you don’t. Some say you have to wait 2 months before you buff clear coat, some say you don’t. Read up on the data sheets of the primer, paint, and clear you are using and it will tell you what to do.

 

Yes, thats pretty much how i've felt. I havent gotten my hands in the dirt so to speak so I really like to know what im doing first. I plan on using high quality products too.

Just checked FB and craigs, not a single 60gal compressor.

 

Read my reply again I changed some things.

The spray gun will run happily on a smaller 20-30 gallon compressor since it only needs 30-40 PSI as opposed to the 90 PSI most air tools run on. But the bigger the compressor allows you to run tools are their full duty cycle without letting the compressor run.

240v compressors are immensely better than 120v ones in terms of efficiency and capacity. You can run an extension cord from your dryer or just pay to install a 240v outlet. It’s easy to install one yourself too. They also tend to be cheaper because most people want 120v appliances.

 

You don’t have harbor freight over there? Home Depot sells a nice 60 gal for $500.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-60-Gal-Stationary-Electric-Air-Compressor-C602H/205389936

You don’t need 60 gallons. But more air obviously means more efficiency and better workload.

 

No harbor freight but I do have home depot.

"CFM at 40 PSI is 13.4 and CFM at 90 PSI is 11.5"

This is not enough to run most DA sanders, grinders, impacts ect correct?

 

No, that’s plenty. Those spec’s match my compressor made in 1999 and it runs my tools fine. That just means the air runs out quicker and the compressor will kick on faster. When I’m using the DA sander with my compressor at 90 PSI the compressor never turns off. However, when I’m running my spray gun at 40 PSI the compressor turns on every 10-15 minutes.

11.5 CFM is plenty. That’s actually on the higher end for consumer grade compressors. It’ll run every air tool you can imagine except jackhammers.

When I sandblast, that’s a different story. My home compressor does 11.5 CFM @ 90 PSI and like the DA sander, it never shuts off and loses pressure quickly. That’s why I rent a construction air compressor with a 4 cylinder Cummins Diesel engine that pushes 185 CFM when I have to sandblast several hundred car horns. Because I can sandblast at 120 PSI and it will never ever run out of air. That’s way overkill for auto body work though. Sandblasting just uses a lot of air.

 

Ahh so that would for sure get me through body work and primer stage. Ill see if they have any instock where I live.

BUT,

where I am working on my cars. Its not near any power, its more than 25 feet from anywhere with a outlet and I dont think I can run a 220 extention that long lol.

I'd have to work next to my house and id have to tow a car out of there behind my house so there is that to contend too that would be close for a 220 outlet.

 

Actually you’d be surprised. RV extension cords used for shore power are 240v and go up to 100 feet in length. It’s probably better to keep the compressor near your power source and run a long air hose.

There’s a lot of different 240v outlets out there. My compressor uses a very obsolete NEMA 10-30R dryer plug, where 30 means 30 amps. The Tesla and my Miller welder uses a NEMA 15-50 which is 50 amps.

 

Its still almost to the point of if I get a whole air set up, it kills a lot of my budget and it almost might be cheaper to let someone with a shop do it. I want to do it myself but I also don't want to pay more than I would having someone do it, if that makes sense.

I still think I can argue the point that I should be doing most of this by hand. 500 for compressor, air filtration/dryer system hoses, paying an electrician to come put a 220 in closer. Like I said earlier I have time and a smaller amount of money .

 

Buying that air compressor was hands down the best investment I’ve ever made. I’ve sandblasted hundreds of horns using it, and powered my DA sander for hours with it.

I think you should save more money and invest in a good air system before you tackle painting your truck. The lifeblood of the auto body industry runs on compressed air.

 

Good advice Tyler. Maybe I can find a spot that will let me rent (lol this is almost impossible) that has air.