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Thread: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

  1. #1
    Fresh Paint
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    Exclamation Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    Just sanded and primed my first Old steel case that i had laying around to practice painting before getting to the real thing and i have a few questions...

    I sanded the case with 180 grit sandpaper using a flat electric sander for a good 30 minutes or so. There were a lot of "high points" especially near the edges where the original paint was stripped all the way down to the metal.

    But no matter what, a lot of other places in the center still had paint on them. Is this normal? and is it ok to proceed?

    I then proceeded to give 4 light coats each 15 mins apart with Tremclad Rust Primer. After about 1.5 hours of drying, i started wet sanding the primer layer. While i was sanding, a lot of pieces of paint was coming off, Small rolls of paint which was similar to the types of bits that come off an eraser when you use it a lot. I figured this was normal and continued. During the wet sanding of the Case, there were still a lot of "high points" and the sanding ate all the way down to the metal again. In Crimson sky's book, he says just to sand it some more, and then add some more paint eventually. Will this just occur again when i prime it some more?

    Thanks for the help.

  2. #2
    High-tech Redneck crazybillybob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    You need to use a more aggesive grit snad paper (to get all the old paint off), then follow up with some 220 to smooth every thing out. Now you may not have the right kind of primer. You need a primer for bare metal (some times called an etching primer) some rust primers don't have the chemicals in them to "Bite" into the bare metal they use the rust ( which it converts chemicly to a non rust substance) as a rough surface for it to stick to. Also Remeber to wipe down the whole sheet with rubbing or denatured Acohol (this gets rid of dust and oils from sanding and you skin). If you don't wipe it down with acohol the oils from your skin and tools keep the paint from sticking. Let the pannel dry good before you paint, and don't touch the pannel with your bare hands till your all done painting.

    For some other painting help check out this thread it has links to indepth how toos on painting and prep. http://thebestcasescenario.com/forum...4460#post24460

    Remember that the secret to a great paint job is great prep work!


    Crazybillybob

  3. #3
    Fresh Paint
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    Default Re: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    Thanks Crazybillybob,

    Oh, speaking of denatured alcohol, they stores i went to didnt have it, but the guy in the store recommended "acetone" instead. he said it does the same thing, and its typically used on cars to clean them up before painting. Will this work also?

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    Acetone should work fine (its the solvent in nail polish)

    Depending on the case, you might have a slight dip in your panel. many panels have a folded edge which is doubles the thicknes. This will cause the edges to get sanded first and deeper than the rest of the panel. If this is the case you might want to put something under the panle to raise it. like a piece of masonite

  5. #5
    High-tech Redneck crazybillybob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    You can even use rubbing acohol if you don't want to spend the extra money. It just has more water in it, so it takes a bit longer to dry.



    Crazybillybob

  6. #6

    Default Re: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    any pharmacy should have 99% Alcohol too. Just look for the no name brand and that works great on cleaning all sorts of things. And when you cut yourself on your mods, it's got dual purpose
    "...angel headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night..." Allen Ginsberg 1926-1997

  7. #7
    Blunt Master 5000 CanaBalistic's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rookie Painter Needs Help :(

    I worked in a paint manufacturing plant for a while. now my techniques might not be perfect but i've painted a whole lot of stuff and my paint jobs allways come out nice.

    #1. if you dont want to spend all your time sanding you can get some spot filler from any auto store and fill the crevises and sand smooth. i'd recomend using 2-3 diff grit papers, like 200, 300, 400-600. you cant just jump up the grit scale cause it will take to long to remove the scratches from the coarser paper and the paper will get cloged with excess.

    #2 you can use any solvent to clean your piece. acetone is great but only use acetone on bare metal because it strips paint. I find camp stove fuel (methanol) works great and wont strip off any paint or primer youve allready applied. Plus its cheap.

    #3 If you plan to spray bomb your piece there are some things you should know. spray paint has more solvents and chemicals in it than a regular can of paint. they do this so the nozzles dont clog and the paint doesnt settle. Tremclad makes good paint but because of the extra chemicals and stuff it takes longer to harden. it might say it dries in 15min but depending on the conditions it could take weeks to fully harden. Your best bet is to put on a medium coat crapclad and fire that baby up in the oven for 15 min. this willl rapidly evaporate the solvents (this is what they do in auto shops when painting cars). The reason for this is so the layers dont seperate and make the paint bubble up when the next coat is applied(ive had first hand experience with this).

    After you've finished you should give your piece a whole day to fully harden. keep it next to the heat register overnight. Dont cheap out on this step. the longer the better. when i painted my bmx i let it sit for 1 month just to be sure. in the 3 yrs since the paint has never chiped despite the constant abuse.

    Fallowing thies steps should give you an exelent paint job thats hard (depending on the amount of coats) and scratch resistant


    If you want to use somthing else besides tremclad i'd start with an etching primer fallowed by regular primer and at least 4 coats of paint and toped off with 2 coats of clear.

    Note: pick diffrent colored primers to the paint you are using (ie, dark paint = light primer) this way you'll know how good your paint coverage is.

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