Car painting & finishing

Secrets, tips, tools, design considerations, materials, the "science" behind it all, and other topics related to building the cars and semi-trucks.
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Mike Parrish
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Car painting & finishing

Post by Mike Parrish »

What are some of the different paints and clear coats being used out there?

I am still trying to get that deep, shiny luster, but can't quite achieve it with wood.

Any special wood prep before paint I am overlooking?
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by Darin McGrew »

Mike Parrish wrote:Any special wood prep before paint I am overlooking?
It's hard to say. You haven't told us what wood prep you're doing now.

At our workshops, we provide a basic latex primer. The idea is to fill the pores of the wood so the finish coat can be applied to a perfectly smooth surface. A couple coats of primer, sanding after each coat, is a good foundation. But we're doing well if we can get the kids to apply a single coat of primer.

Beyond that, I recommend "paint early, paint often". Several light coats is better than a single heavy coat. And the longer you can let everything set and cure, the less likely you are to ruin the finish on derby day.

Many classic paint styles are applied in several layers. For example, the "candy apple red" finish starts with a metalic gold paint job (multiple coats to get it looking good), followed by a transparent red finish (ditto), followed by a protective clear coat (ditto). That's a lot of paint, and requires a lot of patience.

One of the best paint jobs I've seen on a derby car (which unfortunately did not photograph well at all) used this kind of technique on top of a foundation of some sort of polymer putty. The putty was used as a thick primer under the actual primer, and produced a very smooth surface on which to work.
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by Mike Parrish »

Basically, I fill imperfections with wood putty, sand, and apply several coats of sanding sealer (sanding between each coat), and then applying several light coats of paint.

I have tried several brands of spray paint, but when I apply the clear coat (same brand as paint), it acts like it does not want to harden.

Has anyone had any luck with arcrylic paints/clear coats?
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by Darin McGrew »

Mike Parrish wrote:Has anyone had any luck with arcrylic paints/clear coats?
I've used the clear protective sprays sold for crafts for several years, either matte or gloss depending on the specific design. They dry quickly and protect the finish, but they don't give a deep clearcoat finish.

A friend of mine has used floor wax, but this won't be appropriate for more intricate designs.

It's a good idea to test the paints and other finishes you plan to use on some scrap wood. My "Monopoly car" design started with a shiny metallic aluminum paint. When I applied the clear coat, it reacted with the paint to produce a dull pewter look. It ended up looking a lot more like the little car token in our Monopoly set, but I got lucky. With a different design, the change in appearance could have been disasterous.
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by SPEEDBUGGY »

HI , THERE. I UES ONLY ENEMAL BASE PAINTS. KRILON IS MY PEFERED CHOICE. I ALSO USE TESTERS BRAND MODLE PAINTS FOR COLOR. YOU CAN USE THEM TOGETHER AND GET A GOOD SHINE FROM THEM AND THEY DON'T REACT TO EACH OTHER. I ALSO USE SPRAY TURTLE WAX.IT DOSE NOT GET STUCK IN THE DETAILS AS MUCH.
DON'T BUY THE CHEEP PAINTS FOR UNDER A BUCK.I HAVE HAD TO STRIP A FEW CARS AFTER I HAD THE PAINT PEAL UP ON ME. FOR THE BODY FILL TRY BONDO SPOT GLAZING PUDDY. IT GIVES YOU A SUPER SMOOTH FINISH. I USE 400 GRIT SAND PAPER THEN 1000 FOR THE FINISH COAT. I DON'T LIKE TO PUT ON CLEAR COATS ON BECAUSE THEY OFTEN YELLOW WITH AGE AND ARE HARD TO POLISH.THEY ALSO HAVE A TENDENCY TO BUBBLE UP THE FINISH.
I HOPE THIS HELLPS. :roll:
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Re: Car painting & finishing

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We start by sanding down to at least 400 grit before applying any sanding sealer. For a sanding sealer we use Aerogloss (the stuff you use on RC planes) in a very open area and I am the one to apply this each time so my sons don't get exposed to the fumes. I know that there are non-toxic sealers out there but this is what we have on hand. As said before, many coats of sanding sealer with sanding in between - if you can get your son to do so - will give the smoothest finish. We use progressively tighter grit as we go (400, 600, 800). When paint is applied, light coats with a little sanding in between are best but you can also try over-spraying to produce a really smooth and thick coat. By this I mean intentionally applying too much paint but not so much that it runs. This takes some practice, so do so on that scrap piece of wood that you should be sealing and sanding along with your car. This way you have something to test your paint-clearcoat combination on. I've had to strip too many pwd cars and models to not test this each time. Usually if you stay with the same brand paint and clearcoat you don't have a problem but it seems like we get a 'bad' can of clearcoat every now and than. We use Krylon brand for everything except for the details. For that we use enamel model paint, as they do not have a problem with the Krylon clearcoat. Also, I try and only use the same can of clearcoat or paint on each car so I won't have to worry about color changes from can to can or about getting another 'bad' can of clearcaot. The car we built with the best finish was painted early and often as said before. We had four coats of gloss black (it was the Batmobile) and untold numbers of clear coat. When that hardened for two weeks, we waxed it and boy did it shine!

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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by railman »

Can I ask a dumb quesion here - do you only apply clear coat(s) after you have made your several coats of paint? In other words, would you paint, apply clear coat, then paint, then, clear coat, etc? I would think that the clear coat would not allow any add'l paint to "take", but I am just not sure. Thanks, guys, this is my first post here.
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by MaxV »

The clear coat is applied after all of the finish coats. Maybe you can paint over the clear coat (never tried it), but there would be no advantage to clear coating each finish coat.
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by SPEEDBUGGY »

YOU CAN APLY A CLEAR COAT IN BETWEENE CLEAR BLUE OR RED TO GET A DEEPER FINISH. YOU CAN ALSO ADD A PERL COAT TO GIVE THE FINISH EVEN MORE DEPTH TO IT. BUT IT IS TRICKY. YOU WILL HAVE TO ALLOW ALOT OF DRY TIME. I TRY TO GIVE THE PAINT AT LEAST 2 DAYS TO DRY BETWEEN FINISH COATS. SOME TIMES I USE RUBING COMPOUND & SOME CAR WAX.
I HOPE THIS HELPS. 8)
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by asatxj »

Wnen I managed a body shop I would have the painter shoot some primer on the car then I'd sand it and give it back to him and tell him to paint it when he painted the red(or black or blue or green---) car that day. They'd do it in the booth and it would get a professional base/clear job that even got baked (booth is an oven). If you want a truly awesome job get the car sanded and ask your local shop if they'll do it for you, might cost you a few Cokes but you'll have an awesome looking car. "hey where did you get that paint job?" "Kenowa Body shop did it for me...."
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Re: Car painting & finishing

Post by ranman106 »

Mike Parrish wrote:Basically, I fill imperfections with wood putty, sand, and apply several coats of sanding sealer (sanding between each coat), and then applying several light coats of paint.

I have tried several brands of spray paint, but when I apply the clear coat (same brand as paint), it acts like it does not want to harden.

Has anyone had any luck with arcrylic paints/clear coats?
Are you mixing latex and enamel? If you seal with the latex and paint with the enamel, you might run into this or vise-versa. Make sure the sealer is compatable with the paint and clear coat. I use Testors model paint. I seal the wood with Testors primer, sanding between coats, the finish with several coats of color followed by clear. Hope that helps!
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