Repainting

[E30stz 0]

Hi, I recently got hold of some used body bits to go on the E30. I was wondering whats the best method of taking off paint and preparing for repaint.

I would assume sanding it down and priming, if so what products / grades of product should I be using.

Should this be a job left to the professionals, or can the average nutter do this.

Cheers

Andy

Edited July 29, 2005 by E30stz

[petone 0]

Depends, have you done similar stuff before? I do my own painting, I just go ahead and do it and see how it turns out. Course its nowhere near as good as a pro would do it but its fine for me. Just depends on how much your willing to spend and how good you want it to look.

You do need the right equipment which is pretty expensive. If you are going to do it yourself you will need a large air compressor, pressure varies too much with the smaller ones and they cant keep up. Don't waste your time with shitty guns either. Again, you get what you pay for.

I'd talk to Homy and ask him about primer, sandpaper etc,

[Gus 5]

400grit, rubbed with a block so you dont get finger indents

then 600wet or dry, followed by 800 depending how keen you are.

did my spoiler this way, got dan to paint, looks perfect (looked till i dropped it)

take your time....we rushed andys kit and it aint too sh*t hot. but it'll do.

mike what paint do you use? i got a compressor and wouldnt mind shelling out for decent gun if i could come up with a decent result...although you dont have clear coat do you? although my satin black wouldnt need clearcoat....i love that colour

[cainchapman 0]

I can look after you for dust & tox masks!

[E30stz 0]

mmm... mtech2 is gonna b such a bitch to sand. All that finger height gap in the middle aint gonna be easy to sand.

[bravo 35]

Stop your moaning Andy and get into it. Gus's recommendation for sandpaper is spot on.

Gus - just make sure your air compressor is grunty or it won't do - can't be just one of those couple of hundy supercheap auto or repco jobs. I've got a great big f**k-off one and it does OK.

The reason I don't do any painting on my car is that you pay a huge premium for colour matched paint from a painters if you don't getthem to do it such that you may as well get them to do the job.

My recent paint experience, I sanded averything back, did some minor panelling and bogging, sand again and primed. Let the pros do the rest.

If you can get the paint at a reasonable price though, and are handy with a spray gun, go for it. I painted the boat myself to an excellent standard, but since I was painting the whole thing, colour-matching wasn't an issue, so the paint was cheap.

I pick my bits up on Monday Andy - I'll let you know whether I'm happy with the job, and much it cost then to give you an idea.