I`m not going to detail `only` after all

[jgv]

As in my initial ideas when started working with cars, I`m about to take other steps car care related.

I had talked to a friend of mine who`s a painter for the Volvo dealer in town a while ago, and we made an arrangement for him to help me when I needed some-kind of touch up in a car or so. Now, when I delivered that BMW series 7 the I told I could get those rock ships (BAD ONES) repaired, meaning the hood repainted. He told me right the way "take the car Monday and do whatever it`s needed". So, tomorrow I`ll talk to that friend to make a schedule for us to do that job.

And then, there`s a BMW that needs to be rebuilt, I`ll have it`s wheels repainted, trim replaced and/or restored, seats repaired, well, what takes to make it like new again.

I know mechanics, guess I must start learning how to paint (you know, the preps and all)... any helpers?

[Koop]

ask away. I`m sure a few of us here can help ya out.

[Poorboy]

Jose ...fly Koop out to you and he can save you a lot of time on the learning curve

[jgv]

Thanks! Ok, I`ll shoot the basic question:

A hood to be repainted, what steps to be taken? Thanks!

This one:


See all rock ships?

[Koop]

First things first. If your giong to start doing body/paint work is tools! Your tools are your life in this line of work. The better they are the more productive your life will be.

For a job like this your going to need/want
Needs:
A da sander of somesort. Prefurably sander not polisher. A pc has a large rotating patern where a sanding/finnishing da will have a much shorter one.
Sanding blocks.
Sand paper of varying grits. 240, 320, 500, 1500
Primer/ sealers
Paint gun
Paint
Clear
Orbital buffer and compounds.
Various screwdrivers/ sockets and assorted tools for hood/grill/emblem removal.

Wants:
A high power air compressor 20 gal or more.
Air da with varriable speed and vacum
Central vac
Air file at least a foot long. Longer is better if you only have one.
Long and short sanding blocks.
Sand paper more grits 36, 80, 180
Better paint gun that uses your air compressor
Downdraft Paint booth.

Keep reading......

[jgv]

Thanks koop, but as my friend (the one who`s doing this job) has all that, I`m just starting to learn how it works. Of course I`ll take a very close look at what he does but all info I can get before that is welcome.

If those kinds of jobs become frequent I`ll start thinking about geting more tools and so.

Remember, I started this detail thing last February, I had never used a PC or rotary before, and now I`m wet sanding... I didn`t knew what it was carnauba wax or rubbing compound last January, and yet I`m having very good results by now.

Cars are my thing, always were, guess now it`s time to start working with them.

Thanks again. Any help is welcome.

[jgv]

But hey! I`m taking notes! I already have an air compressor, tools and access to almost all other requirements.

Let me know what your actions would be on this hood.

Thanks.

[Koop]

Starters.....

Remove the hood.
Should consist of unpluging a couple wires and maybe the washer nozzels. Then removing some bolts (normaly 4)

Set the hood on a stand of some sort. Anything will do but try and make sure it`s padded as you do not want to mar the finnish that is already on it as it just makes more work, or worse dent it.

Now remove everythin from the hood: emblems, washer nozzels, grills, etc. Again be VERY carefull not to damage the hood at all. Avoid any prying as it can dent the hood. Worse yet you could damage the emblem or whatever your removing and have to replace it. (you can`t charge for your mistakes so be CAREFULL!)

Now that everthing is off pull out the da. Depending on the depth of scratches you will want to start with diffrent grits of paper. If the paint is peeling/chipping/flakin OFF the car. Not just pits and dings. you will need to go to bear metal. For this use 36 grit. If they are just dings and pits and the paint isn`t flakeing off then I`d start with 80 grit. Hit the whole top side of the hood. Going slow makeing sure to aply even pressure across the da. Don`t dig in pushing down on one side even though it will go faster. You want to keep everything as strait as possible. Keep going over the chips untill they are no longer visible and the finnish is completly uniform. Make sure that everything is at about the same paint thickness.

Now you tape off the hood. Grab some old newspaper or if you want to shell out the cash get some painters paper 36" prefurably to make the work go faster. Don`t skimp on tape either. If residue sticks on the hood it just adds more time to the job. It can also pull up fresh paint if the adheasive is too strong.

What to mask?
Everything that should not get paint on it. So the underside of the hood for the most part in this instance is all you would want masked off. You would most likely want to paint the sides with the top.

Now that it`s tapped hit the edges, where you didn`t hit with the da, with 240 by hand. You just want it scuffed up so don`t worry about making it beautifull. Just make sure there isn`t any shine left on it.

Everything is now ready for primer. Priming and painting is a very detailed process that really can`t be explained well. It needs to be whitnessed. Hands on is the ONLY way to learn to be a good painter. You should be able to prime your own sutff though. If your not very good it will just make more work for you or your painter latter.

Priming
In this case (a hood) or on any large flat surface you are going to want to use a thick primer and lay it on! But DON`T GO OVERBOARD! Too much primer leads to running. Wich leads to repriming! Make sure you get thick even coats always overlaping slightly from your last pass. Try and go in a methodical fassion from one side of the hood to the other. Never stoping. Keep the gun/can moving at an even pace. When your done with the top go back to the edges and hit them very quickly. They do not need much primer at all. Just a dusting.

Now everyones favorite part. BLOCKING!
If you couldn`t guess this is probably my least favorite part. It is espcialy a pain on a hood like your bmw here. You have to be very carefull around the body lines. Make sure the block never digs into a body line and make sure you don`t hit an edge hard. For the blocking grab a long block (usualy a foot aka 35cm) and put a strip of 320 grit paper on it. Take the block in both hands holding it perpendicular to yourself. Place it on the hood using very light pressure. Push the block forward and to the right in a diagonal fassion away from yourself. Pulling back on ths same line. Do that about 10 times then start over to the right a little bit and push forward and to the left. Always keep the block perpendicular to yourself. don`t push the block the direction you want it to go. Keep it perpendicular to yourself. To aid in this prcesses you want some blocking stuff. For the life of me i can`t think of what it`s called right now. It`s basicly black dust that you spread over the object your blocking. It shows where the low and high spots are in the primer. Where it`s low it`s giong to stay black. Where it`s high it will get light very fast. You want to keep going till and the dark is gone. Hence no more low spots. The hood should now be completely strait and ready for finaly paint prep.

Painting and paint prep. I`m not going to go into these as it is the job of an experienced painter. One cannot learn to paint on the internet from reading one post. I`d suggest what poorboy said and fly me to portugal to help ya learn (thx steve!)

Once it`s done being painted and it has been baked, it should sit for preferably at least over night, if not a day. I know it never works that, way but that is what`s ideal. Wait AT LEAST 3 hours. Then it`s time to wet sand/buff

Depending on the quality of job your looking for you will sand the whole hood or just sand out the nibs/runs/hangers if there are any. There are almost always nibs though. If you don`t know what a nib is, it si simply a dirt particle that got trapped under the paint. The paint then rests on top of that makeing a little tiny high spot in the paint. To get rid of this just take some 1500 wet/dry paper and rub back and forth across it untill you cannot feel or see it. Do that for every nib when just spot sanding. When doing the whole hood. Use a small block with 1500 or better(easier) get a foam interface pad for your finnishing da and some 6" 1500 discs. Go over the whole hood slowly makeing sure to get good even coverage. Again be very carefull about hitting edges and body lines. As paint will always be thin there. If you go through the paint you go back and repeat half the stuff you just did! Now it`s time to buff everything smooth. Jose.... I konw you can buff with the best of em so i`ll just give you a few pointers i`ve found when doing this.

When spot sanding. Put a dab of compound on all the areas you sanded. Then get all of these areas first. Buff out all the scratch marks makeing sure they are completly gone. Then go back and buff the entire hood like normal.

Now untape the underside of the hood. (i also like to clean it on a high end car while it`s off the car because it makes it a lot easier.)

Re-install everything you took off the hood and put the hood back on. Makeing sure to reconnect and plugs/hoses you took off.

You are now done!

Final tips.
Ask your painter for a brush touch bottle from the left over paint. It`s a great extra to give your customers.
Make sure you tell the client not to wax the hood for at least 2 weeks. I like to tell them to come back in a month so i can do it for them too.
Then always ask if they are happy with the finaly product.
Hope this helps ya out.

Again I just need to tell ya these are ONLY pointers and can not take the place of hands on experience or an acutal teacher. I recomend not just reading what i`ve said and go after the hood yourself. Find someone in your area who knows what there are doing and can help you. Again though i hope this helps you. Good luck.

[Koop]

sorry it took so long to get that too you and sorry for all the grammer errors too. heh heh. It was pretty much just mindless bable of me trying to remember everything that needed to be done.

[jgv]

This is exactly what I needed, THANKS! (I wont pay you for the trip, but you have a place to stay if you want to come here ).

I`ll be buying the paint myself, the painter will just come to do the job and your instructions helped me a lot.

My client wont wax or anything, as none else does... he`ll just keep coming back (guess I`ll be using a glaze or so, 3M?)

Thanks again, I`ll keep you posted about this.

[Koop]

buffing products i`d recomend.....

As always and as you konw i use NORTON clear choice liquid abrasives. These are paint safe and easy to clean up.

If you prefure a more typical proven method. I`d go with my old method. 3M PI-III Fast Cut Rubbing compound followed by 3M PI-III Machine glaze. This should get you to near perfection. If you need something just a little bit more you could use the good old Hand glaze. But I`m still after 2 years not sure i like it. You could try there new PI-III finnishing glaze though. I haven`t tried that yet.

And thx for the invite on the home stay while there. I`ll have to pass for now. Maybe in a year or two. I hope to hit the medteranian again on my hunymoon. Haven`t been on that side of the pond for a couple years.

[jgv]

Koop, I have access to our (Euro) version of 3M products, different from yours, but I also have Menzernas and I like very much the Presta Ultra cutting cream compound, it works very well. Also, I have distributor prices for Megs pro products.

Anyway, I`m sure that in a couple of months I`ll be doing my first paint job (if not less, my Volvos hood).

Thanks, you`re welcome here!

[Koop]

Just make sure the menzerna products are silicone free and paint safe. I still want to get my hands on some of them. They sounds like some quality products. I don`t like the Megs compounds though.

[Poorboy]

Look at you two taking over a thread

Koop I think that`s a great overlay of painting and prep and I can tell you Jose that watching a Pro..makes it all look so simple...but one mistake along the way can be a disaster....

When you get to the after part...remember what Koop said about silicone free products..otherwise you may have a major problem.

Also Koop we use to use flat black spray paint to find the high and low spots...just a light mist and it sticks to all the high spots..

When i got a sprayer in my hands they use to call me the Zebra Man ...I could always leave stripes...

[Koop]

When i started i was knowen as the RUN KING! oh yeah that`s me baby. Now, however, I can take em out as well as i could put them in..... usualy.

About the spray pain. That doesn`t sound like a bad idea. I think our way is cheaper as the stuff we use coasts like a buck and lasts a couple years. Even in our shop with decent volume. But that`s a great idea. I may use that sometime down the road as I`m leaveing the shop in a month and half when i start school again. SOOOO much to get done on MY car there b4 i go. Wish me luck. I`m going to need it.