First time paint problems

russell · Post by **russell** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:48 am

I am in the middle of doing my first full respray on a 1970 beetle. I am using cellulose and keeping to the original colour - pastel white. I never realised that masking up could take so long but finally got it all done. I pinned a sheet of plastic to the rafters of my garage above the car and hung plastic sheet down to the ground leaving me with about 3-4 feet all round the car to work, there are plenty of gaps but I figured this would help. I got a coat of high build primer all over - and managed to find examples of just about every fault. First of all a fly droped onto the roof of the car - during the next hour about 40 flies dropped onto the plastic sheet above the car - I didn't know they were even in the garage I guess the paint fumes knocked them out from wherever they were hiding. Secondly, I have a lot of little 'fish eyes' although I spent a lot of time rubbing down, washing off and tack ragging. (Should have de-greased thoroughly?) I have 1 run (not too bad) but 3 places where the paint has pickled up, I think due to previous repair activity, (rub down to bare metal?). Any tips?

fredybear · Post by **fredybear** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 5:07 am

What kind of paint u painting with???? did u spray the first coat or what????.............u should lay newspaper down and wet it...keeps dust particles from being kicked up...

russell · Post by **russell** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 5:52 am

I got the paint from a reputable local supplier to the trade and on their advice i bought 2 litres of celulose top coat and 2 litres of high build primer - both to be mixed 50/50 with thinnners (best thinners for the topcoat and a lower quality for the primer). Last night I mixed up 1 litre of the primer and sprayed it on - note that the wings, bonnet, engine cover are all off of the body - I plan to do those separately once the main body is finished so expect to use another litre - I will probably need to buy some more primer once I have repaired the problems with what I did last night.

All_talk · Post by **All_talk** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 10:03 am

Hi Russell

If you?re getting fisheyes in the primer it will be much worse in the top coat, so you need to find the problem now. Are the fisheyes are distributed all over, if so it is most likely oil coming out of your compressor, how old is it, how hard are you working it, do you have a water/oil separator? Get one of the small filters that mounts at the gun, that should take care of it. The runs are probably just technique (you?ll get better), but you need to watch the material go on and good lighting can make all the difference. The ?pickled? finish may be due to incompatible materials or bad prep, a coat of sealing primer may help. Be careful spraying parts off the car on the finish coat, you may get an inconsistent color, the whole car should be sprayed with the same mix and at the same time. Wetting the floor is a good suggestion, do you have any airflow, is it filtered? A lot of small contaminants (bugs & dust) can be buffed out.

Good Luck
Gary

fredybear · Post by **fredybear** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 9:23 pm

Got done sprayin.........boy it looks good.......some color sanding and buffing - polishing .......i got a bug stuck on the roof ...i hope it comes out......

The hlvp gun with my setup kicked it good.......i doubt it spray the whole car without running out of air......

im sprayin in pieces....ill let ya no how it goes....

4 coats on roof 3 on body........a few slight sags on the second coat pissed me off....should polish right out......other than that....serious high gloss paint.......glasurit.....single stage vw ....$90 quart and yesterday i wasted like $20s worth.......

its all in the prep work and i got that body flawless......plus it dosent hurt to shoot your last coat of primer perfectly

russell · Post by **russell** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 2:12 pm

I rubbed out the fish eyes with some 800 wet and dry - there were 40 or 50...mainly on the roof and other horizontal bits .... sprayed primer again and it worked I guess it must have been wax or other contamination but I really rubbed down and washed that body - so I just learnt a lesson. I was surprised that the white spirit, which seems to leave a slightly oily residue however hard I tried to clean it up, didn't cause a problem but the primer went on ok and I have just sprayed on the top coat and the result is not too bad at all. I have 4 litttle runs which I will clear up and re-spray tomorrow night.

To your question - I am working my compressor hard and its old - it is not really man enough for the job, but I am just about getting away with it - I do have a filter in line but I would not be surprised to find some oil getting through.

fredybear · Post by **fredybear** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:39 pm

use denatured alcohol to clean off your primer dust........its good for that