How would you paint your car????

[Daytona Guy]

Do you...

1. take off doors, hood, trunk, fenders, (in my case) nose, scoops, valance and paint them all - separate
  as you pain the jams, main body, engine bay.

2. Take off doors, truck, fenders and paint the undersides, truck, engine bay, jams, of the car first. Then mount the doors, fenders, hood, trunk to the car, and paint the whole car's exterior.

3. How did these cars get painted from the factory?

Dane

[Dino]

The body got painted in one go, panels were painted seperately and installed after paint.

There's a few ways of doing this.  First thing I would do is paint underside, inside like floors, roof, and the engine compartment.  You really want to do those seperate from all the other stuff that is visible.  Then you can tape all that off and either paint jambs or do the whole body in one go and install painted fenders, doors, hood and trunk lid after.

Regardless of what you do you need to make sure everything lines up perfectly and you have marked the hinges so there's no adjusting needed.  Not having to mask the jambs will of course give you cleaner results but it involves more delicate installing as well.  If you do it right and use the right products you can mask the jambs and still make them look perfect.

Whatever you do, you'll be able to make it look right so try to imagine doing the work and see what would work best for you.

[tan top]

   
  i rather do any repaint with all panels on !!  ,  soild color   can do off the car  , but  lot more messing about  , hanging & setting all the panels etc etc up on a stand  ,

any metallic & pearl/mica ,   you should / need to be  paint with all panels on the car , 

[Daytona Guy]

Thanks guys. I have to do the lower front valence (Daytona) off so I might as well do the nose off too. It is a solid color. The doors are lined up perfectly, and I have to remove them to paint the jams. Trunk is mostly a stripe, so matching is no biggy.  I will see what mood I am in to see how I do this.

Dane

[Indygenerallee]

Dane, I jam everything then assemble then spray with all panels on and adjusted, That way you get proper coverage on everything I see WAY too many cars with mismatched fenders and doors!! also you don't have to worry about buggering up the paint when installing the panels!! 

[jhemsted]

Be careful if you paint things separately because I did it with my 73 and when I went to put the fully painted doors back on, the drivers side was a completely darker piece.  I had to then use a color blender and repaint the whole driver side of the car.  Thankfully in the end it worked and everything matches.

[hemi-hampton]

Be careful if you paint things separately because I did it with my 73 and when I went to put the fully painted doors back on, the drivers side was a completely darker piece.  I had to then use a color blender and repaint the whole driver side of the car.  Thankfully in the end it worked and everything matches.

Thats why I prefer to paint my cars together. LEON.

[ChgrSteve67]

I had two hoods and a scoop that were not attached to the car when painted and they are not the same shade as the rest of the car.
Of course I didn't notice until the car was completely reassembled and pushed out into the day light.

Make sure the painter mixes enough to paint everything with the same batch.

[Patronus]

We're going to spray soon, plumb crazy. Looking for tips
on base coat application. Techniques, advise..always willing to learn..

[Dino]

We're going to spray soon, plumb crazy. Looking for tips
on base coat application. Techniques, advise..always willing to learn..

Here's a tip: don't try to paint a car as large as a Charger as a first try, you will fail.  Get something to play with first, layer your coats with enough time inbetween to let them flash.  Many thin coats are better than few thick ones.  You will only really know what it looks like after the clear has cured and it's outside in the daylight.  Grab a door or fender off a junkyard car and practice practice practice!

Prep is everything, paint is just changing the color of what you're looking at, it will not hide anything so go over the car again, if you doubt something will be noticable I can tell you now that it WILL be noticable.

Have all the correct equipment, a $5 paintgun may work but try it out first.  Use lots of degreaser, use lots of tack cloth.  The more effort you put into it now the better it will come out. 

If this all seems too daunting than have a pro do it, it costs a lot of money and energy to waste all those products and start over.

If you have any specific questions I am more than willing to help, (as are many others here).

[1BAD68]

  Use lots of degreaser, use lots of tack cloth. 

I agree with that. I just did my car and while I had some problems, one thing I did was make sure the surface was clean, surgically clean. Once it was clean, I cleaned it again.
Had absolutely no sign of fish eye or any other surface adhesion issue's.

[Patronus]

Here's a pic of my first painting project. I thought I would learn on something easy like a Charger. And an easy shade like black. But eh, thats just me. (Im pretty sure I could have done it without thumbs) I don't think I failed. Did you? It only took 8 months of prep work, is that long enough? My equipment is made by Ingersoll Rand and SataJet. (they dont carry those at the Depot, or Harbor Freight)
I should call a pro and have them take a look I guess. Being it is my first time and all... I did have some guys give me a trophy for it once. Its just so easy, why should I pay someone? If only I would've wiped it down first... arrrg....! Friggin' sallys

[1BAD68]

ok this thread just took a turn down confused avenue

[440]

Now where is that sarcasm detector 

[Supercharged Riot]

Take everything off if you want to do it right