Sterling #130 (aka American V8 ~ Chapter 2)

[ratrog64]

My advise to you would be (not that you asked for any):

Buy a halfway decent gun. Primer guns are cheap, less then $100. Top and clear gun $250 or a little less. Top coat gun can also be used with a single stage paint.

The farm store enamels are too soft and take to long to cure. You really want to go with an Acrylic Urethane.

Paint: These cars are small enough that you can buy decent paint and you will be very happy you did. 3 to 4 qts sprayable is enough paint.

Single stage paints are pretty good if you stay with a solid color. Anything metallic you need to go base coat clear coat. I'd even go base clear with a solid color. I'm not a fan of metallics.

2k Primer in a high build formula if your body is not real flat. Regular 2k if you have already done some blocking.

Using a decent paint is very forgiving. You can always work out drips etc and go back over your work if you need to. Farm store enamels can be a nightmare. They are great for the chassis, not so much for the body.


Primer: $175 1 gal kit.

Single stage Acrylic Urethane $100

Base coat $100

Clear coat $200

Reducer $75

Satin Black Single Stage 2 qts $ 100

1 Gal wash quality thinner $20

Misc supplies $100

You don't have to be a great painter. You just have to be a good wet sander and buffer to get a high quality job.

For about $1000.00 You can do a pretty damn nice paint job and in the end you will still have your guns.

 

[nbb350]

I went to my local auto paint supplier before running around to the body shops and they were quoting me $800 just for a gallon of paint, reducer and catalyst. another $600 for clear coat. add even more $$ for epoxy sealer and primer and satin black. ugh... it adds up fast (still cheaper than House of Kolor...they ballparked me around $10k in materials a few years back! lol)

also add in the $$ to drape my shop walls and ceiling in plastic, build a filter fan box for a window/door, and rig up a face mask with hose for a fresh air supply (no lungs full of carcinogens please!). Even going "cheap" is gonna add up fast...

not many places around me to buy paint either. O'Reilly, NAPA and AutoZone are everywhere, but the only paint they sell are factory touchup colors in small overpriced cans or little pens.

The paint I'm looking at is VanSickle Acrylic Enamel with hardener.
https://www.vansicklepaint.com/products/performance-ag-fleet
Less than $50/gallon. They sell a clear coat too.

I'll probably go with Light Ford Gray. I'd consider Flint Grey Metallic, but not sure if *I* (or my experienced brother whom I am trying to convince to come stay and spray) should try spraying a metallic on my first attempt at painting. Plus, I'd need to see a larger sample area of the color than just the cap on the spray can.

 

[ratrog64]

On one hand you are talking about $25 per gallon at the farm store or on the other hand $800 per gallon for paint you will waste the majority of. There are lots of choices in between.

First of all you will not need a gallon of paint. Yes maybe a gallon of sprayable material since you haven't painted before, but that means you only need half of that in paint. Most paints are 1:1. So half of that is reducer.

$600 for clear? You are not Chip Foose painting a car for SEMA. For a car that will spend the majority of its life in a garage being protected from the elements, even $300 a gallon is a lot. You can get a good quality clear for less then $200 a gallon. If the car was going to be sitting in the sun all day every day, I'd say spend more, but for a garage car, its more then enough.

Remember, you said you couldn't see spending all that money just to cover $500 worth of amateur body work. So why would you even consider buying a few thousand dollars for materials, that A- You are not experienced enough to use, and B- To cover questionable body work that may shrink and spoil the paint job later.

I'd say if you had to drive an hour to get to a paint supplier where you can save a couple of thousand bucks, it would be time well spent.

I'm sure the body shops in your area have a local supplier for reasonably priced paints that you just haven't discovered yet. Keep searching.

Van Sickle Acrylic Enamel is fine if you are painting your lawn furniture or a tractor. Yes, you can get ok results on a car if you plan on waiting a few weeks to cure before a wet sand and buff. I'd still be cautious about going over fiberglass and fillers with oil based thinners. Just wait till you see how rubbery your plastic body starts to feel. Oil based enamels are better suited on metal, catalyzed urethane is much safer over plastic bodies.

Again, I know you didn't ask for advise, I just hate to see you do something you may later regret on such a cool project.

Either way, good luck and be sure to keep us all posted on your progress.

 

[nbb350]

So, the last couple of body shops that said "we'll get back to you" have not gotten "back to me"...oh well...time to move on. I've done all the work on the car so far myself, so might as well finish the job.

After some searching online for Acrylic Urethane paint and finding mostly professional references, I was getting disgruntled, so I decided to search for leads on our favorite online store for Everything - Amazon! There I found AU by Eastwood and Speedokote. Eastwood? I've heard of them! And they sell both Satin Black and "Gasser Green" - a "heavy" metallic that is fairly similar to the Chevy Synergy Green pearl I wanted to use. And also a clear coat. BUT...only around $120 per gallon! now we're talking in my ballpark! lol

Also turns out that the paint is cheaper when purchased directly from the Eastwood website. And free shipping over $99 thru this weekend. So I plan to buy the Satin Black (paint/activator/reducer) and start there. Most of those are interior parts that aren't "obvious", so I can learn on them without feeling terrible if i get a few runs (except the louvers - I'll paint those last so they hopefully look the best).

I already have an HVLP gun that I bought a decade ago along with the epoxy primer/sealer and some 2k buildup primer. I'll use those before the black paint obviously.

Now I need to turn my shop into a paint booth. Plastic sheeting on the walls and ceiling. old box fan with furnace filters for a window exhaust. and a modified scuba mask with outside air hose for my lungs!

But first I have to go replace the microwave over the kitchen stove...it decided to crap out 5 seconds into my morning coffee...ugh...it's always SOMETHING!

 

[ThreeTimeTom]

Great to follow your progress. What size compressor? Good luck. I'm having mine painted locally. Space is a problem.

 

[nbb350]

I have a 5hp 60 gallon upright compressor so air supply won't be a problem.

 

[Peter]

Sounds like you are well on the way with the paint. Interesting to see the differences in paints used between USA and EU where water based is 90% of paint used now. no need for serious masks, etc.


I just have a lot of plastic dust sheeting and a domestic 44cm fan. but it will be a while as I still have to finish my BMW hood and get her out of the 'shed', just a 'few runs' to attend to.


On the SS I hope to do a black flip flop but it seems the price is far greater than wrapping so might go that rout instead. but no point until I can afford the astronomical cost of registration here.

 

[nbb350]

This weekend's project was part of "Prep for Painting" - build a vent fan.

I managed to build the whole thing out of scrap material and an old fan that is WAY too loud to use anywhere other than a shop. The frame has slots for five 16"x25"x1" pleated paper furnace filters. After a test fit in the window, I can attest that it sure does suck...a steady breeze thru my service door!

 

[Peter]

That's quite a construction you have there, certainly be enough filter surface. *thumbs up*

 

[nbb350]

Replacing the microwave turned into some minor custom cabinetry work, so the weekend wasn't as productive as I'd hoped it to be. BUT, work is slow this week and the humidity is non-existent, so I'm using some vacation time to get the shop prepped for painting.

Sunday/Monday Funday: plastic sheeting!
FYI, 3.0 mil sheeting is WAY more than 6x harder to hang than 0.5 mil sheeting...grrrrr...

I'm also staring to buy some portable work stands for painting. At $18/each, they're affordable enough and I can probably sell them afterwards for $10/each on CL! Unfortunately, the two Harbor Freights near me are sold out and the next truck doesn't come in until Thursday.

 

[nbb350]

Oh, I also made my "air supply mask". DON'T LAUGH - IT WORKS AWESOME! lol
plus, I can take it apart later and use the parts as they were originally intended!

the silver bulb on the end is a "hose bubbler end" I had. Working in reverse, it'll keep bugs and stuff out of my air line!

 

[Nic]

Funny, I JUST saw one of those hose bubblers this weekend.

 

[ratrog64]

What is supplying the fresh air to your mask?

 

[letterman7]

^ Yeah, what's supplying the air? You cannot use an air compressor for that. That's an absolute no-no. Dedicated breathing systems are expensive. For just one shoot, especially with a fan going, your respirator will be just fine. Now, that said... about paints:


I agree with what Roger has stated earlier. I get all my paints from AutoBodyToolMart.com exclusively. I buy Kirker paints and primers and have had zero failures in the ten years or so I've been shooting them for signs and cars. Prep is everything, of course. So is practice. Kirker paints are about $65-85 a gallon, plus the activators and clears. But, you can get single stage that will perform just as well as a two stage (one coat versus a base coat and clear). Shoot a nice sandable primer down, do your thing getting it smooth, and shoot your basecoat. And despite Rogers suggestion of using different guns... I've shot everything from primers to clears out of the same gun - you just need the right air pressure at a constant PSI and CFM and you need to clean the gun out really well between materials or you'll get the dreaded spray speck when you least expect it


I shot my car with Kirker stuff last fall - in a tent in my yard - with the temps falling below the recommended range. And it came out fine. I could cut and buff some of the orange peel that happened in the clear, but it doesn't bother me that much:

 

[nbb350]

What is supplying the fresh air to your mask?

The atmosphere. The silver "bubbler" end goes on the end of the hose outside of the shop and I suck air in thru it and the hose. The mask has valves inside so I breathe the air IN thru the hose and OUT thru the mask.

For the epoxy and primer coat (if needed), I'll be using a $15 Harbor Freight gun since I expect to have to sand a bit after spraying.

I'm trying to convince my cousin to buy his new "high-end" HVLP gun sooner rather than later so I can "test" it on my color/clear coats!

 

[nbb350]

Spent the last two days spraying primer!

Yesterday I first laid down epoxy sealer-primer on all the parts that will eventually be Satin Black. (Green parts are Phase 2...later) Then today I sprayed some 2K primer on the louvers, dash and inside of canopy (overhead area).

FYI, I bought this stuff at least a decade ago and it all mixed up and sprayed fine! It's been stored in an unheated garage, storage unit, and shop up until 2 years ago, then in a heated shop. Yeah, there was gunk on the bottom, but it all mixed up nice eventually. I strained the epoxy thru a 120 filter, but didn't strain the G2 filler since it's supposed to be thick.

The epoxy sprayed on fine after I finally got the gun figured out (too many dials!), but working inside a tyvek bunny suit with a snorkel mask on makes for HOT work! I wish I was doing this LAST weekend when it was in the 60's and 70's here with 50% humidity...not today in the 80s with 90% humidity. ugh. Oh well...that weather is what got my ambition up! lol

My HVLP gun has a 1.4mm tip which was within the epoxy specs, but the 2k primer wanted a bigger tip, so what did I do? Custom modifications! lol it worked great!
5/64" ~ 2.0mm

Another thing that worked great was the furnace filters on my window fan. Here they are AFTER spraying the epoxy. And the outside trim on my window is still nice and white!

Right now the plan is to sand the dash and louvers tomorrow.
Hopefully I can then spray some satin black paint on Monday morning - within the 72 hour window for the epoxy sealer. Then I won't have to scuff and clean everything.
BUT, that all depends on if my Reducer arrives Sunday like the FedEx website says it will (it was backordered and shipped separately from the paint)

 

[nbb350]

Sprayed some Satin Black this morning. Oh so pretty!

I also had to swap some filters halfway thru when i could hear the vent fan slowing down due to clogged filters...

Dash, louvers and inside of canopy will all get black at a later date. I still need to do some wet sanding on the louvers and canopy, scuff up any old epoxy (now outside of my recoat window), and then spray everything with a thin coat of epoxy before laying on the new black topcoat. Next weekend...

 

[vpogv]

Love the updates and progress. You are definitely inspiring me to attack this stage myself too. Keep up the updates!

 

[nbb350]

and it only took a worldwide "pandemic" to motivate me! lol

after drying I have to say I'm VERY happy with the results! yeah, there are a few dust flakes in the paint here and there, but they're not too obvious. Not like I'm a professional painter...or body man...or electrician...etc...

so far everything has been sprayed with a $10 Harbor Freight HVLP gun too. Although, i have to say that the first one i used for primer - and subsequently drilled out so now its only good for 2k primer buildups - was the best. Today's gun was brand new and sprayed in minor "sputters". not sure why...none of the dials improved performance. next time i'll use a new filter on the air line - maybe the filter is getting plugged (new before the epoxy tho).

If the next gun behaves the same (yeah...i bought three of them with low expectations!), i'll probably have to look into a better gun.

so far the biggest surprise to me has been the amount of chemistry and math required for painting! ratios and flash times and dry times and recoat times...not HARD, but just a lot to keep track of.

 

[nbb350]

Expensive morning...just ordered $450 worth of epoxy primer, Gasser Green paint, and Clear Coat for the car. (free shipping!)

Also contemplating a DeVilbiss FLG4-670 HVLP gun for $200... do I want to gamble $450 worth of paint on a $10 gun? *hmmm**insane**nothing to see*

Right now my plan is to finish wet sanding the louvers tonight or tomorrow (weather depending) and then get everything rearranged Friday afternoon. Finished black parts out of the painting booth and wet sanded parts into the booth. No sense in rushing things - let those parts dry for a few days.

Then Saturday morning when the temps are cool I'll spray some epoxy over the wet sanded parts. Depending on temps and times, I'll then spray the louvers, dash & inside canopy black on either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning when the temps are down again.