How To Refinish Car Paint
You are tired of driving your car all over the city wondering if people are laughing at the clown dancing in the street, or if they are really laughing at the horrible condition your car is in. You know that you need your car refinished, but your rent is due and you still have to eat. Thankfully, you have the guts to try and refinish it yourself.
- Wash the entire car surface, being careful to use a degreaser to remove all grease and other blemishes off of the old finish.
- Cover any surface that does not need to be refinished. Use either tarp or masking tape.
- Assess your rust removal needs. If there is a small amount of rust, use a WD-40 type of oil or sandblast it. If too large, then cut the metal away and weld patches of 22- to 18-gauge metal using a wire feed welding blowtorch. Make sure you use all the necessary precautions should blowtorching become necessary.
- Fix any dents in the panel. Take a hammer from the inside of the car, or a suction cup with a handle on the outside and pound or pull the dent, respectively. If the damage is too great, consider getting a replacement panel.
- Sand all paint remaining on the panel. Use a 320-grit sandpaper to remove all rough spots. Use a power sander if your topcoat is peeling.
- Start priming the surface no matter if it is bare metal or if there are still layers.
- Coat the surface with urethane primer, followed by "blocking" the primer by wrapping 400-grit sandpaper around a block and using it to smooth away all the primer and remove all gloss.
- Make sure that the surface is completely clean and dry before applying the topcoat of paint. Use a good paint gun and paint every 15 minutes if you are painting bare metal. Go for three coats every 15 minutes.