paint car hood

"Karl Townsend" wrote: (clip) She was not impressed. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ But her hood was. (clip) Enough to know the key is preparation. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The key to durability and good adhesion is preparation. The key to satisfying *her* is smooth application. No runs. No orange peel. This hood is right in front of her eyes whenever she drives the car. Is she the kind of person who will look at a tiny bubble on one corner of the hood and become increasingly irritated?

I made the mistake of blaming her for parking in front of the weld shop entrance. What do you think?

Karl

When a panel is painted by itself the likelihood of it matching the adjacent panels is nil. The typical method is to blend into the surrounding panels, hence the $500.

Well Karl, now you're screwed. Lets see, if you paint it, it'll cost $200.00 plus lots of time sanding. Then you have to pay $500.00 to make her happy. She's going to take it in to be painted anyway. Now it cost $700.00. LOL.

Actually, you should make sure the wax is gone. So purchase a wax remover. Rough sand 220 grit dry. Fill all the little dings with spot putty and sand some more. Do that until it is perfect. Spray Primer Sealer. No sanding the sealer, put the color right over it. Spray Color coat / Clear coat combination. I used to buy Deltron color coat / clear coat from Ditzler. It sprays like lacquer. Don't know if it's still available. Have you got an air dryer? Moisture is terrible.

Take it in anyway. BC/CC red is going to cost you about 150 for the paint, Then you can plan on scuffing the hood, fenders and posts on the car. Then mask it off and shoot it. You need to do this because just painting the hood won't work. You have to shoot the hood and then blend the new paint into the old so it doesn't show. Even then anyone who has real experience with painting will know it has been painted. That is because red is a BIT%^ to match in many cases. Also you will NEVER match the factory paint exactly. Why? because your not a robot shooting with an electrostatic gun.

If a shop does it, they do the work, they also guarantee the work.

I think you just pissed her off a second time.

Been there, done that.

I suggest you broaden your search and find a hood the right color. even shipping it in from out of state would save you money. I've done this several times with good results.

Check with your local tech schools that have an auto body program, they are known for doing affordable paint jobs so they have vehicles for the students to practice on. I've seen a few vehicles painted this way and the results were good.

On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:01:53 -0600, the infamous "Karl Townsend" scrawled the following:

I got a $3,500-$4,000 quote to paint my old '90 F-150 the same color a couple years ago.

I was a wrench in a body shop for 5 years and hung out with the painter most slow days. Here's his method:

UNDERSIDE: scuff, clean to pristine, paint. (top stripped first)

TOPSIDE: Strip to bare metal, clean to pristine, prime, fill any tiny dings, sand, prime, sand, prime, paint, rub out, second coat (optional), rub out, clearcoat, rub out. Wait at least a month, add sealant/wax.

You're damned lucky it's not a metalflake, Karl.

Ask several local body shops "How much to spray it if -I- prep it?" Prolly $200 with paint, so go for it. It's a bitch to do right.

YOUR WASTING YOUR TIME .ONLY WAY TO GET IT RIGHT IS PAINT THE WHOLE CAR.

sal

You won't save much (if any) doing it yourself. You will need: DA sander sanding discs in various grits respirator, NIOSH rated for urethane and epoxy paints two-part epoxy primer highbuild primer, like Kondar reducer for the highbuild primer wetordry paper, 400 grit to wetsand the high-build sealer like DAS1980 base coat in the right color. red is among the most expensive correct reducer for the basecoat clearcoat clearcoat catalyst correct reducer for the clearcoat

And blended paint jobs look like crap 6 months later. For a full panel, like a hood, I say paint it OFF THE CAR, and install it after the paint is fully hardened. Wet sand with 2500 grit and polish and if you got the right paint it will match. Use a slow reducer on metalics to let the flake lie down.

When I have small jobs like painting a door handle, I go to the auto paint place and get an aerosol can of the paint to the paint number on the car. So far I have only used the single stage paint, but it is also available in base coat / clear coat. I have had good luck with this but I have only done door handles so take this with a grain of salt.

I get the handles prime coated so what I do is clean them with acetone, then I lightly sand them with some wet 400 grit and rinse in clear water. When dry I wipe any dust off with a tack rag and spray several light coats to avoid the drips and runs.

I have a cardboard box set up to hang the part while drying so no dust settles on the drying paint. You might be able to section off a corner of the barn with plastic and wet it down to make a makeshift spray booth.

You might want to buy one can as a color match test to see if the new paint will match with the old paint before you spend a ton on the project.

Another alternative is to attach the white hood and then take it to one of those places that repaint whole cars for a couple of hundred bucks. That way if the hue is a little off from the original color, it is off evenly over the whole car.

Or to buy a used hood from the wrecking yard, which is exactly what Id do.

Gunner

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." Maj. Gen. John Sedgewick, killed by a sniper in 1864 at the battle of Spotsylvania

Basically, clear-coat is not a DIY process. Some of the materials are quite toxic and fussy about mixing and application. You will need it to be professionally done if it is to look satisfactory. Be sure that your insurance will not help. You could have specified a correct color hood when you bought it and may be able to get an exchange. Otherwise, pay up and charge it to "Education and Training".

Don Young

OK, everybody, you convinced me, I'll pay up.

Let me tell you the whole story.

Several years ago, I was putting a new drain valve on a low spot in my irrigation line and I didn't have the correct gate valve. So, I sent my better half to town to get what she could find and ended up installing a POS Chinese one from the discount store. (This is four feet under ground and reached by putting a vertical pipe over the handle and then a stick and fork)

Well, just before freeze up, I try to drain the line and the handle broke off. No big deal, I get the back hoe to dig it out. BUT, I for got the line Tee from the main four feet at this header and I hit the main with the backhoe and bust it all up. Now I'm in trouble. It took week to get the parts, about $400 worth. it rained in the mean time and the hole was a slimy mess. I turned out I had to dig the line up for thirty feet in the mud and most of it by hand. I ended up spending four days on the job. it was so muddy, that I couldn't use the loader to push the dirt back in the hole, the tractor just would spin the rear tires.

The drain Valve I got, didn't look that much better, so I said, I'll put a four foot culvert down to it. Nice and large, keep the valve handle out in the open. I hook a chain on to the culvert and drive back to the shop. The kid has parked his car where I should go, the wife has parked eight feet to the other side. I'm a slime ball mess, so I try driving the tractor right between the cars. I should have looked back sooner, that culvert caught on the concrete lip and stood straight up. It must have taken 15 seconds before it started tipping over, of course directly at her car.

Then I made my biggest mistake, I blamed her for parking all her stuff in front of my shop.

We had turned in a total loss to insurance a year ago and a fender bender shortly before that. So, I shopped for a used hood thinking I could just paint it myself. I'm worried the company will jack out rates for being accident prone.

Anyway, that ten dollar valve is costing about $1200 to replace and about four days of the most awful work you could ever do. Plus, the wife will tell this story for years.

Karl

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:04:25 -0600, the infamous "Karl Townsend" scrawled the following:

And you had the balls to ask about painting her hood...after all _that_?

Atta Boy!

Don't they always? Gerry :-)} London, Canada