Hello all. Rather than lets my maverick sit until next millenium, I have finally decided to start on a long restoration now. There are a million low cost things that I can do now. The car has a real real badly faded blue paint job. I have a grabber hood and the sort that will be going on the car. I have primered cars in the past, but they have been half assed primer jobs. How do I prep this in the same way that a professional would? This car is parked in my apt complex, and unfortunetly do not have access to electricity. Should I sand this to the steel? what kind/grit sand paper should I used, what method/motion should I sand in. If I do sand to the steel, do I apply any kind of under coat primer/rust spray. Please help. Is there a battery powered sander that might work, and finally, would this be a dumb job to tackle by hand, thanks Guys, Jeremy.
You would really be better off sanding your car in a garage were you have access to electricity an an air compressor. Sanding a car for primer or paint is mostly done with air powered sanders but it can be done all by hand if you have LOTS of time, the right grit sand papers and don't mind sanding the skin off your hands untill they bleed. Thats really doing it the hard way. As far as I know there are no battery operated sanders on the market. The other draw back is if you sand the car to bare metal, you would need to get primer on it as soon as possible since it would rust over very quickly sitting outdoors overnight. I would highly recommend waiting until you could find a dry garage with electricity to work in.
you might think about checking the community colleges etc. in your area. i know the one in mine lets you take there auto body shop and they supply the tools and the instructor can answer any questions you might have. the one in my area also has a spray booth and you can take the classes at night as for the sanding, if the old paint is not real bad just sand it to rough it up a little and then primer it. you can do a section at a time. however we were told never to use the spray cans so that leaves us at what do you primer it with. i'd check around for a class first. by the way harbor freight has a good selection of air powered tools and spray guns at a pretty good price.
That is a fantastic idea. I forgot all about those college classes, I used to take them, but got so wrapped up in my bachelors degrees and career that I lost time for them. I am gonna look into a night class, this could be fun.
One thing you might take into consideration is the fact that primer is not paint. What I am saying is primer will absorb moisture, especially if the car is left outside. I have been guilty of doing this all my life when doing a driver in progress. The longer it is exposed to the elements, the more moisture it attracts. Ever see a primered car that looks like it is rusting all over? Good luck! Dan
your exactly right dan, i was looking at my primered 64 fairlane today and thinking that i need to sand it and primer it again,quickly. there are some new primers that are made for final use but if your going that far why not put a nice coat of paint on it.
By all means, don't try to do anything like this outdoors. It's like Dan said, primer is porous and your work would quickly turn to rust. Then of course the next step would be to strip the primer back off again and do it all over...again and again and again. You're much better off with the faded blue paint than primer...especially primer out of a spray can. It's about ten times thinner than that out of a professional spray gun. The college idea is worth checking into and if it doesn't pan out, find you a spot inside somewhere, somehow. Then if you do find a spot and do the work yourself, I suggest taking one panel at a time, stripping it, then priming it with something other than spray can primer. You really need to use a good two-part epoxy type primer. I manage a body shop for a Lincoln Mercury dealer and I would never let a car come into my shop for a paint job with spray can primer on it. It would have to be stripped all the way back down and there goes all of your hard work. A paint job is only as good as the preparation you put into it. That includes all your time and the product that's going to be under the paint. A poor base will ultimately lead to a poor paint job. It may take it a week or so to come out but take my word for it, it will. Good luck, Ray
I appreciate all the posts, since I want to do this right the first time, I will not use the canned primer. I remember when My hood got some surface rust once, so I sanded and primered it, and 1 month later it was rusted again. My car just might have to wait until I can buy a house, hopefully sometime this year.
