i think im good as far as prep. its the paint part that im worried about. 23 coats and wet sanding between every 2...holy ****.

 

would navy blue over red be easier and less coats than dark red to yellow? i think so. i think im gonna do dark blue with black trim. just rollers and wet sanding.

 

Are you willing to leave the engine bay and/or door sills red and paint the rest of the XJ blue?

 

First of all, regular automotive spray painting requires a compressor with enough cfm (cubic feet per minute) to run a paint gun. You'll need a paint gun somewhat like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Industrial-H...5f33e190#rpdId

or maybe like this:

If you choose to get tooled up to paint cars, you'll find that a lot of your friends suddenly need a car painted. Everybody wants to get a paint
job, but nobody wants to accumulate all the necessary stuff with which to do it.

What you are interested in is how much "free air" or what "volume of air at such-and-such a pressure." A lot of professional paint guns require between 9-15 cfm @ 40 psi. You will want to buy an in-line pressure regulator to moderate line pressure to whatever your paint gun requires. If you have a compressor putting out 60 psi, but your paint gun only wants 15 psi, you will have better luck if you put a $10 in-line pressure regulator on it. It has a little gauge and a ****. The input side is your compressor's line pressure (say 60 psi.) The output goes through the gauge, and you turn down the pressure with the ****, reading it on the gauge.

BEFORE YOU SHOOT ANY PAINT WHATSOEVER, go buy a top quality paint/aerosol particle mask. You want a DOUBLE FILTER P95 MASK. It's designed to keep paint and pesticides out of your lungs. Paint can cause emphysema, COPD, lung cancer, etc., etc. DO NOT BREATHE PAINT FUMES.
http://automotive-spray-painting.bizshopsales.com/

Wet-sand everything with 120 grit sandpaper, then go over it again with 400 grit. Sand dents and dings down to bare metal, fill the dent with Bondo and sand it smooth once the Bondo sets. When you look "down the line" if you can see a bobble or a hole, etc. it will show up ten times as bad with a fresh paint job. Wipe it down with clean, soft rags and solvent, then once the solvent dries, use a "tacky cloth." (You can get all this stuff at auto paint stores.)

Wet sand with 400 grit between coats. Make SURE the paint is well-dried. Five coats should be a good-looking paint job. Thin coats are better than thick coats. (Thick coats usually cause "runs" in the paint.)

After sanding, TAPE OFF EVERYTHING with painter's tape. BE CAREFUL. Remember anything you tape incorrectly will come out looking like a t*** in a punch bowl.

 

thanks man. but i dont think that investing in a paint gun is a wise economic decision for me right now. i think im gonna do rollers.

 

LOL I was thinking the same thing. I cant believe the patience you have Diskman. I would have given up after about the third coat and went to this instead After a few of those the finish would have looked great anyway.

 

lmao. awesome. i think it be that many coats going from red to dark blue. 23 is ridiculous.

 

Going to dark blue will be better than my going black-cherry to yellow.

Yellow doesnt cover that well and takes MANY coats.

As I said. You are trading your time for $. I had February off due to layoffs so I did it. It could be done faster I suppose, but I mostly painted in the evenings.

More pics..

The day I brought her home. Best $200 I spent.




A few months after I finished painting. Thinking May/Juneish maybe..
Before I painted the rims black.

 

ill take off for a friday, sat, and sunday and bang it out with some helpers

 

Something else to consider when prepping is sanding with a fine enough grit that your color or primer whichever you are putting down ontop of the sanded substrate so that it doesnt swell up in the scratches. Personally when I do professional *I use the term loosely* bodywork on the side I will rough cut the existing paint with 80 grit and get all the nonsense out, then step up to 180 grit all over the car again and then I use a good two component epoxy primer. That locks down the old color and bodywork. I HIGHLY recommend primer with painting over red. It may take 2 coats of primer to hide the red. Lightly sand the primer once its dry *prolly the following day after application* with 320-400 grit *whatever the paint manufacturer calls for* and then roll on your color. I personally swear by epoxy primer... best film build and hiding... the only down side is the UV destroys it in no time. So if your going to prime it and then drive or leave it outside till you put color on just make sure to get all the chalked primer off before coloring over top.

 

thanks. i was definetly priming anyway. lol. its an impprtant step to and paint job.

 

a cheap no-name paint gun ( under $50 ) will do a much better job than rollers.

 

Not without a compressor.

 

Rent one!

 

but doing a fantastic job with rollers gives you bragging rights.

i had so many people call bs when i said i did mine with rollers.
even my buddy that owns a body shop couldn't believe how good it turned out.

looks like chit now that it's all trail striped...