Having never painted anything bigger than duck decoys with spray paint, I kinda got broke off in it today. I taped up the XJ and prepped the back hatch for painting. I decided to spray it with OD green, which looks pretty good after the first coat. I have now sanded with 400 grit sandpaper, and have lots of dust left over. I hit it with the air hose, but there is some dust left over. What in the hell do I do now? I would presume that this needs to come off before the next coat, but am afraid to use acetone or something similar to wipe down with. Is a plain damp rag sufficient as long as it gets all of the dust off, given adequate time to dry afterwards before the next coat? Please forgive the n00b question, just didn't think that process all the way through.

 

Should say what to do on the can. I usually wipe down with rubbing alcohol and very near dry clean cloth. But that may not be the exact right thing for the your paint. Gotta read the fine print on the label.

 

just use a tac cloth.

 

^^^ that

they sell them at autozone and they're real cheap

 

wipe down with mineral spirits, then use a tac cloth.

 

Thanks guys, I opted for the tac cloth, worked pretty well. The can doesn't say squat about anything to do with "between coats", fine print or otherwise. Just so you know, mineral spirits remove Krylon.

 

once you lay down paint there is a recoat time. follow that. because since the paint is fresh it will be tacky (which is why it will leave a finger print if touched before it is dry) that tackiness allows each coat to stick to eachother allowing the paint to build.

you should not do anything between coats.

once everything is dry you can wet/color sand it with 1000-1500-2000 grit sand paper and claybar/buff it. But since i assume you are using a flat or satin finish i would just spray it let it dry and leave it at that.


also rust-oleum is the closest spray can paint to that of real automotive paint.

i would use rust-oleum and not krylon.

 

The only problem with this is there is way too much over-spray to justify coating over that, might come out looking like bedliner.


Yup.


I would much rather have used Rustoleum, but I could not find the camo dead-flat paints anywhere, I looked for a week. Home Despot supposedly carries it, but none of the ones that I went to/called had any. Or they didn't know what I was talking about.

One good thing is, as I mention above, mineral spirits completely remove Krylon. If I don't like it, it will take about 20 minutes to wipe it all off. I'll be out an afternoon and about $20 in paint and some masking tape, no harm done. I guess that is the beauty of this project, it really isn't DONE until I quit jacking with it.

 

wow overspray problem sounds weird. But it sounds like you got it under control on what you want to do with the paint project, it is just a matter of getting it done. In which case i wish you best of luck! and i am surprise your autopart stores dont cary ultra camo...

again best of luck man! hopefully it turns out!

 

Thanks for your advice, and support. Right now it is a matter of dodging the rain, been going off and on most of the day. I would really hate to have to mask everything off again. Gonna pull it out of the garage so I can get the door down, and then shower. I am a sweaty mess, tired but relatively satisfied. Not only have I gotten most of the way through this project today, I also finished messing with the no-longer-rusty roof. I got the last coat of Herculiner on it, looks good. I guess that is my other option if all else fails on the body...

 

if you can take pictures of your roof! i debated this (and still am) for the longest time before i just went ahead and painted the entire thing (homemade spraybooth and a tradition HPLV gun)


and yes rain. i wish we had some here.... where i go to school it flooded (next state over) and here is been bone dry....

 

I'd be more than happy to take some pics, just as long as you don't laugh at my fiberglass patches. I figured nobody would ever see them, so I wasn't that aggressive about cleaning up the resin. Doesn't look bad, my dad didn't even notice them until I pointed them out. I also did my hood with Herculiner, more of a "practice run" if you will. I am very satisfied with both.

I just went out and moved the XJ and took a look at the back. Everything is dry to the touch and looks good. I think one more coat in the morning will about do it, I think I am going to use a 3M scrubbie to knock the chunks off. The 2nd coat is already hard, can't scratch it with a fingernail, which is a good sign I guess. It just doesn't make much sense to me to spray a coat of paint over a loose surface. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow after we get back from the zoo.

I am planning on doing this in stages, provided all goes well with the hatch. Maybe I should take pictures, step by step, for those of us who are "painting challenged" and submit it as a write-up. I know I can't be the only one that has stumbled through this, or is about to.