How to paint a Show Car finish

[Rich G.]

Well Cody I just finished blocking the car with 400 and the last car I did I went with 1 coat of sealer and then right to the base/ clear coat. Car came out real nice but I guess what you're doing takes it up a notch! Right now the inside and bottom of the car and engine compartment are painted. The thought of masking everything off to seal it and then to block sand and mask all over again makes me wants to cry. LOL. How much sealer would I need to do a convertible challenger and how long before you start sanding again without a spray booth or baking it?

[RzeroB]

Since I know  @Shane Kelley  does good work I asked him to proof read it and he gave me some good tips that I have already added to the article.  Thank you for your help Shane.   

Cody, I can attest that you certainly picked the right guy to assist you with this project. Stopped by Shane's place Saturday and while I was there I checked out his 'Cuda. It is absolutely "blue-tiful!" Talk about a "show car finish?" Shane's car is it - wet, slick and a mile deep! It's an absolute stunner! 

[750-h2]

When wet sanding the clear there is a problem that occurs when you use tape as pictured to protect the edges. Problem being that you are not removing the orange peel texture from the paint surface beneath the tape. The way to get around this is to use a Sharpie/Magic marker and use it to cover all your edges. As you sand your edges the ink from the marker will start to disappear, As long as you still see ink you will not cut through. Once the ink completely disappears you stop. Works great and you do not have to worry about cutting through your edges. 

[wldgtx]

What a great article... so well written and so much information.

I remember getting lessons when I painted my first car... outside in my mothers backyard.  yeah yeah I know... but it didn't turn out as bad as it sounds.

Anyway, Thank you to the author, there are so many useful nuggets in there I cannot recall them all.  I used to tell people that the most important part of painting a car is the prep and detail work.  Laying down color and clear is the easy part, but the prep and detail work makes ALL of the difference.

I believe this article really captures that and then takes it to the moon... BRA-VO!!!!!! 

[Cuda Cody]

Very nice @Rich G.   Looking good.     I have painted cars by taking them to 600 and then going wet coats all the way from there....  just like you did: sealer, base, and then clear.  That will still look really freaking good.  And if you flow coated over that (sand the clear with 800 and re-clear) you are pretty much going to have a top 1% paint job.  If I was going to skip any steps it probably would be the sanding the sealer.... instead I would take the car to 600 then do the sealer, base and clear in one shot like you have done.   

Well Cody I just finished blocking the car with 400 and the last car I did I went with 1 coat of sealer and then right to the base/ clear coat. Car came out real nice but I guess what you're doing takes it up a notch! Right now the inside and bottom of the car and engine compartment are painted. The thought of masking everything off to seal it and then to block sand and mask all over again makes me wants to cry. LOL. How much sealer would I need to do a convertible challenger and how long before you start sanding again without a spray booth or baking it?

[Cuda Cody]

Good tip.  I'm like you and I use the guide coat the same way as you use the sharpie most of the time.  As long as I can see guide coat on the edges I know I'm still fine.     Thanks for sharing the sharpie tip.  I will update the article.   

When wet sanding the clear there is a problem that occurs when you use tape as pictured to protect the edges. Problem being that you are not removing the orange peel texture from the paint surface beneath the tape. The way to get around this is to use a Sharpie/Magic marker and use it to cover all your edges. As you sand your edges the ink from the marker will start to disappear, As long as you still see ink you will not cut through. Once the ink completely disappears you stop. Works great and you do not have to worry about cutting through your edges. 

[HP_Cuda]

 

I can tell you from experience the last go around on my Cuda someone didn't use guide coat (sharpie is a kind a cool low tech idea) and you could tell where they got a bit over excited in some areas near the edges.

[Convertcuda]

Nice job you did with the article! Super great effort.

Ken

[Chaos-N-Mayhem]

Cody, great write up and so much detail!
I think you briefly touched on this but wanted to get more insight on how to prep the EPD coated body panels for paint. My challenger has mostly new epd panels, but also a couple primer areas and a couple areas that are bare.
Is there one process I can use to address all 3 areas or do they need to be addressed differently to get to the point of adding paint?

[Cuda Cody]

If the panel is a true E-Coat then you can apply DP Epoxy (with the 401 hardener only) right over the E-Coat without having to scuff.  Just clean properly with wax and grease remover then epoxy prime.  You can check to see if the panel is really E-Coat by putting a little acetone on a rag and rubbing the E-Coat.  If it is E-Coat it will not come off.  However, I do not prime over E-Coat.  I like to take it down to metal so I DA it all off then do my normal metal prep.  I'm probably overkill, but I like knowing exactly what is under my paint.

As for the primer area, if you already took it down to metal and then did the metal prep chemical process and then added a 2 part epoxy, then all you have to do is scuff the panel with a quick 150 and clean it off.  Then you can move on to the next step.

For the bare metal area, I would DA to get a clean surface and start at the metal prep step.  Hope that helps.  Let me know if you have any other questions.

Cody, great write up and so much detail!
I think you briefly touched on this but wanted to get more insight on how to prep the EPD coated body panels for paint. My challenger has mostly new epd panels, but also a couple primer areas and a couple areas that are bare.
Is there one process I can use to address all 3 areas or do they need to be addressed differently to get to the point of adding paint?

[Shane Kelley]

Cody, great write up and so much detail!
I think you briefly touched on this but wanted to get more insight on how to prep the EPD coated body panels for paint. My challenger has mostly new epd panels, but also a couple primer areas and a couple areas that are bare.
Is there one process I can use to address all 3 areas or do they need to be addressed differently to get to the point of adding paint?

There was a issue with the E Coat on Goodmark parts in the past. My paint rep was asking what brand parts I had used on my Cuda. They had a customer who had paint coming loose on a recent job. They went out and determined the E Coat was coming loose from the sheet metal. Now I don't know if this has been corrected or exactly which parts they were. But it is something to keep in mind. If I was using Goodmark stuff I would DA all the E Coat off just to be safe. Last thing you want after a car assembly are paint issues.

[moparcar]

Such great info @Cuda Cody ! In the base coat section it states:

For any color other than black I use PPG DBC Basecoats (also known as Deltron 2000).   Here's the spec sheet:

PPG DBC Basecoat Color Spec Sheet

What is used for Black as that may be the direction I'm going.

Thanks-Wes

[Cuda Cody]

@MoparCar  Glad you asked.  For the deepest and blackest paint you will ever see you will want to use PPG Single Stage Concept 9300.  It will make other blacks look like they are brown.  It's by far the blackest of all blacks of any brand or line of paint.  And if you want to turn that deep dark black in to a show car paint job here's what you do:

- PPG Concept 9300
- Mix per the spec sheet = 4 parts paint + 2 parts DT reducer + 1 part DCX61 hardener

- Apply 1 coat of black paint to the car (normal 50% overlap passes)

- 50 / 50 mix with clear = On the 2nd coat of paint, mix Clear 2021 at the standard 4 parts clear + 1 part DCX61 hardener + 1 part DT reducer.  Then take your original standard mix of Black paint (that is already mixed at the 4-2-1) and mix them together at a 50/50 mix ratio.  Apply the second coat of paint to the car.

- Use the same 50/50 mix and apply the 3rd coat.


You can only use this technique with the with the 2021 clear.  It will not work with the 8152 glamour clear as they use different hardeners.  After that dries you can decide if you want to sand it and add a flow coat (2 or 3 more coats of 100% 2021 clear).  That will get you the deepest and blackest paint you will ever see.

Hope that helps. 

[Shane Kelley]

I don't shoot PPG. I shoot Sikkens. Not that I think one is any better than the other. Usually comes down to a product your used to using. I also do all black cars in single stage. Definitely the deepest and purist black. Here's another great benefit of using it. Rock chips. You can mix a tiny amount of paint and hardener to use for touch up. Take your time over a couple days and build it up so it's just a little higher than the surface. Then once it's hardened use a small block and sand it flat followed up with a mini buffer. You can literally make it perfect where you can't tell it was ever there. This works with other solid colors as well but black seems to hide the best. Here is a 69 I'm building for a customer with single stage. It's so slick and wet looking you would swear it has clear on it.

[RzeroB]

I've seen that black '69 in Shane's shop, it was so rich and deep I thought it was base / clear - shocked me when he told me it was single stage!!