Body Paint prep help

[BobbyY]

I am looking for some experienced opinions here. I am close to prepping the body for paint so some solid advice will be greatly appreciated. First a little history, the car is a 67 Dart. The car has had at least one paint job and not a very good one, nothing peeling or lifting, just not well done. At 50 feet and moving it looks nice, but when stopped and up close, that is a different story. The top coat of paint is Summit single stage. This concerns me because I do not know what is under the paint or how it was prepped. My first question is, do I take it down to bare metal, or just pick a spot and start sanding and see what is under it. This is not a restoration project but rather a Retro-Rod project. The body is a clean rust free car with minimal body work needed. Mostly 45 years of door dings that were not attended to during other re-paints. My goal is a solid driver weekend Mall show kind of car, not an ultra high end finish but one anyone would be proud to be seen with. I have never done body or paint so I am way out of my comfort zone here. I do have a painter that does outstanding work, but he does not want to do anything but run the sprayer, so body prep is all up to me and I do understand the final finish is only as good as what is under the paint. With that said and due to work and not being able to do this all at once (it is a project) and doing most of it outside under an awning and being in central Texas with a moderately high relative humidly I have some concerns. As I see it I have a couple of options;
1) One ding (maybe 8-10 dings) at a time, take it to bare metal and work out any dents maybe use some evercoat metal glaze to finish it up. The problem with that is how do I protect the area, do I just use some rattle can primer to protect the metal from rusting. If so what do I do when all of the dings are finished?
2) Bite the bullet and take the whole car to bare metal and shoot it with epoxy primer then take dings one at a time and fix them over the epoxy. If I go this route, what is the best way to go to bare metal besides blasting? Do I use a coarse paper on my sander or do I use a chemical stripper then finish it with the sander.
I'm sure there are other options as well, I just don't know them.


Thanks
Bobby

 

[CUUDAK]

Refrain from going to bare metal if possible. If you do you will need to treat it as the old steel has 0 corrosion protect. Todays sheetmetal contains a good amount of Zinc!

If your not doing a show/resto I would just take it down to the original finish and work from there. If you break through just get some sealer on it quickly. If you can get to the back side of the dings use a shrinking hammer and a flat dollie to work them out. A shrink hammer has a cut face with spiral teeth kinda. It twists the metal as you are hammering. They work well and can be found at HF.

You can use a D.A. sander for most of the finish removal. ORiellys carries a line of sandpapers that are as good as Mirka. Actually better at not clogging up! I start with 80 to remove the last coat of paint. You will see it start to feather out and will be able to count the layers. This method will also highlight all the dings and dents. Once down to the original finish change your paper to 180 grit and sand over the 80 areas. This is the time you can shoot 2 coats of a catylized sealer over the areas you are working on. This will seal the previous substrate and won't allow anything below to cause any issues with the new paint. Just be sure to stick with the same brands, do not intermix products!!

Allow the sealer to cure before you start any bodywork! Remove whatever damage you can and use the said Evercoat to fill the small imperfections. You must resand the areas before you use the Evercoat. I always use 180 then spread the glaze. The glaze is really viscous and easy to spread with the correct spreaders. Don't waste your cash on those cheap auto parts store spreaders! Get the stiffer ones from the paint supply.

Once you get your work done shoot two to three coats of catylized filler primer for the final wetsanding. That my friend is a whole other story

There is a Body Work tutorial stickied at the top of the forum index. That is a pretty detailed thread to help you along that route.

This is a conservative approach to a good paint job.

Going to bare metal is a lengthy process and requires epoxy sealers with etching properties or you have to do acid wash. Lots of work for a driver/street meet ride.

 

[CUUDAK]

I forgot to mention,
stay away from aerosol primers! They do not stop water from soaking in and contaminating the bare metal. Only the catylized primers and sealers will do that until they are sanded again.

 

[BobbyY]

Thanks CUUDAK,I also foud a couple of threads a couple of hours after posting that had a lot of great info.

 

[AdamR]

If it were my car I would strip it to bare metal and put on 2 coats of epoxy, do my body work and spray it with a poly primer. Block it flat, spray it with 2k and wet sand it.

 

[Tincup]

If you are going to be working outside, only do 1 panel at a time, do not strip the whole car at once.