Agree! Kevin's Eastwood videos are great.
Good for you for choosing to tackle your car's paint and body work yourself.
I taught myself how to repair and paint fiberglass when I restored my 69 Corvette about 15 years ago. Here are some recommendations regarding the "basics" you asked for:
** Disclaimer - I'm not Pro at paint and body- I'm another amateur (like you) who took a chance, and ventured down the same road you are getting ready to go down. I'm going to post my opinions, viewpoints, and explain what I did (and how I did it) - Some of my points and techniques might be debated by the real pros; so you will have to digest all the information (and opinions) you get on this topic, and decide for yourself.
That being said- Here are both of my 2 cents (dumped into 10 paragraphs
)
1) Don't spend a ton on sanding blocks, long boards and expensive guns - You don't need them. Save the money for sand paper, masking paper, and tape (you WILL need those- and more of each than you can possibly imagine
)
You can put a really smooth, shiny, reflective surface on a car using a cheap 6-inch DA sander to remove material, and hand-sanding all your finished surfaces using a paint stir-stick as your block sander, and a medium firmness kitchen sponge as your fine color and contour sander. Sponges are cheap, and stir sticks are free, in unlimited supply at the local Home Depot. Just wrap your sandpaper around them, and go...
2) Remember, sand paper should never move in a circular direction on a car (unless you are using your DA to remove material)- Always finish-sand in a cross-hatch pattern, even when you are following the curves on a fender.
3) Don't freak out about runs- For a rookie, runs are inevitable.
When I painted my Corvette, I made runs that were so bad, it looked like a black candle had melted and dripped down the sides. Razor blades, sandpaper, time and patience were all that were necessary to make it look like this:
I did this car using a cheap harbor freight 6 inch DA, a well used, 20 year old bottom-pot spray gun; some sponges, paint sticks, and following the process below- This was only the second car I ever painted, and was/is by far the best looking finished car I've ever done.
(again- I'm not a pro, so please take all this as "my way", and not as "the way".. its all JMHO):
1) I took the car down to gelcoat with 50 grit on my DA (It was Monaco Orange originally, and the orange had to go
) You can use 50 grit on a new body to rough out the mold lines, and any low areas where you need to add body filler and do any re-shaping)
(See MikeinAtlanta's points above about using vinylester fillers on vinylester gelcoat- seems like very good advice)
2) I filled and rough shaped all the low areas, seams, and fiberglass repairs that needed to be built up (again using 50 grit)
3) I quick-blocked the whole car with 240 grit (wrapped around a sponge) before sealing everything up with Epoxy primer
(Again- read Mike's comments above about the resin substrates- If you are changing chemistries between your gelcoat/filler, versus your finish top coats (like I did), then a layer of epoxy in between them will promote adhesion (From what I've read, epoxy sticks to just about everything, and just about everything sticks to epoxy), just double check and make sure that the data sheet for the epoxy specifies that it will bond correctly to your resin type.
4) I cleaned, masked, and sprayed mine with PPG DP epoxy primer, and let it dry.
5) I lightly dry-blocked the epoxy with 240 grit (still wrapped around a sponge), being careful not to sand through the epoxy (just re-spray, and re-block any areas if you do get any sand-throughs)
6) I cleaned, masked and sprayed 2 heavy wet coats of acrylic urethane surfacer (I used PPG K36) over the freshly sanded and cleaned epoxy, and let it dry.
7) Misted it with a sanding guide coat, and dry blocked the car again with 320, followed by 600 (wrapped around paint sticks)
8) cleaned, masked, and resprayed one more thick, wet coat of urethane surfacer and let it dry
9) another guide coat misted on, and dry sanded with 600 on a paint stick until the guide coat was almost gone, then wet sanded with 600 on a sponge until the rest of the guide coat was gone and the surface was smooth and ready for paint.
10) cleaned, masked, and sprayed my top color (I used 5 coats of single stage PPG Acrylic Urethane Concept DCC- coat #1 was a little over-reduced and sprayed lightly just to "grab" the sanded primer, followed by 4 thicker coats to build up the finish) If you use a 2- stage product, then this is the step where you would apply your base coat, followed by more sanding (if there are runs), followed by your clear coat)
I let my top coat dry overnight, and then I went around and carefully cut off as many of the "severe" runs as I could with a razor blade. Then I let it dry for 3 more days, and started color sanding. I lightly wet sanded the rough spots (the runs, and the worst orange peel areas) with 600 first, then I wet sanded the whole car with 1000, followed by another wet sand with 1500. (for all the color-coat sanding, I used a sponge as my sanding pad)
Then it was rubbing compound on a cutting foam pad, followed by swirl remover on a medium pad, followed by hand polish, followed by wax...
Followed by pride, followed by beer, followed by relief that a long 3 month process was over...
This paint job on my Corvette seems to have held up well since 2002, because I found the car for sale in Florida a few months back. (I know it's my old car for several reasons:, They posted a picture of the VIN number in the ad (as well as the JVC stereo I installed), and the "350 HP" sticker I put on the air cleaner is still crooked
, and I'm pretty sure GM didn't sell many factory-air, 4-speed T-top Corvettes with non-power brakes in 1969) -
It's had about 40k miles put on it since I sold it in 2003 with 60k original on the odo, But it still looks pretty good to me:
1969 Chevrolet Chevy Corvette Coupe T-Tops 4 Speed A/C For Sale