where and which car paint to buy (mike g) + bodywork help

Preperation is the key to a good spray job, to save you mixing the paint yourself and getting it all wrong, how about buying a tin of spray paint from your local motorpart place, the same colour as your car, then just hold the can upside down and drain all the air out, cut the can apart and pour into the airbrush :)

Same with the laquer.

Otherwise you will need to buy paint and thinners, mix it up and off you go.

Try here for ready mixed paint

Super Ronny, interesting idea would save a bit of mucking about and I doubt I would need more than whats in a can.

Now you've got me thinking. I bought one of those touch up repair kits you get a primer, the metalic paint, and laquer. Never used it could I use that ? its quite a runny consistancy. The laquer is quite thick. How do I know how thin the paint should be ?

if thats no good your idea sounds good, so I get it all in aerosole already thinned and turn the cans upside down and spray the air out is it that what you mean ?

Also don't know if you can help the scratch is verticle whats the best way to spray it left to right or up and down if you get what I'm babling on about.

also I read I should rub with wet and dry 2 inches on both sides of the scratch and mask that area then paint and on the final coat remove the masking and spray around that area to blend and then rub down when dry with wet and dry to dim it then laquer the area is that right or should I attack it another way ?

Cheers

Forgot to ask if I went the route of buying the paints and thinners etc, what thinner do I need for thinning the primer, paint and laquer ?

Another question while the irons hot.

Whats the difference with this single pack and 2 pac stuff ?

[snip]

Why not just buy the paint and lacquer as is, then you can alter the viscosity yourself to suit after purchasing the thinners etc.

Professional spray painters won't touch carpaint or autopaint.

Steve.

[snip]

Single pack or single component paint material is like cellulose, or synthetic which putting it simply dries on its own, twin pack or two component is a two component paint material which relies on an additional component to complete the drying process, for example an activator or a hardener is added to force the material to set, cure.

Steve.

Appreciate the posts steven been very helpful.

so I should just buy the paint as sold and thin it down to suit.

So carpaint\autopaint is to be avoided. Where do I buy the paint ?

While your hopefully reading I was worried about colour matching, I have the colour code of my car but read some old posts saying I was best off going to a autopaint place who can give me a true match of my colour (reflex silver). what do you think ? I thought all I needed was my cars colour code.

Cheers

just to confirm when thinning its 50/50 right ?

[snip]

I'm not saying don't use the above just that the professional don't use them for a reason, in my experience their paint has been below standard and the colours have a tendency to drop and become dull within weeks of application, probably okay if yor plan on selling the car but paint shops can't relay on these type of paint finishes and generally go for higher quality paints like PPG for example.

Steve.

A reputable paint mixing outlet (in your area) will match the colour for you as there may by more than one colour variant.

Steve.

[snip]

Not necessarily, this will depend on what you spray the paint with and the current temperature can make a difference, you may have to use the trial and error route, 75% is more realistic.

Just thin and experiment until you get a thin even finish, lacquer is applied at a slightly thick rate but all this info should be available at you paint source.

Steve.

..or simply are way off when they arrive. I don't use them either.

I would say to the OP to practice on something else first as it sounds to me like you're going to mess it up and in the end need the whole panel to be resprayed.

Non-metallic paints you can't go much wrong if the colour is right - metallics are a bit different.

Stephen, can I ask a question here please. Two of the cars and one guitar that I have sprayed with cellulose in recent times have later developed "cracks" in the paint finish (my elf will have to be stripped and repainted next year because of this).

What have I done wrong? Other cars sprayed in the same time period are fine.

To add:

2 Pack can kill you if you don't spray it using an air fed mask in a well ventilated booth.

[snip]

Cracks can be caused when the inner paint film has not dried/cured sufficiently and when the outer layer has cured the inner layer is still curing so it pulls the outer harder layers with it forming cracks.

This can also be because a basecoat was applied too thick or heavy, it is more likely to happen with cellulose basecoats applied underneath twin pack lacquers.

Cracking is unusual when using straight cellulose finishes because the way cellulose works by softening the underneath layers to form one solid block of colour.

BTW my old forman coach painter painted John Lennons Rickenbacker guitar in black Tekaloid in 1962.

Steve.

On the Mini I used a Halfords pearlescent aerosol with single-pack laquer sprayed from a gun to get a good finish. It was just a quick blow-over of one door, never intended to be permanent. Just wondered why it cracked.

The Elf was done with straight celly. However the panels that cracked were those sprayed with the paint I got from Ken & Lyn - the stuff I bought locally is OK. OTOH those panels were also the ones which were new metal, with no old paint underneath.

The guitar was done with a straight white Halfords aerosol, again with single-pack laquer topcoat. I'm beginning to spot a pattern...

Yay!