Painting the hood of a car

I go from the sides, and overlap in the center. Worked well for me.

You can do a couple things for the pits. You can sand down to the primer or metal and fill with plastic filler (Bondo) and smooth it out, or you can sand down to the base coat of paint and use body putty to fill the pits. Use 380 grit paper to sand the clearcoat off and use a DA or equivalent (don't use a 'drill', you'll be down to bare metal in no time)

Good luck!

Thanks for the reminder that there might be a clear coat in it. This is a used 1995 hood that did have one from the factory, but I would almost have to think that any original clear coat would have worn off by now.

Does it look like it has been skinned? When clear coat peels off, it looks nasty usually....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile... Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

If it's still available,,,, get some ordinary enamel paint for cars. cuhulin

For ordinary car paint, (I would lay off of that fancy expensive stuff, it isn't worth it) mix a little bit of mineral oil in the (ordinary) paint. cuhulin

I know. But I think it can also wear completly off and after a certain point be undetectable. I'm painting the hood black and won't be using a clear coat.

Umm, it's a coat of paint. It would take some serious wear from something to wear it away. When bad jobs peel there is always evidence at the edges.

I would be planning on sanding it down to the color coat at least to make sure there wasn't any left or at least do one area so I could see...

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's - Gone to the rust pile... Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view! Jan/06 (More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

(Must for Rust) I have a gallon of Must for Rust here.I need to derust the top of my old 1978 Dodge van.If you want to buy some real tough paint, Nitrocelulose,

But, I wouldn't waste a fortune on painting any car hood in the World.I would buy a quart of ordinary enamel paint and be done with it. cuhulin

You'd know it. Base Coat paint has a very dull finish, like a flat paint.

Best thing: sand the entire hood using 600 grit, and get a nice dull finish. Then go to your favorite parts store and get a quart of Urethane paint with the proper hardener and reducer. A pint of black (R-M has 'off the rack' colors that are VERY inexpensive) will run ~$12, get them to cut you a deal on the reducer and the hardener; chances are they have an open can in the store.

Good thing about Urethane: it is about as durable as you're going to get. It goes on a tiny bit harder than BC/CC paints, but can be very forgiving.

I painted a Tercel Wagon BRIGHT YELLOW, and it was just a bit colder than it should have been, so I got some orange peel in the finish. I waited until May, and on a 75 degree day wet-sanded it by hand with 1500 grit sandpaper and LOTS of water, and when I got done I had a glow on the car that would rival any BC/CC finish, at 1/4 of the cost.

Actually Rustoleum Gloss Black works just fine. I've already done parts of the car with it and it comes out great. I've seen webpages devoted to Rustoleum (and Tremclad) paint jobs. I've seen pictures of classic cars painted with it, and they looked great too. The car in question is a 1995 Escort, and the Rustoleum Gloss Black is an excellent match for the black color of the car. If I wanted better paint, I'd use the more expensive stuff from the local boating supply place. Gloss Black is gloss black!

If your using a solid color wipe the hood with a good wax/grease remover, then sand the entire hood with some 320 to provide some tooth for the new paint. For the stone chips there are a couple ways. If there are only a few small ones you can just fill them with some spot putty. If they are down to the metal then your going to want to take the front edge down to metal and prime and repaint.

Now if your using a metallic paint the prep is the same BUT you will want to spray it flat so the metallic can lay down and not cause problems.

Pattern wise it depends on what your using for paint. I usually start in the center and work out to each side on large hoods. Small ones I shoot going across the hood.

If you've got the hood off the car, it'll probably be way easier to paint if you stand it up against the wall vertically, and you'll be able to get a proper pattern that way instead of trying to paint a flat surface while not pouring paint out of the gun at the same time... (my race car has a couple of drips on the roof from that.)

Ray

not sure what you mean by "rustoleam". If you are talking about the stuff they sell at home depot I'd suggest you don't use it but at least get real auto touch up paint. It doesn't cost much more and in my experience holds it's gloss far longer then the hardware store paint brands. I used to paint my black rear spare tire carrier with the hardware store stuff and had to redo it almost every year. Then I switched to DupliColor auto touch up spray paint and it lasted much much longer.

The hood is too heavy and otherwise bulky to do off the car. Otherwise I would much rather do it in my basement just as you described.

basement? Sucks to be your family if you're going to paint a hood in the basement. When I'm done painting my race car, the air is thick with overspray. I wear a respirator and have a couple of fans running with furnace filters taped to them to try and clear the air up.

Ray

*I* decided not to mention this... ;)

You can wiggle that toe, you can paint that hood.If you get somebody to help you remove the hood, prop it up on a couple of chairs (or whatever) and use plenty of news paper and masking tape if you don't want your wife or girlfriend gripeing about paint on the chairs. cuhulin

If the air is thick with overspray, then you obviously aren't using a HVLP sprayer. In my case when I did the fender, the air was practically clear by the time I had finished cleaning the paint gun.

Ok, it wasn't horribly thick, and the second time I painted the garage I didn't even put a dropcloth over the toolbox, but the air quality is somewhat nasty after two coats of paint on the car. I wear a respirator for a reason. To paint the race car it takes me about an hour of pretty much continuous spraying, only stopping to reload and move the lights around. I can only imagine what the air quality would be like if it wasn't an HPLV gun.

Even if there's no overspray, there's still the odor from the paint curing.

And if it's not plain old enamel, but the new stuff... you can't even do that at home because you need a fresh air supply...

Ray