How To Polish Car Paint on Sailboat – Buffing Car Paint Methods

In this post I’ll show you how to polish car paint that looks really dull and oxidized. Buffing car paint tactics revealed!

When ignoring paint on a car, boat, truck or anything really …you start to get some problems. Problems like peeling clear-coat, fading, and watersports are a big one too. The paint on your project starts to look like crap.

You think to yourself…

What do I need to do to make this paint look nice again? Do I need to repaint it? Can I just put some clear coat on it?

Well, it all depends. If the clear is peeling, NO you can’t just put clear on it. The amount of time you need to put into it to get ready for painting clear on it is the same as putting a new coat of paint on it.

So the best bet would be to paint a new coat of base coat on it and to lay your fresh coat of clear on it too.

DON’T WORRY! We Cover All of These Methods on Video in the VIP Members Area!

If you have a fading problem or waterspots on your paint and just really bad oxidation most times a good buffing job will do the trick.  But it can be VERY tricky if you don’t know the EXACT process on how to get this done.

Have you ever seen those cheap orbital buffers that just vibrate? well, that won’t do anything for you if you’re stuck in this situation. That is only good for waxing your already nice paint. That machine will not, I repeat WILL NOT buff out waterspots and shine up bad paint oxidation.

For doing just that I have made a simple video below showing you the basics on how this is done on my personal Yamaha sailboat.

This thing had really bad paint oxidation on it’s enamel paint job.

When buffing you always need a 3 step process. Compound with a wool pad, glaze with a foam pad and wax. Yeah, it sounds simple but the way you hold and use your buffer will determine the outcome of your job.

Example, you must buff small sections at a time, you need to use certain speeds and stay in sections for so long.

The Basics Of Painting A Car From Home

A car cannot be painted well just anywhere. There are exceptions, but it also depends on what kind of finish you are looking for. Do you want El Cheapo job? Or maybe you just want a super sick paint job.

You have to find a place out of the weather, with good ventilation, plenty of room for you to maneuver, proper lighting and electricity. Your garage is probably a great place to start but be careful for safety issues (water heaters or furnaces that could cause a fire hazard because of paint fumes). Assemble everything you will need for the job and organize it so everything is easy to reach and not in harm’s way.

The Basic Equipment and Materials You Will Need
for painting a car from home is a Paint sprayer
Paint
Sand paper, sanding blocks
Safety goggles and gloves
Masking tape
Hand tools to remove trim etc. before painting
 
Before You Begin Repair all body dents or blemishes so they won’t be visible after you paint and remove all rust from the car.

Take off the chrome or plastic trim on the car.

This is fairly easy. Today nearly all body panel moldings found on cars can be ”popped” off and back on easily. But do not force them off if they are resistant. Go to an auto supply store and pick up the special tools they sell to remove them more easily. You don’t want to damage the melding or chrome.

Next, sand the paint.
You have to sand it down either to the bare metal or the original primer, and at least enough to create a surface that your new paint will adhere to. For the very best results, sand the paint down to the bare metal, which will mean you’ll have to reprime the surface before you can apply paint.

Then meticulously clean all of the car’s surfaces. 

Use denatured alcohol or mineral spirits because you don’t want any oil whatsoever on the surface when you paint.

Cover all surfaces that you want to remain paint-free with masking tape and paper.
This usually means windows, glass, trim, handles, grills and mirrors. Take care to make sure there are no pin pricks or perforations in the paper and that the masking tape is smooth and adheres well. Otherwise overspray from the paint gun will get through them and ruin the job.

Applying the Paint Prime the surface with a good primer.
If you have removed all of the car’s paint down to bare metal, you should use a corrosion resistant, etching primer. Also be certain to prime well all surfaces you used body filler on or surfaces that you removed rust from. Take the time to do a smooth transition on these areas. Make sure to apply plenty of paint to fill all scratches or pits that might remain on the body from sanding, etc. 

Check the directions on the primer and allow enough time for the primer to dry thoroughly.

Now sand all of the primed surfaces until they are completely smooth. Watch out that you don’t sand too much and expose the bare metal again. With a wax/grease remover or acetone, thoroughly clean all surfaces that you primed to remove any dust or oil that has settled on it during priming and sanding. 

Now you are ready to apply the finish paint to the car. Follow the paint manufacturer’s directions. See if a hardener or catalyst is recommended to be used with the paint. Thin the paint properly for the particular equipment you are using.

Allow the paint to fully dry. Next apply Clear-Coat for a deeper, glossier look.
There are other finishing touches and techniques you can use once you’ve reached this point, but these are the fundamental steps you need to follow to get a good paint job on your car and in the process save hundreds of dollars by doing it yourself! 

For more help and step-by-step videos to customize and know Exactly what to do on your special project make sure to check out the famous VIP Membership Course Here, where hundred of VIP members from across the world learn how to fix, customize and paint cars, trucks or bikes themselves while saving THOUSANDS of dollars! Not to mention the self-satisfaction you feel when you take a step back and say….

WOW, I did That!

To learn more about basics of car painting visit

http://learnautobodyandpaint.com/blog/2010/12/08/the-basics-of-painting-a-car-from-home/
 

How To Paint Using (HVLP) High Volume Low Pressure Guns!

In this article let’s talk about High Volume Low Pressure Spray Guns, features and how they work for you and your automotive projects.

Traditional spray guns feature a paint cup that is mounted beneath the gun, and which uses air pressure to blow paint out of the cup and into the main air stream. This, in turn, blasts the paint onto the car’s surface at tremendous air pressure. Very high pressure is needed to suck enough paint out of the cup to produce a stroke with good coverage. Unfortunately, this leads to as much as 70% of the paint ricocheting off the surface and into the air.

This represents a tremendous amount of wastage – to put it in perspective, this means that out of every 10 gallons of auto paint shot in this manner, 7 entire gallons end up being dispersed into the air as an aerosol mist. This wastes car paint, which is very expensive (especially the specialty colors such as those used in candy paint schemes); puts a large amount of dangerous paint fumes into the air, making the workspace hazardous for the painter; and damages the environment, especially when solvent-based paints are being shot.

High Volume Low Pressure spray guns

The new High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) guns, by contrast, use a lower air pressure at the gun’s tip to prevent as much ricocheting of paint from the car’s surface during painting. Pressure remains high at the inlet – up to 60 psi for typical painting jobs – but is only around 10 psi (pounds per square inch) at the nozzle. The HVLP spray gun shoots a huge amount of paint at low pressure, creating good, smooth coverage with far less paint rebounding from the sheet metal.

With HVLP, the amount of ricochet is halved to between 30% and 40%. In effect, HVLP reverses the old proportion. Seven out of ten gallons shot now end up on the car’s surface, rather than seven out of ten gallons blowing away on the breeze. This is a boon to nearly everyone except perhaps the car paint manufacturers. You are well advised to obtain an HVLP spray gun with a gravity feed paint cup.

One possible fringe benefit to using an HVLP spray gun is that you will raise less of a stink while painting as well. If you are a home painter, rather than the owner or employee of a commercial auto painting concern where fumes are handled by a sophisticated ventilation system, then offending your neighbors with a reek of wet paint is always a risk. HVLP makes less of a stench and thus is less likely to bring the wrath of the local populace down upon your head.

Gravity feed paint cups

The gravity feed paint cup is another innovation which usually accompanies the HVLP spray gun – a paint cup mounted above the nozzle, rather than below it, so that gravity as well as air movement can suck paint down into the spray gun’s air stream. A special stand is needed to hold the spray gun while the paint cup is being filled.

To learn more and to get a Free auto body and paint manual click here: http://learnautobodyandpaint.com/blog/2011/02/01/how-to-paint-using-hvlp-high-volume-low-pressure-guns/

If you want to learn about our VIP course and community click here to check it out! We currently have thousands of VIP members taking advantage of our library of step-by-step videos, private member only forums, and access to instant support from our team of VIP members and experts that can help you with your current or next auto body and paint project.

How To Fix Scratches in Car Paint at Home

Few people realize it, but minor paint scratches and imperfections can be fairly quickly repaired by car owners who are willing to take the time to learn how to do the job right using the standard steps for professional car paint repair.

If your car has scratches in the paint or paint flaws that you’d like to remove without going through the expense and hassle of dealing with a body paint shop, listen up!

No doubt the scratches became more and more annoying to you ever since you first noticed them. Yet repairing the imperfections in car paint is not rocket science nor is it time consuming once you get ahold of the right information and become determined to follow a few easy-to- understand directions.

You have a few options…

1: You can repaint. We show you the steps to fill scratches and or rock chips in the video above.
2: You can buff out scratches which is what we show you in the video and article here.

Car owners everywhere have stumbled on this huge money-saving truth. No, today savvy people all over have produced professional looking paint jobs they’ve completed with great results all by themselves.
This may come as a surprise to many car owners, but the touch up paint available at car dealerships is perhaps the single worst solution to getting rid of the problem, and particularly if the scratch you are trying to repair is noticeable from any distance.

The minute you step into to any dealership lot moaning about the scratches and dings that have appeared on your car that you can see at a distance of six feet or more away, they instantly will try to sell you touch up paint, claiming it’s all anyone needs to get rid of the scratch.

Warning! Touch up paint never blends well with any car’s paint and using it will only make matters worse! Swallow their sales pitch and you will simply replace a scratch with an unsightly even gob of paint that will be even more unsightly than the original scratch.


Good Rule of Thumb: Only use touch up paint for tiny nicks and scratches– nothing more.

To Effectively Get Rid of Those Annoying Scratches, Follow These Simple Steps:

First, carefully sand the scratch down, using 400-600 grit sandpaper, initially, then working your way up to 800-1000 grit sandpaper, taking care to assure that you are getting a very even smooth feathered surface. Really deep scratches have to be sanded with 400-grit wet and dry sandpaper.

Once the surface is nicely flattened and smoothed, clean the area you want to be paint carefully, making certain to remove all dust, debris, sand, etc. Then evenly apply the primer.

Lastly, apply three coats of color over the primed area. After the color is dry, wind up the project by adding a good two coast of clear coat.

Tips:

Allow enough time for each coat to dry thoroughly, fifteen minutes or so, before applying the next coat.
Don’t attempt your car paint repair project if the temperature is below 55 degrees, or you will get inferior results.

Really deep scratches need a total re-painting of the car or panel if you want truly professional looking results. Blending will be another option.

To learn more and to get a Free auto body and paint manual click here:  
http://learnautobodyandpaint.com/blog/2010/11/19/how-to-fix-scratches-in-car-paint/