How to Paint a Car with Spray Paint Gun - Step by Step Guide
Are you rooting for a paint job for your beloved automobile? Painting your car professionally from a shop is, most of the time a pricey proposition. But you can save that extra money by painting a car yourself if you have the time. In that case, an automotive spray gun could just be your best companion. Now the chances are that you don't know how to paint a car with spray gun properly, and, again, it's often an ordeal task, especially for beginners. But luckily, you don't need to stress yourself anymore as we're here to the rescue.
Here we have added a detailed walkthrough on how to paint your car with the car paint gun.
How to Paint a Car with Spray Gun
The entire painting process consists of four significant partitions that are –
A. Setting up for the car
B. Sanding, Cleaning and Masking the car
C. Priming the car
D. Spraying on the paint coats using the spray gun
We’ve broken them down into some easy steps for your ease. Follow them with care and attention.
A. Setting up for the Car
Step #1. Place Selection
The process starts with selecting an appropriate place for painting the vehicle. Keep that in mind, the finish of the procedure heavily depends on this step. Park your car in an enclosed workspace with decent ventilation, minimal dust, good lighting that has enough space to work around the vehicle. If you don't have a workspace or home garage that meets the qualities as mentioned earlier, at least try finding a covered place that has very low dust with proper ventilation.
Step#2. Safety precautions
It's never a wise decision to avoid a safety. Painting a car will require you to deal with a lot of chemicals, including the paint itself. A lot of them are harmful to your health and the environment. If they somehow reach into your eyes or respiratory system, that may cause some severe health issues. So, you must resort to using a respirator used in painting.
Additionally, you can wear safety goggles, nitrile gloves, and disposable plastic coveralls whenever dealing with paint jobs.
Step#3. Color selection
If you intend to stick to the original color of your vehicle, all you need to do is find the code of that color. Your car should have a “compliance plate” located under the hood containing the information regarding the color code. If not, you can contact the car manufacturer.
The next step is to go to a trusted retailer shop with the color code and buy the color. The amount of color will rely upon how much of the car you are going to paint. Ask the retailer for suggestions if you're confused.
However, if you want to give your car a whole new look with a new color, you can do that too. You just need to buy the color e and mix the paint you like.
Step#1. Removal of chrome or plastic trims
Your car may have several plastic or chrome trims on its body that can be removed easily. Note that these removals are not permanent that means they can be reattached after the painting process. Use the necessary tools to snap off such attachments.
Step#2. Rust removal
Before sanding the vehicle, you’ll need to remove the rust spots on your car’s body. Painting your car on rust will result in an awful finish. Hence, it's crucial to remove the rust first. To do that, first, wear safety gear, and then using a metal grinder, grind away the rust on your car's body.
However, if the body is heavily rusted, you may end up with small holes. In that case, apply an anti-rusting auto body filler using a putty knife. After that, smoothen the cover material when you move for sanding.
Step#3. Sanding away the existing paint
Use a double action (DA) power sander with either 400 or 600 grit pads to sand away the existing paint to a state where you see the bare metal. This will allow the new paint to stick better and output an excellent finish.
However, you can only sand away the primer layer if you want. That’ll do the job pretty well.In any case, use goggles and gloves when dealing with powerful grinders.
Step#4. Cleaning all vehicle surfaces
After a proper sanding, you are to clean away all the dust and unnecessary particles from the car's exterior. To do that, first, you can use clothes to remove external surface dust. After that, wipe the surface with clothes dampened with thinner or mineral spirits. You can also use denatured alcohol for the process.
Step#4. Masking all areas, you avoid to paint
You may be wanting to paint your car partially or entirely. In either case, there are some parts of the vehicle that you'll not paint. For instance, the window glass, trim, and mirrors. Painting these parts will make them fail their purposes. So, you'll need to cover them up with tape or masking stickers. Ensure to mask off all the edges properly or else the paint may reach in.
Step#1. Practice spraying primer
Before applying primer, you should practice your spraying a bit. To do that, try your sprays on an old car door or metal sheet using your gun. Set your automotive paint sprayer and fill it in with a anti corrosive, self-active automotive primer.
The correct way of holding the sprayer is about 6 inches or 15 centimeters from the operable surface. Maintaining this distance, press the sprayer’s trigger and keep a firm grip, use a stable sweeping motion during spraying task.
Please, take safety precautions and put on safety gear before dealing with primers.
Step#2. Application of primer coat
After you have reached to some decent strokes while practicing, you can now go on to apply coats on the real surfaces. Using the same spraying technique, put on a primer coat from the upper of the car descending. It’s just like you practiced on the trial surface. Replicate the same strokes on the new surface.
Try to lay on a slim, even coat, preliminary at the rooftop and then working down from there. Maintain the same steady motion throughout the coatings. Go through the product’s description o be sure about the waiting time. I should be on the written on the primer container.
Step#3. Sanding away the chalky finish of the coats with sandpaper
To get the best results, you should wait around 1 hour after applying the final coat of primer. After that, use a 1500 grit wet or dry sandpaper to smooth the powdered finish from the surfaces of your car. Choose one section at a time and sand casually from car sides, then up and down.
For ultra-smooth results, some experts suggest using sandpapers with a finer grit, for instance, 2000-grit. Note that doing so will require you to sand longer, but it'll turn out quite amazing.
However, bear in your mind that you should only intend to sand away the chalky finish at this point and not to the metal exposure like you did before. That will jeopardize all you have done so far.
Step#4. Wiping all major and sanded surfaces
You’ll need to wipe the surfaces before applying the actual paint. You can simply use clean clothes that are slightly soaked with a wax or grease remover, propanone, and thinner to do the trick. Maintain a circular motion while wiping the surface. It will remove excess oil and dust from the primed surface. Wait around 5 to 10 minutes before applying paint.
Step #1. Practice spraying paint
Spraying automotive paint is a little different than spraying primers. So, t’s wise to practice spraying the paint first just like you did with the primer. Load your sprayer with the chosen paint and trail a couple of coats maintain the same movement and distance as that of the primer.
Step#2. Application of paint
After practicing your paint spraying, replicate the same stroke on to your vehicle surface. Your paint may require thinning. In that case, follow the instruction carefully as over-thinning the paint will cause it to lose the required gloss.
Put on a ventilator or other safety gear before applying paints on the vehicle and follow car paint dry time. Depending on your vehicle, it should take you about 15 minutes to complete a single coat. After that, leave the paint to cure for about 20-60 minutes and apply 3 or 4 coats in the same process.
After painting, sand the powdery grit using 1500-200-grit sandpaper. Then wipe down the paint lightly just like you had done after applying the primer.Wait for 5-10 minutes and after that finish the job by spraying on about two coats of clear coat lacquer, with sanding and wiping in between. It's better to leave the paint job to cure for about a week to get the best results. And congratulations! You have successfully painted your car using a spray gun.
Conclusion
Painting your car yourself using an automotive sprayer gun can be quite confusing at the beginning. But it's quite fun, and you can save a lot by knowing how to paint a car at home.
