Basic painting questions Options

[KaptKaos]

I have a few panels (hoods and trunks) that I want to try the $50 roller paint job on. For those that don't know about it, here's a good site with a link to the original thread on the mopar board:

$50 Paint Job

Before anyone gets all pissy with me, please understand that I have 3 kids and a stay at home wife. I need to be a CSOB.

With that out of the way, here is a pic from that guy's website:

(IMG:http://rickwrench.com/images-sounds/rustweb/vairbeforepaint.jpg)

You'll notice the layers of paint on the body of the Corvair.

My hood that I have been working on has a few layers too. I used chemical stripper and got parts down to bare metal, others just wouldn't budge. What's the best way to smooth all of that out? The $50 thread says to paint over it. I did that but it left the contours of the old spots in the new paint on my first try at this.

For what it's worth, I am practicing on a few panels to see if it works and if I like it. Not sure I will ever go this route.

The guy on the site with the corvair makes a good point. If you're not going whole hog on a paint job ($5k plus kind of job) is this any worse than Earl Scheib? And, if I were to go the whole hog on a paint job, I would be stripping the car anyway.

So there it is. I am a noob at painting and appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

[Thack]

Any painter will tell you that the prep work is where the "magic" starts. Fancy paints look great but you can get by on lesser paint. You would think you could just paint over the old paint but the multi-layered "base coat" will show through, especially with lighter colors.
You could get people to donate to you some sand paper becuase that's the prep you'll have to do. Sometimes you can't even primer over old paint because the old paint reacts with the primer. Borrow a dual action sander and a compresser for the tough stuff then learn the fine art of block sanding. You can do it! Good luck!

[KaptKaos]

Any painter will tell you that the prep work is where the "magic" starts. Fancy paints look great but you can get by on lesser paint. You would think you could just paint over the old paint but the multi-layered "base coat" will show through, especially with lighter colors.
You could get people to donate to you some sand paper becuase that's the prep you'll have to do. Sometimes you can't even primer over old paint because the old paint reacts with the primer. Borrow a dual action sander and a compresser for the tough stuff then learn the fine art of block sanding. You can do it! Good luck!

Ok, a few questions:

1) I have an electric palm sander. It's square and oscillates. Will that get me through the prep or do I need a rotary one?
2) Should I use chemical strippers to go to bare metal or should I use primer?
3) Will primer fill in the peaks and valleys of the paint? Will primer eventually sand smooth?
4) How long of a block sander do I need?

Thanks for the help fellas!

[Spoke]

4) How long of a block sander do I need?

The longboard I have is 16 inches x 2 3/4 inch wide. Bought it at CJ's here in Allentown. Great auto paint shop. The longboard really flattens out areas.

Use contrast coats of sandable primer to find high spots & low spots. When you think you have a panel ready, spray the area with a very light coat of black primer. Then lightly sand with the longboard. High and low spots will jump out at you as well as big scratches and other imperfections. Do as many contrast coats as needed.

To smooth the roundish flares on the back of my 914, I made some flexible longboards out of 1/16 inch thick strips of some type of hardwood. I think it's white oak. I glued the paper to the strip so it's a one shot use.

Good luck with your paint job. As others have said, a paint job is only as good as the preparation.