Painting trunk lids off the car, What's your process? Options

[bbrock]

I'd like to say this will be my last painting question, but I don't want to lie. I'm planning the logistics of painting all the pieces not attached to the car (trunk lids, engine lide, headlight covers). It shouldn't be hard except I'm spraying 2-stage metallic which complicates things a little. Some considerations:

1. Metallic should be sprayed with panels oriented the same as they will be on the car to avoid funky discontinuity in how the flakes lay where panels meet (e.g. trunk to fender).

2. PPG DBC base coat has to be clearcoated within 24 hours.

3. PPG Concept clear coat requires minimum 16 hours air dry time.

I can think of a couple ways to tackle this:

1. Lay panels flat and upside down on racks. Spray base and clear on the underside, then give them a day or so to air dry. Then flip them over and and repeat to paint the top sides. That means the whole car will be painted in stages over 2-3 days.

2. Same as above but spray base coat on bottoms. Let dry an hour or two. Flip over and spray base on the tops. Let dry. Then hang them so I can clear coat both sides at once. Complete car sprayed in 1-2 days but more handling parts.

Which would be less likely to bite me in the ass? Or maybe something I haven't thought of. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[mb911]

My concern is epoxy primer will gum up as it takes a while to fully cure which you don't have. The attached picture is a car I painted this summer with k36 wet sanded to 400 then epoxy as a sealer and right away base and clear.. Turned out nice

[bbrock]

My concern is epoxy primer will gum up as it takes a while to fully cure which you don't have. The attached picture is a car I painted this summer with k36 wet sanded to 400 then epoxy as a sealer and right away base and clear.. Turned out nice

Good point. I didn't think about that. I'll stick to the original plan of spraying epoxy as sealer over the K36 and just before base coat.

No telling how much time I have. Could be weeks, could be zero. Monday, I sprayed primer. Tuesday, I sprayed K36. Both days sunny and 70. Then on Wednesday, I plowed a foot of snow off the driveway. Today, sunny and upper 50s. I just sprayed a little primer. It's just a dance at this stage trying to get the prep work down to be ready to spray when the weather is good. I should be able to get there, but it is stressful.

That car looks Great!