How To Take Care of Your Car's Paint Job

By Tony and Michele Hamer, About.com Guides

Proper care of your car’s exterior finish is the one of the single most important lessons to learn about ownership, regardless of the cars age. Your car’s paint job is one of the most obvious features and expensive to replace and repair. We can say with absolute certainty that taking the time to learn which products to use and when to use them, will add years to the life and luster of your car’s paint.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: A Good Part of Your Day

Here's How:

1. Always start by properly washing your car using the proper tools. Get a cotton or paint-safe microfiber washing mitt, a 5 gallon bucket and good cleaning products specifically designed for automotive use - Mothers, Meguiars or Stoner would be our suggestions. These companies offer products that are pH balanced, non-detergent formulas that won’t strip off wax, and combine them with lubrication to prevent scratching and conditioners to maintain the shine protection. They are usually gentle on all painted finishes as well as rubber, vinyl, and plastic components.
2. Never skip drying! Drying your vehicle after washing is necessary to prevent water spots – those pesky mineral deposits that etch the outline of a drop of water into your vehicle’s paint. Auto detailing professionals advise using 100% cotton detailing cloths or sheepskin chamois to dry your car - polyester and microfiber can scratch your paint surface. If you want to get more high-tech, many car care product lines have “paint safe” drying towels that are super absorbent and claim to be lint and scratch free. Two products that we like are the P21S Super Absorbing Drying Towel and the Sonus Der Wunder Drying Towel.
3. If a good wash wasn't enough to get off all the road grime, bug residue, pollution or tree sap, the next step would be to use an Auto Detailing Clay Bar because it "pulls" contamination off the surface without abrasion or scratching. Detailing clay usually comes in a kit with a lubricating spray to protect your paint. You just spray the area to be cleaned, and then glide the clay along the surface of your paint - it will grab anything that protrudes from the surface. Detailing clay is not designed to remove paint scratches or swirl marks. Heavy tar or insect deposits may need to be removed using a specialty solvent.
4. But the paint still looks dull! At this point, you have one problem with three solutions. The problem is old oxidized paint and the solution is either car polish, cleaner or rubbing compound. All three remove unwanted dull paint, but in varying degrees of aggressiveness. Polish removes the least amount of paint for a given application, while rubbing compounds remove the most and cleaners are somewhere in the middle. We recommend starting with an application of polish first before moving on to a cleaner. Rubbing compound is a very aggressive abrasive and you should talk to a professional before giving that a try.
5. Can I wax my car now? Waxing is the most important thing you can do to protect your car’s paint and an absolute “must” if you have just used a polish or cleaner. We suggest a carnauba wax or a paint sealant. Carnauba car wax produces a deep, healthy shine that you can’t attain with a sealant, but only has the longevity of eight to twelve weeks. Paint sealants give you longer lasting protection and will not melt, wash off or wear away for about six months. If you have the time and money, use a paint sealant like Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant and then wax with a product like P21S Concours Carnauba Car Wax.

Tips:

1. Always start your project with the car out of direct sunlight. Make sure the paint is cool to the touch before applying any cleaning product or wax.
2. Spray your car with ample amounts of water before washing. Use the water to spray off dirt and other contaminates that will scratch your car if you immediately start using a sponge and water first.
3. Be sure to wash and rinse in sections so the car wash soap doesn’t dry before being washed off.
4. Read the manufacturer’s directions on all car care products prior to use.

Copyright:  http://classiccars.about.com/od/maintenancetips/ht/paintcare.htm

How to Use Auto Paint Primer Effectively

Auto paint primer is a vital part of the refinishing process. It protects the metal on the car and forms a good surface that helps the paint adhere well. Knowing the types of auto paint primer and how to use it means that the refinishing of your vehicle will progress more smoothly and the end result will look a great deal better.

Tools and Materials 

• Primer
• Spray gun
• Paintbrush
• Sandpaper 

Step One - What Type Of Primer?

There isn’t just one type of car paint primer. You’ll find there are several, such as epoxy primer, urethane primer, high fill primer, and more. What you need to establish is the type of primer you need for your particular job. In some cases you’ll simply be covering metal prior to painting. Even here you need to be careful, as some types of primer aren’t meant to be exposed to the weather. That means you can’t spend a week driving around with it before you paint.

Step Two - Preparation

In all cases, you need to prepare the surface, which should be bare metal, before you apply auto paint primer. The metal needs to be clean and free of grease. Use a good cleaner on it, then rinse dry to ensure no soap residue remains.

Step Three - Etching Primer

Etching primer is ideal for areas where you have a little rust that you can’t easily remove. It doesn’t remove the rust, but will prevent it's spread. You should only use it where there are tiny spots of rust. You can use high build primer on top of thin coats of etching primer to build up a dent to the level of the panel.

Step Four - Epoxy Primer

With epoxy primer, there’s the primer and an activator. You can use it underneath a filler, but it has to be on bare, prepared metal in order to bond properly. It prevents corrosion. Be aware that the air temperature needs to be high enough for the epoxy primer to cure fully. If it doesn’t, you could end up with topcoat failure. You can apply several coats of epoxy primer.

Step Four - Urethane Primer

Urethane primer gives good coverage, and you can apply several coats of it over filler. With this type of auto paint primer, there’s no loss of gloss in the top coat of paint. It’s become the preferred alternative to lacquer primer, as it covers better and gives better results.

Step Five - Sanding

No matter what type of auto paint primer you use, it will still need to be sanded before you paint. This is a vital step to help the paint bond to the primer. Use a fine grit sandpaper and sand the primer to be completely smooth and level with the rest of the panel. When you’ve done that, wash down the primer to remove all the dust before you let the vehicle dry and then paint. How many coats of primer you use will depend on the type of auto paint primer and what you’re covering.

Copyright: http://www.autos.com/auto-repair/how-to-use-auto-paint-primer-effectively

Paint Your Own Car? 6 Reasons For and Against

Painting a car is almost always an expensive and time consuming task, whether you pay to have it professionally done, or choose to paint your own car. For those interested in doing the job yourself, there are a variety of benefits and downsides that should be thoroughly looked into before settling on the do it yourself option.

Benefits of Doing It Yourself

1. Cost is generally the most appealing factor when it comes to painting a vehicle yourself. By taking care of the prep work such as stripping the paint, sanding down the body and fixing any imperfections in the body panels, you can potentially save a large amount compared to what a body shop would charge.
2. There are several automotive paint companies that specialize in small quantity original equipment color matching. These companies can supply you with professionally matched colors of paint available either by the quart or gallon, or in pre-filled aerosol spray cans that allow you to purchase only as much as you need, so you aren't left paying for paint you won't use.
3. A major complaint with professional paint and body shops is the large potential waiting list. Popular establishments can have a waiting list of several weeks or months, which can mean several weeks or months of inconvenience. By doing it yourself, you can often have an acceptable paint job done in a fraction of the time a professional shop would've taken. In the case of painting done via aerosol spray cans, a serviceable paint job can be had in as little as one to two days.

Downsides of Doing It Yourself

1. Painting a vehicle yourself is incredibly labor intensive and requires a high degree of both patience, preparation and most of all experience. The amount of work you put into the preparation stage of a paint job directly affects the quality of the finished product, and it is very unlikely that you will produce great results on your first try.
2. Painting requires as clean an environment as possible, with humidity and temperatures that remain as constant as possible. Even the slightest bit of dust can cause noticeable blemishes in the final product, and excessive humidity can cause problems with paint curing and contribute to running or sagging in some areas, which can completely ruin the job.
3. While high quality paint jobs can be obtained using simple methods such as aerosol spray cans, the average results of such methods will generally leave much to be desired. Professional paint jobs require professional application methods, and these methods require extensive equipment which may be overly cost prohibitive for someone just looking to repaint a single car.

Professional Paint and Body shops produce professional paint jobs both due to high quality equipment, and extensive knowledge and experience in the field. Even using the same equipment, it may take several tries to achieve results that are comparable. Because of this steep learning curve, and extensive amount of required equipment, it is often cheaper to simply pay to have your car painted professionally, especially if you only plan to paint one car.

Copyright: http://www.autos.com/auto-repair/paint-your-own-car-6-reasons-for-and-against