Muscle Car Painting Process - Car Craft Magazine

Before you even step into the booth, buy a high-quality respirator matched to the type of paint you are using. For example, less expensive respirators are only intended as dust filters and not suitable for paint. Look for a quality unit like a 3M respirator with charcoal cartridges that filter organic vapors. Paradis also donned a complete paint suit to further limit the amount of dust in the room. If this is your first attempt at spraying, the technique is relatively simple but does require some semblance of concentration. We won't detail dialing in the paint gun, since we covered that in the Nov. '08 issue ("Project Car Tips and Tricks," page 30), but we did use a 1.7 tip for the color. Position the gun at a 90-degree angle, holding the gun 8 to 10 inches from the work surface. Most guns have a two-position trigger that initiates airflow at half-trigger and flows paint with full-trigger. Start with air and then begin moving the gun with the flow of paint. The key to even paint is even movement of the gun over the surface with a 50 percent overlap on each subsequent pass over the panel. You will quickly see if the rate needs to be faster or slower to deliver adequate coverage.

Once you've begun the painting process, you may notice a run, drip, or other errors such as fisheyes or bubbles. There is very little you can do about these while the paint is wet. If bubbles or fisheyes occur, the best course is to stop painting that area, since it will have to be repaired. Sags and runs are examples of too much paint applied too quickly. Those can be ignored and used as examples of techniques to be avoided. Any attempt at a wet repair will only result in greater damage. The best advice here is to keep shooting and attempt a repair after the paint has fully cured. We'll get into fixing small runs and bumps next month when we reassemble the car.