Crown Victoria Project Update - Build a Panther, Part Three: The Paintjob

My paintjob was less than stellar for two reasons, and both of them were my fault. First, sand scratches were visible through the paint; second, the finish had a lot of orange peel. I put the scratches in there when I sanded the primer prior to painting the car by attacking it with 400-grit dry paper. My belief was that 400-grit would give the topcoat more tooth to stick to. But this primer does not sand well and it clogged the paper. Dragging the clogs across the surface left gouges in the primer. Again, this was my fault, not the primer's. According to Valspar's instructions, if it is mixed with more reducer, it acts like a smooth-sanding filler primer. But mixed with less reducer, it acts like a sealer, giving it a harder surface that does not sand easily. What I should have done initially was scuff the primer with a Scotch-Brite pad—not 400-grit dry sandpaper—then painted it. However, once the damage from the 400- grit was done, I should have wet-sanded the car (because wet-sanding prevents clogging).

Orange peel was my second problem. It is caused by several factors: too much air pressure, holding the gun too far from the surface, under-reduced paint, or using the wrong temperature reducer. Because I used the correct reducer, I can't use that as an excuse. In hindsight, I probably didn't reduce the paint enough. The fix for both the orange peel and the sand scratches was to wet-sand the car, and this is what you need for that job.

3M recommends soaking the paper for about 10 minutes prior to using it. This makes the paper more flexible so you don't have a sharp edge when you fold it.

Use a flexible sanding block and fold the sandpaper around it. The block will apply even pressure to your car's various bends and creases. Keep the surface wet, too. This prevents the paper from clogging. I'm using a spray bottle filled with water and a small amount of car-wash soap to make the surface a little more slippery. Start with 1,000-grit and work down to 2,000-grit. As with block-sanding, when the surface is uniformly dull, you are finished.

You'll have to buff the paint to make it shiny again, and here's what you need. The white pad is more aggressive and is used with rubbing compound. Use the black pad and polish to remove the swirl marks left by the compound. You can wax the paint at this point and be done with it, but I added an extra application of glaze before wax. Tech tip: you can apply the swirl-free polish with a low-speed random orbital machine. Rubbing compound must be applied with a high-speed buffer, though. Put some tape on body lines and panel edges—it's easiest to burn through the paint there. After buffing, remove the tape and apply rubbing compound by hand on those areas.

Buff one panel at a time, working your way around the car. Here you can see the finished door next to the unbuffed quarter-panel. Also note the masking tape on the edge of the quarter-panel to keep from burning through the paint in this area. For extra safety, I propped open the doors with a roll of tape so there was no chance of the buffer touching the panel next to them.

Nearly all the sand scratches and orange peel were fixed during the wet-sanding and buffing process, but it took me two days to do all that work. Here is the car going back together.

Two years later and the car still looks pretty good. However, if I were to do it over again, I'd use a basecoat/clearcoat system. This paint scratches very easily and I constantly have to polish it to keep it shiny.