Heey guys and gals,

Ive just recently smoothed my front end off, and de badged the bootlid, of my mk1 punto.
With it nicely smoothed, it's time to paint! , though im a bit confused as how i go to spray the damn thing.
I understand that I should mask off the areas, use primmer and use a few light coats, and then laquer. (So ive heard). But one question i have, is; if i spray the smoothed area's, will it blend in the same colour as where it was already painted?

I really want to do this tomorrow afternoon, but am a little hesitant, as to where im gonna make it look balls. lol.

Please help

You'll have to respray the whole bumper including the newly smoothed off area otherwise it wont look right at all.

Yes, Ideally you need to spray the whole bumper. A proffesional with a perfect paint match would be able to spray just the areas needed but seen as you have no idea what you are doing, I suggest you spray the lot.

Also, dont expect to be able to walk into halfords, pick up "Fiat Silver" and have it be the colour on your car. You will need to order your colour from the paint code on your car. Again, Dont expect to walk into halfords with your paint code and walk out with your colour. They do mix paint but its completly over priced and usualy not very good.

First things first. You need to prep the bumper.

Give it a good clean with some warm water to get any tar and crap off it (regardless if youve had it in the garage working on it.. you still need to clean it!).

Dry with a CLEAN cloth. I cant stress enough as to how it needs to be clean! If not, you could be leaving crap on the bumper which the paint will react to!.

Next, soak some 800grit wet/dry in water and get rubbing. Make sure you get all of the bumper, all the nooks and crannies etc. Anywhere you dont rub down, the paint wont adhere properly.

Wash away any dust with warm water and dry.

Nowt soak some 1200 gril wet/dry in water and rub down the bumper again. This will smooth the surface so you get a good finish.

Wash away any dust again with water and dry.

Now you need to get some preperation wipes. You can get solution in a spray bottle and use cloths but Halfords do wipes (usualy near the spray cans) with the solution on them already. Buy these and wipe over the bumper to remove any final crap or greese that water wont neccesarily remove.

Next you could tack it with a tacking cloth but if your working in a clean area with little dust etc then your going to be ok as long as you have cleaned and used the prep wipes.

Next comes the spraying. Put a coat of PLASTIC PRIMER on the bumper. Its a plastic bumper so use plastic primer! It wont adhear correctly to any exposed plastic bits you have just rubbed down if you use normal primer.

Let it dry. Make sure there are no reactions in the paint. If not then get out the normal primer and 1200 grit wet/dry.

Rub the plastic primer coat and then use ur prep wipes to clean off the surface. Let it dry and then apply a coat of normal primer (note to use the correct colour primer for the colour of your paint).

Again, let dry and rub back with 1200 grit. Prep again and apply colour coat and so on.

Eventually, apply the lacquer coat. If you want a good shiny finish, use 2k lacquer. The lacquer off the shelf in halfords is 1k lacquer and is far inferior to 2k lacquer which compromises of the paint solution and a hardener. 2k Lacquer makes a much harder finish and also a much shinier one which will last alot longer. You can buy it on ebay! Just search for 2k lacquer and look for the stuff in a can!

Once you have applied the lacquer. Leave to dry for 24 hours (dont be tempted to fit it after a few hours. It might feel dry to the touch but i garuntee, when you pick it up and are applying presure to fit it, you will leave finger prints in the lacquer.

Good luck

so what about if its just the smoothed bonnet?

Exactly the same although you dont need to use plastic primer

Just started priming this morning , i think im gonna get a quote for how much a shop would charge to spray it up though.

your are in Cumbria just give T.E.D Jordan a pm very very cheap paint jobs for members

i paid £300 for bonnet, bumper and both wings. imo your always best getting it done properly, unless you know what your doing, dont want to ruin your nice looking car do you?

My impatience got the better of me, and i have decided to give it a whirl. lol. I'll post a pic once its done.

how much to have a door sprayed up and fitted??

To spray well.

1. Find Colour.

2. Preperation is 80% of spraying well.

3. Spray ideally with a gun and not can, but a can be used well.

4. HavePatience

5. Rubdown boot well.

6. Use a couple of thin PLASTIC PRIMER layers

7. ALL IMPORTANT FILLER PRIMMER now for about 4 layers. (correct colour)

8. Let this harden inside by gentle heat for 24 hours.

9. Using VERY thin layers apply paint, you will need around 15 light coat all so thin. Leaving around 15 mins between each coat.

10. Leave paint to dry for 24hours

11. Apply Laqure, around 4 thin coats ( slightly thicker than colour coats)

12. Ideally leaveto harden for 48 hours

going off the amount of layers its gonna cost quite abit just for the paint, but roughly how much ?? i just recently resprayed my bumper in broom yellow but it turned out a little dark so its gonna need a respray. wasnt sure on the amount of coats but i know now so cheers

does any one have that T.E.D Jordan 's PM name? i want a quote

T.E.D. Jordan

I find it quite interesting how subjective the whole subject of spraying is. One person has one way and another will do it totally different. For example, When I spray, I tend not do do multiple of primer and colour coats. I will do just the one unless I have had to rub down or need to do another due to another reason. I then do maybe 2 coats of lacquer as at the end of the day, this is the coat that is subjected to the elements and provides the overall finish.

Also, you dont have to let the paint dry between coats. It is common practice to spray the primer coat, leave to dry for 20-30mins and then apply the colour coat, leave to dry for 20-30 mins and then the lacquer coat and do the same.

I tend to do that on smaller objects like badges and anything upto small spoilers/add ons etc. Works a treat and you dont have to sand between coats as the surface is tacky and so the paint adhears to the paint rather than having to be rubbed down for the new paint to adhere to.

Obviously you need to check for runs and hairs/dust in the paint before you put the next coat on as you will spray right over the top and wont be able to remove it later. Unlike the other method of waiting for each coat to dry where you can rub out any hairs or runs before applying the newer coat.

Fun fun fun

15 light coats does seem like one too many lol but ive got a good idea how to do a decent job on it now anyway

Work somewhere warm

Around three of coats of primer is fine. The colour just wants to be uniform enough (as in not patchy and showing through the colours/primer underneath.

A high build primer/primer filler is good to get rid of imperfections. but will only cover minor imperfections. As previously said preperation is the key to a good finish.

Use your fingers you will feel any imperfections, wear disposable surgeon type gloves. Your hands have natural oils in them and can contaminate.

Grey primer is fine.

Spray on. Lightly. Dont try to cover it in one go. let it get to the stage where it looks dry, then apply next coat.

Now apply a tracer coat. This is a thin coat of paint use a colour contrasting to the primer spray as light as possible. It should look really misty.

Let it dry.

Rub down primer use around a 600 possibly 800 wet n dry. USE A RUBBING BLOCK The idea of the tracer coat is that when it disappears you have rubbed enough. Be gentle better to take your time and not rub through the primer. The beauty of the tracer coat is it will highlight any low spots as they will be missed by the rubbing block and still be showing the colour of the tracer coat. These will need re filling.

Let the primer dry. Give it up to a day. It can be sprayed much sooner but is needing to harden, it depends on the size of job.

Spray on base coat. (colour)
What you can do is get a test card, is a piece of card that you spray with the base coat. the card has markings on it and once they are covered it indicates the number of coats required. Not sure where you will get some from though. I get mine from my paint supplier.

Otherwise just spray your panel about 4 coats should be required. after it looks dry, shine a bright light/torch onto the paint. It will show if the coveage is good.

There are two methods. one to give 24 hours and two to spray a few hours after. I think with cans they suggest 24hours. Because you can if metallic (but not silver) wet n dry the base coat with a 2000 wet n dry. I spray with a gun so am uncertain on this.. As in the cans create overspray and a less uniformed finish.

Lacquer. Also as stated, about 4 coats.

Leave to harden for a couple of days. Will possibly look off colour and dull. Use G3 on a wet rag to lightly buff the lacquer, until it reflects equally to the other panels. Do not use polish, because it does not allow the paint to breath as polish contains silicone.

i spray with this new water base stuff and i just put one coat of basecoat on

-DrEw- said:

i spray with this new water base stuff and i just put one coat of basecoat on

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This is what I heard 1-2 coats max. I'm changing to it now. Just ordered my new Devilbiss HVLP Waterbase gun

bridges said:

This is what I heard 1-2 coats max. I'm changing to it now. Just ordered my new Devilbiss HVLP Waterbase gun

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how much was that ive got the devilbiss GTi pro waterbase one but got that for free from the paint company