still wanting to know

[civicclutchh22]

I just ordered, and watched spray painting 101. It was a great video, but it still did not answer the questions i was wondering on spraying a whole car. The video was great on how to spray on a fixed panel, but like i said I still have a few questions about spraying a whole car. Whole car including door jams, trunk jams, and under the hood.
So what i have to ask is how do i go about painting. Do i back mask the outside of the car all around the jams then spray the jams with paint ,and clear coat, or do i spray just paint then let dry then spray whole car then go back and mask again then clear the jams then clear the whole car? Do i not mask at all spray the paint in the jams then clear then go on and do the outside of the car,or do i spray paint in the jams then spray the car, then come back and clear in the jams then clear the rest of the car?
Any help would be great. I have been doing rust repair on my Honda, and then plan to paint the car myself so i am doing the whole car including jams. That is what i am really stuck on and want to know the right answer to before i go trying things on my own and screw something up. Thanks in advance

[Len]

When spraying color in the jambs I usually run a piece of tape on the outside of the panel that overhangs slightly over the jamb about 1/8" then I cover/mask the outer panel. When I spray do don't spray up under that overhang and, while I get full coverage, I don't get a paint ridge that needs sanding.

When I'm painting the outer surfaces I use 3M's Transition Tape at the edge of the jamb then I extend that with some 3/4" tape and finally block the gap between the panels using foam door aperture tape. If the 3M tape is applied properly you should only get a slight haze at the edge that is easily polished off.

We covered as many variables as we could in the two hour video but there's always more. :)


http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/3m6800ad.jpg
Transition Tape Link (http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=3M6800&Category_Code=M2)


http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/3MDart.jpg
Door Aperture Tape Link (http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=3M06297&Category_Code=M2)

[Polish Painter]

Len , What would be your procedure on spraying this cab. The jamb and interior will be a champagne metallic and the exterior black.

My concern is the jamb area : Without creating a ridge where the two colors meet , use the aperature to separate it possibly ?? Does it need to be a crisp sharp line where the two colors meet though ?

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/PolishPainterJohn/IMG_0380.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/PolishPainterJohn/IMG_0382.jpg

[civicclutchh22]

So you paint and clear the jams before you finish the rest of the car?

[Len]

So you paint and clear the jams before you finish the rest of the car?

Yes, that's the way we do almost all of our painting. Once in a while we will spray the car in pieces (non-metallic only) where we will spray with the doors off and the jambs will get painted at the same time as the exterior but for most work we paint the jambs first. The Transition Tape helps a lot.

[e-tek]

Forgive my budding-in, but it looks like some clarification might help here - because the Polish Painter is doing a totally different job than is CivicClutch. Of course this is just the way I've done it, others have different methods and procedures.

For CivicCluthc, as Len said, paint and clear the jambs first, but I wouldn't bother masking off the outside panels if this is a one-time garage job - it's too easy to get transition lines if you have no masking experience. You'll have enough masking doing all the glass and trim etc. Make sure you SEAL the interior off though!! After the jambs dry, wet-sand the overspray, use the foam tape to mask everthing closed, then spray the outside - usually the next day.

Fro the Polish Painter, as it's a color change and two-tone (Jambs-Exterior) you'll need to paint the Jambs OFF the car - base only, no clear. Then re-assemble and touch them up if needed. Then, you'd mask off the Jamb color with a thin line tape and paper and spray the exterior colour. (You wouldn't use foam tape in a color-transition). Once flashed, remove the jamb masking and clear everything with the doors, etc open. It's a hell of job, but the best way to have no tape lines at the color change. The bits that don't get cleared (behind hinges, etc) wouldn't be noticeable.

[Polish Painter]

Thanks e-tek, doors are already off truck and completely finsihed. I was hopeing there was a way to do this without clearing everything at the same time. Possibly lightly wetsanding the ridge where two colors meet ?

The thought of having to cover exterior, base interior, cover interior, base exterior , uncover all and clear within 24 hr window is more than I was expecting. You do what you have to do though.

I plan on base, clearing the dash and covering it up to start with.

[e-tek]

Don't worry about sanding the ridge. All stripes are done like this - once you clear over it there's no ridge. Besides, if you wetsand it you run the risk of ruining the crisp line.