Painting (Land Rovers),
This was submitted to the BC Land Rover Mailing List by David Walker.
You have thought about it, collected up tools and materials - you are ready to lay into the body and do some real work.
Preparation is most of the work in painting a vehicle. You will spend approximately ten hours of preparation for every hour you spend painting. I cannot emphasis preparation procedures enough. Did you ever wonder why there are paint jobs offered ranging from $400 to $4,000 for the same vehicle? Some of the discrepancy can be explained by the cost of paint. A gallon of "stick pretty good, but only in 38 colours" Acrylic Enamel is going to be cheaper than the materials for a base coat / clear coat system. There is not as big a difference as most people think and paint is probable the cheapest thing you put onto a vehicle. The best two part LP paint you can get, in a custom colour, is about $400 a gallon. So where is all the expense? How does MAACO do those $400 paint jobs? The key to a good paint job is preparation...and preparation is 95% work, 5% materials expense. A cheap paint job will have no sanding (or very little) and only a quick chem wipe with minimal taping. If you have not seen a cheap paint job, they can be readily identified by the following: paint peeling, runs, sags, orange peel, paint where there should be none (rubber seals and the like) and poor shine. If you do not want your paint job to look like a 1987 minivan (peeling paint) then follow the following steps.
Step 1) Decide how much of the vehicle you wish to paint. Are you just going to do the outside or are you going to remove all the major panels and do everything, both sides? I did all the preparation and painting and reassemble in three weeks, about 135 hours of time, this was for everything, both sides. If you are not doing a colour change, can live with the difference of colors or your interior painted panels are in great shape, then paint only the outside. To paint only the outside, you are looking at 30-40 hours total. None of these hour projections include major body work.
Step 2) Wipe down all parts with chem wash/ wipe/ grease/ wax remover solutions. BEFORE you ever take sand paper to the vehicle, wipe the whole body down with the chem wipe solution. Apply the wash with those cloth diapers and wipe clean with the cheapest toilet paper you can find. If the vehicle has been waxed in the last year, wipe it down again. Wax and the silicones used in waxes are an enemy to paint. Remove waxes and grime before you sand and turn them into a fine uncontrollable dust. Wipe, wipe, wipe everything you are going to paint or expect to tape.
Step 3) Within your sense of reason, remove everything that you can. A good starting rule is - remove anything that would take longer to mask than to remove and replace. Things I think that should be removed, from front to rear are: head lights and trim rings, signal lights, grill, front bumper, side marker lights, hood (paint separately), top (paint separately), wipers, windshield, mirrors, door latches, door tops (paint separately), rear badge, anything else that is attached to a body panel. The Land Rover, with the top, wind shield and door tops removed make an excellent painting vehicle. There is no "to tall or to low" panels to be painted.
Step 4) Chem.. wipe all those areas that you removed stuff from. Chem.. wash and dry all those newly exposed areas. Chem. wash the underside of the hood, twice.
Step 5) Taping the first time - the "prevent damage" taping. I saw someone sanding their vehicle one time and slip from the body to the glass. It only takes a second to ruin a piece of otherwise fine glass or trim. So, in preparation for sanding, please tape off areas adjacent to places that are going to be sanded, including galvanized trim. Tape over the edges with 1" blue masking tape. This preventative taping will take you about an hour but could save you hours of reparative work.
Step 6) Sanding, what you have been waiting for! First off, you are going to be sanding everything that needs to be painted. You do not need to sand beyond a stable surface. If you have original paint and it is still attached securely, DO NOT sand it all off! When you removed some of the trim and lights, you undoubtedly found areas that are unpainted, a different colour or missed being repainted last time. To make areas look even, you need to "feather" them in. Sand until everything feels smooth. Start with 180, go to 220 then finish with 280 or 320. If 180 sand paper is being clogged with soft paint or goo, then drop down to 120 or even courser. Do not sand aluminum with anything courser than 220, you will just have to sand out the aluminum to remove course scratches or use a filler. If you are going to get more radical and remove the doors and other areas to paint, make sure that you work your way into sanding those small areas. Just tell yourself, that sanding is 50% of the preparation portion of the job and that you don't want to do it again for quite some time (at least on the same vehicle)
Step 7) Take some time off. Go away for a couple of days and then return to look at your work. Go back and sand some more.
Step 8) Masking all those areas that you do not intend to paint. Chem wipe and dry the body and areas you are going to tape.
For small areas I like to use 3/4" blue masking tape, a single edge razor for cutting, 6" and 18" masking paper. Tape all the galvanizing and rubber door seals. Pull out the rubber light boots and paper and tape them. Use paper and tape over the radiator. Crumple balls of paper and jam them into the other two holes on the radiator panel. Well, you get the idea.
For large areas, I use 3/4" and 1" blue masking tape, single edge razor blades and the knife for trimming and 2 mil poly for covering. Use the large plastic to cover the interior. Cover the wheels and engine area. The plastic is cheap, but do not use it in areas that you get direct spray. Plastic has two undesirable characteristics, the first is that paint does not stick to it very well, if the wind blows and the paint is dry, it will come off the plastic in "flakes". Acrylic enamel and LP paints do not cause a reaction to poly, but some paints do, turning poly sheeting into poly soup - use caution in direct spray areas.
With all of this done, take a break and then go on to painting.
Somewhat prepared
This is the end of Part B, if you wish to move on click here to go to Part C.
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