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With Chris Curwen & Expert Auto Painter - Dave Gage (Car Cosmetics)

December 19th, 2007 - Issue 34

In this issue:

• We complete our series on auto painting support products and take a look at what additional items are available: stir sticks, spray out cards and more.
  

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In your last Auto Painting Tips newsletter we discussed the special additives used to prevent or eliminate various problems that may present themselves as you paint your vehicle.

You discovered what special additives are used for and we focused in detail on Fish Eyes problems covering:

• What are Fish Eyes.
• What causes fish eyes to form on the auto body surface.
• The best method for eliminating fish eye problems and more important lessons that you would benefit from becoming familiar with.

Today, we'd like to cover the additional auto painting support products that will make your paint job easier and therefore more successful.

You can pick up most of the items we will cover today, from your nearest auto paint supply store at zero cost so you would be unwise not to use them.

Spray Out Cards

A spray out card is a very handy tool that will help ensure proper paint coverage is achieved. Available from your auto paint supply store usually for free, the cards are rectangular in shape, one half black and one half white with some black text printed on the white half.

If you do get charged a small price for your spray out cards, they will be well worth the small investment.

Prior to spraying any paint on your vehicle, apply enough coats of paint to the spray out card to achieve complete coverage of the black, white and text.

Whether is takes a single coat or several, this will tell you how many coats you'll need to apply to your vehicle.

You must make sure that you use the same procedure to cover your spray out card as on your vehicle, which means the same proper drying times, the same paint spray gun settings, the same overlap pattern, the same time between coats, etc. otherwise you would be defeating the purpose of using them.

Spray out cards will also serve as a great way to test and match the final color without having to use an actual portion of the vehicle. They are like using a test body panel from a scrap yard for example, but a lot easier to get hold of, easier to carry around and due to their size easier to use.

Stir Sticks

While your paint products have been thoroughly mixed at the factory and by your paint supply store using their very own paint mixing machines, you will personally still need to stir your paint products (undercoats or top coats) by the time you get them home or to your painting work area.

This is where you'll need a supply of fresh paint stir sticks.

All paint retailers provide stir sticks at no charge, just let them know how many you require.

Stir sticks also come in very useful as mini sanding blocks and as a means to check the gaps in between panels.

Paint Strainers

A paint strainer is used to essentially filter out impurities and grit when you pour your paint mixture (primers, sealers and any kind of top coats) into your paint spray gun cup.

This is vitally important to carry out every time you do this; the slightest impurity entering your paint spray gun can render it unusable if the impurity enters an orifice that cannot be cleaned out.

Clean-Up Thinner or Reducer

To clean your paint spray gun, ask an auto paint supply store member of staff what product they recommend you use.

It will be cheaper and more economical not to use the same paint thinner or reducer you use to mix your paint products with, instead use a less expensive product for paint spray gun cleaning.

There are specific products available to make clean-up fast and easy so ask and they will be able to help you out.

Other than the expense involved, there is nothing wrong with using the same reducer for cleaning your paint spray gun as you would mix with paint.

Just be sure that you have something to clean your paint spray gun with before you fill it up with a paint product mixture that has a limited pot life.

In Conclusion:

Before you begin any paint job, thoroughly research what you will need to do in order to prepare your specific vehicle’s surface as well as all the paint products you will need in order to do the job correctly, safely and to achieve the best possible result.

If you start your project without systematically going through these processes you will end up having some serious delays that will only frustrate you throughout the process. It will result in time being wasted to get the project corrected and lots of extra work to finish your project overall.

Hey! Just before you go... Does you vehicle have damage to the bodywork? Been given a sky-high quote to have this damage repaired and are now looking for alternative ways around your problem situation? Perhaps you've struggled up to this point to find a suitable source of information on how to paint a car anywhere both on and offline? If you would like to view professional video demonstrations of all of the basic auto painting stages involved in how to paint a car to help you achieve that showroom shine and enable you to save up to 90% on your overall cost of repairs, please take a look at our highly praised solution: How to Paint a Car - The System. You will be able to download ALL of the following... How to Paint a Car - Part 1 & 2 How to Paint a Car - The Written Guide How to Paint a Car - Part 1 & 2 (with extra commentary by expert auto painter Dave Gage, Car Cosmetics. 10-Step Vehicle Painting Checklist 11-Step Fiberglass Body Preparation Checklist

That's all we have for you this week. Thank you very much for reading. We both hope this issue has been of valued interest to you.

COMING NEXT ISSUE: We take a look at Painting Work Areas.

Happy Painting!

Chris Curwen & Dave Gage
www.LearnAutoPainting.com