Painting the fender

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Figured I'd show yall how its done backyard style. Just something temporary until I can get the car sprayed all at once

Paint was purchased from paintscratch.com. I got the match to the car, plus the clear and filler primer and a tack rag.


I took the fender off the car



I sanded the fender down w/ 320 grit then hit it with some filler primer



After a few coats of primer, i started w/ the color. Hit it with about 3 coats. This was done right at the begining of the super hawt august so my garage didnt have too much humidity in it. After the color dried, i sanded it w/ 1000 grit and tacked it down. After 4 coats of clear were sprayed I sanded the panel down with 1000, 1500, and 2000 respectivley



After sanding, I hit it with some fine cut polish, then a high gloss polish. These are the end results. I havent lined it up because im doing the bumper next weekend.



On the left is the hood, still factory paint the small white scratches are infact polish. on the right is the fender, sprayed by me. Not pictured: On the driver door, you can tell it was painted because the fender matches the rest of the car when you stand back from it...

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Paintscratch will match any paint formula w/ a code and a vin # exactly

[scabtastic]

we want pics of the car now...lol ......but i thought someone else painted it at first until you told me.

[mushroom_toy]

Had to do that temp job to my Honda too....to bad my paint is so old and faded that the new factory paint is dark as hell.

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Only bad thing is i polished it too early. I was supposed to wait for the paint to cure so its faded out now. but all i gotta do is hit it w. another coat of clear and WAIT a few days for it to cure. then polish it.

[mushroom_toy]

^ Looks good even then though. Looks identical in pics.

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yeah that day it was perfect. The color still matches, the clear just faded as it cured. Lesson learned: good things come to those who wait

[mushroom_toy]

^Yup yup.

[d16_turbo]

that looks really good

[Da_unknown]

never heard of it but if it works, thats good..

[The BUCKY]

looks good

make sure you clean it well before you spray clear again

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looks good

make sure you clean it well before you spray clear again

Thanx man. comin from another paint guy it means alot. I got some Wax/Grease remover and i got a couple more tack rags. I'll probably sand it back down to the color too. or at least down a couple layers. Not sure. Im probably gonna have to redo it anyway cause my dad knicked it with something while it was drying.

Any tips for wetsanding?

Definitly. most important thing is you must by all means have some kind of block, best thing to get is the one pictured. Its real dense foam but it forms to the curves of the panel your working on. I got it when i took collision repair courses, they handed out some shit like that.
If you use your hand you will get sort of a hand shaped sanding pattern and you dont want that. I used a little spray bottle for the water. somethin like you would spray windex out of. Some people use a little detergent soap but you dont have to.
Then just start with 1000 (depending on what clear you use. I used Urethane clear so its a little coarser coming out of the tip. Catalyzed clear is what the pros use and it lays down pretty good, so you wont have to sand as much), keep the panel and paper wet where you're sanding, and as it dries, look for the little bumps (orange peel) to dissappear. It seems that newer cars have some orange peel, while older cars dont have as much. My 94 Accord had 0 orange peel, this one has a little, so you can kinda match it as you go along
LMK if you need any more info. I love doing this stuff, so i try to know as much about it as i can.

[gtikid]

Thanx man. comin from another paint guy it means alot. I got some Wax/Grease remover and i got a couple more tack rags. I'll probably sand it back down to the color too. or at least down a couple layers. Not sure. Im probably gonna have to redo it anyway cause my dad knicked it with something while it was drying.



Definitly. most important thing is you must by all means have some kind of block, best thing to get is the one pictured. Its real dense foam but it forms to the curves of the panel your working on. I got it when i took collision repair courses, they handed out some shit like that.
If you use your hand you will get sort of a hand shaped sanding pattern and you dont want that. I used a little spray bottle for the water. somethin like you would spray windex out of. Some people use a little detergent soap but you dont have to.
Then just start with 1000 (depending on what clear you use. I used Urethane clear so its a little coarser coming out of the tip. Catalyzed clear is what the pros use and it lays down pretty good, so you wont have to sand as much), keep the panel and paper wet where you're sanding, and as it dries, look for the little bumps (orange peel) to dissappear. It seems that newer cars have some orange peel, while older cars dont have as much. My 94 Accord had 0 orange peel, this one has a little, so you can kinda match it as you go along
LMK if you need any more info. I love doing this stuff, so i try to know as much about it as i can.

So how do you know when you've gone too far??

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So how do you know when you've gone too far??

If you spray enough clear on you shouldnt, but when you sand clear you get a white residue, when you get down to the color you get whatever color residue, if you're sanding a white panel, you just gotta do it by feeling, and by looking for that orange peel. when its really smooth, then its time to stop. But thats why i spray a whole lot of clear on. so you have some room to sand it down perfect, and so when rocks hit it, it doesnt chip off as easy

[gtikid]

If you spray enough clear on you shouldnt, but when you sand clear you get a white residue, when you get down to the color you get whatever color residue, if you're sanding a white panel, you just gotta do it by feeling, and by looking for that orange peel. when its really smooth, then its time to stop. But thats why i spray a whole lot of clear on. so you have some room to sand it down perfect, and so when rocks hit it, it doesnt chip off as easy

I wasn't getting any residue of the color of my car. It was all white. But now it just looks fucked up...I don't know if I didn't do it enough, if I did it too much or what I was using 2000 grit but it looks like if I was using something really coarse....I tried some rubbing compound and a glaze but it still didn't fix it. I'm wondering if I went too far

[gtikid]

Any tips for wetsanding?

[BobbyFresco]

Looks great....

[Kyle]

How much did the paint cost you? And what size is that, my friend needs his fender painted.

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the kit came with clear/color/primer. You can go get the primer at autozone for less but i was lazy and just had em ship it. I think mine came out to be about $60. You can get it cheaper by taking off the clear too and just getting the regular autozone duplicolor clear. I can make NE clear look good. just takes more work. The same company sells catalyzed clear and all you have to do is polish it. VERY little sanding involved if any. all the cans they have are 12.5 oz spray cans, which is just enough to cover that fender w/ 3 coats of paint. May need a little more or less depending on the color

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LMK, Id be more than happy to help do it. All you need is a vin and a color code and they match your paint exactly

[Kyle]

LMK, Id be more than happy to help do it. All you need is a vin and a color code and they match your paint exactly

If you are talking to me thanks, I will talk to my friend and see what he wants to do.

[ORGANIZATIONXIII]

nice... lookin' real good

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Preciate the positive feeback fellas

[_Christian_]

looks good from the pics. im going to pick up some paint from them. +2

[8bangin302]

damn looks good,nice job..

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You might not have gone far enough. Lets say after something is painted its real grainy, that 2000 grit is just gonna polish the top of those grains. you gotta use somethin tougher to sand the grains down (using grain as a figure of speech for a paint molecule). You can try to see if you can even it out w/ 1000 grit, or if i have some time i could come check it out if you're close by

[FlyingStroke240]

good job

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thanks for the positive feedback guys. If anyone needs any info or help on the paint or sanding or spraying techniques, just LMK. more than happy to help out fellow IA'ers and tuners