Need Advice On Painting - Base/clear W/ Conventional Gun

oz

Founding Member
Jun 29, 2000
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Plymouth, MI
Greetings,
I didn't know what forum to put this in but since I need to paint the rubber trim pieces on the door of my Oxford white '91, I posted it here.

Anyway, the rubber trim on the doors of my '91 convertible are in good shape but are yellowed. I want to mask and paint them myself. I have painted with my conventional Binks gun but need to know the speciefics of how to prep (600 grit wet/dry to scuff original paint?), what base, clear, reducer to use, do i need an additive to make the paint more flexible or an adhesion promoter, how many coats of base (how many 'dry', how many 'wet' coats, etc), how many coats of clear ('dry', 'wet', etc). It's been awhile so how thin should the base, clear be? How long between coats?

Also, is it alright to keep the good (but yellowed) original paint on the trim and paint over it after scuffing it?

The alternative is to get the body shop to paint both trim strips on the car for $200.

Thanks!
 
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Can you post a pic of the trim you want to paint? It will help me give a better response.

Is the existing paint cracking or peeling?
What kind of paint job is on the rest of the car (bc + cc or single stage?) and how old is it?
One problem you don't want is the rest of your car being an old faded white and then laying fresh oxford white on your trim and it sticks out like a sore thumb. A professional paint shop will be able to tint the paint just right to match the existing older paint on the car.
 
No advice on how to paint, but how much are the materials going to cost? $200 may not be a bad deal by the time it is all said and done.

Joe
 
I was thinking the same thing but wanted to consider doing it myself first.
I have gotten a pint of base coat before along with reducer and it was nowhere near $200 but I need clear this time too...
 
First off you will not get great long lasting results if you paint the trim while it's still on your door. Painting trim while still on the door will create an "edge" of the paint and it will start to flake off over time. Remove it, paint it and re-install or purchase new ones from LateModel like in the link you provided.

Original paint on a 20+ y/o car is going to lose it's luster over time. If you were to replace a fender and put new paint on it, even if you got the factory paint code from Ford, it wouldn't match the rest of the car. Clear coat loses it's shine naturally from UV, washing, waxing and time. I think if you did it yourself there's a good chance it's not going to match right with the rest of the car. My advice for the DIY guy is go SS. It's too small of a job for BC/CC and SS white shoots very well.

Scuff it up with scotch brite enough to dull it and dig in to the clear coat. Blow it off with air hose. Wash it with soap and water, let dry. Blow it off again with air hose. Hit it with wax and grease remover making sure you wipe off the excess with a clean rag. Then use a tack cloth. Adhesion promoter is always good insurance when painting fiberglass/plastic/urethane (follow the mf'r directions) and shoot it with color.

You do not need primer since you're painting the same color and not repairing anything. You do not need a flex additive since technically this molding should never "flex" on your door and most paint can flex a little anyways (which is why you can get a large ding and pull it out without damaging the paint).

When I paint i like the very first coat to just be a mist (a very light coat, or "dry coat"). Spray the fist light coat (it should NOT look "wet") and wait about 10 minutes to let it tack up and then do another coat just a little heavier than the first. After that i'd put on 2 wet coats. If it looks like you have good coverage and you're happy then let it cure 48hrs (depending on temperature and humidity) and then wet sand and buff.

I'm thinking off the top of my head so I hope I didn't miss anything. There is more than one way to paint and prep something correct and opinions very. Good Luck
 
Thanks for the reply.
Yea, you're probably right on the color issue I may encounter. Sure, I 'think' the paint looks good - but it's still probably a little off from exposure to the elements.

So, you can still get single stage paint? Is it a good idea to 'mix 'n match' clear coat and single stage on the same car? Would the oxidation on the SS be noticeable vs on the BC/CC?
I know white is the 'hardest' paint physically as the pigment is very hard so it may be a good candidate for SS.

As for masking, there appears to be some pretty good natural masking points that will hide the line. That said, the time it will take to mask will be significant.
 
As far as Single Stage paint still being around, heck yes!

You will not be able to tell the difference between a SS painted trim piece and the rest of the car. SS lays down and buffs out really well. All depends on prep and how good you are at painting and your gun setup (is the paint gun matched properly to the air compressor in regards to psi/volume?)

If somebody was to paint with SS and it came out like crap then I'd say that person did something wrong along the line of prep, paint or cutting/buffing/polishing. While BC/CC is the best, SS can look really good but it does have it's limitations.
 
Thanks for the replies. I may go price out the materials and 'guestimate' how much time it would take me to do it and then decide if it would be better to just have a pro paint it.
My biggest hangup is I hate leaving my car with anyone... something about the car I had in college being totalled by the dealership 19 years ago when I had it in for service still haunts me. :mad:

Thanks again!
 
Go spend a hundred bucks on all the materials and you'll be set. The silver lining to doing it yourself is that if you ever need anything else in the future you'll have some paint left over (store it properly) and a skill set to be self reliant with your car.

I know i'm proud when somebody asks me who did this or who did that and the answer, ME!

Good luck

(p.s. Another tip real quick. Make sure you drain your air compressor before shooting paint. Also it's worth the $30 to get a water trap (do not get one with an automatic oiler!!)
 
Thanks.
I've done pretty much everything on one car or another over the years - but I don't like doing body work. I avoid it if at all possible...

I do have a water trap attached to the inlet of the paint gun.
Also, I thought SS paint would need me to add a hardener and/or flexibility modifier (for painting my rubberized trim) prior to shooting it that would cause leftovers to go bad in the can. Is this not the case? Assuming I get a pint, I'll probably have to mix the whole batch to get it to spray right out of my conventional Binks gun, no?
 
No, you're going to get a quart of paint and you only need to mix a little more than what you will need to cover the parts you're going to spray. Pour your paint in a mixing cup with the correct amount of reducer and hardner (per mf'r specs, i.e. 4 parts of X, 2 parts of X, 1 part X, etc) and follow the flex additive directions. Make sure you take ambient temps into consideration when adding hardener. If it's upper 80 degrees outside when you paint then you might want to reduce the amount of hardener, or if it's cool out like mid 60 degrees then you might want to add a touch extra. You'll have left over in the paint can to use another day.

Using Flex isn't going to hurt you but lots of painters don't really use flex additive. They feel it's a gimmick and they have no problems with cracking on normal urethane (fiberglass) bumpers/trim. I'm not going to use it on my front bumper, rear bumper nor my GT moldings when I paint. I will only use an adhesion promoter. Read up on it if you want, it's all about preference and you'll find some people that will use it and a lot that don't.
 
I didn't realize that bumpers didn't have to have flex additive. I didn't think the paint was that flexible... I guess that would explain the 'spider web' cracks that show up if you bump into something.
These molding might as well be hard plastic as they have almost no flex - so I'll probably skip the additive.

Thanks!
 
I've seen bumpers with flex additive spider web crack from soft hits (AKA 5 mph bumpers) and the paint peeled off in the area that flexed. All paint and primer (even w/ flex) have a yield point for bending and flexing, exceed that yield point and they are all equal.