You will want to sand any rust area flat and kill the rust and/or treat any bare metal before priming.  I use a 50/50 mix of phosphoric acid and water.  Spray a little on the bare metal, let it dry, when ready to prime use a damp cloth to wipe the treated area and prime with epoxy primer immediately (soon as the are dries).  DP-90 is a good epoxy primer/sealer.  Sand the entire hood with 220 dry paper and shoot on a coat of DP-90.  Then do any body work...glazing putty on the little low rusted areas, or more major hammer/dolly/fill work on top of the DP-90.  Shoot High-Build primer over all that and block it down with 360 paper or so.  Shoot the base coat and a couple of coats of clear (whatever the mfg. recommends...READ THE INSTRUCTIONS).  Cut it with progressively fine wet paper, hit it with a wheel and some fine polishing compound and be proud.  It will most likely look better than the rest of the truck or anything you park next to.

​It's been a few years since I squirted anything and the products/methods have changed, so please,  anyone else please chime in.
BB

Last edited by Bullet Bob (11/22/2016 11:04 AM)

Does this seem right?
1. So, sand the whole hood or not?
2. Kill rust with 50/50 phosphoric acid and water?  Then wipe with a damp cloth (to neutralize acid, I guess???).
3. Shoot epoxy primer (sand afterward???...if so, with what grit???)
4. Shoot high build primer and block sand with 360grit
5. Shoot base according to mfg specs (where do I get mfg specs?...from their website?) (scuff between coats???) (scuff before clear???) (if so, with what grit???)
6. Shoot clear according to mfg specs
 

Michael,

Sounds like you are about to do some fun stuff! From a first timers point of view, I would do it this way:

1)Sand hood to bare metal(that way the primer has a solid base to grip to)
2)Follow up cleaning the bare metal with a paper towel and some PPG Cleaner, when dry, follow through with a tack rag to get rid of any paper towel particles,etc.
3) Shoot some high build primer overlapping every half way to get good coverage. Let dry, block/wet sand with 400-600 grit. Darker spots will be low spots, bare metal-high. Shoot another coat of primer, sand with 800-1000 grit. Get a block to sand, using your hand will leave striations because of uneven fingers, unless you want to let your car look like it has tiger stripes under the paint.
4)Clean and prep
5)Mist the first coat of paint about 1 1/2 ft high from the panel.(adjust gun if shooting too heavy)
6) Follow up with a heavier coat until full coverage. let cure and dry(different paints have different cure times).
7) once dry, wet sand with 1000 grit to get rid of imperfections(bugs, dog hair, your hair, etc)
8)Follow up with shooting clear. Same concept from above, mist, and every coat get heavier. Main thing, move your arm as you are layering or you WILL get runs. 
9) When I did my car, I shot 3 coats of clear, wet sanding in between each coat. Doing so gave the finish more depth(maybe an aesthetic thing, but it certainly looks that way to me).
10) Once fully cured and dry. Wet sand one final time with 1000-1200 grit. At this stage, once the wet sanding is done and all the milky white clear residue is cleaned off, you should be able to see a pretty sheen and gloss on the panel.
11) Bring out the buffer, 3M Rubbing compound (Yellow Bottle), follow up with Polishing compound(Black or Purple bottle)
12)Done

Now this is just one of hundreds of ways to do it and others may have different opinions towards my approach, but it worked for me. 

I used:
PPG Self-etching primer
PPG High Build Primer
Urekem Jalapeno Red basecoat
Urekem Clear Coat

If you want very reasonably priced primer & paint that is really good, urekem worked great for me. I would certainly use them again if painting another car. 

http://www.urekem-paints.com
http://www.ebay.com/usr/thecoatingstore?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Good luck! and have fun!


 

Last edited by Ramses (11/22/2016 6:00 PM)

What condition is the hood in now?

Also don't worry about runs in clear, it's easy to remove runs. Just don't get any orange peel or dry spray when you spray the clear or base.  Make sure when you spray the clear you hold your gun 6-8" away. Then when you make a pass look at it. Make sure the clear is wet and has a good gloss. Don't be afraid to spray a little more to get a good solid wet coat.  When your spraying you'll notice on the sds sheet for the clear a term called flash time. What that is is basically the time it takes for the solvents to evaporate out of the clear.  When you spray a clear, if you have a piece of tape next to where you sprayed your in luck. Touch the tap you should feel either sticky or tachy. If it's tacky then the clear should have flashed and you should never good for your second coat of clear.  For a small job such as what you are doing it would suggest a quart of base. Clear it depends on the shop. Some shops don't sell quarts of clear some do. They also have different types.  1-1 2-1 4-1 4-1-2 it just depends.  What that means is the mix ratio for the clear.  Some clears after adding the hardener it doubles the amount of clear.  So I would ask your local jobber on the clear. If you want a great clear spi is awesome stuff. It's also not to pricy for what you get. For your tip size it should be 1.3 solvent borne base 1.4 water borne base. 1.2 for the clear coat. The 2.0 and such sizes are used for high build primers but mainly they use those for big mettalic flakes. Hope this helps.

Looks great!! Did you get any runs? Or fish eyes?

A run can simply be taken out using the following.  3/4" masking tape, polyester glazing putty,  paint stick, 600 800 and 1500 grit sand paper. I have seen some decent videos on people who use this method on their cars clear. I actually learned it from a well known custom painter.  Hondo John Espil. As for the orange peel it looks likes it's in the clear? If so you can use some  800g sand paper or a  grey scuff pad to remove it.  After going over the entire hood you'll need to spray a piss coat of clear. Some painters call it a activation coat or a mist coat. Basically have your gun with a 1.2 or 1.3 nozzle if you have one. A 1.4 will work but you have to be quicker and keep your 6-8 distance from the panel. The reason for a piss coat is so it will show you If have any contamination on the panel. It will show up with in just a few seconds. After the piss coat sits for about  a minute you can give a full wet coat on the panel.  Make sure after you make a pass you look on an angle to see if you have any shinny or dull areas. If you do make another pass. You should spray the clear keeping in mind your 50% over lap.  After a while it becomes pretty easy to spray.  A good habit to have is this. If you are right handed wrap the air hose around your back holding it in your left hand. Also make sure you don't flick your wrist when you spray. Many many painters flick their wrist. They can argue as much as they want, but the paint will be thinner if you do. This doesn't sound like it would really matter to some people but it does in the paint world. You can end up with serious paint variations.  I hope this helps ya out.

What paint line did you end up using?

I'd check something before you plan on spraying next time.  Some BC can be dry or wet sanded prior to being clear coated. Some times orange peel can be from shooting the paint to heavy in areas. If you do get orange peel run or other flaws in the base. You can let the base flash and cure, then you can sand with 600-1500g depending on what the paint looks like.  This is best to be done on solid colors only.  If you sand a mettalic base.  It will end up looking like stainless steel sometimes. After sanding you can then clean tack and re shoot a piss coat of base over the hood. After that check and see if the paint filled in the minor sanding scratches. If the paint didn't quite fill them in give it enough coats to fill in the flaw.  Then after this is done you can then then clear the panel.  A good way to practice is filling a spray gun with water then paint your car with it.  If right handed wrap the air hose around the small of your back, hold part of the hose with your left had.  The reason for this is precautionary so that you don't end up with a mark from your air hose hitting the nice painted panel. Make sure you use a side step motion when painting.  Walk the whole panel.  Don't flick your wrist.  Follow this read your SDS sheet and you'll be a problem in no time. Your hood looks great for your first time. Many pro painters end up with orange peel so no worries on that one. If anyone ever says anything. All if say if hey man I was going for custom. Good luck finishing your painting. I wish I could paint my car.  My problem is its way way to cold to paint in my shop.  And the college is closed right now so I can't use the booth. Ugh.

Thanks!   I definitely plan to wet sand and buff with hopes of smoothing it out, but with Christmas coming up it may be a few weeks before I have time.

You're right... it looks better than the rest of the truck now!