How-To: Painting & Scratch Repair basics

Supplies:
Random Orbit Disc Sander (nice but not totally necessary)
150-180 Silicon Carbide Stearated Sandpaper (greyish/whitish in color)
220-280 Silicon Carbide Wet/Dry Sandpaper
400-600 Silicon Carbide Wet/Dry Sandpaper
Lightweight Auto Body Filler (bondo/hardener)
Thick piece of Plastic for a body filler palette and a few assorted putty knives
Denatured Alchohol or Naptha (for cleaning body pieces)Wear Rubber Gloves!
Clean Cotton Rags
Tack Cloths
Flexible Bumper Primer Spray in Can (automotive paint supply store)
Flexible Bumper Color Spray in Can (automotive paint supply store)
Optional Clear Coat Spray in Can (automotive paint supply store)
Good Auto Body Masking Tape and Masking Paper (same as above) 3M
Clean Tarp for Over Spray and Saw Horses for setting pieces on helpful.

Prep:

Remove all body pieces for prep. Sand all the body pieces with the 150-180 sandpaper. Hand sand the areas your sander could not do efficiently.

Mix Body Filler on palette per instructions. Only use enough to work with for 5 minutes or less. Filler sets up fast so don't waste time and your not baking a cake... be neat and smooth out blobs with the knife. Fill in all your scratches and then let dry..Scrape pallete with knife to get the set up filler off before your next go round. After filler is dry on the pieces..Bout an hour . Sand the areas flush with the pieces. If you see that you need to do more filling, do so before moving to next steps. If you use to much filler you will be sanding forever. If you leave too much filler on the surface you will see a hump in your finish if you top coat over it.

Next Step: Clean Clean Clean
This is very important! clean with the Denatured alchohol or Naptha& Clean Rags(Wear Gloves). This will lift off any grease or oils on the surfaces and promote adhesion. Even oil from your skin will make a difference on paint!

Next Step: Tack Cloth the pieces ready to paint.
set up your tarp and saw horses or buckets for painting. Spread the pieces out so they don't get overspray on them. Spray 2 (THIN) coats of the flexible primer on all surfaces. Make sure to coat the edges of pieces also. Do not spray to much with one coat. Build the finish lightly and the paint will be much smoother in the end. After the two thin coats dry (One Hour) Wet sand with the 220-280 paper by hand with a drop of dish soap in a gallon bucket of warm water. Soak the paper for ten minutes first. careful not to burn through the primer.Smooth everything out. What happens when you sand is like this:
Paint has surfaces irregularties like Rolling hills... everytime you coat the hill get bigger...If you sand(level them out) between each coat the hill turn into flat land..thus making a smooth finish. 3rd Primer coat: Spray this coat a little wetter than the first 2 , but do not go overboard or you will run/sag and it is very time consuming/laborsome to cut them and sand them out.. It can be done p.m. me if you get a bad run / sag. Wet Sand again after the 3rd coat drys. Finish up with Tack cloth on all pieces!
Color Coats:
Listen up. This is where you can do any masking for different color schemes. Be very neat with your lines. Details are what makes a paint job crappy or spectacular. Use good 3M autobody tapes and press the edges down well where the paint lines meet. Spray your topcoats very thin...2 coats..Wet sand with the 400-600 Wet/Dry...Make sure everything is smooth smooth smooth before final color coat. Tack cloth.. Spray final Color Coat heavy and wet..It should lay down wet and flow out.. don't run/sag it! Work from the bottom up with deliberate lines laying the finish wet from each line and it will flow out. Let it Dry....Either stop here or go on for the clear coats. If you decide to clear coat. Tack cloth and follow the steps for spraying/sanding. Make sure if your going to clear to sand with minimum 600 grit wet/dry between coats.. you have to wet sand between clears or you might leave black residue from the paper dry sanding!. After everything cures you can buff the color coat or the clear coat with rubbing compund then polishing compound...make sure you let it sit for about 24 hours before trying to buff out.Do this by hand or a little cheaper 5" car buffer from Wal-mart. Sit back enjoy the pro paint job... good work!.. This one will make you sweat for sure.

Good Luck,
Weekapa1

Great article, but I would like to share some of my experiences. Clean, clean, and then clean some more before starting any work. If you start sanding before cleaning, you could push the oil/grease further into the plastic and it won't show up until the paint goes on and then you'll get some fish eyes. Denatured alcohol (rubbing alcohol) is cheap. Buy 3 or 4 bottles.

and if you do a crappy job put a decal over it so no one will ever know lol