Painting MDF with automotive paint

[numatik]

Zach, you know I do fiberglass work and im DEFINITELY not sanding resin!! I have better ways to waste time. Im going to experiment with what you said with the sanding 220 prime sandable primer knock it back down etc etc to see how the wood absorbs the paint. this seems like a great idea and sounds like it will work. I'll test it on a test piece next time I'm working with mdf. I was just thinking about it in my head and wanted to hear the best ways. Thanks Zach! How have you been anyway? Havnt seen you in a while

[Kush Killer]

i am a body man and do this alomst daily well not on mdf, but i do that quite a bit alos, the fastest esiest way to "prep" that ive found, is go over it all with 80grit, get sum feather fill or another simailar product of "extremly" high build prmer surfacer, feather fill is what i use, its cheap and works great sands nice ande easy and drys fast to, must be sprayed witha 2.5 hvlp gun tho but about 2 coats of that, run ovr it with 180 grit on d/a then regular 2k prime, then paint,clear

[HatersGonnaHate]

BOOM! Did a little digging and found the worklog of the link that I first posted.

Clicky clicky...

[loganberry]

i would use the milkshake trick only a little thicker so you could kind of control where it goes, then once the whole enclosure is done start with the wet sanding cause it should be pretty damn smooth at that point as it is just maybe have a bubble or two that needs to be knocked down then paint away then it should look as good if not better than the body of the vehicle its going in

[thehoe92]

I remember I tried my hand at painting the infamous Elvis 2 18's super massive baffle box

I started of by sanding with like a 120 grit

I really only did the baffle and then got the cheap $1 spray cans from Walmart (considered a primer to me) and blasted the shit out of the baffle to where it was a thick layer

waited until the next day and took my orbital sander with 600 grit and sanded just about all the paint off to where it was wood and some paint

let me tell you that thing was smooth as a baby's ass

I never got to paint it but Minel did and I thought it turned out pretty good considering how much time I spent on prepping it

started off like this

with the "primer" on

not sure if you can see how smooth it is but this is what I was talking about

its like spraying a primer over bondo to see the imperfections and to kind of fill everything in

hope this helps a little

[cc_audio]

I know some people use watered down wood glue to seal the MDF cut edges, or things like drywall filler or DAP. Three or more coats of any high build primer should do the trick on any MDF seam/edge because that's all I do. Just sand down on the final coat, hit with a coat of regular primer. Sand to perfection, and then paint and clear it like you would anything else. Sand very carefully, slowly, and softly on corners and edges because its so easy to take the primer right down to wood there. In fact stay away from edges as much as possible, just stick to the large flat faces of the box. I've done it quite a few times, it easy to get a really nice finish (always wiser to pick lighter colors). But the shinny perfect piano finish is too much work if you don't have a paint booth and usually unnecessary (its still not impossible though). Its not that hard, once you try it you'll figure it out.

[ainawi]

check this out ... this guy does some real painting job along with rhino lining on sub boxes

[77-AUDIO]

they make a filler style primer. with several light coats you should be fine. but I did find that using a resin or body filler worked the best. I did Mattmans24 box for him and painted it to match his tahoe. what ever you do it does take some time to get it smooth and looking good.

http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv240/MATTMAN24_2009/06121749.jpg

[numatik]

Wow I hadnt checked this in a while and im glad I checked it again. Lots of good info posted here of all the different ways to do this, and I thank you guys!

Loganberry - What is 'the milkshake truck'? I dont recall reading anything about that, but then again I cant remember shit as im sure everybody on this forum knows about me since my crash...But I am going to try this and I do hope it comes out

the hoe92 - Awesome post with the pics Kasey! I totally forgot that you had this enclosure in the hoe, I think I only saw it once or twice at lowes wayyy back in the day.

cc_audio - watered down woodglue? I have never heard that one before, Dont really see the benefit doing it that way, drywall putty makes more sense then that. I didnt think imf doinf several filler primer coats, thats agood idea.

ainawi - I think its safe to say he loved Fosgate and DD How the hell did he paint the inside of that pink port so freakin well?

[cc_audio]

cc_audio - watered down woodglue? I have never heard that one before, Dont really see the benefit doing it that way, drywall putty makes more sense then that. I didnt think imf doinf several filler primer coats, thats agood idea.

Trust me, people do the glue thing. Lol Water n' Glue!

I've never done the watered down glue thing but I've seen it a few times. I don't seal the edges myself. When doing outsides of boxes, usually I'll just paint on Valspar Enamel Undercoater with a foam roller. Does really good work on MDF seams/edges, sand it down perfect (or do another coat) and hit it with any kind of enamel primer spray paint, sand again. Its super easy and results have been great thus far, I might have to do a write up (how-to) on this some time. But if you don't like the idea of using a roller on a box, you can also get high build primer for your gun (if you have one) or in an aerosol can, I believe I use SEM high build primer (don't quote me, I'm 9100miles from my garage right now lol). Just make sure your sitting around a 600 grit minimum finish in the final coat of primer, with absolutely no low (bare wood) spots before painting away, 2-3 coats color, 5 coats clear. Wet sand if you feel its necessary, just be careful to not get any water on bare MDF.