Painting The Wifes Malibu (pics)

[tejcurrent]

So my wifes hood has been getting worse and worse on her 98 malibu. The clear has been flaking until recently almost the whole thing just turned grey. I decided to spend the money on paint for the hood and make it my 2nd paint project. I'll most likely be taking the bad panels entirely off the car so i don't have to worry about overspray- and it's easier to me to take out a few bolts and take my time than spray awkward-like.

Last thing my wife said to me about it: "I don't want to spend a lot of money on it since I plan on selling it soon, and no matter how the job turns out it will be better than it is".

Like I said- 2nd time using a paint sprayer, so while it could've been better I'm getting practice. Her fenders and bumper will probably be next. On to pics:

Originally it looked like this- you can see the sliver at the tip that's the burgundy color it's suppose to be:

Started wetsanding with some 400grit

finished with the 400

Started with the 600

And drying for paint. Basically I talked to a couple paint guys and they said not to sandblast or bother priming since the old paint and primer were still good, just the clear was flaking. I just got down to thin paint/primer layer:

And immediately after spraying- it smoothed over quite a bit after this, but you can see the orange peeling:

Then the G*DAMN trash and nats got in it:

Just drying

Today I touched it up with a some 2000 grit, but I couldn't only very very slightly because of the metallic flakes and pearlization. Then buffed and waxed.

I need to buy some buffing pads, but it turned out OK. Much better than before anyway. I'll get some better pics when it's not raining, but here's the finished product.

Any tips on doing a better job next time much appreciated, but practice makes perfect I guess. It still looks soooo much better, even if only a little above a Maaco job.

[Saltine]

tips, every single paint job gets trash in it and the majority usully buffs out.

if you paint the hood you really need to blend into the fenders for a good match. it doesnt matter for pearls or metallics or even kandies. 2000 dry the hood and make sure you get any nibs out. then buff it back to a nice shine. other than that it looks good

and you only need to sandblast a part if there is pitted rust or a spot of rust unreachable any other way.

and for priming, you only need to do that if bare metal is exposed or yo have applied filler other than that 320 sand it and its ready for paint

[Noobtastic14]

better than i could have done ;-)

nice work!

-Drew