How to Paint Wood (mdf) to a High Gloss Mirror Finish With a Spray Can

[dj00140]

Well I have been planning out my enclosure for my 15" DC XL and wanted something amazing that is really going to turn heads, I looked into suede, plexiglass, carpet, fiberglass... and decided on a combination of them, but Theonly part I didnt know how to accomplish was achieving that show car paint job, a high shine high-gloss mirror paint job that looks like a professional job. Now I will post pics later of my practice runs but I just though I would post pics for the 2 tutorials I found that work very well for paint anything that can be primed to a mirror finish. It took me a while to find these So I thought I would share them! Now these are all done with a spray can. Here is an over view of the process:

1. Sand surface smooth with no deep scratches (use filer if needed)

2. Prime 2-3 coats sanding with 400 grit between, just trying o get flat not remove scratches

3. Spray Color coat, use light layers many coats sand at the last coat with 400 grit and spray one more coat and sand with 600 grit or 1000 grit (look at tutorial most paints need to cure for at least 2-3 days)

*Basically with the color coats you want to do 2-3 thin layers and let it set for 2 days sand with 600, do 2-4 more thin layers and let set for 2 days, and spray one more coat and finnaly sand with 1000 and 2000.

4. Now spray clear coats several thin layers and sand after 5-10 coats with 600 1000 and 2000.

5. Then Buff with rubbing compound, then swirl compound (maybe one or another) and later after a couple week cure you can use car polish or a jewelers rouge...

important notes:

-Use quality paint and sandpaper it makes a huge difference (make sure you get gloss paint and clear)

-Spray many thin layers 8-12" away, be patient let paint coats completely dry for 24-48 hours

-follow directions on materials

Now you can have a great glossy finish with no expensive equipment. Hope this helps some people. I dont post much but I know I was looking for something like this so Im sure a few others are as well.

I am not in anyway taking credit for these tutorials just putting it in a place where its easier for the car audio industry to find! I read through probably 20 tutorials to find these 2 good ones.

Links to tutorials:

part 1-

linear1 case mods » case mod 101: how to paint your computer case (part 1)

part 2-

linear1 case mods » case mod 101: how to paint your computer case (part 2)

tutorial #2

How to paint MDF to a mirror finish worklog

[P4killer_]

the bottom tut which yields the block in the picture is awesome. Its a ton of work not to mention a ton of money in paint and materials. I could see doing this for fiberglass type projects, but it took him many hours just for this small piece. I couldnt imagine trying this for an entire enclosure or something.

Great tut tho, thanks for posting this

[dj00140]

the bottom tut which yields the block in the picture is awesome. Its a ton of work not to mention a ton of money in paint and materials. I could see doing this for fiberglass type projects, but it took him many hours just for this small piece. I couldnt imagine trying this for an entire enclosure or something.

Great tut tho, thanks for posting this

I just went to home depot and am going to do a couple practice runs, I will do a really quick run to on a large piece of wood just to show what you can get out of a 1 hour paint job, I think you will be surprised!

[dj00140]

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Paint-Your-Fiberglass-Car-Audio-Projects-Using-Spray-Paint&id=1173777

More on sanding to get specific:

So as far as grits in your sand paper goes, you will need about 6-7 different grits. I use 80 or 120 grits disc pads on my mechanical sander whenever I am rough shaping the bondo. Once I get my bondo knocked down to the shape I want, I start sanding by hand with a 200 grit pad. Then I take the rest of my grits 300,600,800, and 1000 in the sanding process. Some people wonder just how many times and what grit to use. I have an actual fail proof formula you can go by. Write it down, print it out, whatever, and put it up in our shop. Follow these steps and your finish will be perfect. The numbers just represent the grit to use.

The steps are

bondo, 80, bondo, 80, bondo, 120, sand 200, 300, primer, 200, 300, primer, 300, glazing putty, 300, 600, metallic coat, 600, 800, 1000, paint, 1000, paint, 1000, paint, clear, 1000, clear, 1000, clear.

This will be the same for pneumatic spray jobs. The paints are usually a lot better than spray paint, but again, if you are using a good quality spray paint, and you do these steps above, I guarantee you no one can tell the difference. I honestly cannot tell one way or the other if it is done like I show above.

Just remember to use light coats, do not cake it on. The paint will run and you will have to sand a lot of paint off to get the uniform surface back. Also, when you spray, as I show in the video, start spraying in open air, move the stream onto the box, all the way over, off the side into open air, then let go of the nozzle. Do not press the nozzle down and start spraying on the box. Start and stop in open air. This helps to keep the paint surface uniform on all points the spray hits.

[mbdblue]

its a nice tutorial man, but i gotta add that you should never have to sand a color coat ever. the color coat is purely for color only, and if you have to sand it, its most likely because your spraying too light which would create a dry coat making the surface textured....sometimes a medium wetcoat is a good thing. If you can get even surface coverage and not run your golden. usually "show" finishes are all about the clear coat. show cars tend to have that heavy clear to get that real deep look. of course, sometimes they also use like 8 coats of clear which would be a tragedy to do on a daily driver.

usually sanding primer at 200 grit will take the primer you just sprayed right off. 220 would be good to cut the body filler down to apply the primer. usually you can cut primer down with 320-600 successfully.

You shouldnt need to sand in between clear coats. it should be able to be applied in one session, unless there is a run involved. in that case the run needs to be takin out/sanded down and resprayed.

it looks like this method works, but involves alot more materials being used up that dont need to be applied to begin with.