Paint and Body Fox Body Painting 101

[old_blue]

Mine were the same. The ones from LMR are under $20 though. They are raw plastic, so you'll need to paint them.

I have a cart full of things like this. I need the cowl cover too and they come in a set with the lower moldings. Also getting the outer lower window trim and felt package as well as a few other things. LMR is going to be getting a large duke of my hard earned money soon enough. Going to try and reuse the for and fender moldings. They'll get paint body color though with the bumpers

I picked up a new (better shape) rear bumper that was completely painted already so no worries about the bare black plastic rotting.

 

[old_blue]

This is one of those clustereff areas, right around where the booster sits. I can still get in there a bit more with the 2" grinder, but all those lap joints are being problem areas. Theres also a bunch of tight sports around the headlight area that I tried to take a quick pic of, but failed (way too blurry and I'm too lazy/tired to try again right now).

And while I have your attention, I was really close to pulling the trigger on this gun set on summit today, I think someone in this thread has asked about them before, but I'll ask about them again anyway
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/dvr-802343

I did get a cheap harbor freight gun a couple weeks ago just to kinda play with (it was $10, figured i might could find something to do with it), don't know if I want to try to make that a primer gun or

I bought that set off of amazon. It was a little cheaper at the time. So far I'm happy with it. The gauge it comes with is not a regulator. It's just a gauge which I thought was weird. No biggie though as I'm going to put a regulator on both guns so I can fine tune it.


I will say I was a little worried about the air. I have a 60 gallon compressor which should be fine but I wasn't sure. I sprayed primer on my whole hood and it didn't kick on. I did find I have to run about a 40-45 psi on the primer so it would lay down smoother. It's a heavy build primer and when I first sprayed it I noticed it came out super textured. I adjusted the pressure and layer down some more and it was a lot smoother. Some more tuning and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

On the plus side I got the passenger side sanded down. I'll get the drivers side done this week and primer them both.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

This is one of those clustereff areas, right around where the booster sits. I can still get in there a bit more with the 2" grinder, but all those lap joints are being problem areas. Theres also a bunch of tight sports around the headlight area that I tried to take a quick pic of, but failed (way too blurry and I'm too lazy/tired to try again right now).

And while I have your attention, I was really close to pulling the trigger on this gun set on summit today, I think someone in this thread has asked about them before, but I'll ask about them again anyway
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/dvr-802343

I did get a cheap harbor freight gun a couple weeks ago just to kinda play with (it was $10, figured i might could find something to do with it), don't know if I want to try to make that a primer gun or

They don't sound bad. It's been awhile since i used any devilbiss product. But, for the price, i bet they'll do the job.
1.3 tip is excellent for most topcoat finishes (bc/cc, single stage).

 

[old_blue]

So the new rear bumper has a few cracks like it Had been bumped a few times. I sanded it down but it looked like the cracks are pretty deep. They don't go all the way through the bumper. What can I use to fill the cracks in? Do I need to go down to the plastic and into the bumper to get rid of them?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

So the new rear bumper has a few cracks like it Had been bumped a few times. I sanded it down but it looked like the cracks are pretty deep. They don't go all the way through the bumper. What can I use to fill the cracks in? Do I need to go down to the plastic and into the bumper to get rid of them?

Yes and maybe. Get rid of all the paint in the area, it's screwed.

Once you've done this, post a picture of the plastic.

If the plastic opens up in those cracks when you flex it, then they need to be repaired. Depending on how bad they are, I'll give you some advice for that repair.

 

[old_blue]

Current progress. Stripping down to metal is very tedious. Even then, some of the primer or sealer is still present here and there.

Here is the rear bumper a rear I was talking about. These cracks are through the clear and paint and into the sealer or primer it look like. I handed sanded the area so I could go slowly. I may take the DA to it now because it is taking too long.

The plan is the door jambs, trunk jamb and hood jamb will just get a light scuff and then rest of the car will get primered before shooting it all with bc/cc. I've gone to a 40 grit to strip it, being careful not to heat up the metal. I will go back over it with 180 to smooth out the metal and rough edges before primer.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

So you have minor cracking of the plastic. Here's what you'll want to do. Fold some heavier grit sand paper (36-80) and sand a shallow V into each crack and fill with a plastic repair kit. You don't have to use panel bonding adhesive (though that would be a great fix). Remove the paint completely from any of the cracks.

You can use almost any flexible plastic repair to seal those up. Not bondo, that will harden enough to crack. Then just treat it like any repaired area with primer, blocking and refinishing.

Primer before you paint the jambs. You won't want to overlap the primer over any new paint.

BTW, absolutely use your DA to strip the paint. Good GAWD! Hand sanding it will take for ever.

 

[old_blue]

Sounds good. The crappy part is you are only seeing a part of the cracks. They are more like spider cracks. That was just the area I sanded off. So, I got some work in front of me.


the plan was to paint everything at once. Jambs and primered areas

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Mainly worry about the larger cracks like you see in the photo. You'll probably see stretch marks too that look like cracks. They don't have to be addressed like the cracks.

 

[old_blue]

I got a lot of the bad spots down to metal and just when I think I can scuff the rest of the body that paint in that area just flakes off like nothing. Looks like the sun really did a number on this thing. Going to take it down to metal on main body and scuff the jambs. A lot of work to get it down.

 

[old_blue]

Thanks again Dave. Still have a lot of work to do but puts me at ease when you explain things.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Anytime Jon, glad I coul help you out.

 

[billison]

Hey have! Quick question on scotch bright pads. I know the red is 320 and the light grey is supposed to be 600-800. Would using the light grey pad be good for a final sanding of primer before paint? The pads are so much easier to deal with than paper.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Hey have! Quick question on scotch bright pads. I know the red is 320 and the light grey is supposed to be 600-800. Would using the light grey pad be good for a final sanding of primer before paint? The pads are so much easier to deal with than paper.

Nope, they're almost worthless for that task. Sorry.

Got to remember that scotchbrites will give you the most inconsistent grit average.

Are you just going to base/clear, or will you be using sealed?

 

[billison]

Just base clear.

I've been finishing things out to 600 wet,

 

[Davedacarpainter]

600 wet, that should be fine enough for your color.

 

[Vettn71]

@Davedacarpainter, I have an 84 Mustang and am refinishing the front bumper. It's a GT bumper, so it's very difficult to locate one. The cheap paint on it had some small cracks, but overall looked okay. When I had it media blasted there's numerous cracks inside the headlight area, among others. My question is if I sand these down and only see a very faint ghost of the cracks, do I need to cut them in and fill with a bumper repair product? If I have to do this, I don't know if the bumper is salvageable. Could use some sage advice on this

TiA

Jim

 

[Davedacarpainter]

@Davedacarpainter, I have an 84 Mustang and am refinishing the front bumper. It's a GT bumper, so it's very difficult to locate one. The cheap paint on it had some small cracks, but overall looked okay. When I had it media blasted there's numerous cracks inside the headlight area, among others. My question is if I sand these down and only see a very faint ghost of the cracks, do I need to cut them in and fill with a bumper repair product? If I have to do this, I don't know if the bumper is salvageable. Could use some sage advice on this

TiA

Jim

Hey Jim, can you post any pictures of the cracks for me to see? BTW '83-'84 bumpers are a PITA.

Do you have fog lights on that bumper?

 

[Vettn71]

@Davedacarpainter, I need to do that tomorrow morning. My iPad doesn't play well with downloaded photos
Jim

 

[Vettn71]

Dave, yes, it has fog lights. That's why I want to save it.

Jim