Paint and Body Fox Body Painting 101

@Davedacarpainter I about had a meltdown last night. Still working on the truck panels, the underside of the hood in particular, prepping for sealer.
- I used the blow-off tool to blow out all the cracks and crevices really well.
- wiped it all down with thinner
- blew it all off again, for good measure.

AS SOON AS I started spraying sealer, sht starts coming out like confetti and trashes everything. WTF.

What else can I do?
Power wash The hell out of it, then put it up on end and let it drip dry for a couple days.
 
Hey Dave, any advice on saving my door tag? It was partly painted once already. Dunno if it's possible to remove and reapply or if I gotta find a replacement
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1948.webp
    IMG_1948.webp
    226.3 KB · Views: 221
I know there are companies that remake ones for us at the bodyshop when we replace the panel they are attached to.

I'm not sure of their names though.

Does Marti make these as an option when you get a report?
 
While I'm no pro I have been learning some stuff lately that I thought I'd share.

1. Cleaning your gun and tools is like 45% of painting. The sooner you clean the better. If you plan to keep and reuse mixing cups, after you shoot the first coat, clean the gun. A paper towel and some thinner in a spray bottle will make short work of things.

2. Don't try to use wire wheels to strip paint.. you'll just give yourself a headache.

3. Take the long road. Doing this you'll be faced with a lot of temptation to skip steps or want to take a short cut. So far every time I come close to trying that I triple what I was gonna do in the first place.

4. Be prepared to buy way more sand paper than you guess.

5. If you're learning as you go.. plan on it taking longer and costing more than planned.

6. Lastly , keep the shop vac close by... great way to deal with the dust

I'll add more as I learn it.
 
Last edited:
So for those of us hobbyist without a stud gun, how would you go around pulling a dent like this? (hard to see I know, small dent from prying with a screwdriver getting the quarter glass out).
IMAG0181.webp
 
What we used to do before the advent of some of these dent pulling devices is to drill a whole and use a slide hammer with a screw in attachment, then weld the hole back up.
 
That's about what I figured. I've got a rather large dent to fix in the drivers fender that I can get a dolly on (if I can't find a decent set of oe fenders), but no access to the backside of that little one on the quarter (and I really don't want to just bondo right over it, it is rather tiny though). Other than that the car is pretty much straight. trying to find the next thing I can do while I save for parts, and that may just be stripping the shell and epoxying it (since I have all the supplies to do that already)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Davedacarpainter
Ok, more sanding questions. Working on my quarters. Finished all the body work, and did the first block in 180, 4 more coats of high build and now blocking with 320 . I have one spot on one of the edges where I didn't watch what I was doing and rubbed it too thin. Can I get away with a spot prime in that area or should I hit the whole quarter with a couple more coats? There is just one small, maybe the size of a nickel spot . I'd rather do the extra work now if needed.


From there, I was gonna start with 600 wet. Do you do that with a bare hand or small block?
 
Spot it in with either rattle can, or you could mix up a small quantity of regular primer and just spray a small amount on that spot.

Block with 600, spray or wipe on a guide coat prior to sanding.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RaggedGT
Dave,
It's been a long time since I met (kinda met) a guy like you. You really do give a lot of your time to this site and I bet that doesn't stop here. There are few friends that I have who would stop what they are doing to help me. If you lived closer, I bet you'd be one of those guys.

Thanks for all you do Dave.