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what paint to use for home respray?
emsfactory - 31/1/12 at 10:30 AM

Hi all. Looking for some advice on what paint to use to respray my car at home. Its a 02 mx5. Metallic green. I have an older hard top that is a flat green that I want to paint also. The top is steel I believe.

I have built a rough booth in my garage with an extractor and panel filter, I also have an air fed mask that I can use, but I would rather not use any isocyanate if poss.

Speaking to paint suppliers they say the only way to do this is using a 2k polyester base that will have an isocyanate hardener.

They reccomend sanding all the panels back then sealing the car. Then put down a 2k primer, then the base then clear.

Trying to do as much as I can to elimanate reactions as I just painted a large model with cellulose and that was a nightmare.


Is using the bad stuff really the only way?


[Edited on 31/1/12 by emsfactory]

[Edited on 31/1/12 by emsfactory]

afj - 31/1/12 at 11:17 AM

If your worried about any reactions we use stuff called barr coat. oh 2k paint will not kill you, stick your mask on and you will be fine

blakep82 - 31/1/12 at 11:44 AM

strictly speaking 2k is the only stuff to use, as cellulose isn't available anymore... in theory.

look on ebay for huggspaint or something like that. as long as you're not spraying a car with it, and its just for industrial use, personally, I used some to spray a gate you can buy cellulose, which is personally what i'd choose. I don't really want to risk poisoning the cats, pond fish, chickens or ducks.

matt_gsxr - 31/1/12 at 12:01 PM

Cellulose worked for me. Put on loads then you can sort out any imperfections without rubbing through.

emsfactory - 31/1/12 at 12:11 PM

I have used barcoat before and its pretty good.

If you were to use cellulose would sealer do over the old paint or would you have to use barcoat?

macc man - 31/1/12 at 06:21 PM

I painted my seven with cellulose over etch primer. Worked a treat. I would use a sealer if you do not want any reactions with old paint. Make sure you sand back old paint to give a good key. As said put plenty on, flat with 1200 wet & dry and buff to a shine. Celly is still available but can cost more than 2k now. I used a machine finish paint as it was cheaper but it gave a real deep shine. Good luck.

emsfactory - 7/2/12 at 12:37 PM

Ok I have ordered celly.
Got another tin of barcoat coming to top up what I have left from before. Going to seal it and base coat it then I have some 2k clear coat just to add a sense of danger.

And I just cracked the windscreen. Super!

emsfactory - 13/2/12 at 05:42 PM

Yaaaaasssssss!!!!!!! Just finnished the 3rd clear coat. Hopefully that'll give enough to sand out the small inclusions etc. Reasembly in a day or so.

Does anyone know how long you need to leave it before you can cut and buff? Drying outside undercover.

cliftyhanger - 13/2/12 at 06:08 PM

2k usually 24 hours or less. I assume you are using fast hardener?
every 10degree drop in temp doubles the hardening time, but 24 hours should be ample. I think. Mind you, it is pretty chilly, but warming up a bit at last.

Mark Allanson - 13/2/12 at 06:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by afj
If your worried about any reactions we use stuff called barr coat. oh 2k paint will not kill you, stick your mask on and you will be fine


Barr Coat does work well but is about 20 years out of date, I haven't seen it available for years although you may be lucky. The advice on 2K paint is seriously misguided, do a search, it has been covered on many occasions.

Polyester basecoat is not 2K and it is mixed with MS thinners, not isocyanate hardener. You can use basecoat with a good vapour mask, but it will not protect you from 2K clearcoat applied on top. You can buy 1K clearcoat which does give good results.

2K is really bad for you, and your local environment (it will poison the veg in your neighbours garden, for many years to come, the overspray dust will get in your cats fur and then be ingested when it cleans itself etc). Its use is restricted to profession bodyshops with the equipement, filtration to deal with it, no amateur should be able to get hold of it legally.

emsfactory - 14/2/12 at 09:21 AM

Cheers guys,
I think I,ll leave it till later in the week. Im still waiting on my fine Velcro pads to arrive.

my garage/booth is pretty air tight and does go through a large booth filter, over a square meter so I am confident there will be no dust overspray anywhere out side. I left the car until it was touch dry. Before pushing it outside into the car port. I do agree that the stuff is not nice I used it as I had some left. If single pack clear is good then I have no intention of buying more 2K.

Mark, what 1K clear would you use? Also, what do you use as a barrier coat? Most places round here sell barcoat so thats what I have been using.

Mark Allanson - 14/2/12 at 06:17 PM

Any of the main manufacturers do a 1k clear, the upol one is good value and pretty unaffected by less than ideal conditions.

We don't use Barrcoat, if we have a problem with the substrate we remove it, I have to give a guarantee on all our work, a minimum of 5 years, upto 12 years on the top end cars.

alistairolsen - 15/3/12 at 09:47 PM

So it is possible to avoid waterbased paints, cellulose and isocyanates and STILL get a good finish?

More info please!

is this the stuff?
U-pol 1k S2085 SMART Acrylic Clear Coat Lacquer RFU 5L | eBay

I assume being a 1k product it can be handled like cellulose ie return any spare to the tin? (if clean etc etc)

Mark Allanson - 16/3/12 at 07:46 PM

Thats the one!

emsfactory - 17/3/12 at 04:53 PM

Finally figured out how to get the polishing pads to work.
Got half of the boot lid done.
Just the rest of the car to do now.


zilspeed - 7/4/13 at 11:33 AM

Old thread revival.

Looking lovely.

emsfactory - 9/4/13 at 02:39 PM

Cheers zil.
It came out nice. Not perfect and I learned a lot for the future but a very enjoyable experience.

sdh2903 - 9/4/13 at 02:51 PM

Looks great, went through a similar experience painting mine, I thoroughly enjoyed the painting, cutting back and polishing however the prep work was probably the most soul destroying boring job i did on the whole car. Unfortunately this shows in places in my paint but still a pretty decent finish considering.

DarrenW - 9/4/13 at 02:56 PM

I reckon if you paint a car yourself you become super critical. OE finishes arent always great. I saw a brand new ltd edition M3 at the dealers 2 weeks ago, the paint was what can only be described as orange peel. It was truly awful, and they wanted 70K for it!!!!! The panels were all straight etc which is hard to achieve when you rebuild a car at home, but i would never accept the final finish as bad as that.