Race Car Painting - The Painting Process

We have all seen that particular car being unloaded early in the year and thought to ourselves, "Wow, look at how slick that paint job is." The fact is your car could have that paint job. Sure, painting your car can seem very daunting at times but if you follow a few simple steps and take your time you could have a very nice paint scheme when your racing season starts.

Painting can be broken down into three areas: preparation, painting, and clearcoat/cleaning.

One of the biggest pitfalls when painting your car is to rush the job. Give yourself enough time this offseason to make sure you do it right. It all starts with preparation. Not only with the car you are painting but also with the work area you are using. Of course, a lot of us don't have the money to have a paint booth, so most teams will be painting either outside or in a garage of some sort. The trick is to sprinkle the ground with some water if you are going to be outside to keep the dust from flying up while you are painting. If you are going to be painting in a garage you need to put the body on some type of paper to keep the paint from sticking to the floor and to keep the dust from being kicked up and creating that one speck on an otherwise perfect paint job.

Next will always be safety, so before you go any further make sure you have some type of respirator that will filter any airborne debris that might otherwise enter your lungs, and get a pair of goggles for your eyes as well. You are going to be sanding down, painting and clearcoating. Each process can damage your lungs and your eyes. It's also a good idea to have some type of hat or something to cover your hair.

Now it's time to prepare the body you will be painting. Whether it is fiberglass, plastic or sheet metal, the steps are pretty much the same. First, you need to take some sandpaper and scuff up your painting area. Don't use anything less (more coarse) than 200 grit sand paper. I suggest using 320 grit and dry sand it evenly across the entire painting surface. If you sand it with anything smaller, you run the risk of cutting too deep into the fiberglass and leaving swirl marks in the paint.

After you have sanded down everything evenly, take some water and wash off the body quickly to remove the larger debris. Don't worry about really cleaning it because you are going to do that next with an industrial cleaner. Take a heavy duty paper towel and dry off the area you are going to paint and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes until you know for sure it is completely dry. You need to get an in-depth cleaner on the surface and really lift out any type of grease or wax to make sure that the primer coat has nothing to prevent it from sticking to the surface. I suggest using DuPont's First Klean, a solvent-based cleaner that will pick up any grease on the surface.

Caution: Any type of solvent-based cleaner shouldn't be used on plastic because the rubbing action will generate static electricity very quickly, which could result in a fire. That's not to mention it will try to eat through the plastic you are cleaning.

Once you have given the cleaning solvent a chance to dry it is time to put the primer on the surface. Why do you need the primer? The primer acts as a foundation for the paint and it will provide you with not only better color but also allow the paint to hold better on the surface. Apply one or two coats of primer evenly across the surface of the car while holding the paint gun about 6-8 inches away from the body, spreading the primer evenly across the surface.

This is where a lot of people skip a step and then wonder why the paint job doesn't look up to par. After the primer has dried, it needs to be wet-sanded. Using soapy water and the 320 grit sandpaper, sand over the primer and smooth out the entire surface area. This will fill in any cracks you might have and it will also collect any dust that has dried to the surface. The trick is to keep the sandpaper and the area you are sanding wet at all times, and you want to sand down just enough to where the color looks faded on the primer. Then, after everything has dried, use the cleaning solvent to pick up any primer dust off the painting area.