I wanna show you something real quick, man. Take a good look and listen closely haha.
This is one of my projects, I had just watched Expendables and wanted a kinda flat black look, but more black then grey which alot of them look like. This is what I started with.
I sanded it all down:
I mean ALL down haha:
I washed off all the sanding dust and dried it immediately:
Then I went to Walmart, got myself Rustoleum black paint in a gallon bucket, some mineral spirits, a roller and rolling pads, and some sand paper, shop towels and tack cloths. Wipe the surface downwith the tack cloth and then with mineral spirits berfore laying down paint. ALWAYS! apply your first coat of paint using a 50/50 mixture in a roller pan of paint and mineral spirits. bassically there should be roughly 3 seconds of continuous flow from your mixing stick before it drips as an easy way to figure it. allow it to dry, then wipe it down again with the tack cloth and with mineral spirits (I used shop rags for that). it will look something like this dry:
then wet sand it (I had a spray bottle of water and used that and a block with the sand paper attached to it so i didnt groove the paint with my fingers). This is where you want to be careful. I made the mistake that cost me a lot of time and effort, started with 320 grit sand paper and sanded so i could see no more orange peel, when you only want to relieve the paint of about 50 percent of its orange peel. DO NOT EXPOSE THE METAL UNDERNEATH! If you start to, stop and move on, keep in mind these 2 layers are still very thin. what you do want to use is 400 grit sand paper here for your wet sanding. after your done wet sanding it all down, clean it with the tack cloth and more mineral spirits and apply a third coat. dry,wipe with tack cloth and mineral spirits, apply coat 4. dry. during this time you will get very close to your car, and you will know every crack and crevice of it through touch. Same thing after the fourth layer of paint, you will feel the orange peel a lot more then see it. this is what it should look close to after the 4th coat is dry:
Now you will wet sand it down with 800 grit sandpaper. dont skimp on sandpaper, its cheap, dont allow buildup to occur, change it frequently. Mine looked like this afterwards:
Now I followed the same stuff again, wiped it down with a tack cloth, then mineral spirits. but for the next layers I used a 4 second drip rule to get the paint a little bit thicker. I was worried it wouldnt work after the 5th coat turned out like this up close:
and like this from a slight distance:
but the rest of the truck looked like this:
so there was hope. I applied a second 4 second drip coat, and this is where I stopped, no more wet sanding, no more painting. My truck still looks like this today too.
And the best part? it looks a hell of a lot better then a rattle can job, and cost me less then a hundred bucks total! If you want you could spray some clear over it, but I didnt and its holding up alright, but I think I would recommend it. But at the very least, its an idea for you to consider and toy with.
Haha
