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Couple of questions..

P

Pseudonym

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Location
Liverpool
Car
Accord 7th gen
Long story short, I had a mishap and now I need to repaint my bonnet and bumper.

First question is stupid, but, if I remove the chrome trim on the bonnet, will I be able to put it back on without a problem?

Also, if anybody could point me in the direction of a step by step on what paint etc to use on a car, that'd be great. From my understanding you have to:

1. Sand, fill any dents, imperfections etc
2. Apply primer
3. Apply basecoat
4. Apply clearcoat.

Now, I've seen people talking about wet sanding, and mixing paint with thinner, and using lacquer etc etc. So I feel like I really could do with an in depth beginners guide if anyone knows of one.

Thanks guys
 
Please don't take this the wrong way, but the only way to get a decent finish you'll be happy with is;

1)Take it to a trusted professional with evidence of good work.
2)Pay them the money.

I'm great at fixing and building things, but know my limitations when it comes to things like paint.
As a result i have a wheel refurb guy, a paint / bodywork guy, and a powder coater I regularly use on my projects.

Please don't think I'm being rude.


- of course, if your accord's just a cheap work hack like mine, then just bash some paint on it to prevent rust.

My engine bay's indigo blue with black patches for just that reason. When i did the motor swap I rubbed back and painted all the scruffy bits to make it last.
 
Couldn't agree more.
 
The bonnet was bought from a scrapyard, it's the wrong shade of silver, has a couple of dents and a lot of stone chips. I don't believe that anything I do to it could make it much worse. The bumper has a crack in it which needs repairing. I'm not paying several hundred for repairs on a car I bought for £1500. I was however prepared to sink a couple of hundred on equipment so I can do my own bodywork.

Also, whilst I appreciate the advice, I think it's a pretty defeatist attitude. I don't expect to get a perfect finish first time around, but I can always take them off and try again a few weeks down the line. People get better at things when they practice. I've bought all the necessary equipment and I absolutely believe I will get a finish I'm happy with. Even if it takes me a year and several retries.
 
You'll find that by the time you've spent a couple of hundred quid on equipment, and loads of your time, you'll have been better off paying a professional a few hundred quid to do the work.

You will never get the same standard of finish, or even get in the same ballpark with a colour match.

Go ask a professional about laying down silver paint.
Not only do they have to adjust the colour for variance, they have to have the correct amount of metal flake, and lay them in the correct orientation.
Then there are the proportion of flakes laid in each direction, which changes according to the addictives they put in the mix.

Combine all of this with the fact you're laying paint and clear over an already metallic finish to blend the paint in, and you'll realise why you'll never get a match with paint from your local spray store.

I'm not being defeatist,
I really don't mean to be rude,
I just know what's involved with getting it right.

If you've already bought the stuff, please go ask someone in the know, make their cups of tea, sweep up, observe for a day.

At 40-odd hours a week, it takes these guys years to become proficient at what they do.
Yes, it is just following s process, and anyone can learn it if they're diligent and take pride in their work, but it's not easy.
 
My best mate is a professional painter and I've spent many hours helping prep and paint a number of project cars over the years.

It's definitely a skill that can't really be taught or passed down. It has to be learnt.

Fair play if you're prepared to put the work in to learn. Do some googling on specialist forums and I'm sure there are lots of YouTube tutorial videos etc that will help guide.

I would suggest if you're working with silver then look at blowing the paint in to adjacent panels or even paint a complete side otherwise you'll always see the mismatch in colour and it will bug you till you end up sorting it properly.
 
I don't believe that what I'm proposing is at all unreasonable. People all over the world paint their own cars and they're happy with their results. I expect it to be hard and I expect to get it wrong, but I also will eventually get a decent result.
I'm happy to spend the time learning how to achieve a good finish. It's a really cool skill to have. I'm planning on getting some scrap metal to practice on. I'll do that until I'm relatively happy with the result and then give the bonnet a go.

I don't actually expect to get a colour match. The bonnet on there is already a different shade, i'm more bothered about the stone chips and the dents. And yeah, when I rang up for a quote a couple of weeks back the guy said he'd have to do the wings, otherwise the colour would be off, so it's also something I'm expecting.

But yeah, the car is simply not worth the money it would cost to repair, but I'm happy to invest time and money into developing a new, valuable skill, and have the car looking better than it currently is and be able to have a bit more pride in it.
 
Good that you're going into it with a realistic expectation of the end result then.

With enough practice, you can get a fair finish.

Best thing is to watch some tutorials and then get practicing.

It's a case of getting out what you put in, so patience is key.

Think this is the main reason VW guys stickerbomb their cars and say they're rat-look.
 
My car had a great "rat-look", until today, the guys at that pesky Honda garage went and washed it, when it went for its passenger airbag recall!

Of all the nerve.
 
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