Has anyone attempted this? I saw/read an article where a major tuner magazine bought a new STi - immediately sanded it down and proceeded to spray paint it with 6 coats of Krylon flat black and 4 coats of Krylon clear.

I have a silver Evo and was thinking about 2 toning it (painting the hood, roof, trunk - black). Masking would be easy, etc...

 

how the krylon turn out looking??

 

here is some advice... should you choose to do this, sand it down yourself, spray it yourself... great... no problem, take your trunk and hood off first... but then take the car to a body shop to get the clear coat done... the clear they use is a hell of a lot thicker then krylon in the can, and they will bake the paint. also, be sure to wet sand after you primer

 

Wet sand the primer? I thought the only coats needed to be wet sanded were the base coats coats if there are any run's and the clear coat if you have orange peel or runs... I don't see the point of wet sanding the primer...

Oh and a tip is while you paint it make light coats.. There will be a much less chance of drips and runs and it should dry much faster... When I spray paint things I usually go over it about 10 times before everything is completly covered..

 

i have always heard of wetsanding the primer, i have always done it, and every car show i have ever seen of people doing paint jobs they always have wet sanded the primer....

 

Krylon will last 2 years MAX with some sun. If your car spends the whole day in sunshine ie: no garage or at least a carport, it will last maybe 6 months.
good luck

I used to paint cars for a living, here's the last one I did

 

25-32k car...I wouldn't trust myself, pay a professional IMHO.

 

the paint under the clear coat would be fine if you get a good quality clear

 

You could do it.. no problem!

Just a few things to ensure a good clean job:

1)When you first start sanding make sure you get all the way through the original clear and the initial surface of the original paint

2)After you finish sanding make sure you use a some kind of solvent to wipe down all surfaces,
-acetone, a medium grade paint thinner is okay, or if you don't want to spend money on that stuff you can use warm soapy water(mild detergent, dish soap is okay)

The trick to wiping down a sanded surface is to be constantly turning the rag to a clean spot or else you will just be moving the dust around... and continue wiping until either the rag doesn't pick up anything or the only thing you can see is the pigment from the paint(usually won't see pigment come up with soapy water)

3) once your ready to primer... lay down a nice light coat of primer (might wanna test a small area to make sure it doesn't craze,cracks that come up in the primer almost instantly. If that is okay let the initial light coat sit about 15-20 min to tack up.. then you can start laying down primer coat thicker this keeps the chance down of the primer running! You should do at least 2 complete coats of primer(not including the initial light coat) Follow instructions on the can as far as cure times for primer

You shouldn't have to wetsand the primer if you have wiped down the areas very well but its always an option..

4) When your ready for paint you really shouldn't let the primer sit more than 8 hours or you might wanna consider resanding it just make sure.... But proceed with the spray paint just like the primer(test a small area again for crazing)... a light coat at first then after about 10-15 minutes you'll wanna apply a thicker coat and go from there allowing each coat to set up about 5-10 min to ensure you don't run it to the ground!... at least 3 final coats... but its really up to you... if your satisfied with the outcome of only 2 then so be it

As far as clear I don't have much experience but I do know when you clearcoat something you wanna wetsand with 1000grit or higher in between coats to ensure a nice clean smooth surface!

If your wondering where i got all this info.. I have been painting for the Air Force for almost 5 years now... and we do all kinds of paints.. polyurethane, enamel, gloss, semi-gloss, flat, metallic w/ metal flakes, all kinds of corrosive resistant primers. Even the old school paints that contain lead when we get authorization... Hell we even have spray cans now that we use to touch up the jets!!!

 

i've seen that article also, but why the hell would you want to do that? the car will look like a beater not a brand new piece of machinery.

 

not if he spent the time on it... now if it was just left the flat black with primer showing through in some areas then maybe so!

 

sports compact car magazine is the culprit of the sti painting

in my opinion it looks pretty sweet

 

something like this (painted rather than CF)

 

the reason for this is because most high quality show cars will use an etching primer, that they shoot on the car and then wetsand the car to remove any slight imperfections. The etching primer is designed to fill any small surface scratches and imperfections without the need to use body filler, im talking extremely small imperfections. The etching primer itself is relatively thick, so they wetsand the whole car, you can see the areas where its thicker is where it filled an imperfection.

 

its alright, but if you want that two tone look, why go through all that trouble of painting it , if you can just buy some carbon fiber pieces. i mean i heard of the shortage of carbon as of now. but really if you arent going all out wide body kit and deep dish rims i feel the two toned paint job just didnt look right. imo