Painting a car body is a long and laborious process that is usually left to a professional car painter. However, with proper theoretical and practical skills, combined with accuracy in work, it is possible to independently achieve excellent results. Before starting painting work, it is important to carefully study the advice of professionals, as well as choose the right materials and.
A very important point, which is sometimes ignored or completely forgotten, is the choice of a place for painting. Under no circumstances should painting be carried out outdoors. In this case, dust and midges will definitely spoil the final result and cause painting defects.
Painting a car body includes two stages:
- body preparation for painting;
- painting directly.
The best option is painting in a special place where the best conditions are created to achieve a good result. However, painting the car body with your own hands can be done in the garage, with proper preparation.
To do this, it is necessary to carefully sweep the floor, remove unnecessary things that can serve as a source of dust and, if possible, wash off the walls and floor with water.
Pay special attention to preparing the body for painting
Preparing the car body for painting is a very important stage, the quality of which depends not only on the appearance of the car, but also on the service life of the paint. At the very beginning, the car must be washed thoroughly. Then you should remove all decorative elements from the body that will not be painted, and non-removable elements are carefully sealed with masking tape or treated with a special mixture that protects against paint and varnish. The protective mixture should be applied very carefully, not allowing it to get on the parts of the body that will be painted, as the paint will not adhere to such a surface.
For the convenience of painting the car, it is recommended to disassemble the body elements. Usually the doors, hood, trunk lid, and sometimes the front fenders are removed. This procedure is not mandatory, but it allows you to better paint hard-to-reach body parts.
The next step in preparing for painting a car body is to identify paint defects and rust. It is necessary to carefully examine the entire surface of the car several times in order not to miss a single rust. To do this, you need to use a room with good lighting from different sides.
Rust from the surface of the body is removed in two ways:
- Mechanical cleaning
- Chemical method (etching)
Mechanical cleaning of rust is carried out with coarse sandpaper, steel brushes or any other abrasive material. If you need to clean large surfaces, you can use an orbital machine. In order to avoid the appearance of dust, rust can be moistened with white spirit or kerosene before grinding.
Chemical rust removal involves dissolving rust with acid solutions or acid salts that are part of the pickling agent. After dissolution, the rust is removed with an ordinary rag, and the surface is treated with any solvent. Sometimes with deep penetration of rust, the surface must first be cleaned mechanically to facilitate the penetration of the etching mixture.
Since the surface of the body, cleaned of rust, is “bare” metal, it must be protected from re-corrosion. To do this, 1-2 layers of acid soil are applied to the degreased surface. Subsequently, ordinary acrylic primer will be applied directly to this primer.
2. Surface grinding and degreasing
The next step in preparing for painting the car body with your own hands is to process the paintwork of the entire painted surface of the car with sandpaper until a uniform matte color is formed. This step is required, as the new paint will not adhere to the glossy paint surface.
Sanding is a very labor intensive procedure. For acceleration, orbital grinders with special grinding wheels, or a grinding planer are usually used. In hard-to-reach places resort to manual grinding with sandpaper. Sanding also allows you to level the surface of the body, getting rid of scratches and other small flaws in the old paint.
After obtaining a uniform matte paint layer, the car surface must be thoroughly blown to remove the dust formed during grinding. You should be especially careful when blowing hard-to-reach places. Next, the surface of the car is degreased with acetone or white spirit. In this case, it is recommended to use a special lint-free cloth, and after the evaporation of the degreasing liquid, carefully walk through the body with a dust-collecting cloth.
Before painting the car body, it must be primed with an acrylic primer. Usually the soil is white or black. White primer is used for light tones of paint, black, respectively, for dark ones. In addition, white and black primer from the same manufacturer can be mixed in various proportions to obtain the desired tone.
The primer is applied to the car body with a spray gun. To save soil, it is better to use a top-mounted spray gun. If necessary, before use, the primer is diluted with a solvent in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.
The primer is usually applied to the car body in two layers, with intermediate drying between the layers. The first layer is applied in horizontal stripes so that each next layer overlaps the previous one by half. Do not try to immediately achieve the opacity of the primer, as this can lead to too thick a layer of primer or streaks. After 15-20 minutes, you can proceed to the second layer, which is applied perpendicular to the first.
If, after applying two layers, there are still areas on the surface where the soil is translucent, then it is necessary to make another layer. Then, before starting the next stage of preparation for painting the car body, it is necessary to allow the primer to dry completely. This takes several hours and depends on the thickness and number of soil layers.
This is followed by the stage of grinding the entire primed surface of the car. Sanding can be done dry or with water. The second method allows you to get rid of dust, but can cause metal corrosion.
The ground surface is polished to obtain a perfectly smooth surface. For these purposes, sandpaper with different grain sizes is used. To grind the surface for applying paint with varnish, paper 800 is used; to obtain a surface for acrylic paint, sanding the soil is done with sandpaper with a grain size of 600.
Quite often, after grinding the soil, small, hardly noticeable defects remain on the surface of the body, which, after painting, will definitely make themselves felt. To prevent such errors, it is recommended to use a developing powder, which, when applied to the car body, reveals all the hidden flaws.
After completing the grinding of the soil, it is necessary to repeat the stages of blowing, degreasing and wiping the surface of the car with a dust-collecting cloth. Then it is necessary to proceed with the direct painting of the car body as soon as possible in order to avoid the possibility of clogging it.
Stages of car body painting
The best results when painting can be achieved using the spraying method using an airbrush (gun) for painting. However, this method can also cause marriage if the diameter of the spray gun nozzle is incorrectly selected. It depends on the viscosity of the paint. Since enamel with a certain viscosity is used for each layer of painting, as a rule, several different guns are selected for work.
With a paint viscosity of 18-22 seconds, it is recommended to use a nozzle with a diameter of 1.3-1.4 mm. Enamel viscosity of 30-35 seconds requires the use of a gun with a 1.6-1.8 mm nozzle. If the nozzle is incorrectly selected, the paint, instead of being sprayed, will splatter over the surface, forming streaks and bumps.
Painting a car body with a spray gun should be carried out at a distance of 30-35 cm from the surface. It is very important to maintain this distance throughout the painting. If you hold the spray gun too close, it will be very difficult to avoid the formation of streaks and streaks. If the distance to the surface is too large, most of the paint will not simply fall on the surface of the body, which will lead not only to overspending the enamel, but also to the fact that it will not adhere well to the car.
1. Adjustment of the spray gun torch
It is recommended that the shape of the flame when applying paint to the surface be oval with a size of about 30 cm on the larger side. This shape is achieved by properly regulating the air supply pressure. With weak pressure, the paint will spatter poorly, forming droplets on the surface. If the air supply is too strong, the torch will be in the shape of a figure eight.
When painting a car body with your own hands, you should ensure that the paint torch is applied to the surface at 90 degrees. The permissible deviation should not exceed 5-10 degrees, otherwise a non-uniform coating will result. When painting, it is necessary to move the gun at a speed of 30-40 cm / s. If you rush too much, the surface will not be completely painted over, but if you move the spray gun too slowly, streaks and bumps will form. Therefore, at high ambient temperatures, solvents that slow down the evaporation process are used, and at low temperatures, they accelerate evaporation.
To prepare the paint for application, it must be diluted with a solvent. In this case, it is necessary to choose not only the quantitative ratio of the components, but also the type of solvent, depending on the environment. If the solvent evaporates too quickly, then the paint will not have time to smooth out well on the surface and form a pebble. If the evaporation is too long, the paint, on the contrary, spreads too much, forming streaks.
After the paint has been brought to the required density, a suitable spray gun has been selected, the air supply pressure has been selected, it is imperative to carry out a trial painting on a flat metal surface. This procedure will identify possible errors in the preparation of paint and equipment and eliminate them in a timely manner. In addition, you can practice painting if you haven't done it before, or brush up on previous experience.
Car body painting is usually done in three layers. As a result, the final paint thickness is between 70 and 120 mm. If the car is painted in metallic, then, after the paint has dried, several layers of varnish must be applied.
First, a developing layer of paint is applied. It is thinner than subsequent layers, while allowing small unpainted areas, which will then be hidden by two subsequent layers. The appearance of difficult-to-remove streaks is much worse if the application layer is too thick.
- For the first layer when painting a car body, enamel is used with a higher viscosity than subsequent ones for subsequent ones. At the same time, it is applied in a thin layer, with fast horizontal movements, gradually moving from top to bottom. When applying the first coat, as well as all subsequent ones, each new stripe of paint is applied parallel to the overlying one with an overlap of approximately 50 percent. After applying the first layer, you need to let it dry for 5-10 minutes, depending on the temperature in the garage.
- Before applying the second coat of paint, carefully examine the entire surface of the body again for the presence of undetected defects. The first developing layer of paint allows you to better show such defects.
- At the next stage of painting the car body, the enamel must be applied in a thicker layer. In this case, you need to be careful so that the paint is applied evenly without staining. The second layer of enamel is applied perpendicular to the first, in vertical stripes. This technology avoids unpainted areas.
- For the third layer, the paint should be the most liquid. It is usually applied in a thinner layer than in the second stage.
After painting the car body, you should not immediately remove the masking tape from the surfaces not intended for painting, as the paint that has not yet dried may leak onto the exposed surface. Let the enamel dry for 10-15 minutes. After removing the molar adhesive, it is necessary to check whether the enamel has got into areas that cannot be painted. If they are found, fresh paint will be easily removed with a rag dampened lightly with solvent.
Now the car can be left to dry. The paint dries completely under normal conditions in 1-2 days. Hot drying a car can significantly reduce the curing time, but requires special equipment.
If after painting the car body it is planned to cover with varnish, then it is not recommended to overdry the paint. You can not leave the car unvarnished for a day, since overdried enamel will negatively affect the strength of the varnish binding to the painted surface.
In order for the car body painting to be successful with your own hands, it is necessary not only to carefully study the manuals and instructions, but also to carry out several test paintings on old parts. By spending a little time on learning, you can avoid the time and cost of eliminating errors that have arisen due to inexperience.
The body of a car is essentially its supporting structure. He is constantly under pressure. Moreover, these are not only mechanical factors in the form of shocks and vibrations. Every day, the coating of the body is exposed to the negative effects of external factors. Enamel is sandblasted, burns out. In addition, traces of rust appear at the site of deep scratches. Of course, all this significantly spoils the appearance of the car. But what to do? In this case, body repair and painting of the car body saves. We will talk about this in our today's article.
Body repair
If there are serious damages, they cannot be hidden by applying a new enamel. Therefore, the repair and painting of the car body are carried out in the complex. There are several types of body work, each of which uses its own technology. Below we will consider them in more detail.
Rust removal
Over time, pockets of corrosion appear on the body. This happens due to peeling of the paint that was previously applied to the surface. As a rule, on foreign cars, the first rust occurs after 10 years of operation, on domestic cars - already after 5. Particularly affected are the places of sandblasting - wheel arches and the edges of the thresholds. Drainage holes are also rusty. Recovery technology may vary depending on the extent of the problem.
If these are through holes, they are repaired by cutting out part of the metal and welding on new sheets. In the presence of only surface rust, the work is limited to the use of a zinc converter and partial puttying. The last stage of such body repair is painting. The price for it can be high (up to 100 euros for a local color). Therefore, in the article we will also consider how to apply enamel yourself.
Plastic repair
It can be:
- Bumpers.
- Spoilers.
- Arch extensions.
- Door sills and other body parts.
Unlike the previous method, welding is not used here. Restoration of elements is carried out using fiberglass with epoxy glue. This material gives rigidity, at the same time levels the element. It turns out such a patch. But to achieve the most factory look, the technology requires the use of putty.
Repair without painting
If the dent did not touch the paintwork, then the car can be restored to its previous appearance without the intervention of the spray gun. The easiest thing to do is with bumpers. They are leveled by heating the plastic with a building hair dryer. Next, the surface is curved on the reverse side. The element takes the desired, factory shape.
But this is not the case with metal. For this, special PDR kits are used. The technology is to restore the dent under vacuum. Sometimes a special glue is used, which is applied to the dent, and we also install a mandrel in it. In this case, you need to use the bumper. How it looks, the reader can see in the photo below.
The cost of a kit can range from 10 to 100 euros, depending on the manufacturer and the size of the kit.
Painting
Body repair and body painting can be done by hand. But in both cases, you need a specialized tool. And if in the previous case it is a converter, a grinder and a welding machine, then a spray gun is needed here. If the work will be done one-time, it is better to rent it. The painting itself is carried out in several stages:
When painting the body, practice on old parts first. To understand the intricacies of applying enamel is possible only in practice. Trying out skills on old body parts will help you avoid many mistakes. When painting the body, try not to bring the remote control close to the surface, otherwise streaks will instantly form.
How is painting done?
Car painting is carried out in several stages. The first stage is preparatory. It includes:
- removal of plastic parts;
- removal of rust and old paintwork from a damaged surface;
- primer of all parts, providing reliable protection against the negative influence of the external environment;
- coating surfaces with putty.
At the next stage, using a computer program, the optimal shade of paint for cars is selected, after which you can proceed directly to painting.
This step is key. The car body is immersed in a special chamber. It is in it that painting and drying takes place in a stream of air cleaned of dust. This procedure is very economical, since re-painting is definitely not needed, and environmentally friendly.
In addition to direct painting, we are ready to offer you a number of additional services, namely:
- restoration of various body elements: bumpers, hoods, roofs, etc.;
- body painting in any color after repair work.
If you contact us, both full and partial painting of a car in Moscow will cost you quite cheaply, because we use inexpensive, but very high-quality dyes, so the end result is in no way inferior to that which can be obtained in the factory.
Advantages of painting in our company
Advantages
Lifetime Warranty
Repair of any complexity
Estimation of cost by photo On-line
Own color laboratory
Ability to be present during repairs
Payment by card
However, the optimal combination of quality and cost of painting a car in Moscow is not the only advantage that you will get by contacting our company.
All works are performed by our craftsmen using special tools and equipment of the highest level. We work only with materials from the best world manufacturers. High-quality body painting allows you to fully restore the protective properties of the decorative coating. Your car will not only look like new, but will serve faithfully for many years to come.
Our masters have the necessary qualifications and have extensive experience, they can paint a car of any class. Each client is guaranteed an attentive and polite attitude. All work carried out during the repair and painting process is guaranteed. Painting is done as soon as possible.
Are you still thinking? Although Moscow is a big city, it is unlikely that anywhere else you will be offered to paint a car on more favorable terms. Take advantage of our offer and see for yourself.
We work without prepayment!
Warranty for painting work 3 years, not in words, but in the contract!
Estimate the cost of repairs by PHOTO in 5 minutes!
Send photos of the damaged parts in a convenient way and within five minutes the master will calculate
Painting a car body element requires the master to have the necessary qualifications, skills and the availability of the necessary tools. The technology for painting large removable parts sometimes involves dismantling. Sometimes it's easier to remove the hood, fenders or doors than to insulate other parts of the body. Painting hard-to-reach or small car parts eliminates the need for such a procedure.
The technology of preparation for painting a car element in the technical center AMS Moscow on the South
Before you start paint body parts their preparation is necessary. Do not paint the area of the car without first washing and drying it. If necessary, remove rust and chipped paint. Experienced craftsmen will do this with a grinder or special fine-grained paper designed for a similar task. The next task will be priming the surface and puttying, and the final step will be degreasing the surface of the part.
Our car service will paint car body parts without loss of warranty.
The main stages of painting one element of the car
In order for the work to be done qualitatively, it is necessary to strictly follow all the stages of painting and follow the technology. After washing and drying, rust and chips should be cleaned. The finished surface is blown with air, degreased with white spirit or acetone, and the dust is collected with a special cloth.
Then follows the procedure of priming and putty. To avoid drips, the primer is sprayed with a thin layer and dried for at least 20 minutes. The putty is applied in a thin layer to the sides and from top to bottom. As a result, the surface is smooth and without bumps. After the above procedures, the surface is ground and re-primed.
Possible problems
Unpleasant incidents arise for a number of reasons: unprofessionalism, lack of special tools or improper use of materials. To avoid this, you should contact the masters with experience and a full-fledged material base. The most common defects in painting:
- Color unevenness
- Loss of adhesion
- bubble
- Discoloration
- Solvent bubbles
- scratches after treatment
- microcracks
- clouding
- Dry spray
- craters
Save your nerves and money - order a service element painting car in our car service. We are waiting for you every day from 9:00 to 20:00 at Dnepropetrovsky proezd, 5, building 1
Elegant, durable and airtight "clothes" for the car body have been created for many decades. Throughout the history of the automotive industry, a variety of types of paints have been tried, and only a few of their varieties have survived to this day. And they differ in a number of ways.
Paint (enamel) is heterogeneous, it consists of a whole set of components. The main one is the so-called pigment, which is a solid particle that gives the material a certain color. These particles are bound by a liquid base - a resin of natural or synthetic origin. To achieve the required consistency (viscosity), a solvent is added to the paint composition before it is applied. When the paint is layered on the surface, it becomes "unnecessary" and evaporates.
Enamel properties - adhesion, hardness, optimal drying parameters - depend on the type of base resin. Depending on this, car paints today are “roughly” divided into nitro, alkyd and acrylic.
The first car paints known since the production of the Ford T were produced on a nitroglycerin basis. Due to the ability of solvents to evaporate well, they quickly dried at a low temperature. Nitroenamels in their pure form are practically not used in the automotive industry and > car service, since they do not provide the necessary surface gloss, and the paint layer has a small thickness and low plasticity. It is used only by restorers of rare cars, on the bodies of which at one time 14 or more layers of nitro enamel were applied. Now mainly alkyd and acrylic paints are used. Let's talk about them in more detail.
Alkid
The automotive paint industry was revolutionized by the introduction of nitrocellulose-based synthetic paints commonly known as alkyd enamels (sometimes referred to as "synthetics"). At one time, such paints were used on car assembly lines and in repair shops. In the Soviet years, alkyd-melamine enamels ML-12, ML-197, ML-1110 were widely used.
Alkyd paints are applied more easily than nitro enamels, because of the smaller proportion of solvent they lie on the surface in a thicker layer (on average 15 - 20 microns), are quite elastic, and are not afraid of gasoline. However, with all their advantages, they are not very resistant to atmospheric influences - acid precipitation, ultraviolet radiation.
Paints of this type dry out due to the evaporation of solvents from their composition, as well as the oxidation of the resin upon contact with oxygen contained in the air. This can occur both at low temperatures, 20–30°C, and at higher temperatures, 100–130°C. The drying time depends on the temperature - for example, at 120 ° C, “synthetics” dries for 1 hour, at 80 ° C - 2 hours, at 50 ° C - 3-4 hours. The use of accelerators, which intensify the process of solvent evaporation, reduces the drying time by half. Some car painters are very fond of the Finnish alkyd paint brand Sadolin, which dries without any accelerators at 20 ° C for 8-10 hours.
In the domestic car service, in addition to Sadolin, alkyd paints of the brands Helios, Vika (“Russian Paints”), Mipa, etc. are still used. In Europe, enamels of this type are not used for environmental reasons. In Ukraine, despite the seeming archaism, they do not leave the market, as in other countries with an obsolete vehicle fleet. Because of this, the share of alkyds in the world production of car enamels is quite large - up to 50%.
Acrylic
The next generation of paints are enamels based on polyurethane and acrylurethane resins, and the latter, under the generally accepted name "acrylic", have received widespread recognition. Repair acrylic enamels are called two-component (they are designated by the index 2K), because they are formed from two components - acrylic paint and hardener, respectively. They are mixed immediately before painting.
The drying process proceeds somewhat differently than with alkyd paints. The main role is played not by the evaporation of the solvent (although it is also present), but by the process of polymerization of the resin as a result of a chemical reaction with the hardener. Thanks to this, the paint can dry even at 15°C, although the temperature is raised to 80°C to shorten the drying time. Theoretically, with the use of an accelerator, painting is also possible at 5°C, however, it is unrealistic to provide a high quality coating at such a temperature.
Two-component enamels can be applied to the surface in a thick layer (up to 60 microns) in one pass of the spray gun, although this is not always necessary - and a thinner film (40-50 microns) without additional protection has sufficient strength, hardness, elasticity and chemical resistance. In addition, after polymerization, acrylic enamel lends itself well to polishing and makes it possible to repaint the car without negative consequences. In general, the features of two-component acrylic paints make it possible even in the conditions of repair shops to create a coating that is close in quality to the factory one.
It is worth noting that car paints of a number of brands - Glasurit, PPG, Sikkens, Spies Hecker, Standox, Lechler, etc. - are now produced exclusively on an acrylic basis. Products of this type are also in the assortment of not so venerable manufacturers, which are better known for their alkyd enamels.
Color with "remote"
The so-called hard residue, which determines the thickness and color of the enamel film on the body, may not actually be completely hard. There are already paints (albeit very expensive) that, after application, remain in an amorphous state. The orientation of the particles of their solid sediment in the paint layer can be controlled by creating an electric field in it. In this case, one pole of an electrical device controlled by a remote control is connected to the metal of the body, and the other is connected directly to the paint layer. In this case, the particles change their position, therefore, the characteristics of light refraction in the paint layer change and, accordingly, the color of the coating changes!
New
Despite the fact that the domestic market is already quite saturated, new brands continue to appear on it. Not so long ago, Ukrainian buyers got acquainted with the products of several other companies.
Among them is the Italian company Lechler, which produces two-component acrylic paints and varnishes for conventional plain coatings and coatings with metallic, mother-of-pearl and chameleon effects. It is significant that this company with a history of one and a half centuries, like many other manufacturers, offers a full range of materials for body repair and restoration work - fillers, primers, polishing pastes, etc.
In the near future, paints will appear in Ukraine under the already familiar Mixon brand. It is known to specialists from a car service for other types of materials that are used to restore the paintwork of bodies. These paints are produced in Europe. Mixon's product range includes both alkyd and acrylic enamels, as well as metallic paints.
Paints and varnishes under the Eurolak brand also appeared in Ukraine this year. They are interesting because they are produced in Germany by order of a Ukrainian company, taking into account the peculiarities of the Eastern European market, but according to German standards.
This year, Sadolin presented its new product on the Ukrainian market - Sadolin 2K Acrylic Topcoat enamel. This is one of the latest developments of the company. The new paint meets the highest requirements for acrylic enamels.
Watercolor for the automotive industry
About ten years ago, leading European car manufacturers began to introduce the technology of painting cars with water-based acrylic enamels. The impetus for this was the tightening of environmental requirements. Today, the bodies of Audi, VW, Volvo, etc. are covered with such paints. In developed countries, water-based enamels have already begun to be used in some car paint shops. And the reason that prompted the use of this expensive technology was the high taxes from enterprises using any other solvents.
Enamels based on water-soluble resins are no different from ordinary ones, they even dry with the same “speed”. Painters like these enamels because they do not contain toxic volatile substances. However, this does not mean that such paints are completely harmless to the body of people who are in direct contact with them. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, Ukrainian car painters will not soon use water-soluble acrylic car enamels.
"Metallic" and "mother of pearl"
To obtain metallic and mother-of-pearl paints, a special pigment base paint is used, which is characterized by transparency. Particles are introduced into its composition that are capable of reflecting light, which creates the “metallic” effect when light rays enter the paint layer. The hue of the color changes depending on the angle of view. A layer of varnish is applied over this enamel, which gives the coating a visually greater depth and acts as a protective layer. The paint with a reflective effect has a complex composition - it is a combination based on polyester resins with the addition of melamine resin and cellulose ether.
Two-layer coating, i.e. paint under a layer of varnish, is increasingly common when using ordinary homogeneous paints without the effect of "metallic". The spread of this technology in recent years is facilitated by the reduction in the cost of varnish, as well as the desire to ensure that the coating is not only spectacular, but also durable. In this case, the varnish layer has a thickness of 60 microns, so the paint can be applied in a thinner layer - 15–20 microns.
"Pearl" differs from "metallic" primarily in its soft sheen. This is achieved by the fact that the light penetrating into the thickness of the paint is reflected from smaller particles, which are arranged in layers in the thickness of the paint. As particles, translucent flakes of iron mica, colored with metal oxide, are used. Mother-of-pearl coatings can be two- and three-layer, i.e. with one or two layers of base enamel of a certain color and a layer of clear varnish.
