flat black, how to Options

[SlowCelica94]

Does anyone have a how to, on painting ur car flat black? Flat black is spray painting it black for those of u who dont know. No, I'm going to ruin my celica's lovely paint. It's the FC I'm buying. It's paint = owned. So how do i do it? Searchs on google didnt turn up jack

[Kwanza26]

The ghetto way is to use black primer and just black primer. The better way is to use low gloss black paint...

[SlowCelica94]

Any more details? Like how to do it?

[Kwanza26]

Any more details? Like how to do it?
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Prep the car. Sand everything to be painted with a power sander. I like to start with 200 grit and finish off with 360+ grit. After that... wipe down the car with a damp towel. Some people go as far as washing the car... but I don't like to do that. A damp towel is sufficient if you take your time.

First... after the cleaning... mask off sections you don't want to paint. Remove lights, mouldings, etc that don't require paint.

I like to spray on a light coat of paint sealant. Helps paint stick and doesn't require a lot of dry time...

If you go ghetto with spray cans... be sure you get around 10-15 cans of paint. With spray cans... you'll want to take your time, do small sections and do several coats... with some fair dry time between each coat.

If you want a better job... get some acrylic or urethane based enamel. Follow mixing instructions and fill up your paint gun. You'll have to have an air compressor and a paint gun. Adjust till you get a flow that you like and you can control. Apply...

[SlowCelica94]

Thanks once again for your knowledgable adivce. Do you think I NEED the paint gun, or can get by w/o it?

This post has been edited by SlowCelica94: Dec 4, 2004 - 10:25 PM

[Kwanza26]

Thanks once again for your knowledgable adivce. Do you think I NEED the paint gun, or can get by w/o it?
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Well... you can't really apply it any other way unless you buy paint in spray cans... so yeah... I'd reccomend a spray gun. It'll make applying much easier and will provide much better results. Spray guns can be as cheap as 20.00 but can also chime in a chunk of change...

[celicaspeed]

Kwanza pretty much summed it up right there.But make sure you take your time getting all the imperfections perfect like small dents and scratches because you will see everything on a flat black car.

[Coomer]

Flat black actually hides quite a bit of imperfections.

I rattle canned my '88 Celica GT myself, but it turned out bad because the paint was patchy in areas. So I bought a eBay HVLP gravity-feed spray gun and a gallon of John Deere Blitz Black paint(it's kind of a satin black...made for tractors so it holds up well.) I've got a reducer for the paint as well, and if I can get my garage warm enough I'm going to paint it with that stuff soon.

[StrangerDanger]

If you want to go with spray can, this is what i have read. The trick is to spray one panel at a time, masking adjacent panels, and spray quickly (i.e move the can quickly), from about a foot away, in a random pattern. It will take about six or seven coats like this, but each coat should dry in about two or three minutes. This ensures that you don't have the standard striped pattern you normally get from spray painting.
I've never done this but i have seen the end result, and it was actually decent.