Removing the old paint “edges”

harrisonm said

Although I admire your desire to do this yourself, I think you need to learn a LOT before you proceed. I base this off of your quoted question and what you have said. There are LOTS of videos available on how to paint your own car.
Let me just say that surface prep is absolutely essential. The following is what I did. There are other ways to do it, but there are no shortcuts.
When I painted my 69 Barracuda, I stripped the body down to bare metal. Then I sprayed epoxy primer on it all. Then I did the bondo work, then I sprayed on 3 coats of high build polyester primer, then I applied guide coat, then I block sanded with Dura Blocks using 220 and 320 until most of the primer was gone and the bad spots were revealed. The darker guide coat will still be in any low place, so you can easily see where you need to do more work. Then I filled all those low/uneven places with high quality spot putty and blocked with 180, 220 and 320. Then I sprayed on 3 coats of high build polyester primer again, applied guide coat and blocked with 220 and 320 until all flaws had disappeared. Then I blocked with 400 grit dry, then 320 wet followed by 400 and 600 wet. Then I painted. I spent at least 80 - 100 hours priming and block sanding my car. There are no shortcuts. You CAN paint over existing paint (although I would not do it). You need to block the old paint with 80, 120, 220 and 320 to get rid of the problems you are talking about and then apply 2 or 3 coats (I'd go with 3) of I high build polyester primer then block it as mentioned above. Failure to spend an appropriate amount of tome on prep will absolutely show up in the final result. View attachment 1715311614 View attachment 1715311615 View attachment 1715311616

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Harrisonm,

1st and foremost, let me say this, that Cuda is amazing sir. Very nice and well done. Kudos.

As far as my sport, I have been back and forth on doing it myself vs. someone else. Honestly, I have decided if I dont like the final product, well no harm no foul as I can then pay someone else to do it. But truthfully, I dont think I will have any problems as I move through it. Going to just prep one area at a time and let it go where it goes. If it goes bad, I may be out TONS of labor, and maybe some cash, but its a good experience and I need to figure it out sometime or always pay others, right? I will say, what I have done is FAR better than it was when I started. And I really believe that I was so adamant about not using loads of body filler that I was hindering my own success. How many time have we seen cars that literally had a mound of Bondo on it? But sounds like there is a difference in the intended use and what I was envisioning.

There are other areas on the car that have turned out flawless! The deck between the hood and lower windshield is spot on perfect. I was successful in removing all the chipped/bad (just bad bad bad) paint around the wiper gears, etc., the entire area, and I mean it is now prepped and primed and 100% baby *** smooth. I think the top is more challenging because it was originally a vinyl top car, the top was in really bad shape, and again, I was approaching it as "just sand out the edges" tactic, using MINIMAL body filler.

So, I think I will order the blocks, and just stay at it. The one thing I am supremely confident in is I am not hurting anything. The more I work on it, the better this thing gets. As I am sure all can appreciate, its a labor of love, and has become a matter of principal now more than ever.

Here are a couple pictures of the areas I mentioned above. The original pic I put up that looks so bad is on the passenger side between side glass and rear window. You can see the before here in one of the side profile pics.

I really appreciate all the insight and suggestions. Please feel free to keep sharing!