[BluesBoy721]

So I've reached the point (finally) where I basically have the whole front clip painted and need to move onto the shell and doors, but I'm running into an issue of keeping heat in my garage during the Winter. I'm going to have a busy Spring and Summer with other things and would really like to get to getting as much as I can during the cold months while I've got some down time. I was able to make a broke man's paint booth and get the hood done with hardly any issue besides being slightly cramped up.

Anyway so I'm trying to come up with a plan of attack on painting the shell in sections. What I was thinking was creating a booth to hold heat in from the cowl to the rear of the car, one side at a time and then move the booth onto the other side, and then the rear, and maybe the roof but I think the weather will start to get better by the time I get to that and will have natural heat. I want to get the door jambs and the door in base and clear. However, what I was thinking was to get the quarter panel and so forth completed in body work and in at least a basecoat at the same time. The reason for that is since I'll be using epoxy as a sealer, I'd like to get the adhesion on that as good as possible.

So basically my question comes down to: what is the best approach to blending the sections? Should I just:

A) Get a single coat of basecoat down in sections, work around the shell, and then sand with 800 grit and get a second base coat then clear coat all at once?
B) Get the adequate amount of base coat and then just get 2-3 coats of clear for each section, and then sand with 800 grit and go all over the shell with 2 more coats of clear when the weather is more stable?
C) Same thing as "B" except just blend at the cut-offs

FYI I'll be blending into the trunk and door jambs regardless as I plan on putting the doors and trunk lid back on after I give it some time in UV.

Keep in mind I will be using SPI epoxy during the process and that requires 24 hours of 65+ on the metal. My basecoat is a generic 1k solid (sapphire? Idk) blue and the clear is SPI Universal.

I'm open to any other suggestions.

 

[Blackhawk]

To be honest that sounds like a disaster with metallic paint. Are you going to let everything flash before moving the booth Is this Restoration Shop paint? A single coat of basecoat is going to be easy to burn through when sanding or scuffing, especially a less expensive brand with less coverage. Then you'll need to seal the spots and start over. You're going to have to scuff and recoat any base that is past its recoat window.
Is the heat issue from poor insulation or an inadequate heat source? I would look at renting more heat if possible, especially for the epoxy primer. The shop that I did epoxy in is well insulated other than the concrete, and it took a lot of heat to keep the rockers at 70*. Epoxy you can get away with in stages, but I would wait until you can heat the whole car to do base. You should be able to get it all sprayed in a weekend.

 

[BluesBoy721]

Luckily I chose solid color mainly because I have not done painting to this scale and felt it would be easier to deal with if I screwed something up, lol =)

Yea the main issue is just not having a garage heater period. I'm renting my current space for now so I don't have control over appliances and etc. I have a small space heater and a infrared light that I used in my paint booth. With that, I was able to paint the detachable parts with the garage door open and fans running through the booth. When the overspray is evacuated, I turn the fans off and close off the booth and I was able to get operating temperatures in the booth quickly. With the shell though, it just won't be possible to get it all at once. I should be able to get the jambs done no issue, just thinking how I can make use of my time while I'm there, you know?

But yes, my ultimate preference is to do it all at once when the temps are attainable...just seeing what I can get away with that works for both the short term and long term.

 

[Kaizen]

Spend your time organizing and planning for a warm day spray. I understand you are busy but just dedicate a day or two for spraying. Call it a vacation from responsibilities.
If you are not patient bring it and your paint to macco and have them spray it.


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[Dean]

I would either wait until warm weather or find a paint booth to rent.
Otherwise your probably going to do be doing it all over again.

 

[BluesBoy721]

Understood. Thanks guys. As far as jambing the doors and trunk areas, I'm still good with that at least, right? That's probably the most annoying of them all as I absolutely hate aligning doors, but I at least got markings for the latch positions this time around.