Repainting Damaged Quarter Panel; Input Needed!! (1 Viewer)

[brownfox]

Don’t beat yourself up, I did this recently.

100s Looking good. Pressure wash your seatbelts and run Velcro (hook side) through your top seatbelt rings.

Pressure washing the seatbelts made mine look like new.

 

[TheForger]

Looking good. Pressure wash your seatbelts and run Velcro (hook side) through your top seatbelt rings.

Pressure washing the seatbelts made mine look like new.

Thanks for the tips I completely forgot about the seatbelts! What is the purpose of the Velcro?

 

[brownfox]

Gets the gunk off the hook that slows down the retraction. Works great, I was very surprised.

 

[Dockofthebay]

In the process of repairing your cruiser you wrecked your 4runner? Oh man that's a bad day, time for a metal bumper for the T4R i guess

I wasn't gonna say anything. Maybe he'd be better off with Uber.

 

[brownfox]

Looking back at my post, my suggestion seemed out of place, it was made because you’re obviously cleaning the hell out of your 100 so I thought I’d share those since they made a big difference for me. Seeing your carpet out makes me want to do the same for mine now.

 

[TheForger]

Progress is being made, slowly but surely. Paint and clear are supposed to get here Monday so I’ve just been working on body filler, glazing putty, filler primer, & sanding. Got the edges feathered pretty dang well, just need to go back through with progressively finer grit paper. Don’t mind the swirls in the primer I wiped it down with alcohol but the microfiber rag I used was dirty

 

[TheForger]

 

[TheForger]

A couple question for anyone who is moderately proficient at painting vehicles:

1. I took the primer down to a wet 600 grit and then called it a night. I expect paint to get here Monday. Should I cut the primer down even further by wet sanding with 800, 1000, then maybe 1500 before painting? Or leave it at 600 or maybe take it to 800 to leave the paint with some texture to “grab” onto?
2. Does anyone have any recommendations for blenders? I was looking at SprayMax for a clear blender but I’m unsure what to do with the paint besides feather the edges.

 

[brownfox]

Holy hell man. If I were to say you are going all out, it would be an understatement.

 

[suprarx7nut]

A couple question for anyone who is moderately proficient at painting vehicles:

1. I took the primer down to a wet 600 grit and then called it a night. I expect paint to get here Monday. Should I cut the primer down even further by wet sanding with 800, 1000, then maybe 1500 before painting? Or leave it at 600 or maybe take it to 800 to leave the paint with some texture to “grab” onto?
2. Does anyone have any recommendations for blenders? I was looking at SprayMax for a clear blender but I’m unsure what to do with the paint besides feather the edges.

600 is plenty fine enough. I did 400 on my last few jobs.

When you go to paint, you're going to have the entire panels unmasked and scuffed for base/clear, right? Because you should. Your smaller mask areas are fine for prep work, but when it comes time to do the base coat and clear, you dont want any overspray hitting the tape line on a panel. That'll leave a terrible line you'll never blend well.

If you're going to spray a panel at all, leave the entire thing unmasked and just mask adjacent panels, or at least leave enough unmasked so that you'll never touch the tape line while spraying/blending. Don't underestimate overspray. It may seem counterproductive to leave so much unmasked and to prep so much perfectly good paint,, but it makes a world of difference in the end and doesn't really consume extra time.

Once your repair area is covered with base, feather the edges/blend area and then proceed to clear. Clear the whole panel or at least well beyond the repair area. If you dont do the whole panel, you'll feather the edges very, very lightly with the blender.

The blender I use is Spray Max 1K Spot Blender 368 0093. Like this: Amazon.com: U.S. Chemical & Plastics 1K SPOT Blender (USC-3680093): Kitchen & Dining

Good luck! I'm excited to see how it turns out!

 

[TheForger]

600 is plenty fine enough. I did 400 on my last few jobs.

When you go to paint, you're going to have the entire panels unmasked and scuffed for base/clear, right? Because you should. Your smaller mask areas are fine for prep work, but when it comes time to do the base coat and clear, you dont want any overspray hitting the tape line on a panel. That'll leave a terrible line you'll never blend well.

If you're going to spray a panel at all, leave the entire thing unmasked and just mask adjacent panels, or at least leave enough unmasked so that you'll never touch the tape line while spraying/blending. Don't underestimate overspray. It may seem counterproductive to leave so much unmasked and to prep so much perfectly good paint,, but it makes a world of difference in the end and doesn't really consume extra time.

Once your repair area is covered with base, feather the edges/blend area and then proceed to clear. Clear the whole panel or at least well beyond the repair area. If you dont do the whole panel, you'll feather the edges very, very lightly with the blender.

The blender I use is Spray Max 1K Spot Blender 368 0093. Like this: Amazon.com: U.S. Chemical & Plastics 1K SPOT Blender (USC-3680093): Kitchen & Dining

Good luck! I'm excited to see how it turns out!

Really appreciate the input!! I’ll probably leave it at the 600 it’s at right now. But yes, the entire quarter panel will be prepped up to the roof line and down to the lip of the fender, and also from taillight to passenger rear door. Yeah tape lines are my worst enemy right now, but now that I’ve done all the little spot repairs with filler & primer I can go back over everything including the surrounding area on that panel with a Scotch-Brite pad.

Thanks on the recommendation for a blender. That is the exact stuff I’ve been hesitantly looking at, but now that I know you’ve had good results with it as well I’ll go ahead and place my order for some.

This is definitely stressful. Anyone who had half a brain can easily see how this simple job as quickly snowballed into an all-out project but oh well! I’m just as excited (more so anxious) to see how it comes out as you

 

[TheForger]

I’m traveling for work this week so I won’t be getting much progress done on the Cruiser unfortunately. However, I did get the 4Runner back and it’s all fixed up. I didn’t want to deal with that level of damage myself with the other project I got going on, so I handed it off to a local body guy I use quite often and he replaced the entire front bumper & fender and painted it in his booth. Now I just have to install the Rigid grille inserts when I get some time. I’m going to see if I can pull some strings to use his booth when I want to paint the Cruiser but the chances are very slim.

Paint, clear coat, & respirator arrived today so all I need now is a free weekend. I planned on hosing down the garage floor and using a squeegee to push a lot of debris out, then pulling the Cruiser in and getting started painting while the concrete is still wet to try and control the dust. I will also drape drop-cloth from the ceiling to create a makeshift ‘booth’ if my body guy won’t let me use his.

 

[MongooseGA]

What's hiding under cover?

 

[TheForger]

What's hiding under cover?

A Lamborghini Huracan

Jk I can dream though, sometimes I like to make V10 noises with my mouth and pretend it is. It’s just an ‘07 Toyota Solara with a fresh repaint in Absolutely Red and a brand new tan ragtop. Had to scroll back to find a pic of it peaking in the back

 

[TheForger]

Currently thinking how I’m going to go about masking off all the adjacent panels. I’m thinking I’m going to do something like this:

That’ll allow me to paint all the way down to the side molding which I figured was a good place to stop; I didn’t think it was necessary to bring it down to the rocker panel. Also, I’ll paint the quarter panel up to the roof line. I’m not completely sure where to stop there since the top of the quarter panel extends all the way to the A-pillar running along the tops of the doors. I may just run a line of tape up vertically from the rear-most edge of that quarter panel window, and fold up the edges to prevent a harsh tape line. Then go back and feather the edges. I think I’ll tape off the door handles, mirror, rear vent, hood, and front fender since I didn’t touch any of those. If anyone’s got other recommendations or think there’s a better method please let me know!

Obviously I wouldn’t use painters tape over all that surface area. I have drop cloths I was going to drape over the entire vehicle and then cut out the areas I wanted to paint and tape the edges.

 

[TheForger]

Will probably begin repainting this weekend. As for the primer sealer - that is sprayed on AFTER I’ve primed and sanded everything down to my liking right? And it ONLY goes on the primed areas? After it dries does it need any additional sanding? I don’t want the sealer to create any abnormal texture that will show through the finished product. I also have no prior experience with sealer.

Would something like this work?

 

[TheForger]

Or maybe this?

 

[shadow247]

Here's my .02 from 20 years in the body shop. Unbolt the Door handles, and remove the window moldings, this will make it easy to mask off, you can also unbolt the side glass pretty easily, you're already almost there with all you've removed from the interior.

You are better off not having any "edges" for the clear to build up, try to hide the clear edges in the jambs and crevices that aren't exposed -

 

[TheForger]

Here's my .02 from 20 years in the body shop. Unbolt the Door handles, and remove the window moldings, this will make it easy to mask off, you can also unbolt the side glass pretty easily, you're already almost there with all you've removed from the interior.

You are better off not having any "edges" for the clear to build up, try to hide the clear edges in the jambs and crevices that aren't exposed -

Hey I’ll take any and all 0.02 you got! Thanks for the tips. I have been thinking about removing the door handles I’ve just been hesitant since I’ve never done that before and don’t really know how complex that process is. Can’t be too bad can it? I assume just remove the inner door panel and there should be some obvious nuts to loosen and linkage & wires to disconnect?

I do plan on removing the window trim.

 

[trdcorolla]

You can find the directions on how to remove the door handles in the door lock actuator replacement threads.