Paint Prep

[ggehrke at gmail.com (GGehrke)]

> 
> Please explain in agonizing detail how you would prep and paint this.  Thanks.

I would tell you what I did to prep mine, but it was mostly wrong.
I would tell you what you _should_ do, but you'd do better to read it in a book.
I would tell you what book to read, but I haven't found one yet
because I haven't yet researched it enough for myself.

Seriously, it's not too hard.  The most important part is taking your
time and not being afraid to do as much sanding and primering and
bondoing and sanding and primering and etc as is necessary to get it
looking good.  If you find a decent paint store with a staff that
sells the paint, they should be able to tell you enough about what
chemicals to use with what to make the paint stick.  There's also a
lot of info already out on the internet that you can dig up really
easily with google, but a lot of what you see online is hearsay even
if a lot is great advice, so it's best to find a book.  Find a recent
book (as opposed to something from the 50's) if you're interested in
the specifics of different paints and chemicals and to avoid
old-school practices that might be wrong.  Some of the painters back
in the day could get sick finishes, but the good practices live on and
others have been weeded out or updated.  Try a local library, or just
browse amazon.com and forums like hotrodders.com for recommendations
on books and pick one up.  You might also find someone who goes to a
good technical college or engineering university to check their
libraries (I know we have one or two books on painting cars but not
very good ones, IIRC) for books that might not be available elsewhere.
If anyone on the list is/was actually a pro painter or something, then
that's a perfectly good resource, but for something as important as
paint I really do think it's worth investing in a good book.
And if nothing else, there's always trial and error.  You can always
sand a paint job back off and try again.

And I still promise I'll post my paint experience - this weekend I
should have time.  Been busy this week.  Just got my computer unpacked
and Just signed a contract this afternoon giving the next 7 years of
my life to ol' uncle sam.  eeps.

-Grant-