"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
anews.com...
A while back, I was dragging a culvert behind my tractor. It caught on a
concrete lip, stood straight up, then tipped over on my better half's car
hood.
She was not impressed.

OK, now I've bought a like new hood from the salvage yard, and she just
got
a quote for $500 to paint it. That ain't gonna happen.

I'm pretty good at painting tractors and other equipment. Enough to know
the
key is preparation. What steps should be taken to paint this hood? (I know
it has a clear coat over the white color, I need red with a clear coat) If
I
don't get it right, the boss will just take it in.

Karl




When I have small jobs like painting a door handle, I go to the auto paint
place and get an aerosol can of the paint to the paint number on the car.
So far I have only used the single stage paint, but it is also available in
base coat / clear coat. I have had good luck with this but I have only done
door handles so take this with a grain of salt.

I get the handles prime coated so what I do is clean them with acetone, then
I lightly sand them with some wet 400 grit and rinse in clear water. When
dry I wipe any dust off with a tack rag and spray several light coats to
avoid the drips and runs.

I have a cardboard box set up to hang the part while drying so no dust
settles on the drying paint. You might be able to section off a corner of
the barn with plastic and wet it down to make a makeshift spray booth.

You might want to buy one can as a color match test to see if the new paint
will match with the old paint before you spend a ton on the project.

Another alternative is to attach the white hood and then take it to one of
those places that repaint whole cars for a couple of hundred bucks. That
way if the hue is a little off from the original color, it is off evenly
over the whole car.