Surface Prep

[10.5' Tunnel]

I have sanded the finish, got all of the old paint off of there, and wet and dried. Now i want to know what i should use to clean any containments off before i apply the paint. Thinner applied with a cheese cloth?

[Techno]

should say "wax and grease remover" on the can.
Some kind of paper or cloth non lint. Cloth can be washed to make it lint free. Wet and go in one direction. OR spray it on with a spray bottle.
Continue at the stop point if your doing a arms reach.
Don't skimp on the rags.
Don't touch the surface with bare hands. Best to wear gloves so's you don't accidently touch the nice clean non-oily surface.
Also should be washed with soap and water before this. Just to be sure.

[10.5' Tunnel]

Thanks:)

[Forkin' Crazy]

Actually you should have cleaned it with soap and water and the pre-cleaner before you started the sanding. Reason being, you will wipe wax or oils down into the sand scratches and spread them across the surface.

Wipe it after you sand it too. When you use the pre-cleaner (wax and grease remover) you should use two rags. One dry, one with the pre-cleaner. The dry one should be used after the wet one. You should also flip them to get a cleaner surface. Then use a tack rag, and you're ready to go.

BTW use some latex or rubber gloves when wiping the pre-cleaner on. It might mess with your skin.

:cool:

ie, a chassis wiped down and ready for epoxy primer.:D

[sho305]

I keep using Naptha I get cheap about anywhere. At a bodyshop we had expensive stuff that worked the same....I think it was naptha. Never had a problem yet. You have to wipe it off before it dries.

[10.5' Tunnel]

Forkin' I did wash it before I did the sanding, but didn't use the precleaner. Hopefully it will turn out alright:eek:

[Forkin' Crazy]

Your probably OK. Washing it with soap and water helps.

You cannot let the naptha dry? You can the precleaner, so maybe there is some difference....

That is just the proper proceedure as I learned long ago at school. If it was something I did not want to spend the extra time and money, I would wash it, sand it, and paint it. 99% of the time it would work right.

On a high-dollar job, I don't take any chances.:)

[sho305]

The idea is you wipe on the cleaner and it releases the wax/oil/dirt; and if you don't wipe it off it is still there and just gets spread around. We used a pre cleaner/wax remover that acted like naptha first, then plain enamel reducer before the paint mostly for dust. I did not like the reducer as it could melt the primer sometimes...though most use catylized primer now. I (wash w/soap first) use the naptha before any work and then again before sealer/paint, and it works great. In all the cars I have done I only used fish eye in urethane clear once due to air contamination in that room.

Maybe there are new pre-cleaners, but naptha is so cheap and can be used for other stuff, like cleaning bearings, that I'll use it until I have a problem.

Most of the cars I have been doing were average, so I have been using the old laquer high build primer to block and then base coating over with a good epoxy/catylized primer if the car warrants. Easy to work with that way and it gets locked in anyway. Hard to buy laquer primer here now though. Has held out good so far if you let it dry a lot. Would not use it on something real nice.

[10.5' Tunnel]

Doing the job on my checkmate, which is just a lake racer. I want it to look good, but I won't be to angry if i get a few blemishes here or there. Thanks again guys:D

[Forkin' Crazy]

sho, I see what you are saying now. That's why I follow up with a dry cloth after wiping it with the cleaner.

Kinda funny, I emtied a warehouse about 6 mo. ago. Got all kinds of junk, inlcuding a 55 gal drum of naptha!

10.5, no prob!:D

[sho305]

That is what I do; a wet wipe and then a dry wipe quick. I only do maybe a 2x3' spot at a time. If it dries I can even see the haze left there, and I wipe it over again. The naptha is just speeded up mineral spirits and I have not had it affect anything. Mineral spirits does work too, but dries slow and so is harder to wipe off. I make sure to not contaminate the container if I use it for something else, maybe grease removal. I knew a guy that put naptha in one of those air powered spray guns for cleaning, now that cleans a motor but you have to be careful cause it burns good too.:eek: