BMW E30 Paint - Lacquer or Enamel?

[Low Level E30]

Hey guys,

I'm about to repaint my car - it just needs to be properly sealed and primered now - do any of you know whether E30s were painted with lacquer or enamel based paint?

Thanks,

[Jordan]

most liklely a automotive urethane.

if you plan on using rattle can primer on it, stick to laquer. It goes on better, is harder, and dry/wet sands ALOT nicer then enamel

[Inspar8r]

most liklely a automotive urethane.

if you plan on using rattle can primer on it, stick to laquer. It goes on better, is harder, and dry/wet sands ALOT nicer then enamel

The shitty part is that it is ALOT less flexible so any type of bending or twisting will give cracks. So it would be wise NOT to use it on something like a flexible rear apron or something of that sort.

BMW did use urethane on their cars like jordan said.

[Low Level E30]

Thanks for the reply, Jordan.

I'm actually going to attempt to do a decent job with this...

... I have been using airbrushes for about 13 years, but never on anything this large in scale. I have an HVLP gravity-feed gun with a few tips, big compressor, etc - I'm using a paint booth at a local guy's body shop, and I'll be going to Dupont or someone like that for the paint.

It may not look professional when it's done, but I do want something that's gonna stand up to bird shit and road grime reasonably well, and that won't flake off when I wash it.

I've been doing my research about automotive paints and so on, I'm feeling pretty smart about all that at the moment - but of course, your expertise and advice is welcome and appreciated. I know you Da Man at this shit.

Just please don't tell me that at least 90% of the work is in the prepping - I'm sick and tired of hearing that :roll: hahaha...

[Inspar8r]

Dupont is good, by i would recommend two that are better.

Stick with PPG or Sikkens. Sikkens is BMW OE, and PPG is equivalent to that.

[Jordan]

PPG is a good paint, not the best by any means, but better then Dupont.

90% of your paint job is the prep work, its true. Any sanding marks you leave behind on your "finished" preped surface, will be clearly visable after painting.

If you like, prime the entire car in 1 color (i would do a middle tone grey) and then wetsand and block it out to utter perfection with 600, then 1000. This will leave you with *hopefully* no sanding marks.

The paint spraying itself, that is all in the booth. A shitty booth will leave its mark in the paint in the form or dirt, dust and whatnot.

Automotive HVLP guns are not that different from a airbrush, make sure it is cleaned well, and if you can, use a sperate gun for the sealer/primer and the base/clear

[Inspar8r]

I have to correct, BMW uses ACRYLIC, not Urethane. The problem with urethane is it's tendency to fade and not appear to be a deep looking yet it is durable. Acrylic does not have those properties yet retains the durability of urethane, while also keeping the propertyu of looking deep like acrylic, without the tendency to crack like lacquer.

PPG is one of the better quality paints out there. The durability factor alone makes it a good choice. Not that it matters, gravity feed guns are no longer legal for use in body shops. i think it is an environmental thing.

[Low Level E30]

PPG is a good paint, not the best by any means, but better then Dupont.

90% of your paint job is the prep work, its true. Any sanding marks you leave behind on your "finished" preped surface, will be clearly visable after painting.

If you like, prime the entire car in 1 color (i would do a middle tone grey) and then wetsand and block it out to utter perfection with 600, then 1000. This will leave you with *hopefully* no sanding marks.

The paint spraying itself, that is all in the booth. A shitty booth will leave its mark in the paint in the form or dirt, dust and whatnot.

Automotive HVLP guns are not that different from a airbrush, make sure it is cleaned well, and if you can, use a sperate gun for the sealer/primer and the base/clear

Hey guys - Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I was planning on going with a relatively light dove grey primer - not too light. I'm thinking at this point that I'll probably go for a nice strong non-metallic blue --- not a light blue, or a royal blue, but somewhere in between. Although I keep seeing pics of Henna E30s, which is veeeery pretty....

Not a big fan of Dupont, huh?

Where would you recommend I go for paint? Any chains/stores I should look for, or avoid?

[325 eta]

when i panited my car the guy used dupont . thats good stuff.

[Low Level E30]

when i panited my car the guy used dupont . thats good stuff.

So you had it painted at a shop, and they used Dupont?

What colour, type, etc did you get?

[matt325is]

I use Dupont Centari Acrylic Enamel for all my stuff. Turns out good if you do it in the right conditions (mid temp) with low dust. Make sure you buy the right hardener and reducer for the climate you will be painting in. If there is a auto paint store in your town, I would highly suggest you talk with them, mine has helped me a lot with this kind of stuff.

matt

[JRowe]

If you are going to do your own repaint, then it's an absolute must to visit the message board at www.autobodystore.com They can answer any question you have, bar none. You'll get great advice and avoid alot of mistakes. They walk first time painters through all the time. An invaluable resource.

[Kinger]

Im in auto body and know some stuff. For sanding scratches just use guide coat then sand out imperfections, then apply more guide coat, gradually moving to higer grits each guide coat. For painting keep the gun 6- 8 inches away depending on the product and do a 50% overlap. I dont know about the US for laquer paints but in Canada there illegal due to the VOC's in them. Im not sure if you plan to use a single stage paint or dual stage or even know if you know the diffrence but regardless i suggest putting on healthy coats. When i say healthy i mean almost to the point of running. Naturally you dont want runs but it is alot better then dry spray because dry spray often leads to redoing the paint job. Since you wont have the experience dont risk the dry spray. Runs can be sanded out failry easily. Oh yeah and remeber to use wax and grease remover really really well before each coat. If you dont there will be endless nibs and fish eyes everywhere.

[Kinger]

One more thing thing do not mix products. If you go ppg go all ppg. Not all companys products are compatible with each other so dont risk it.

[aaron_silva]

One more thing thing do not mix products. If you go ppg go all ppg. Not all companys products are compatible with each other so dont risk it.

Very very true. The body shop that I go to uses Sherwin Williams paint. Very nice.

Here is a pic of my girls car getting preped for a key scratch repair. While we were at it we had the side skirts color matched and the rear bumper refinished (hit and run while it was parked).