I plan on getting my tsi awd painted in a few months and Im going to do all the prep work myself. The guy at earl shieb said it would be hard to paint the roof because its black plastic not metal so they can really sand it very well. Do you guys have any advice on how I could prep the roof for paint because I want the car to be one color. Also the rear quarter and fender are flacking off clear coat and a little paint what would be the best grit to sand so I can spray primer it before paint?

The roof isn't black plastic man its still metal...

the roof on my car was metal haha

that's what happens when you deal with places like that

Yep all metal, maybe they were talking about the spoiler?

wetsand the clear with 1500

your roof is metal, but the moldings over the windows are painted. Also the rear windows have two doffernt style moldings. The more rare of the two windows have a much larger molding. Thats probably what the guy is talking about.

I dont have pics handy of either right now, but Ihave the talon quarter glasses in my eclipse, they look awsome in my opinion.

Tom

Originally posted by tbone
your roof is metal, but the moldings over the windows are painted. Also the rear windows have two doffernt style moldings. The more rare of the two windows have a much larger molding. Thats probably what the guy is talking about. I dont have pics handy of either right now, but Ihave the talon quarter glasses in my eclipse, they look awsome in my opinion. Tom

so the rear windows are different? can you take some pics?

this link show my talon quarter glass painted to match my car. From what I have seen, these are rare and very hard to get. I was lucky I think I only paid like $40 for the pair. The other windows look like any other eclipse window.

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Tom

97 Talon. Notice how the rear quarter glass has the molding that drops down towards the end. On the Eclipse, the glass goes all the way back to the edge of the hatch. It's all pointy and stuff. I prefer the Talon glass. Is this the molding we're talking about, here? :wary

Shawn, remove the moldings over the doors with a heat gun and some piano wire (there is a write up somewhere in this forum if you search). Then prep the roof the same way you would the rest of the car.

This thread is kinda funny. I told John his car might not run any better by the end of the year, but it will damn sure look better than it has in a long time. :thumbsup

I'd wet sand it using 400 grit. Sand the complete car at least twice. I think I did my car 3 times. It took a lot of work, but each time, you will miss some spots, and after your rinse it off and dry it, you'll be able to better see the spots that aren't sanded as well as the rest of it.

Originally posted by eclipse804
I'd wet sand it using 400 grit. Sand the complete car at least twice. I think I did my car 3 times. It took a lot of work, but each time, you will miss some spots, and after your rinse it off and dry it, you'll be able to better see the spots that aren't sanded as well as the rest of it.

Holy shit. Been forever and a day.

Yup, did you have a different screen name before, or do I just have very bad memory?

Originally posted by eclipse804
I'd wet sand it using 400 grit. Sand the complete car at least twice. I think I did my car 3 times. It took a lot of work, but each time, you will miss some spots, and after your rinse it off and dry it, you'll be able to better see the spots that aren't sanded as well as the rest of it.

So just use 400 grit on the whole car? Because right now the clear coat is flaking bad. Should I use a lower grit and then 400?

Don't go lower than 400 grit. Basically, if you wet sand the car using 400 grit, you will remove all the clear coat from the car. Then your existing base coat will be all there is, and it will essentially be like a primer. Depending on how drastic of a change the color is, they may spray another color base coat to mask out your car color before spraying the actual color.

Make sure you wet sand, meaning you dip the sand paper in soapy water every few seconds or so, before it dries out. You'll be able to tell when all the clear is off, but like I said, expect to go over it two or three times since you'll miss spots. If you wet sand with 400 grit, you really can't mess anything up. I wouldn't go lower than 400 personally. Take your time prepping it, and you'll get good results...good luck!

well really if spraying over the stock bascoat ,finish it with 600grit before spraying the new color . 400 tends to leave some small scratch marks

Originally posted by boosted60trimrst
well really if spraying over the stock bascoat ,finish it with 600grit before spraying the new color . 400 tends to leave some small scratch marks

Do you mean use 600 grit after using 400 grit to get the clear off? As long as you wet sand and don't let the car/sandpaper get too dry, 400 grit shouldn't be a problem. My car along with hundreds of other cars have been prepped and painted this way by my friend's shop, and it hasn't been a problem.