How a Car is Prepped for Painting

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Lyndon again. We're in the Leo Ehler's body shop in the paint department. Now that the repairs have been completed, all of the panels have been replaced, and the caulking have been been done, it's time to primer the vehicle. This is very important. This is where the repairs were done on the vehicle, and the primer has been applied and once it's applied it's very rough. So now it has to be color sanded. Color sanding is done with very, very fine sandpaper. This particular one is 800 grit and it's done with water so it's a wet sand. Put on a sanding block as such. And then it's done very lightly, just to make the surface just smooth as silk again. Now during the sanding process, some of the metal may show through and you might have to reprimer that area and reblock and sand. Once your primer is in place, you now have a well protected metal panel against corrosion. The next thing that you want to do is prepare the adjacent panels or the rest of the panel for painting. So this whole area is going to be painted that you see. But you may notice that it has been roughed up and sanded because we're going to put a new coat of application, a new coat of paint on top of this adjusting coat. So you have, this car is totally prepped; all the handles have been taken off, all the moldings have been removed, and the masking paper has been applied in all the appropriate places. You don't want to touch this car because there's oil in your fingertips that will transfer onto this paint and it will not let the paint adhere where your fingers were. So prior to going into the booth, there's one final wipe down with a special solvent and off it goes to get color on it."