During the operation of the car, the wing most often suffers, especially the front one. This happens during a small collision or unsuccessful parking. If the damage is severe, the wing needs to be replaced. It is worth remembering that such parts are not sold factory painted. In addition to the replacement itself, it is also required to paint it in a color as close as possible to the color of the car. And this is an additional blow to the budget if you contact a car service. If you have ever done minor car repairs, then if you have the necessary conditions and tools, you can do the painting yourself.
Painting the wing yourself will cost much less than in a car service
Selection of high-quality and inexpensive material
To paint the wing yourself, in addition to the paint itself, you will need the following:
- putty and primer;
- sandpaper / abrasive material;
- paper tape;
- car varnish;
- clean rags (without small lint);
- polyethylene, pieces of old newspaper;
- dense pieces of rubber (about the size of a palm);
- solvent.
The entire necessary list can be purchased at your nearest hardware store.
The last point deserves special attention. You will need 2 types of solvent. If the amount of work is small (painting one wing), you can purchase them in bulk, which will significantly help you save money.
Features of choosing paint colors
When painting a wing, special attention should be paid to the selection of the color of the paint used. Such a procedure should be carried out strictly in specialized services, where appropriate high-quality equipment is available, and the work is also carried out by specially trained personnel.
Mixing different paint samples makes it possible to get exactly the color you want. To achieve this goal, it is quite enough to simply indicate the one that the manufacturer used. When contacting a car repair shop, specialists may ask to see a small part of the car so that during the coloring process they can constantly adjust for the degree of fading of the coating.
If you can’t choose can paint on your own because the range of colors is not too wide, you should contact professionals who will carry out the color selection process using a special computer program. This procedure costs some money, but the result is worth it.
Painting a vehicle fender yourself is quite easy. If the area to be painted is relatively small and does not exceed more than 50% of the entire wing area, it is worth painting only the problem area. Painting the wing can be done using a can containing paint or using a regular spray gun.
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Required Tools
The first step in painting a car fender is to have the necessary tools.
Necessary tools for work
You will need the following set:
- spray gun;
- compressor;
- putty knife;
- planers for cleaning.
What should you consider when painting a wing yourself?
The biggest problem you can encounter when painting a wing is dust. It may not be noticeable to the naked eye, and the garage may seem clean, but when exposed to a spray gun, it rises out of nowhere, subsequently creating a sandpaper effect on the painted fender. Therefore, when painting a car fender with your own hands, you should pay special attention to cleaning the room - thoroughly vacuum and wash the floor.
We paint the new wing strictly in overalls, which should include rubberized gloves and a mask. This way you can minimize exposure to harmful substances when inhaling paint and working with solvents.
How to paint a car fender with your own hands? Practical recommendations.
Stages of work
It is the car fender that most often undergoes minor repairs. It suffers most from minor collisions or poor parking. In this case, painting the car fender is required, which you can easily do yourself.
In fact, this is not such a difficult job and therefore you should not contact a car repair shop every time. After all, at home you can perfectly cope with this task, but you must meet a number of conditions and have all the necessary tools and materials.
Preparatory stage
It is the preparatory work that will take the most time. But without them, it will not be possible to achieve the desired result. First of all, you will need to prepare the place where painting will take place. This is usually done in the garage.
Stages of work execution
Painting work includes several stages, which must be performed strictly in the order in which they are indicated. Before you paint a car fender with your own hands, you need to properly prepare it. The surface must be perfectly clean and smooth, without any visible defects.
Before painting the wing, it is necessary to properly prepare it
It is worth not forgetting about workplace equipment. It is impossible to carry out work in poor conditions; the room must be clean and well ventilated. Dust is the main enemy of fresh paint.
Depending on the damage to the fender (scratches, dents or corrosion), the list of work may vary, but there is still one constant rule - the car must first be washed and dried. If the design of the car allows you to remove the wing, then it is easier to unscrew it and paint it separately.
A universal list of painting steps is given below.
Preparing and polishing the wing
Before restoring and painting the wing, it is necessary to carefully sand the damaged areas or the entire part as a whole.
How to grind correctly? You need to start from the places where the filler was previously applied. The abrasive wheel P80 – P180 is designed for them. Next, they move on to medium-grain sandpaper (up to P320) and treatment of the entire surface to smooth out the marks of primary sanding. At the completion stage, proceed to sanding with fine sandpaper. If necessary, stripping is carried out down to metal.
When sanding by hand, you need to apply proper pressure to the surface. Movements should be linear, not circular. Otherwise, large scratches will remain on the surface of the wing.
Sanding the wing before painting
Prime and putty the surface
After sanding, the wing must be puttied, after which the resulting smooth surface with a minimum number of open pores will be obtained. During the puttying process, the wing must also be sanded. To achieve an ideal result, more difficult areas must be sanded by hand.
You can do this as follows:
- Degrease the surface of the wing and apply universal putty.
- After drying, go over the surface with a block or machine with sandpaper from P100 to P320 (depending on the situation).
- Repeat the process until completely leveled.
After puttying, it is necessary to apply the primer with a spray gun in 2-3 layers at a working pressure within 3-4 atmospheres. Adjust the torch so that it resembles the shape of an elongated oval. Before priming, be sure to do a test on a test surface.
Apply layers with a break of 5-10 minutes (until one layer dries). The first layer should be thin, and the second should be denser.
Leave for 24 hours, then sand the top with P500 – P600 sandpaper if the part will be painted metallic.
Puttying the wing before painting
Painting
The painting process itself is much easier than the preparatory stages. Before you start painting, you need to decide how much paint you will need. On average, it takes 150-200 g to paint one wing, if we take test paints into account.
How to paint a car fender:
- Degrease the surface to be painted and wipe dry. If it is not possible to remove the wing, then insulate the surface of the car with newspapers and paper tape.
- Apply the sprayer in 2-3 layers, you must work with it wearing a mask and keep it at a distance of at least 30 cm. You need to wait 10-15 minutes between each layer. Apply until the paint covers all glimpses of the primer.
- Let the paint dry.
Typically, drying times vary depending on the paint used. It is usually indicated on the packaging. For example, acrylic paint dries in about 10 minutes.
Varnishing
The last step in painting the wing is varnishing. The varnish is applied after all layers of paint have dried. It will turn the coating into gloss and protect the paint from rapid abrasion and fading.
The varnishing process depends entirely on the type of varnish used. In addition, weather conditions are taken into account. If varnishing is carried out in winter, the holding time increases significantly.
The process of painting a car wing will not take much time.
If the wing defect is small, then it must be painted and varnished in sections. To avoid the difference between the old coating and the fresh varnish, use a transition solvent, which is filled with a spray bottle and lightly sprayed onto the transition boundaries. This is done if the side edges of the wing are damaged. If the damage is in the center, it is recommended to do a local touch-up and completely varnish the wing, rather than fill all the edges with solvent.
After the varnish has dried, a visual inspection of the wing is carried out. If there are minor defects, the varnish is polished by machine using abrasive pastes. To avoid deviations, it is recommended to strictly follow the painting plan.
Varnishing
The body is varnished with a special automotive varnish, which differs in the type of packaging into single-component and multi-component. The second compositions must be prepared independently immediately before work.
The varnish is mixed with hardener and solvent in the proportions specified by the manufacturer. For different brands of varnish, the proportions change. The varnishing process is similar to painting. The varnish is applied in one or two layers and dries for up to 24 hours. At the final stage, the part is wiped with antistatic wipes and additionally polished with protective polishes.
Recommendations from experts
Do-it-yourself painting of a new wing is done using a sprayer at a distance of at least 30 cm strictly perpendicular to the surface, otherwise the result may be a non-uniform shade.
If painting is done in warm weather, allow each coat of paint to dry for at least 20 minutes before applying another. As a rule, the manufacturer writes detailed instructions for the paint, which you must read before starting work.
Each layer of paint should lie extremely evenly, without smudges. Gaps are allowed only when applying the first layer.
According to the recommendations of experts, to obtain an ideal result after finishing the fender painting work, it is recommended to polish the entire car. This way, the car will look like new, and the freshly painted wing will not be conspicuous by its shine.
Cost of painting a wing at a car service center
The most popular choice is two types of paint - acrylic enamel and metallic. In the first case, purchasing consumables costs around 2000 rubles, and in the second – 2400-3000 rubles.
If you resort to the services of a car service, then painting a car wing costs 2000-2500 rubles. more expensive if you add this cost to the main consumables. This is the case if the damage is not serious. In other cases, painting the wing will cost a tidy sum (about 10,000 rubles). If you've ever had to deal with car repairs and have your hands in the right place, then painting your car fender yourself will significantly save your budget.
