RePainting car panels w\rattle cans without sanding coats?

[FiscoKing]

Hi,

I'm about to buy two new front metal wings for a 17yr car. They're not painted to colour.

The car is showing its age all over. Many scratches and small dents. High mileage. The existing wings have rust holes in them. There's no point in paying for a professional job on the wings alone as the rest of the car is rough so I'm just looking for a very basic paint job.

I'm *not* bothered about:
. Scratches from sanding before painting showing though once done.
. Any orange peel effect.
. The odd run of paint.
. Slight colour differences between new an existing panels.

So my question is; what will happen if you don't sand between paint coats?

Is this necessary to get the one coat of paint to stick to the next, or is it just a finishing thing?

I see many tutorials advising the use of different grades of wet sand paper between coats and this prep accounts for 90% of the work of a re-spray.

I'll be using rattle cans (primer, colour and clear) in a heated garage. It's a flat colour (not metallic).

Thanks.

 

[Burnerman]

In this case I think I’d really only concentrate on flattening the primer coat.....the colour coats will blend together quite well and the final clear coat will give you a reasonable gloss.
After any rub down, clean the panel with a pre paint panel cleaner, make sure the garage is warm and dry and as dust free as possible.....keep draughts out if you can.
Paint the wings flat if you can - if vertical you can guarantee runs and if you do get any, wait at least a day before flattening them.
Consider any rust proofing on the inner side before attending to the colour side.
May I suggest you offer the panels up for a fit first, as pattern items rarely fit first time?
John

 

[Wayners]

Warm the cans a little too.

 

[Burnerman]

Aye, that’s a good move......in a bowl of warm water maybe.
John

 

[Tigercubrider]

Also don't wait too long between coats. About 10 mins is fine.
Any big runs can be sanded out,
You may need a clear coat depending on the paint

 

[Old Salt]

Light coats, don't try to get the finished colour in one go or even 2. Have a practice first, probably on the old wing to see how it goes.

 

[FiscoKing]

OK. Thanks.

 

[frutbunn]

I welded a pair of wheelarches on my old Fiesta a couple of years back, someone had bought a load of paint for a Bentley and one of the pigments was out of stock, it was a Saturday so had to use rattle cans. primed it with the spraygun and flatted it down, then used cans for the top coats with no flatting in a dusty garage, turned out surprisingly well. T cut it a few weeks later and was quite impressed to be honest, particularly as it was all done in a weekend and had to do some welding repairs and fabrication to the inner arches.
It was a £250 car I'd bought 3 years earlier, I might have thought twice if it was a little more expensive/newer but more than good enough for an old car.

 

[foxhole]

Spray in straight lines , don’t return a stroke over the paintwork, always keep can moving if spray button depressed.