First time painter

[Fredo]

Hi y'all, it's been a while since I joined so I figure its time I contribute. Thank you everyone for your how to posts I've read every one of them several times.
I have a 87 El Camino that I love. It needed paint pretty badly when I bought it so decided after almost a year of driving it to give it a shot. Here where I am so far. Tomorrow I will wet/color sand and spray on the clear. I wanted to do a semi tribute to the 70's muscle cars I grew up with. As a teenager all ever wanted was a Chevy or Chevelle painted black with a off center racing stripe. First I added the cowl induction hood and then I started on the painting.
Well, here I am at 62 yrs old giving it a shot. The only thing that went wrong was I had to redo the stripe because I grabbed the 3/4 inch tape verses 1/2 inch on the hood stripe. So far this has been a learning experience, but all in all it's coming out nice for my first time, I consider this a passable 10 foot paint job.
Please excuse the dirty rockers, I decided to take it to grab a frosty the I feel I deserved. I did clean them off when I got home.
Yes I painted this in my back yard on the dirt. I did everything I could to minimize the dust and that has worked out pretty good so far. I will spray the clear in a controlled environment though. One of the guys in my car club has a booth at his place. I'tt take it over there as soon as I finish the wet sanding.
So here's my 87 AKA Vixen

 

[69hurstolds]

You going to name him "Pepe"?

Just kidding. Stripe looks pretty good on it. Hit it with some clear and then get that joker shining!

 

[lilbowtie]

Welcome to the forum - You gave your age but the stripes date you.

 

[Tony1968]

Good job... I'll be tackling a first paint job in the future. Can't wait to see it with clear sprayed !

 

[Doug Chahoy]

Lookin good. Curious about what grit sand paper did you use on the color coat?

 

[Fredo]

Lookin good. Curious about what grit sand paper did you use on the color coat?

After checking youtube and talking with the guys over at the paint supply house I decided to go with 400 wet dry as a wash down prior to spraying the clear. If everything works out I hope to be able to puff and polish the clear vs. wet sanding.
All of this is coming from a guy that is just "giving it a shot"
Others with better information and a lot more knowledge may have a different opinion,

 

[Fredo]

Welcome to the forum - You gave your age but the stripes date you.

Some people will tell you the one set of off center stripes was never a "thing" but I have always liked them.
Yesterday after playing golf I walked out to the car to find two guys standing there talking about how anyone could miss the center line of a car by that far.
That made me smile and wonder why these whipper-snappers were on a golf course and not working.

 

[Doug Chahoy]

What kind of paint are you using? With poly, your not supposed to even spray your color coat over 400 scratches without using a sealer. To color sand your paint with 400 and then clear that, I believe you’ll be looking at your 400 grit scratches through the clear.

 

[pontiacgp]

looks like you could use some help....

 

[Fredo]

Here's an update folks.
I was supposed to wet sand (wash down the paint prior to clear coat. Doug is RIGHT! After the clear it looked awful. The 400 scratches is the only thing I could see so back to the drawing board I went. I sanded the clear coat down with a series of grits starting with 400 and ended at 800 wet and dry. Once I did that I resprayed the color nice and wet and let it flow out. That looked a lot better.
I got up early this morning to beat the heat and was rewarded with a over cast morning. I resprayed the clear (4 coats so I had plenty to wet sand and buff ) then I let it set for about an hour and cleaned all of my paint gear before I even looked at the car. As it sits right now there isn't a scratch to be found in the black and shinny paint job. I plan to wet sand the clear with 800 up too 2000 wet and dry and then cut and buff. I'm going to wait a cpl of days before I do that to make sure the clear hardens.
All in all I am happy with the finished car (even though I haven't sanded and buffed it yet)
THANK YOU everyone for your input and humor, it helped a lot with this first time painters attempt at a 10 foot paint job. Here's a pic as it sits right now