Were you involved in a car accident that caused some damage to the body of your vehicle? If so, you are going to need to have the body repaired and painted. Painting a car is quite different from painting the walls of your home since these steps are taken to ensure that the paint job looks seamless with the rest of your vehicle.
Prepping
There is going to be a lot of work involved to prepare the car to be painted. The damaged parts will need to be replaced or repaired, with a repair involving a bit more work. All of the scratches will need to be filled, and any dents will need to be popped back out in a way that the surface looks smooth.
Sanding
The damaged section of the vehicle's body must be sanded to make the surface as smooth as possible. This will also help prepare the surface for the primer to stick to it. It is possible to sand just the portion of the car that was damaged rather than the whole vehicle, which is what will likely be done in minor collisions that didn't cause a ton of car body damage.
Masking
There are going to be parts of the car that shouldn't be painted, and those are going to be marked off. This includes things like the trim, other parts of the vehicle's body, and the windows. If the pain is being applied with a spray, then large sections of the car will be marked off to ensure that overspray does not get onto parts that look good.
Priming
Now the primer can be applied to the vehicle. The purpose of the primer is to provide a smooth surface for the new paint to stick to. However, it is also used to build up parts over the car so that they are all at the same level. Priming can also help prepare the paint for a light color to be applied, which would be difficult to do over a dark surface without the bottom layer of paint showing.
Painting
There will be several coats of paint applied to the vehicle to get it looking good. Each coat will need to dry completely before a new coat can be applied, which can cause the painting process to take quite some time. While some types of paint will dry within minutes, others may be recommended to dry for an entire day between coats.
Buffing
Once the last coat of paint has dried, buffering is done to smooth out the paint. It helps create a shiny surface that will make your car look as if it is brand new again.
For more info, contact automotive collision repair services.