Painting with acrylic enamel questions

Its benn 15-20 years since I've painted a car.
I've had some training, back in late 70s, with Acrylic enamel.
This is what I've decided to use,it's cheap 99.00 for a kit with
gal paint,reducer, and hardener .
Need advice from old school painters who used this.
I've forgotten most I learned.
Plan is to shoot jambs,under hood, 2-wet coats,let dry 6-7 days,
Then close everything up, scuff all paint showing before painting car.
Best I remember I used to put 2 wet coats on , then over reduce the third coat
and turn up pressure a bit . This kept orange peel to a minimum.
Hope to be spraying by mid march. Doing body work now.
It will be a color change, I have water base primer for the last coat before color goes on.
Am I forgetting anything, any tips. Is modern acrylic enamel the same as what I'm used to
from years ago? It don't have to be perfect, just a nice driver.
Thanks

You don't say if you're painting solid color or metallic.

On solids I like to paint all coats at the recommended reduction, a final coat with a thinned mixture just leaves you with a dry looking final finish. I put the first coat on medium wet, then the next two full wet.

On metallics I do the first two coats the same, but on the third I may on may not thin the last coat, it depends on how the first two coats go on. Instead of thinning the last coat, I usually pull the gun a little back from the car and mist coat it, with a slower drying reducer in the final coat.

That works for me, but every painter seems to develop their own technique.

I don't think the modern acrylic enamels have the same quality, or best ingredients that they did 20-25 years ago. They don't seem to cover as well as they used to, nor hold out as well. Or maybe I've got too used to painting acrylic urethane.
If I paint the inner parts separate, I tape off and cover the outside of the car. I roll the tape on the edges (back tape) so it doesn't leave a hard edge. Then when I paint the out side, I tape up the inner door jambs, again back taping on the edges, so it doesn't leave a visible line between the door jamb paint and the outer panel paint.

I used the hot spray technique myself, you can spray without reducer at all. They even used to make heated sprayguns for hot spraying, I'm talking about 40 or more years ago.

But it's dangerous as heck, you're spraying something that's already pretty flammable whens it's cold. Then you're heating it up ( 160 degrees) even closer to it's flash point and spraying it in the air.

Can you spell boom.

Edited by tyrodtom - Feb/14/2016 at 9:22pm

$99.99 for a kit. One gallon isn't going to be enough to do jams trunk and engine bay and outside of car. I just painted a 76 hornet and did the jams with lacquer and outside only with urethane. I light coated the first 3 coats then started poring on the last 3 coats for a total of 6 coats. Yes it had orange peel but i can cut and buff it till the cows come home. 

Paint kit is gal cobalt red,non metallic,qt med reducer,pint hardener.
I have both types of guns. I use suction for primer and gravity for paint.
Paint seller says 3 qt paint most cars, most reviews agree.
I will look at data sheets that come with paint for instructions.
I don't want to cut and buff. A little peel will be ok.
Thanks
Ps paint prices have gone through the roof!
Around hear 2-grand for a quick paint job.
This 79 spirit will be my daughters first car, she will probably scratch and ding it no mater what!!!

I painted my Fairlane last century with acrylic enamel. I used all of the components from the same manufacturer, ie, primer, hardener, color, etc. I primed on Saturday and colored on Sunday. I started with my HVLP gun but it clogged immediately so I tossed it in a can of thinner and grabbed the $19.95 gun from HOW (Home Owners Warehouse), turned the pressure down further and had at it. It came out fantastic! This was not metallic. And the nice thing was the color of the car was Corinthian white (or Wimbeldon white) never could remember it, and Rustoleum's canvas white enamel was an exact match. I did the jambs, under the hood, etc with that before I painted the car.

The biggest thing is getting the car clean and having a clean environment in which to spray the car. In my case, I cleaned and vacuumed the garage and then hung plastic sheeting from the ceiling so as not to get any over spray on the surrounding area and stuff. Just before I shot the car, I misted the floor with water to keep any dust on the floor.

Good luck.
Mr. Ed