so you guys have to know prepping is the most important thing to any paint job
hey guys welcome to our prep department so you guys have to know prepping is the most important
thing to any paint job so let me tell you why
on the metal piece we gotta scuff it up correctly to make sure we get rid of all those imperfections
and also make sure that the paint itself sticks properly
same thing as a bumper we gotta make sure we scuff it up and also
get rid of all those imperfections little scratches little dents here in there we gotta fix that right here in the paint in the prep department
along with the bumpers and any other uh items they need to be taped up correctly
as you can see right here we tape it up properly so it looks like just like OEM
all right what happens if you don't prefer correctly well of course you guys gonna have those peeling
the paint just peels off within time and you'll see big chunks fall off
second, it'll have it doesn't look like OEM it's not taped off correctly
and third, there are those imperfections those little scratches those little dents that are not fixed
so therefore you know it's going to show in your paint job and you don't want those
you paid for a paint job you got to make sure it's a perfect paint job so, therefore, that's why we prep everything correctly
so here's how we prep some of our parts and why we prep them this way
Yeah, so on this one, we're gonna check for dents first.
We're gonna feel on the curve right here and on the back.
Looks real good, there's no dents or anything.
We're going to use 400 and sand it down
Wait a minute!
So, before we show you how we do it, lets show you why we do it. This is steel under a microscope.
All the black you see are spaces and in that space moisture and oxygen will get in and over time cause oxidization or rust.
and you don't want that on your vehicle, trust me, it's very difficult to fix.
So, to fix the problem of rust on steel parts, companies process called electrodeposition coating
SAY WHAAAAAT?!
Or, what is commonly known as an E-coat primer, or e-coat
what this is, is just a layer of primer over the metal to cover those spaces to stop rust.
So, lets show you how they do that...
So, this video is courtesy of AutoMataTV go watch the full video if you want, it's pretty cool
So, this is the BMW paint shop and specifically the E-coat process
They are dipping the whole car into a vat of primer, or if you can imagine sometimes car parts in our case.
But, basically, the vehicle or car parts are positively charged
and the pigment or resin is suspended in the water and that is negatively charged.
so positives and negative attract
so, the negative resin or pigment, or primer bonds to the positively charged vehicle
it gives it a uniform coat which is going to prevent rust
and this process is a lot better than painting could ever be because, of course, ah
the pigments or resin become one with the metal, or its in the metal basically
uh, that is a really cool and awesome process of E-coat primer
So, 99% of parts will come e-coat primer, especially the metal ones.
sometimes they don't but its mainly plastic but we'll get into that a bit later
So, if the part is not primered, it will have to be before painting.
As you can see, that is why the part is black. Because they used a pigment or black resin or black pigment
opposed to the gray one BMW uses. Most of the time parts will come gray from BMW.
OEM and aftermarket parts will only come in black but
that doesn't really matter, its the primer that is most important, how they do it and how they apply it.
so rust, uh, does not get into the steel
uh, so basically what he is doing now is scuffing up the part and that is because
you want to create little grooves and scratches to promote adhesion of our sealer process or basecoat onto the metal panel.
Yes, this will basically, it will basically touch it up whatever you missed.
So, it will give it that extra (adhesion) so the paint sticks to it. Oh, okay.
Not only that but it's more flexible for the sides (edges) compared to the 600 scuff pad which is not flexible
So, you can see it's leaving more (uniform) scratches compared to here.
The point of the red scuff pad, it really get everywhere.
You're not putting a lot of pressure, right? Uh, yes and no.
I would say a good amount of pressure to scratch off anything on the e-coat
For the most part, not to the point where I am burning (the primer) off. Right, right right.
But yeah, I would say a good amount of pressure but I'm not pressing too hard.
Just like that. That's it?
Yeah, literally. If it's a perfect fender like this, that's all I need to do. A couple minutes max.
So I leave an inch, or about half an inch from the line (edge) to the yellow tape.
So, this is how we prepare a rear bumper that is plastic.
Now, this is E-primer, an aftermarket bumper.
It has an e-coat and it's not metal, so it will not rust.
But plastic is very smooth, so they apply a primer so paint better adheres to it.
and just like the metal, we do have to scuff it up.
But before we do that, we are taping up the step pad
because that is a textured part and anytime a part has a textured part we have to tape it up.
of course, so we don't paint over it. So it has that OEM look to it.
it's very important we get all these edges and lines perfect
So we use a 3M tape or painter's tape. After we cover the entire top pad in this case
In other cases, it can be the built-in grilles or the fog lights in the front.
Once that is completely covered up in the center, we'll move to the sides or outer edges of the
texture panel and use a half-inch blue tape
This tape is a lot easier to pull off on the edges to get real good straight lines. That is important, especially after we paint, it peels off right away.
I'm not pulling too hard or it will snap back eventually. Yeah, you will stretch it.
Yeah, so I am just letting it glide.
So this process is not different from metal parts. We're going to scuff it up with sandpaper. I believe a 600 grit.
And then we're going to use a scotch-brite pad and get every little nook and cranny
As we're doing this, we're going to check for any pitting in the plastic which is any kind of holes.
any kind of abrasions or scratches on the plastic, any bumper flashing.
which is, uh if the mold wasn't great
it's normally around the edges, there will be extra plastic sticking up where they cut the molds off
we'll cut them off and make the parts perfect but
for the most part, these parts are pretty good, nothing is wrong with them.
As I said, some parts do not come primer. They come bare plastic and those are normally OEM bumpers.
that's a whole different process, if you want to see that, comment down below and we can make a video on that one as well.
So you might be wondering, what if I don't paint my car parts or car, or what if it's a bad job?
As you can see, this vehicle has 2 parts that are not painted.
The bumper is plastic, if you don't paint a plastic bumper, it's plastic, it won't rust, it's just going to fade over time and look really ugly.
That's the worst it's gonna get.
But your fender is metal, its the most important thing, it will rust. If you remember in the beginning of the video.
and its really bad for you panels to do that
if you get like this guy here, that I spotted at the gas station you're just gonna have to get a new panel.
toss it out, no one is going to paint that, no one will work on that and even worse
if the rust spreads to the engine bay, the pillars, it will weaken the integrity of the metal
so if you get into an accident, it will be really bad for you. And no one will buy a vehicle with rust on it, guaranteed 100% no one wants it.
so avoid it at all costs if you possibly can
so there is a lot of shops out there and a lot of places that provide painted auto parts.
if you don't get it (painted parts) from us, make sure you go to a place that is following all the right steps
hopefully, you know more after watching this video as you can see on this vehicle
the paint has completely peeled off on one side
it can be a multitude of reasons for this, not just in prep but in the paint process
it could be the plastic, there is a lot of things and it's important you find a shop
a body shop, or store that sells painted parts that will know the difference when they get that part in
because you don't want this on your vehicle. You're paying good money
if you get a part like this and it starts peeling, chipping, cracking, spider veins
you're going to have to pay to get it repainted and it may cost more because
it's going to be a lot more labor to fix the problem.
But, at the end of the day, we want to make sure we are just like OEM, the part lasts forever
and also you don't have any problems because you are fixing the car to solve a problem and we don't want to be another problem
so, basically, that is how we prep all of our parts.