Practicing Painting

I plan to paint my own cobra and I'm new to it so I want to practice. I know most say get some old panels to practice on but I was talking with my soon to be supplier and he told me to practice on old glass panes. He said the paint would lay like it was on metal or fiberglass and it would be easier to see the pattern. But the thing that was most interesting was he said that after it dried, you could just take a razor blade paint scraper, scrape it off and repaint it. This sounded great. Has anyone ever heard of this or tried it?

I have never heard this myself but must say it makes sence.

Just make sure you use the same primer surfacer and sealer you’re going to use on the car. The surfacer will stick really good to the glass and you could test your sanding technique and grit as well.

Neat:)

I have been to PPG certification classes and they use aftermaket parts that were scrapped out due to fit issues. The parts were easy to come by and really had no value since they didn't fit. Even stipping and starting over with them was a good teaching subject on full sized panels. Nothing wrong with the glass method but the chance of breakage. Keep in mind cars don't have many flat sufaces and you will need to learn to spray with contours of real panels at some point.

Wow, that's got to be the worst idea I ever heard of. Get an old fender somewhere.... NOTHING is perfectly flat on a car.

BIG difference in spraying a 18" X 18" pane and a hood. Thats when you realize you need to get the metallic pattern even when you can't reach it all easy. Nothing wrong with small steps in learning but its not a accurate training aid at some point.

342stroker

I know you asked about glass and yea it's a small step in painting technique but the cool thing about all this is that you are at least doing something. Most of these guys that just send blasts out didn't paint there own cars. My car is only the 4th car I have ever painted and I used an actual car back when I was learning but you might not have that option. Any attempt at learning is better than no attempt at all. If you want help let me know and I'll give you some advice on primer, primer surfucer, sealers, base coats, clears, color sanding "which is an old term that is out dated", and buffing because there are a lot of systems out there. If you could get your hand on a hood and fender that would be a good way to practice. There is a lot to learn but it's not that complicated if you follow all the step correctly and the newest paints systems are very forgiving. Try to stay away from medium to heavy metallics if you can avoid it because they are do require some experiance because you don't want your first paint job to show darker blocks on your car. Enjoy learning how to paint.

X2 ......what Dan said.