Tutorials

Four rules for cleaning a spray gun, from the gun makers' own manuals (DeVilbiss and 3M): 1. Take the cap, tip and needle off, and never put the gun body in solvent: DeVilbiss says it's hard on the packings and the lube. 2. Air cap holes get a brush or a toothpick, never a wire: 3M says a scratch can distort the spray pattern. 3. Flush the paint passage with gun cleaner (3M 26689 in the video). 4. After every cleaning, a drop of gun lube on the trigger stud, the air valve stem and the needle where it enters the packing.

Both bridge a rust hole. Mat for strength, cloth for a smoother finish, the same resin on either (3M, USC, Evercoat, from their data sheets). The whole lay-up, step by step, is the full video on this channel: "Fiberglass Resin, Mat and Cloth: How to Fix a Rust Hole".

A rust hole doesn't take body filler. It takes fiberglass: polyester resin, and a mat or a cloth laid over the hole. Here's the whole lay-up from the makers' own data sheets (USC, Bondo, Evercoat): which one bridges the hole, the 2-inch margin, how many drops of hardener per ounce, how long you have once they're in, the wet-out, the dip for the next coat, and sanding, skimming and priming the cured patch.

How far back do you hold a spray can, how many coats, and how long do you wait between them? Every one of those numbers is printed on the maker's own technical data sheet — and they are not the same from can to can. This video reads them off the sheets for SEM, U-POL, High Teck and SprayMax aerosols: distance, coats, overlap, flash time, the window to the next product, and the temperature it all assumes.

1K or 2K clear coat? The number on the can says whether there's a hardener inside, and the makers' own data sheets say where each one belongs, how many passes, how long to flash, and how long a 2K can stays good once you press the button.

Body filler, glaze and fiberglass filler each do a different job in a dent or rust repair. Here's which one goes where, how much hardener to mix in, and the five mistakes that make a repair show through the paint.

A key scratch on a Honda door tells its side of the story. The car scratch repair it never saw coming: touch-up paint mixed to the car's own code, Rallye Red R-513.

Your car's paint code is on a label somewhere on the car, and it's the only reliable way to get paint that matches. Here's exactly where to look on 13 makes, starting with the ones our counter sees most, and what the code looks like on each label.