Chevy El Camino Rat Rod Flat Black Paint Job - Black-Tie Affair

With the entire car covered, it needed time to cure, so we left it overnight. Joe explained that the first layer of primer will shrink. And since the body filler underneath acts like a sponge, some of the primer will end up getting soaked up by the filler.

As the first coat dried, the team spattered a layer of gray primer. We had sanded with 80-grit paper first, the contrasting colors revealing any high and low spots still left in the bodywork. Then, after the rougher areas were sanded, we switched to 150-grit dry paper to smooth the rest of the body out.

It's easy to overlook the factory body lines, and it's critical not to sand them flat. Pollo's expert eye taped off the bodylines and addressed them carefully.

After our first bout of block-sanding the Black primer, we rolled the El Camino back into the spray booth for a second coat of gray primer. Here we checked the edges of the outer fenders and added body filler at the last moment.

Mistakes are still possible, and things do get overlooked. For instance, small pockets of low spots were discovered after our first sanding. We went ahead and kept filling every low spot with Eastwood lightweight body filler, using a putty knife.

Dust and contaminants are paint's worst enemies. They can get lodged in wet paint and be difficult to remove when dry. We wiped the entire car down with a soft, damp cloth. Then we air-blew the car dry, dislodging additional contaminants.

Although it protects and works the same as the first layer of black primer, we opted for a second full coat of gray primer to help locate the low-spots more easily. Again, Arthur Rubio began at the edges of the car and doorjambs, overlapping his work to ensure ample coverage. We left the coat to dry and cure overnight before any more work could be done on the car.

Using buckets of warm water and blocks to begin wet sanding, we started with 320-grit wet/dry paper until a uniform finish began to appear on the car. How do you know when you sand too much? If the color begins to turn to the original primer color, you've gone too far and the primer is thin.

At this point, we had moved on to a 400-grit wet/dry paper. You've got to clean the sandpaper of contaminants; if the paper gets clogged, it won't be able to remove material, which makes the process that much longer. We were sure to keep our paper clean by constantly dunking it in water.

Even at this point, we were still finding minute areas to fill. This was our last chance to fill before paint. We went over the car with a hypercritical eye to fill every last low area.

Finally, our hard work was getting us somewhere. Before our first coat of Rat Rod Flat Black, we hustled out the power washer and Ajax soap. We washed the entire car front to back in a last-ditch effort to remove any contaminants that could spoil our paintjob.

We mixed up our paint with the activator and filled the guns. With the car in the booth, we were ready to seal the deal.