#a couple of hours?

[shimera]

Ooh I guess I'm doing it... The post about car paint job from the worker's point of view.

Tiny disclaimer: I'm not an overly experienced professional (even tho I've been doing all this almost every day rn) and some things I'll mention may vary from workshop to workshop so yeah I'mma explain the way I've personally experienced this kind of job

Also I'm not talking about small touch-ups like a scratch or a small ship of some sort, this post is about going BIG starting from repainting a rusted corner of a door and to a fully new paint job like if you want to change the color of a whole car.

Don't feel obliged to follow all this in your fics and other works tho, I completely understand that sometimes you simplify stuff for the sake of the plot, and to be honest I do that too.

I also sincerely apologize if some of the terms aren't completely correct as english is not my first language

Warning: long post ahead

So, where do I start... Well, the whole process is in fact REALLY time consuming. You can do all the steps as fast as you can, yes, but still you'll be stuck with drying all the layers of the primer, base coat and clear coat anyway (this can be sped up with some infrared lamps and stuff but if you don't have these... Well, it is what it is). Also it usually takes at least 2-4 people to get the parts ready. Depending on your skills you can do it by yourself as well but for that you'd need to know how to disassemble and assemble a car, the process of preparing the parts you're gonna paint and master your painting skills to get the result you're looking for (plus sometimes you'll need to know how to weld and fix some big dents too). At my workplace all these jobs (except preparing the parts and painting them) are done by separate people, but as I said earlier, it may vary.

DEMOLISHING

First, you decide what are you going to take off the car and how much of it has to go. I'm not really involved in the process of it as I'm not a mechanic (fitter?), but yea usually you need to take off bumpers (especially if they're a part that's getting fixed and repainted), doors, hood, trunk and front&rear window glass are optional most of the time; if the hood or a door is getting painted we usually take it off. The trunk is also taken off to repaint but sometimes it can stay if there are parts close enough to it that get painted as well (for example, I've prepared a trunk and both of the rear fenders, so the trunk stayed on the car). Also most of the time the inner door panels are taken off when the door is painted, the window glass is optional but to avoid damaging it if something goes wrong we keep it in closed position or take it off; door handles always have to go separately. Oh and sometimes you'll have to take the wheels off too if they're gonna get in the way later on.

PROTECT ANYTHING THAT'S LEFT

So, the first step was successful: you figured out what, how and how much to disassemble and may think now you can start preparing the parts-- Oop, not so fast. Now you have to protect anything that you didn't take off and don't want to accidentally damage/get dirty. If the part is still on the car and any door opening is gonna be involved (and believe me, it most likely will) or they were taken off - you better cover the doorways with paper and masking tape, because you don't want the interior to get all dusty and filled with sand!! And the absolute best thing will be to cover all the remaining parts too (there are covers made for that but technically any overly huge plastic bag thingy will do) because you don't want the primer to leave any residue on them. Also you absolutely don't want to damage anything that's close to the repainted part so it's gets covered with some masking tape and/or reinforced tape - the more, the better, you can never be too careful, but remember that it's also kind of a time consuming process (sometimes it takes up to half a day to cover everything up if you're doing it alone, but most of the time it's from about twenty minutes to an hour or so)

REPAIRING AND SANDING

Finally you made it through this step too, congrats! Now the action begins: you need to get that baby ready to get a new paint job.

In my workplace the cars we paint almost every time have some chips (these can rust really well quite fast so it's important not to miss out any), scratches (they can show through the new paint if you don't sand them down completely) and of course some amount of rust, so first thing you want to do is to make sure none of it stays where it was. Most of the time you don't need to take all the paint amd primer off, so that's when you take an eccentric machine and start sanding away everything you want gone. Sometimes if the paint peels off by itself at some spots you have to sand all of it or it might start doing the same in the other spots. Sometimes you'll find out the car was already repaired and there are layers of putty there - if there's no signs of rusting underneath, you want to sand it as little as possible because the other option is to put it all back on by yourself AND make the shape of a part look like it's never been repaired, and it's not a simple task if you don't have years of experience behind your back.

The dents are treated depending on their size: if it's small enough you sand it until bare metal shows up and then cover up with some putty - make sure to really press it in so it won't sag after you finished everything. If it's big you grab some tools and fix it or call someone who knows how to fix those (that's my option at the moment sadly) and get them to fix it. Some putty still will be applied on top to make sure the detail is smooth just as new.

Sometimes it's necessary to wield parts that were too damaged. Sadly, I don't know much of it, but it's most likely a job for a couple hours or so (but there was a really fucked up extremely rusted car that's been in work for almost HALF A YEAR- yeah our wielder quit right after finishing the poor thing😭 and the car itself was released into the wild just a couple days ago). The thing I know tho is that even after sanding down everything you welded, you most likely still will have to cover it all up with putty because it won't be looking good without it. And make sure to use the right grit sandpaper because if it's too harsh it Will Absolutely Show Through after you paint it. Even if you did put some putty on top.

The rust itself may be treated a couple ways. If it's light enough that there are just some spots sitting on top of the metal then you just sand it down and call it a day. If it's so bad that chunks of metal are falling off by themselves or there are holes in it you call your wielder to cut the thing off and put a new piece of metal to cover the hole up. And if it's something in between, you go grab a sandblasting gun and all the protective gear you can find because it's about to get DIRTY. The process is quite simple: all you need to do is to connect the thing to a compressor, get yourself some clean fine sand (or else you'll be REALLY annoyed when you'll need to adjust it every ten seconds because some shit got stuck in it TRUST ME I KNOW (and also it can damage the equipment)) and start blasting the rust with it. But it's also really slow as the range of where the sand is hitting the metal is small, and you'll have to go over the same spot a couple times from different angles to really get all that rust removed. And if you blast a spot for too long it also may develop a bulge. After all this you also clean it all up and (optionally) add some putty on top. If you really want to get it extra protected you can first apply a layer of epoxy primer to the area you just relieved of rust and only after it's cured you can add the putty.

If you're working with bumpers tho it's best if you put as little putty on it as possible. These things are made to be flexible and the putty is not so it can and will fall off if any accidents that involve the bumper being squished happen. If you can sand that chip off - you do it. Also the fact of them being kind of flexible leads to paint developing some cracks that go deep through the layers and sometimes into the plastic as well. This mostly happens when it developed too many layers of paint over the years of repainting the thing, what leads to losing a lot of flexibility of the said paint, so while the bumper gets a hit and bounces back - the layers crack. And yeah if you see it you sand it down COMPLETELY or it will show through.

Last step is to make sure everything is smooth, the layers (top coat, base coat, primer and sometimes additional coats of paint from previous jobs) are stretched while sanding those (so there are no bumps there) and the grit of the sandpaper Was Small Enough because otherwise It Will Show Through.

PRIMER AND SANDING AGAIN

Now that you've got through the first round of sanding you need to put a coat of epoxy primer if there was bare metal involved and 2-5 coats of acrylic primer on top (both preferably two-component and applied with a spray gun). There's not much to say about this except that you most likely will need to do some additional masking. And if you do fuck up on this step (like overflow the paint at some spots that it starts dripping) it's still fixable: the second round of sanding is waiting for you just as finishes drying. The time of curing for the primer depends on it's type, manufacturer and the temperature you're working in, but mostl likely it's gonna take around 8 hours at the room temperature or around half an hour with the lamps.

Now that it's all cured the parts are ready to sand yet again - even if it was all perfect before you still need to make sure it's smooth, looks like it's supposed to look and has enough sandpaper scratches because the paint won't stick to a shiny-smooth surface. So sanding down it is - finer grit this time, but it is still necessary, especially if there were any repairs. The area you're going to sand this time (if just a part of a detail is going to be repainted) also is a lot bigger than you prepared at this point because to make it look as if there were no repaints at all the base coat and the top coat both need to be applied in a way that will not look bumpy. Also there are some steps to take if you've repaired some stuff there: first you sand the thing with your hands and a sanding block, and after that you get a finer grit sandpaper and - again - an eccentric machine and make sure you got all the previous scratches out or else It Will Show Through.

Finally, it's all ready - now you need just to rip most of the previous covers off, tape on some new ones adjusted to the new sanded area (takes a shit ton of time again and you better not miss this step) and you're ready to degrease the thing and FINALLY paint it. At this point depending on the equipment you've already spent around 1-3 days on the thing (including all the waiting and stuff. You absolutely can and will prepare other parts while you wait).

WOW YOU DID IT! NOW PAINT AND NOT DIE

I'm not really involved in the painting process yet (oh the lack of skill), but what I know about it is the fact that the white paint is the one which lets you get away with the biggest amount of mistakes of all. And if the paint has any shimmer/glitter in it... Well, it takes some skills to make it lay flat and not become a spotty mess (if you do fuck up at this point you'll have to repeat some sanding). Also the base coat is usually really thin as it only gives the color to a piece. The clear top coat is the one that's both the heaviest and the thickest because it's supposed to protect everything else. After applying all this you leave it to dry for around 17-24 hours (the more the better), assemble everything back together and technically you're done. Or are you?

MAKE IT SHINY

Now we've come to the additional step. Polishing. Some workshop do it, some don't. In my workplace we don't go an extra mile for it, but we still do polish the parts we painted to give it some extra shine and get rid of occasional dust that landed before painting process was finished and small drips of the top coat. First you sand these - and only these - down with a really fine grit sandpaper (preferably also wet) by hand and polish it until shiny again using different compounds and fur/foam discs and the machine almost like you've used before but this one has even more speed and power. Finding all the dust pieces especially on the big surfaces like a hood or a roof is quite a challenge - sometimes you will miss a couple and will have to go back a few steps back to sand them off. You should also rinse the car after the polishing because it gets quite dirty from time to time and these compounds are not very easy to get off when they dry.

Finally, everything is nice, smooth, shiny amd clean, and you can finally say you're done! Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you learned something useful today! If I missed out on something, feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to clear all that up for you!

[divineandmajesticinone]

pretending that tomorrow isn't a workday

[taimanzano]

One of one. One, alone, one.

[pillowspace]

SAM: Uhhh, Alice? // ALICE: Yeah? // SAM: I think the text to speech AIs are in love with each other. // ALICE: Heh. Chester and Norris started flirting mid-paragraph again? // SAM: A-again? // ALICE: Ya, they do that when they get side-tracked by outside data. It's just a bug, wait it out. // SAM: Wha??

Could you imagine

[axoqiii]

augh

[blitzy-blitzwing]

Luci’s happy to meet her. 😎

[magspeaches]

[junkfoodart]

This is what happened, no?

[stitchposts]

BOOP

[dragon-spaghetti]

They should fight together more often 💖

(Please click for better quality!!)

[shimmershy]

Chara can stand exactly ONE human. That's it.

[peaktora]

𝐂 𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐘 ˚◞♡ ⃗ satoru gojo

𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 ┊ your husband is unbearably clingy.

𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 ┊0.9k words. no pronouns used or specified gender for the reader. intended lowercase. established relationship (#married).

a/n. — i’m warning u guys right now that this is not proofread 😭 .. i literally just typed this up rq and posted it bc it’s been too long since i’ve last posted something on here

p.s. the prompt was in my notes from a longgg time ago, but i believe it’s from @/creativepromptsforwriting .. if not please lmk !!

"c'mere, hold my hand," satoru pleads for what has to be the third time. he pouts at you, who’s sitting on the countertop.

your brows furrow as you look up from your phone, "but, you're washing the dishes?”

he twists the faucet handle, and a steady stream of water flows down. after a brief glance at you, he places the plate beneath the water and says, "i know how to multitask, baby."

clinginess is defined as “the tendency to stay near someone for emotional support, protection, ect.” but there has to be another term for what satoru is, because you can't give any of those things while holding his hand right now.

you let out a deep breath and turn off your phone, watching as the screen fades to black. "satoru, there's no way i'm sticking my hand in that dirty dishwater," you say, sliding your phone into your pocket.

he practically shoves the plate into the drying rack. "i can't believe this," he huffs. "we literally had vows."

“what are y—“

“we had vows that said you’d love me in sickness and in health.”

"well…are you sick?" you ask, crossing your arms across your chest.

he pauses his task of washing dishes, leaving them untouched. leaning over the sink, he rests his arms against its edge. he steals a furtive glance at you, only to find your gaze locked onto him. with a hint of hesitation, he softly mumbles, "no..." before you can respond, he interrupts, "but i’m in health, and the vows said that you have to love and cherish me in this state too."

you lean back, searching your mind for what the alternative of holding his hand would be. because in no world would you hold his hand in dishwasher. then, it hits you. "for now, would a hug make you feel better?"

he answers your question with a hum, and you can't believe he's debating whether or not to accept your offer after all that drama over holding hands in dishwater. even so, he adds, "i'll have to give it some thought."

two can play that game.

“it’s okay,” you say, gracefully hopping down from the counter. a smirk spreads across your face. “i could just go—sit on the couch?” slowly, you start to walk in his direction and make your way over to the living room.

he doesn’t say anything, letting you do as you please. it’s not until you start to pass by him, that you get the reaction you wanted.

or atleast, somewhat similar to what you wanted.

"on second thought—" he exclaims, and the dishwater swirls around him as he turns around, his hands still wet and dripping.

you cringe as small puddles gather on the tiles. "hey—" but he interrupts you as he reaches out to grab your wrist. “ew—I—what the hell?”

you instinctively try to pull back, but he slips his wet hand in yours; sealing your fate.

“satoru—”

“what happened to nicknames?”

“satoru.”

"’m not sure who that is. i go by a lot of names, but not that one. lets go down the list, yeah?” he clears his throat. “i go by "babe, baby, swe—"

"you should consider adding "gojo" to that list."

"now, when have you ever called me gojo?”

"right now, in exactly ten seconds.” your husband gasps, hanging his mouth open. “satoru go—"

“woah woah woah—what’d i do to deserve this treatment?”

“you put your dirty dishwater hand in mine.” you jerk your hand back, struggling to escape free of his grip.

his grip tightens on your hand, “if you’re feeling like not loving me today then just say that.”

“hey—don’t discredit me. i offered you a hug and you said you had to “think” about it.”

“cause holding your hand ‘s better.”

you sigh, “after you’re done with the dishes, you can hold my hand as long as you want.“

he lets out a soft, thoughtful hum—the same hum that got you both into this situation in the first place. at the same time you shake your head, a mischievous twinkle appears in his eyes, and a smile twists onto the edges of his lips. "deal" he says, shaking your hand. “but before-“

you tsk, making him drop his excuse.

“wh—“

"the quicker these dishes get done, the quicker you’ll be able to hold my hand. so get on with it—go," you playfully command, and his grip loosens in response. seizing the opportunity, you slide your hand out of his grasp. you look down at it, seeing bits of food that’ve stuck to your palm. gross.

you walk over to the sink, feeling the cool water flow over your hand, washing away the food and dirt that clung to your skin. as you stand there, you hear satoru's voice grumbling from behind, "i hate doing dishes,” and you can’t help but snort.

before you know it, you feel his presence close behind you, his body pressing against yours. his arms encircle you, creating a cozy pocket of space between the counter and his body. satoru leans over your shoulder, gets a sponge from the soapy water, and starts washing a bowl. you simply lean back and look at his features.

the sight almost makes you want to stay in his arms forever. that is, until you realize the predicament you're in.

“you did not,” you whine. you desperately try to break free from the cage he’s trapped you in, but your attempts prove more and more pointless.

"oh, yes, i did," he declares with a smile. “what did you say earlier?" he clears his throat before proceeding. "the faster these dishes are done, the sooner you'll be able to hold my hand," he says, mockingly imitating your tone. "so, the faster these dishes are done, the sooner you can leave and do anything you want."

you sulk and moan while you reluctantly grab a dish and a spare sponge from the sink. “i hate you.”

“i love you more.”

[crowlion]

[courfee]

remus is very unimpressed, sirius is very happy :)

based on this post

[puppyeared]

these two are so interesting to me

characters belong to @canisalbus

[ghost-bxrd]

(“the weather warmer, he is colder”)

— Army Dreamers, Kate Bush