Primer Phase 1

So with the cabinet set up in the garage on a 2X4 cut in half to help with painting the base I began the prep work. Now for those of you who have little experience with painting its very important to understand that painting is only 5% of the job, the rest is ALL prep work! This includes the sanding, cleaning, taping & masking everything up and ensuring you have the right paint on hand.

I started out with the foam roller on the cabinet applying the first coat as you can see from the pictures the blue is very much still apparent and that's absolutely fine! as I'm painting in a vertical position, I am applying "Thin coats" to avoid the paint from taking advantage of gravity and leaving me with a headache of an uneven surface. the roller worked great for the majority but had to switch to a brush for the "Black parts" such as the base and the inner extended parts of the side boards.

I left the 1st coat dry over night before coming back the next morning, lightly wet sanding (Barely anything at all as not much is on) and applying the 2nd coat. The nice thing about Kilz is that it is dry to the touch within 30 min and another coat can be applied within a couple hours. Though like any oil base its a few days drying before finally settling, thus I waited 6 hours, wet sanded lightly again, then applied the 3rd coat and the cabinet has been sitting to dry for 3 days now.

The pictures of the 3rd coat shows no more blue and continuously keeps getting smoother. I have also applied the same amount of coats to the back door of the cabinet. The door is looking great after some bondo application and a good sanding. The primer is fully dry by now and would be much easier simply sanding with 220 vs wet sanding  so that will be the next step then to apply a 4th coat of primer before moving to the paint.

Lastly I will "Lecture w/ good intentions" those who are considering doing a restore and are taking the step of painting the cabinet. I cannot stress enough how important the prep work to this project really is!!! It is important to know first thing this will be the absolute longest step in the restoration process. It's easy to start the project with intentions of achieving a great result then naturally beginning to hurry in effort to see your results but let me assure you "You Wont!" You will need to continuously remind yourself to slow down. If you don't, the results of your paint job will clearly show! I know you will want to slam as many coats of primer on as soon as possible, don't! be patient take a day or two between them. I know after painting your not gonna want to spend all that time sanding that cabinet down again, let alone between coats, But DO! the results will be rewarding!

More into this includes the quality of paint you use, buy cheap paint from home depot/lowes don't be shocked if your paint job looks cheap when your done. Use latex over oil don't be surprised if your cabinet seems to be tacky and have a texture, rather than being hard and smooth. Lastly do NOT use "Glossy" or "Sealer" afterwards, want more protection on that nice paint job? add another coat of oil paint! the more glossy you make the cabinet the more likely all those little imperfections are going to stand out and slap you in the face every time you get near it!

Please take my advise into consideration and I will be updating within the week with the next step of the primer process.