painting cars

[Nerfdude]

my car needs paint. there's no getting around it. but i don't have a grand to blow on a nice paint job, and i won't ever trust Maaco with my car. so, it comes down to two options: live with a faded, ugly-ass factory paintjob/bondo job, or paint it myself. i'm taking the paint-it-myself route.

before anyone says anything... yes, this was inspired by project Silvia in the new issue of SCC. and btw, i think that car looks TOTALLY badass.

so the plan as of now is to take it into a bodyshop and have them fix my dents and dings and deep scratches, and then i'm taking it home , parking it under the carport, hanging tarps to act as debris shields, and apinting it. but the question arises: do i need to strip the old paint? i tihnk i can get away with just primering over it. am i wrong?

i'm going from cherry red pearl to either gunmetal grey or Mazda MP3 blue... haven't decided yet. i'd kind of like the car to demand attention, but not by adding the "holy crap" factor.... i.e. no lime green, no hazard yellow.

also, a guy my friend's dad works with is a graphic artist, and supposedly i can get a full vinyl graphic kit designed specifically for my car if i provide him with a few profile shots of my car and two cases of beer. nice guy. i'm thinking a nice tear pattern, tastefully mated to the color scheme... a white tear on blue, black tear on gunmetal... it'd be nice.

first i gotta get the thing running right.. i'm pretty convinced it's either the coil or distributor, but... well, i'll know soon enough.

[AKADriver]

You need to rough up the old paint to give the new paint something to bite onto.

Maaco and other places like that will actually do an excellent job if you ask for their premium paint and do all the prep yourself.

IMO there's no such thing as tasteful vinyl graphics, but, that's your call.

[i hate rice rockets]

ive done alittle bit of body work and it aint that hard..fixing the little dings and dents....all it takes is time...but painting it is a different story...thats hard...and yes u do need to remove the old paint from it..liek sanding it down then primering it...but yea good luck and hope u do a good job on it...as for the graphics...umm i dont think it would look nice...but hey whatever floats ur boat... <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

[CoasTek240]

yeah pretty much scratch it up, smooth it over. and spray. pulling th dents is easy dont' pay a shop.. unless they are really complex. also i agree with akadriver.. do the prep work, and gelcoat it and take it to maaco. but personally i'd keep it primed flat black like project sil, or get a weird prime color. u'll get more scars later if ur really into driving hard.

[craigs13]

If i waz you id do all the prep wor myself and then bring it t maaco and let them spray it. painting and doing it god is a bitch. every little mistake will show.

[Nerfdude]

hmm... how much would a maaco job, w/ clear coat, cost if i did the priming myself? i've got a pretty good airbrush hand, btw. it's not like i'm gonna put the gun 2" off the surface and just blast an inch layer on it, and then go over a couple inches and hold it 5 feet away or something. i think i could pull off a decent job...
so you guys are saying sand her down first, though... good thing i just bought a new sander. it's only a quarter-sheeter though. this may take a while =\

as for the vinyl... trust me, it'll look bitchin'.

bondo bondo bondo.... primer primer primer. ugh.

[flipboi13]

Get a vinyl picture of Mr. K holding a thumbs up. that would rule.

[mazdog240]

First things first, In most states it is illegal to paint a car in your driveway/carport/garage, you won't get caught unless you have nosey neighbors or a cop happens to drive by while you are doing it, so just keep that in mind.

Now for the old paint, it does not necessarily have to be removed. The old paint(s) only need to be removed if they are too thick, if the car only has the original layer of paint and maybe one more layer then you will be fine with just sanding/roughing the entire thing. &nbsp;

I would recommend getting a 6" D/A (dual action) sander and then going to town on every inch of the car. THEN do the bodywork, dent repair, etc then lay down a couple good coats of quality primer (primer is very important, if you use cheap primer it can ruin the whole job). Then go to town with your base coats. &nbsp;If you will be using a 3-stage paint process (primer, base coat, clear coat) I highly reccomend you let a pro do the clear coat. &nbsp;You say you can airbrush so I think you could pull off a decent base coat, but even a little screw up, drip, too much overlap, etc in the clear will REALLY stand out. Clear coat is a very touchy thing. &nbsp;Good luck hope it comes out nice. &nbsp;And don't forget the most important thing is to wear a quality mask/respirator you do not want to breathing that stuff.

[thelinja]

This summer my dad and I painted my car....well..we had someone spray it. &nbsp;We did all of the prep work though...fixed the rust on the rear wheel well, I filled in all the digs and scratches. &nbsp;I was lucky in the fact that there were no dings or door marks on my car. &nbsp;I also filled in the front spoiler where people had tagged curbs and whatnot. &nbsp;The car looked phenomenal when it got painted. &nbsp;I'm really satisfied with the parts we fixed and with the paint job. &nbsp;To see the car before I took it to get painted and right after I got it back....check below.

[nismo270r]

Hey Linja...you have a shop spray it or someone you knew personally? &nbsp;If it was a shop, which one...that paint job looks damn nice! &nbsp;I really want to change the color of my car, but I know a good professional color change is upwards of 5-6k. &nbsp;Take out all the moldings, glass, etc...I'll probably just stick with the good 'ol Emerald Blue... <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

[thelinja]

I had it done at Cookies Body Shop in Acton, IN, southeast side of Indianapolis. &nbsp;They do an excellent job over there. &nbsp;When I had my 84 crown vic someone nailed me hit and run stylee in a parking lot and left a big dent in one of the doors. &nbsp;They made it look brand new. The 17 year old paint matched and everything.

[ridebmx]

couple things that nobody mentioned as far i seen from scimming the posts, between the primer and base coat part you should wetsand the whole car, and also you should use something to seal the primer (cant rember what the stuff is called or what exactly you do) if you dont the primer can sag after a while and you will see imprefections up close, also the part about a good primer is correct, pay the 60 70 bucks a *edit*quart*edit* or whatever the price is for the stuff you need, when using the DA sander dont go nuts with it, if you really wanted to strip off all your old paint and bondo and everything else id say just with aircraft striper, but that is some harsh shit, you cant really get it on any plastic shit, it tend to react, or atleast from my experience, next is if you paint the car yourself put an extra coat of clear on the car, it helps with scratchs and you can wetsand the whole car with 2000 grit wetsand paper and then buff it with a fine rubbing compound (be careful around all your egdes, you dont want to burn threw the clear, also, dont go over board on the pressure applied to the buffer) after you do that you use some foam pad polishing glaze and buff it again, then if you want a little deeper finish you can go over it with a hand glaze, ive used 3m imperial hand glaze, its pretty good stuff, and after the paint job you have to remember that it takes a while for the paint to harden, so when washing it be really careful, also it is recommended not to use and wax or silicone product for atleast 30 days......ummm one thing i forgot is you want to make sure there is nothing at all on the car before you paint, some people use tac cloth, and there are other ways, another thing is to wet the floor down and the tarps (helps with dust) ummm.....one other thing is have the right reducers and hardeners for the tempature you will be painting it....thats all i can think of for now....

[CoasTek240]

wow that's really risky.. i would feel right doing that. i'd like to see how this turns out.. keep us posted