Anyone paint their own cars?

[goodjuan]

I just bought this book How to paint your car and the thought of being able to get around having to pay 4k plus for a quality paintjob sounded very interesting to say the least. Anyone here paint their own cars? I'd like to get another source of dialouge/info besides the book...as it is rather old.

[Jeff240sx]

I did. I painted my Corvette, and a friend of mine painted a third friend's car.
www.rampid360.freeservers.com used to have the pics... I dunno if it's still up.
-Jeff

[FRpilot]

usually i would wanna learn how to diy on anything possible. i dont trust other ppl doing my car work..

i would like to.. but i know it will turn out like ****..

[deviousKA]

ive painted a few cars. if you dont have the equipment, facility, or experience your first couple cars are going to be so/so. if you want to do a $4000 quality job yourself, for the first time, its not going to happen. just pay for a good quality maaco job, $4000 is some nice paint.

[Jeff240sx]

Originally posted by devious
ive painted a few cars. if you dont have the equipment, facility, or experience your first couple cars are going to be so/so. if you want to do a $4000 quality job yourself, for the first time, its not going to happen. just pay for a good quality maaco job, $4000 is some nice paint.
If you get a Maaco job, do the prep-work yourself. Maaco will just spray it with some chemical, and the paint won't adhere right. Do the sanding, and the Maaco job will actually be nice.
-Jeff

[Fibercus]

4k is crazy

id buy another 240

[scandalcat1]

4k? WTF?
Buy all of the materials around $50, then practice on some old fenders, hoods, or trunks from a junkyard first. Practice until it is just the way you like it. Make sure that you are in a well ventilated area. When painting, wet the floor so as no dust will rise during the primer/paint process, preferably in a garage or enclosed again ventilated area.

When performing your sanding, you will notice the imperfections when using an even stroke sanding block. Featheredge them with a fine 1000 grit after rough sanding the whole panel. The small dents will be revealed, which can be bondo'ed and wet sanded down. After drying, use a quarter and ruler to check if the spot is raised or evened out, repeat process if either occurs.
When applying primer, obviously mask off portions that you are not applying paint to with some newspaper and apply 7 even strokes with a 15-30min. period in between to prevent sagging.

NEwayz, you know what else to do for prep work.

Oh yeah, I had painted my Honda Accord and then about 5 months later, we had a hailstorm and I gave up caring meaning cleaning bird ****, tar, treesap, etc. and the paint job ****ted out.

[hotrodman]

Do not try to wet-sand bondo. It will f#ck up and you will have to do it over. I prefer to use primer to fill in small dings. Bondo tends to warp when introduced to heat and if not mixed right it will crack or will take forever to harden. Need help. Just post man.:p

[gsracer]

What if yuor car is painted already but you just want to paint it a different shade of the same color, see my car was factory bright red, but some idiot repainted it burgandy but did not paint the door jambs, underhood or trunk, i want to repaint it the factory color. What then???

[robinlow88]

repainting the whole car is a lot of work, if body is still good, just do the wet sanding and let a professional paint shop complete the paint job, if there is a paint shop near you, try negotiating a deal with them as you have already done most of the 'pre-paint' job if you do the sanding well.

get a 400 grade sand paper and sanding block...

[goodjuan]

What type of paint system is used on our cars from the factory? Enamel? Laquer? or Urethane?

[turboex]

Originally posted by scandalcat1
4k? WTF?
Buy all of the materials around $50, then practice on some old fenders, hoods, or trunks from a junkyard first. Practice until it is just the way you like it. Make sure that you are in a well ventilated area. When painting, wet the floor so as no dust will rise during the primer/paint process, preferably in a garage or enclosed again ventilated area.

When performing your sanding, you will notice the imperfections when using an even stroke sanding block. Featheredge them with a fine 1000 grit after rough sanding the whole panel. The small dents will be revealed, which can be bondo'ed and wet sanded down. After drying, use a quarter and ruler to check if the spot is raised or evened out, repeat process if either occurs.
When applying primer, obviously mask off portions that you are not applying paint to with some newspaper and apply 7 even strokes with a 15-30min. period in between to prevent sagging.

NEwayz, you know what else to do for prep work.

Oh yeah, I had painted my Honda Accord and then about 5 months later, we had a hailstorm and I gave up caring meaning cleaning bird ****, tar, treesap, etc. and the paint job ****ted out.

Humm i just had my car painted by a friend who does this stuff. I called the get the price on the paint and all the other stuff (chemicals, its not just paint you need LOL) they quoted me $700bucks, i got the down threw another friend to $367 for all suplies. I know you said get jsut this stuff to practice but i figured i would let everyone know how much this cost. When i was all said and done i payed my boy a grand pluss 400 for paint and a few other things. ill post pics tonight

[driftk2000]

Originally posted by Jeff240sx
If you get a Maaco job, do the prep-work yourself. Maaco will just spray it with some chemical, and the paint won't adhere right. Do the sanding, and the Maaco job will actually be nice.
-Jeff I would take this advice by Jeff because I would give you the same advice myself. This is the probably gonna be the cheapest way to get a clean paintjob. Auto body supplies are no joke, they are terribly expensive so save yourself some money on the more expensive supplies like the clearcoat( I think it's close to 100 bucks) by bringing it to MAACO.
When doing the prep work, this just means wet sanding the car which MAACO doesn't do and wipe the whole car with isyprohanol alcohol also called Multi-Prep.
Yo, my boy's integra was prepped by him and brought to Maaco. It came out clean!

[scandalcat1]

The only time that bondo will "f#ck up", is when you immediatly wet sand after applying or wait less than 1 hour to cure. You let it cure for about 1.5 to 3hrs depending on humidity and of course heat.

What I meant to say instead of wet sanding was sand with a 800 grit until smooth and then wetsand to soften down or feather edge for the surface transition to be the same. Then apply the primer.
"I know you said get jsut this stuff to practice but i figured i would let everyone know how much this cost. When i was all said and done i payed my boy a grand pluss 400 for paint and a few other things. ill post pics tonight" by Turboex

Yes, I meant $50 on the practice stuff, hmmm kind of odd however, to prep my last job (1991 Nissan Maxima 2yrs. ago) the cost of materials was roughly $140, and that was with extra sandpaper and primer left over. You should ask your friend to produce a receipt and also question which store it was purchased from because some are in the business for ripping extra a$$holes.
Chemicals are usually for stripping paint quickly and are hazardous/dangerous for you and the environment. The alcohol essentially removes any excess residue so that a clean surface will have supurb adhesion the alternative would be tack cloths.

[turboex]

My friend told me what i needed I then found it.

acrilic laq 47.70
low loc 16.25
ful seal 41.15
etch primer x2 35.40
other etch primer x2 20.20
lacquer 24.11
paint 79.25
base 18.05
clear 35.25
other clear 28.60
full thane 16.00
clear activato 17.40

this is what i paid

[scandalcat1]

Originally posted by turboex
My friend told me what i needed I then found it.

acrilic laq 47.70
low loc 16.25
ful seal 41.15
etch primer x2 35.40
other etch primer x2 20.20
lacquer 24.11
paint 79.25
base 18.05
clear 35.25
other clear 28.60
full thane 16.00
clear activato 17.40

this is what i paid

I guess maybe I did not make myself completely clear, but if you read my posts, I am referring to the cost of prepping the car as we were discussing in relevance to taking it to Maaco.

I am not trying to compete in a pi$$ing contest, just merely state my costs associated with prepping cars and so forth.

[s13driver]

1 quick question, what is the difference between clear coat and clear coat primer ? or are they the same ?