DIY Budget flat black...
Also- the SEM: is it a satin black or a matte/flat black? I'm not a fan of satin- the "kinda" shiny "kinda" flat appearance. Just looks like a half-assed Makko job IMHO. I like either completely flat or very glossy. No in between
Trust me it look better than a half assed Macco job, LOL. But prep is 90% of how it'll turn out, so do shitty prep & any paint will look like a cheapo Macco paint job, LOL.
There is a thread on here with a murdered out Formula painted with the SEM paint if you wanna get a good look at it.
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time

NO NO NO
Trust me the cheapest and best way to paint a car is the method I use on stock cars. Ive also done my old beater 1987 Cavalier in white for probably 40bucks useing this method. Look in to this for sure.
Do you have a compressor or garage?
heres pics of the car before and after:




So what I did was was sand it down well, to go cleap use a couple scotch brite style pads, cheaper and last longer then sandpaper (the car was rollerd when I bought it so thats why I tryed the 40buck spray job). Buy yourself a 20 dollar spray gun (I got mine at a place called Princess Auto in canada, used the regulator on my little compressor and turned it down to 35-40psi constant pressure. I bought 1 pint of tremclad (rustoleam or cleap brand whatever) rust paint primer (like 8 bucks) and 2 pints of white gloss rust paint ($15) or so. And a gallon of mineral spirits. The mineral spirits were to wipe clean the car before paint, clean the cheap gun, and you will also use it to mix into the paint they say 1 part spirits to 5 parts paint. It takes a while to dry sometimes a day or 2 but will look 10 times better then spray cans and is way cheaper. Were a good respirator,,, if not at least don't breath in the paint and do it in a well ventilated area and use a premium quality dust mask... no protection is dumb as A$$ and will clog your lungs with dripping paint,,, im sure you know this but for anyone else reading or want to try this. So you see the car above,, I bought it in running condition for 140$ then painted it this way, welded the floor up, changed some interior stuff over to new sunbird stuff I had left over from another car added the spoiler and side skirts and then sold it for 900$ (made about $600 or so plus drove it for a winter)
If you want a satin look,, mix a small can of flat black and gloss black together,,,no worry about it dulling then.
here is another great link if you want to add hardner and go one step better if you use a gloss paint
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/bo...paint-job.html
Last edited by BCKNBLK; May 7, 2010 at 10:39 AM.
BTW, that came out pretty damn good for a $40 paint job! Oh, and don't worry- I have a 3M resporator and will be buying plenty of red Scotch brites
. I agree- they are MUCH easier to use and last longer than sandpaper. Doesn't hurt that they're cheap either. I just did a "party bus" with UPOL's "raptor" kit it took a solid two gallons to do it, and I would get two gallons to do the truck.
Just patch everything up, this stuff is incredibly tough and easy to use, just prep with 80 grip, degreaser, scotch bright, pressure wash, and go! The kit comes with a texture gun. If it ever fades, just hit it with a gallon of roll on paint.
I would do it again any day!
Also NO it isnt heavy... it only weighs like 15lbs (for some reason everyone thinks this stuff weights a **** ton)
I think the other way around i think satin looks better than straight up flat black. Flat black looks like they left it primered because they did not have the money for the paint. Plus i would think it would chalk much easier do to its pourous nature.
As a side note, I'm probably gonna spray my bumper with the flat black rattle cans I have sitting around. The bumper is grayish in color and just looks WAY out of place on a black truck lol.
So here's the plan for the future- Get about 2 quarts of that SEM Hot-rod black in addition to reducer and whatnot, red sctoch brite everything, clean/degrease, mask, repeat clean/degrease as well as tack cloth, spray, cure, get some bed liner and do my bed lol. Will probably get my windows tinted too.
Last edited by Indrid_Cold; May 8, 2010 at 07:11 PM.
I was kicking around the idea of filling in the body creases as well, but the body is so straight and there are no dents, so I may just leave it alone.


