fuel_junkie

Well, thanks to some retarded people round Okc, they Have pushed me to the limit of painting my own car. I've asked around for a while now finding the best deal of 5k for paint plus door Jams, that not including the labor... Im not going to Macco. Anyhow Im going to paint my own car and was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of how I am going to go about this. I dont know alot about paint and everything to make a car really pop. And Im not doing this to screw up my car. The car is in pretty good shape, no big dents nothing to drastic. Its just the first guy who I guess painted the car before i owned it didnt know what he was doing because onthe huge chip on my front bumper there seems to be no primer. I have cracks in my door around the handle, about 25% of my rear bumper is pealing and is covered by canned primer that really looks crappy. I have what looks to be an unsanded bondo job on my drivers side fender, have no idea what happened there but more than likely its probably cracked worse than I know. At the point where the door pivits to open about 40% of the line is chipped away and shows grey primer underneith. and I have clear coat runs on my mirrors, and further more at spots like doorjams, trunk lid, under the hood is semi-hit and miss spots where its flaking off. Now I know I can do better than this. I used to paint houses with my Grandad, and know the basics of getting a good paint job, but Im not sure about what to do for prep, like what do I do before primer prep, what do I do after primer, pre-paint prep, what do I do before the clear goes on and how do I make that baby shine like a pro did it. I dont know, but the cars an extra and I love it to death so Maybe some one can help me..


Sorry for the long post hopefully I can get info.

blown 346

iTrader: (25)

Prep is the key, if the prep isnt right the paint will come out horrible as it will show the bad prep work.

There is a lot of work with painting a car as far as getting the proper amount of thinner ans paint, the type of gun you use, nozzles, the sparay pattern out of the gun, the pressure of the gun. The amount of hardener you use, the amount of flex agent. Proper ventilation etc etc.

Honestly, you want a good paint job. It would be a good idea to get it done professionally and get a warranty.
If you havent done this before you are going to waste your time.

fuel_junkie

Well accually I think most of the work would be removing the peeling paint. Ive talked to a few painters and all said they wouldnt touch the car much more warrent a new paint job in fear the if they painted it and it started to peel again they would have to honor the warrent. How much trouble would it be to get the car into pre paint condition and just pay for the paint job instead of them sitting on labor charge for god knows howmany hours dealing with the old paint, another reason I wanted to do this was because I dont have the money saved up to get a 5k paintjob and probably wont untill the summer...

thanks for the reply

parbreak

iTrader: (17)

You want advice on painting your own car, well here it is, no punches pulled:

1) This isn't the place to be asking questions about painting your own car. Most of the people on here don't know what a paint gun looks like, much less ever actually painted anything. My advice is go here:

http://www.autobody101.com/forums/index.php

or here:

http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php

or here:

http://www.leopardsystems.com/paintucationforum/


and soak up every bit of knowledge from these sites and people you can. Spend months reading and understanding everything you can about paint, prep and technique.

2) Forget about even touching you car for a couple months and get some test panels and practice, practice, practice. If you can't get the hang of it on test panels, then it's going to look 100 times worse on your car.

3) Don't want to spend money. Forget about painting your car yourself unless your going to spray can route. You're going to need to spend a MINIMUM of $1000-1500 in equipment and supplies alone. That includes a compressor and I'm not talking about a 2 HP pancake comp, I mean a minimum 6HP 30-50 gal compressor or you will end up with so much moisture in your lines and paint you'll think you paint while it was raining. How much for paint, primer, clearcoat, sandpaper and all the prep solutions, etc. etc. etc?

4) Where are you going to paint the car? Renting a booth costs MONEY or are you going to do a driveway or garage paint job?

5) Are you going to disassemble the car to paint it?

6) Before you even pick up a paint gun, ask yourself all these questions and talk to a local paint supplier to see what all is involved.

Also, not to diss you, but painting houses and painting with automotive paint is NOTHING and I mean NOTHING alike. They couldn't be anymore different. Different paints, different techniques, etc.

Hope this doesn't sound too discouraging to you, but you need to learn everything you can before taking up a project like this.

Bryan
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HotWhipT/A

iTrader: (31)

I'd take the old paint off your self. Thats what i'm doing since it wasn't done right. If I would just give the car as is, it would cost me over 10 grand and no car for months. Since I am doing the work, it'll cost around 4 grand and maybe 3 weeks.

Pro-Mo

Nice post Thanks for the great links too.

fuel_junkie

Thanks for all the advice guys, I guess I just needed a vent, stupid people, oh well Im looking out for good deals, I got a friend who's brother owns a local collision shop and he might help me..thanks again guys