Who here has painted their car?

[Pussy30]

My car had some little rust spots and body imperfections that i'm working on fixing up right now. Some panels on the car are in nice condition but others have been repainted and they did a bad job, looks like they just sprayed over the factory paint with no prep so its flaking and mismatched colors. The front fenders were repainted at some point and they sprayed right over the pin striping and it fades in at out. Also the hood was keyed pretty bad. I recently refinished my front valance and it went really well with just a rattle can of gloss white. When I got the car it came with a little can of alpine white II that is really close but its become apparent I wont be able to et the whole car to look even unless I respray the whole thing. I dont need perfect and I dont want to spend over a couple hundred bucks (yeah yeah just another dude trying to get something for nothing I know).

Ive thought about prepping the whole car and sending it to maaco but I figure at the point I might aswell just get the paint and a nice gun and get to work. Im not gonna brag but I consider myself pretty good at laying down paint on think like bikes and furtiture etc...


I know that there are some other threads about people painting their cars, but from the standpoint of someone with little experiance how much time and money do you think this could be done decently? I dont have to do the jams or anything like that.

Thanks!

:)

[mbonder]

If you're up for a challenge, I say go for it! Only way to learn is to give it a try. I too will some day take this plunge. The good thing is that if you screw it up, just sand down and shoot again. If you have the ability to take your time I think that you can end up with a nice finished product.

However, the materials will be more expensive than a couple hundred bucks as a quality paint costs more like $600-1000 for the primers and the final coat, that's where the real money is if you are going to handle the labor yourself.

[Brandon12V]

what he said. a proper paint job mean spending money on quality body filler, primer, and paint. you can get away with a cheap paint sealer, but don't go cheap on the primer or body filler. it will be a waste and you'll be redoing your work in the next 2-5 years. pm Vlad. hes a body work expert and could recommend some great places to buy the good stuff.

oh, and spraying process correctly is a 1-2day constant process. clear coat will start to crinkle/crack or orange peel if you dont do it while the base coat is still "wet".. so to speak.

[Pussy30]

If you're up for a challenge, I say go for it! Only way to learn is to give it a try. I too will some day take this plunge. The good thing is that if you screw it up, just sand down and shoot again. If you have the ability to take your time I think that you can end up with a nice finished product.

However, the materials will be more expensive than a couple hundred bucks as a quality paint costs more like $600-1000 for the primers and the final coat, that's where the real money is if you are going to handle the labor yourself.

Thanks man. Yeah I'm trying to figure if maybe it would be cheaper to get it done at maaco. From what I understand they can do a really nice job at laying down some paint if I take care of the bitch work (removing all the trim bumpers and starting the prep)

[Car Addict]

Well i had my car repainted the same color, when i first got it they also did quite a lot of body work all for $2000

[TomSuddard]

I painted mine myself, it was 3 months working about 3 hours every day. I did the jams and hammered out most of the dents though, so if you just slap some bondo on and skip the jams you'll save a lot of time. The above estimates for materials cost are spot on, I spent about $1100 on paint.

I'd highly recommend finding somebody who knows what they're doing teach you beforehand, though.

[Raxe]

Pretty much. It takes a lot of patience and practice but you can easily achieve nice results if you do it right. Like others have said, expect at least $1000 in paint though. I usually pay around $30 for a single code-matched spray can of paint and it can take 5 cans to paint a hood. I wouldn't recommend spray cans if you're doing the whole car at once though, but for piece-by-piece it works fine.

[Pussy30]

Pretty much. It takes a lot of patience and practice but you can easily achieve nice results if you do it right. Like others have said, expect at least $1000 in paint though. I usually pay around $30 for a single code-matched spray can of paint and it can take 5 cans to paint a hood. I wouldn't recommend spray cans if you're doing the whole car at once though, but for piece-by-piece it works fine.

Id rather spray with a gun, Its gotta be cheaper that way anyways.

[ck_taft325is]

You're still looking at $1,000 for paint.

And another $300 in sand paper, blocks, bondo, hammers, dollies, glazing putty... you get the idea. Also, a lot of time. I mean, a lot of time. It's not something you can rush if you want it A. to last and B. to look half decent.

That said, I love doing my own body work. I love learning and taking my time and having something to plug along at over the course of several weeks (or months).

Have fun with it and do a bunch of reading.

[Pussy30]

You're still looking at $1,000 for paint.

And another $300 in sand paper, blocks, bondo, hammers, dollies, glazing putty... you get the idea. Also, a lot of time. I mean, a lot of time. It's not something you can rush if you want it A. to last and B. to look half decent.

That said, I love doing my own body work. I love learning and taking my time and having something to plug along at over the course of several weeks (or months).

Have fun with it and do a bunch of reading.

Not looking to do all that much body work, im not trying to make a show car, its just a daily driver/track car that I need to paint to cover up the majority of the little rust spots and imperfections that im cleaning up.

Thanks though.