DIY Paint Jobs

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MikeyBoy

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I have done the rustoleum thing, and ive seen some decent results. Good enough for driving around and just enjoying, not show or anything. But anyway to the point.

I am considering buying a paint gun and compressor and trying my hand at painting. I have about 3 or 4 cars that could use a paint job.

I was wondering if anyone has done it themselves and has pictures of thier cars, or stories about it, or advice or whatever.

For those of you who will say, you get what you pay for, i'm in college and i have no money. So i cant "pay for" so i'm interested in using somethign i have much more of (time) to try to see what i can do.

Just lookin to see if anyone else has gone this route, so let me know.
 
Rustoleum Im not sure Id use.I painted a 85 monte carlo dirt track car and it turned out OK not the best. They have some paint cans (not spray paint cans but like a small quart) of duplicolor paint at stores like Advance Auto parts that you can buy. Its pretty good but your body work is what matters. That will be your deciding factor in how it will turn out even if it isnt a 10,000 dollar paint job. Make sure you get a good air compressor. Having to wait for it to fill back up with air to spray is a Bi#$! I hope this helps.
 
yah im definitly not going to spray rustoleum, those were roller jobs and thats where rustoleum will stay.

i am looking at buying single stage enamal from somewhere, havn't quite figured out where yet.

if anyone has any advice on how many gallons of compressor i need, or how much horsepower, or psi and what not that would be good too.

when u say ok, do u mean u dealt with orange peel? or runs? or what.

do u have any pictures of it.

Keep the replies coming guys, thanks.
 
I use to spray with about 40 lb psi with enamel some times higher.
Go to a paint store and they can help you on the thinning and hardeners.
Test your self on a hood or some thing to get to know your spay gun and all it will do. 5 hp 50 gal tank is all I have used but it seem's like we rented a high volume compressor at home depo that did not do a bad job.
Strain every thing that go's in your spray gun and let the tec at the paint store let you know the best psi to spray there paint with.
Look or ask for a mis matched color first and save your self allot of $$$.
and just buy a Quart and give it a try. They have a fast drying thinner and
other thing's that will help you out.
And by all means wear a mask. and pick up some fish eye eliminator.
Let it dry a few day if not two weeks and wet sand and run's and buff out.

Like I said ,There is some good car color paint stores out there that can walk you though a paint job, and you will get better after each car.
So do the first car that you will learn on first and have fun.
 
thanks guys, i appreciate the advice, fish eye eliminator, i didnt know about that, good to know, i think im going to have to register at moparts to see that thread, guess i shoud do it

any other bits of advice anyone?
 
just alot of runs and orange peel. Could be because I didnt mix it perfect but still the way it even looks when dry just looks bad. You can find stuff just as cheap or a little more expensive but not by much that looks a million times better.
 
A paint job is about 90% preparation and 10% painting. I would try starting with an enamel as it is more user friendly than the uros. Just pick up a qt of paint, gallon of reducer and hardner and practice before spraying your car. Like was said in previous post talk to a tech at a paint supply store. He will get you headed in the right direction. Just take it slow and easy. You will get lots of practice spraying primer before the painting starts. Painting isn't that hard. It's all the prep work that sucks.
 
I painted my car in my garage....Will never do it again..but the first coat came out beautiful, nice and smooth/shiny but with every coat it got more and more orange peel to it. As long as you are doing solid color single stage you can "make" it look nice after the fact.
After a good wet sand and buff it looks as good as the paint on any "average" new car. Take a look at page 2 of my cardomain page in my signature and you can see what it looks like. I'l have to snap some of what the driver side looks like after the polish
FYI: I used PPG shop line and got right at 4 decent coats with a gallon of paint
 
Spend a few weeks hanging around these two sites - read alot - ask questions ...............

http://autobody101.com/

http://www.autobodystore.com/

There are DVD's available as well AND do a search on Youtube for short videos on paint and body. A good paint job is a huge undertaking for the home hobbyist - prep is everything and takes many, many hours.
 
you will need a good compressor , one of the 5 hp 60 gallon will do. i still use a standard hi pressure gun it was around $80.00 . i dont like painting in a garage ive done it 2x and didnt like the results so i paint outside but under a big tarp. i used ppg acrylic enamel no clear . you can get great results using it. if you start on the trunk, under hood, jams, etc. you can get the practice and the feel of how the paint acts. i painted my charger in 99 and when i sold it in 06 it still looked great but it was garage kept. ill include a photo of it. good luck

pics of the dodge charger 006.jpg
 
Here is a link to my first paint job. Roadrunner project

I couldn't afford to have my car painted professionally. I bought a harbor freight purple gun and a 60 gallon air compressor. Read all I could on how to paint a car. As mentioned above it is 90% prep.

The final results

0034.jpg
 
wow, thanks guys for all the responces. nice lookin cars to those who posted them.

tadjou, did u actually spray a metalic color?
 
if you dont have a lot of cash but want good materials, forget it. for the tools you have to buy, you can send a car to macco, for the price of good materials, you can probably send 2 more cars to macco. if you are set on it, start out with rust oleum, spray inner fenders, suspension parts, interior stuff, engines, rear housings, blah blah blah, cut it up to 25% acetone and go to town, get the feel for painting on the cheap. i use R.O all the time, never painted a whole car with it, but lots and lots of parts and engine compartments. no doubt i nmy mind if i had an older daily driver, i would bomb it with R.O., there are some cheap single stage tractor resto paints at tractor supply, decent amount of colors too. there is cheap sutomotive paint all over ebay. ive seen that duplicolor stuff used, cant say if it was 100% crap product or 100% operator error but the end result sucked.
 
Tadjou said:
Yes
Click to expand...

Better man than I.... I tried metallic on the first go 'round but I'm not too fond of zebras so I went with a solid. and it only cost me about $200 to figure out that I can't paint...go figure..:angry7:
 
player1up said:
Better man than I.... I tried metallic on the first go 'round but I'm not too fond of zebras so I went with a solid. and it only cost me about $200 to figure out that I can't paint...go figure..:angry7:
Click to expand...

The paint job is far from perfect. Made a few mistakes but it is perfect for a driver. The Duster will come out much better as I have learned a lot from shooting the Runner.
 
I'm with the OE poster. Keep it coming fellas. I want to experiment with the Duster. Just the outside in the OE color. Keep it simple thing ya know.
I have some preety damaged rear 1/4's and the front fenders up front, down low are of cruddy work. I'm sure that I could do better and let it be knon, I never even so much mix putty or held sand paper to a car before.

One question I have have is fiberglass fenders/hood. Do they require special prep? I'm thinking AAR glass for the car.
 
yah thanks guys for all the great advice and what not, this is really becoming a great thread on here.

when i can get a compressor and gun, (and the body work done) i will be givin u all my own experiances.
 
Yes, fiberglass needs a little extra attn. Absolutely must be cleaned properly. Again - these sites are the place to go:

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


Paint and body is all they're about, search threads for keywords "fiberglass", etc. I'm sure there is plenty of good advise here, but ALL your questions can be answered on paint/body sites.
 
I have always wondered about the duplicolor paintshop paints. They don't sound like they would set you back to much but I have never seen a car painted with those paints. One interesting thing I saw at the local auto parts store is the colors are solid but they have a metallic clearcoat. So instead of having to spray a metallic you spray the clear and it makes it look like a metallic.
 
hmm that is interesting, havnt ever heard of anything like that, sounds interesting though

i would wonder if the paint wouldnt look as deep though that way, who knows
 
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