Painting a car

[Phaeton]

Hey paint experts,

So my cars paint is in pretty rough condition. im going to paint the whole thing myself, 1.) i want the experiance and 2.) its a few grand to do it professionally. The main problem is finding paint that will look good with my vinyl roof, that and not knowing what to do. i never painted a car before. i know i can go to napa and get paint mixed for me, but thats going to be 1400 bucks. and i got 500 just for paint. The rest i got covered. So whats a good paint? im trying to go with grey. As close as factory as possible. But black is the second option. only problem with black is you can see every singe mark/scratch. i was told rustolium does a good job, so i bought one can just to try it out and it sucked bad.

it bubbled on the factory paint and it engraved my hand after it dried. it was 100% dry when i rested my hand on it...

and it has this everywhere on the body. everywhere. super deep. almost all the way down to the primer

horrible repair jobs

deep pitting at the front

you can see what colour my roof is here, but i can take better pictures tomorrow if needed.

[Miguels]

are you going to paint it with rattle cans?

[Phaeton]

are you going to paint it with rattle cans?

nope, im going to try to use a paint gun. Rattle cans make runs to easy.

[hammiethebasshead]

First thing you need to do is sand it down to break the clear coat and fill any dings and dents with body filler. For any large ones pull them out first then go over it with filler. after that sand again and shoot it with some primer. I just use rattle can rustoleum primer in the dark grey and shoot light coats till it is covered. As for the main paint I am not sure what brand is good I just have it mixed up at our local Bumper to Bumper store by a guy that knows his shit. When you start painting you will want to start with 1-2 light coats and then do another 1-2 good coats. after that is dry a good coat or two of clear coat. Last vehicle I did was helping my step-dad camo his 95 Jeep Cherokee (now owned by SQL50) I think the paint for the base coat only cost him like 150-200 at most and it covered the whole thing and could have just been cleared the way it was if he didn't want camo, and it was about the same price when we did my old Toyota Pickup. Wonder why they are charging so much for paint at your local napa.

[Phaeton]

First thing you need to do is sand it down to break the clear coat and fill any dings and dents with body filler. For any large ones pull them out first then go over it with filler. after that sand again and shoot it with some primer. I just use rattle can rustoleum primer in the dark grey and shoot light coats till it is covered. As for the main paint I am not sure what brand is good I just have it mixed up at our local Bumper to Bumper store by a guy that knows his shit. When you start painting you will want to start with 1-2 light coats and then do another 1-2 good coats. after that is dry a good coat or two of clear coat. Last vehicle I did was helping my step-dad camo his 95 Jeep Cherokee (now owned by SQL50) I think the paint for the base coat only cost him like 150-200 at most and it covered the whole thing and could have just been cleared the way it was if he didn't want camo, and it was about the same price when we did my old Toyota Pickup. Wonder why they are charging so much for paint at your local napa.

they said its "high quality" paint. I never knew bumper to bumper made paint. I'll go check it out today.

[bbeljefe]

Fourteen hundred bucks for paint?

I'll tell you what, I'll sell you all the paint and primer you need for half that amount and I'll even include a gallon of lacquer thinner for cleanup, lol. And... I'll make a tidy profit. :-)

Find yourself a Paul Lashley Supply, English Color or some other automotive paint store in your area. DON'T use buzz bombs (rattle cans) for primer and do repaint the car according to the factory paint code. If you try to do a color change and you don't do the jambs & the insides of the doors, trunk and hood, you'll wind up with a poor looking job even if your exterior paintwork is flawless.

Another critical component to a quality paint job is the pre paint body work. If you don't fix all the dents in the car, fresh paint will just magnify them. And yes, you DO have dents in the car. They're all over it... you just can't see them now.

To find them, you'll need a long block with some 180grit paper and some cheap buzz bomb (preferably white) paint to dust on the car as a guide coat. Once you start blocking, the low and high spots will show up and you can then fix them. Highs need to be tapped back down and filled... lows need to be filled.

You can expect to spend about $600.00 on materials if you plan to do a good job and if you buy from an automotive paint supply... unless you're in Cali or some other state where the government claims EVERYTHING causes cancer. In that case, the $1400.00 number may not be too high. :-)