doing all body work yourself

[daltah]

is that the best and cheapest way to do it before getting you car painted?how much should you sand the car and how do you shave the holes where the old three piece spoiler was because im not going to just slab bondo over it becasue its just going to crack and sink down in the holes.and what gritt of sand paper should i use to sand the whole car and how many coats of paint and clear coat should they put on i want it to look good and last to but dont want it to cost me a arm and leg

 

[Airpoppoff]

good luck, id seek some hands on help from somoene that knows what there doing

 

[knevil]

do it yourself, you got the right idea

 

[jokerman]

Well I dont think it will be the best but certainly the cheapest.
I would say if you are good at spray painting then you have abetter chance on throwing paint. It also depends on what color you going to paint the car. If it is the same color all you really have to do is wet sand the clear off and then mask and paint.
You will also need a compresor and a paint gun.

 

[JohnWH]

I would defienlty seek some hands on help, seems like you're pretty lost. You're going to have to use differnt grades of sand paper, possibley wet sand also. Filling spoiler holes (other than bondo) involves welding and a grinder. Goodluck though.

 

[shothis]

not to be a dick but if you have to ask things like how much should you sand it and so on and so forth i don't think you should do it yourself. just my .02 cents

 

[daltah]

well the hole thing is that i want to do it myself so i learn.everything thats on my car i installed my self.i like the feeling of knowing that everything i have done to my car i did myself.thats why i was asking

 

[JohnWH]

That's great if you can afford to learn from your mistakes.

 

[chrysler kid]

Dont paint the car your self it will look like ####. The people at Maaco suck at painting, and they are doing it for a career so what makes you think you are a natural. I hated working and doin body work on my car because i could only see what i did wrong, and even though it came out good, small things still bug the fvck out of you.

 

[knevil]

i agree, i did my #### myself and i get pissed when i see hair-line gaps between my side skirts and my fenders. when someone else paints and installs your #### atleast you can punch the person in the grill if he messed up instead of slicing your wrists. i hate when i do that/

 

[Anomoly#5]

I work in the collision industry and I wouldnt recommend you doing anything at all,

for one to get rid of those spoiler holes you need to grind the area around them enough to be able to plug weld them up and hope you dont warp the metal surrounding the holes too much because your going to have ta grind the surface of your welds as smooth as possible it will create heat around the area and make imperfections in the sheet metal which will have to be corrected by the all mighty bondo god. which may require a larger area to be feathered out to the sealer. and as for painting your car you would have to sand the whole car with 180 grit(my preference) so you have a nice and consistent texture ready for sealer to grab on to, then paint then clear. all depending on what paint your using if its a tri-coat or single stage...blah blah blah.. bligiddy blah blah.. yea dont do it.

I understand you would like to do it yourself to learn what you should do to get the hang of it is wetsand a panel on your car with 1200 grit to a nice smooth texture dont break through clear!! and then get some buffing compound and use some good'ol elbow grease this will not only give you 450 whp it will drastically improve your cars appearance.pz

 

[burkgonzo]

what about taking it down to the metal...what grit??

 

[DROOPY209]

what about taking it down to the metal...what grit??

That's not really necessary, since paint will adhere to old paint.

But if you really want to, then 80 grit should do the job. You will have to move up in grits to smooth it out and leave it ready for sealer/primer.

To the OP, IMHO some things are better left to a professional. When you paint a car, you are investing a good amount of money in sealer/primer, base coat, clear, hardners, misc supplies, ect...

The costs add up fast. You might end up with a horrible paint job that you spent $400 in materials for...

Don't get me wrong, I'm all up for the DIY'er, but if you've never done it before, it's a long and expensive learning curve.

 

[MichaelSuch]

Alright guys, painting is not all that hard as some of you guys make it to be. I painted my 1g last year at home, in our garage.

First step is to start taking stuff apart, your trim, head lights, tail lights, etc.. all needs to come off for a nice looking paint job.

Next I used a Dual-Action Electric sander with I think a 5" or 6" pad at about 220 grit. The lower the grit the more rough the paper is, which will take off more paint. My car is an old car, it was showing primer on the roof, the clear was coming off everywhere, so I just my best to get most of the stuff off and making EVERY edge smooth. If there's an edge, and you can hook it with your fingernail, you will see it after the paint job, so just keep sanding that edge down until it's smooth. You will need to move to a finer grit like 1200 to smoothen it down though.

I went from 220grit-600grit-1200grit wetsand and then after that the car was pretty smooth, I then proceded to primer everything except the plastic parts. You may not have to do this in Arizona, but Illinois cars are pretty much guaranteed rust (I already had a little but the trim hid it all so I did my best to prevent it from going any further.

Once the primer was laid down I wet sanded it again, filled in any dings or small dents with some spot putty, and shot primer over that, otherwise the spot putty will kinda "bleed" through, there was a spot where I didn't shoot any primer over the putty and you can definately tell it's there at certain angles.

I then sanded again with 2000grit paper, checked everything over really well and start spraying my paint, I did I think 2 coats of paint, and then about 2 coats of clear, but you can do more, which is what I would recommend if you're not that good of a painter. If you spray your clear on and start getting runs then you can wait for it to dry good and wetsand it a little and buff it out. I did that on a few spots and it didn't take much to sand through the clear and paint and now I have a tad bit of primer showing. I would probably do 3 or 4 coats of clear.

Before you spray the car with anything though you need to make sure the car is prepped nicely, clean it off really good, we wiped the whole car down with lacquer thinner I think, which isn't the best, I think you're supposed to use a degreaser, but ask your local body shop what they recommend.

A good gun will also help you, I went to my local autobody shop to get my paint and clear and he asked me if I needed a gun as well, we have an old harbour freight gun that was alright and he let me borrow his gun and it really made a difference I think.

It may seem like a lot of work, which is kind of is, but it's very rewarding to say that I painted it and not some other shop that would've costed $2000 for the same job. I think you should do it, this whole process took me about 2 weeks to do, and working most days about 6-8 hours a day on it atleast. It probably costed me around $400 to do, I already had my own compressor, sander and most of the sand paper though. The clearcoat was around $220 a gallon at the time which I didn't even use it all. The paint was only $120 for a sprayable gallon.

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[rush2252]

Painting isnt rocket science its trial and error. If your wanting a decent job go with a single stage paint. I painted my 99GS a GM color Olympic White. It cost me $60.00 for a gallon. I started with 400 grit paper on an orbital dual action sander.I then wet sanded with 1000grit. Just as stated before make sure everything is smooth and there arent any edges.

If so the paint will lift and it will look nasty after you lay new paint on top of it. Remember this as well a good paint job isnt in the brand of gun or the type of paint you use but in the prep work. Make sure you sand good around the seals of the windows doors etc. If not you will begin to get the effshell effect and youll be disappointed. Tape everything up and start spraying. Its similar to spray painting in the fact that you want to lay enough product that it lays evenly and blends together and has a wet look as you spray but not so much that it runs. When I got done with the white I had a pretty large run in the door but I used 1500wet sanded it out and buffed it to a shine.

The good thing about the single stage paint is you just mix in the activator and shoot it. No measuring no clear etc. As long as you wash it and keep a good wax on it once in awhile it will hold up for many years. And its alot cheaper. I would say the most expensive part of the project was the $70 for the roll of D/A paper.



Kolby


Just curious but why did this thread get brought back after like 6 years??

 

[My1GLaser]

well the hole thing is that i want to do it myself so i learn.everything thats on my car i installed my self.i like the feeling of knowing that everything i have done to my car i did myself.thats why i was asking

Do a search on the $50 paint job. The results are impressive.

 

[rush2252]

Do a search on the $50 paint job. The results are impressive.

be careful I started it back in the winter in a heated garage and used a similar paint type different brand and got shitty results. Its alot alot of work. The paint is thinned so much it take a long time to cover the car. I thought about attempting it again with some better paint buts its been a PITA trying to get it sanded back down again.

I was doing this to see how it would turn out because of the argument of will it look as good. Now I wont argue that there have been some impressive results but Like I said mine didnt turn out for shit.


Kolby

 

[gorf]

"Painting isnt rocket science its trial and error."

OR practice makes perfect....

I have painted a bunch of thing and had varying results. My suggestion is strip off what ever you can headlight, wing, antenna, etc. As a previous poster said use lots of different grits of sandpaper until you think it is right.
Spray primer or your first coat of paint. Odds are that first coat will bring out imperfections, sand again. Don't be afraid to apply a number of coats wet sanding between each. The main thing is do not apply too heavy of a coat - runs are a bee-ach to fix! it is much better to spray a light coat and then before it is completely hard, spray another light coat.

 

[burkgonzo]

Yea I started on my front bumper...I used 80 grit...someone spray painted it before

 

[vanilla gorilla]

This is an old thread but I'm going to answer the OP's question anyway...
If you arent going to fix any of the flaws in the actually body of the car, then yes sand it accordingly then take it to someone to spray. But whats the point in putting new paint over wavy and dented panels? If you really want a nice outcome, let a professional do all the work. That way the body will be right.

But as far as just prep goes;

You guys are making it alot harder than it has to be. There is no need to sand the old paint with anything finer than 400 grit. I have sanded old paint with 320, then a coat of high build primer. It will fill in all the scratches. Then all you really need to do is wetsand your primer with 400, or 600 if you like, just to make sure. Then spray on your sealer or basecoat, or however you want to do it.

Someone in a previous post was talking about wet sanding your old paint with 1200. Why would you want to go through all the trouble of making it that smooth if you are going to prime it? And it was also stated that someone wetsanded their primer with 2000. Again, why? What was the point in even using primer? In my mind it just seems that the finer grit you use, the less the paint will ahere to the sanded surface. But I'm no professional but do have alot of home grown paint experience.

 

[rush2252]

Another tip Ive learned is called shadowing. Its referred to as alot of things but its basically using rattle can flat black or a red primer. You lay down a light coat more of a speckly and when you sand it removes it. This allows you to find high spots when sanding. FYI if your wanting to DIY a paint job White hides alot of imperfections


Kolby

 

[iLL_EagLe]

My 90 Talon TSI has the factory two tone black and white paint scheme. The white has held out fantastically through the years but the black had started to fade a bit. The spoiler pieces were a little rough and the black trim on the door was getting messed up so I pulled all of the black pieces except for the actual roof off, stripped them, sanded them 3 times with progressively finer grits (up to 400 or so) and painted them with 3 light coats of gloss black, high solid industrial spray paint straight out of the rattle can. It looks damned good considering it cost me less than 75 dollars and I was able to do the entire project in two short evenings. I will have to get some pictures and see what yall think.

Two things, though. I recommend a coat of primer, for sure. I used no primer and although it looks alright, it is not quite as good as it could have been. Also, don't switch to a different brand of spraypaint. Use the same stuff for every coat on every piece.

The only thing I wasn't satisfied with was the side mirror cases. These things are, of course, hard plastic. After 19 years of baking under the sun, the plastic material that the mirror casing is made of has dried up and started cracking along the surface. The cracks are deep but they haven't actually split the mirror casings. I tried to sand them out but they were so deep and the actual part has such a curvature to it that I was concerned I would end up sanding flat spots into the plastic, thus ruining the shape of the cases and screwing up my whole project. I figured that until I was able to locate some mirrors that hadn't been subject to so much direct sunlight I would just have to settle for less than perfect. Does anybody know of a putty or filler material that would work well for this kind of application? Does Bondo or fiberglass filler work well on plastic? Does it apply and shape easily enough to do the trick on the DSM mirrors?

 

[mach4g63t]

This all sounds good, and a lot of this information I find to be correct; I've read it on several sites, heard it through several sources, and even saw most everything in an issueo f Car Craft on how to paint a car (shadowing).

My main concern is that my car does have quite a few dents/dings and my rough has cracked through to the primer.

For the roof, would I just sand down until it's as smooth as possible (even if that's the metal, 'cause it is bad) and then re-primer and go from there?

Secondly, can someone go into some depth when explaining how to fill dents? None of mine are major, but they'd definitely show in a freshly painted black car. Is it as simple as sanding, priming, shadowing and sanding the primer just a bit to find my 'dings', and then filling with spot puddy? Can you explain the spot puddy part? After that you reprime and paint?

Also, this whole idea is coming about after I ran over my bumper (don't ask) and it took a good layer of paint off across the front. When it comes to plastic, is it still necessary to prime? Just rough it up, prime, and paint? I'll be practicing on my bumper first before I try to mess up my car. The bumper is the ugliest, most visible part.

I want to go into this project armed with as much knowledge as possible. Any advice, tips, or input is appreciated. I think this thread alreay has potential for some potential painters like myself.

 

[wicketywacker96]

If your roof has cracked through the primer, then I would recommend sanding to the bare metal. Once you hit metal, you will need to spay a primer/sealer. This will keep rust from forming under your paint.
Dents: This will depend on the how extensive the dents/dings are. Are they the basic parking lot dings or hail storm??? Small dings can be fixed by scuffing up the paint in and around the ding with 80 or 100 grit sand paper. This will allow the "Bondo" to stick to the area. You need to put enough on to fill the hole and cover 1" to 2" around the ding. Know that most of the "Bondo" that you put on the car, you are going to sand off. Take a hand held block sander, start with 120 grit and get to sanding. Once its level, switch to 400, then 600 grit sand paper.
Shadowing: Take a flat black rattlecan and "dust" the area (keep the can far from the area and let the paint speckle the area. It should take nothing to sand off the "dusted" area. You need to be able to see the primer through the speckled black). Take 600 grit sandpaper and lightly sand over the "bondo" area. The idea is to check for low and high spots. If the black remains in an area (low spot), the area that the sand paper takes the black off right away (high spot). The sense of touch does wonders as well. If you can feel where you tryed to fix the area, you still have work to do.
Plastic: I have spay painted tons of "crotch rocket" fairings made of plastic and have never had an issue. I have treated it just like metal. If you are spraying plastic that will move or flex though, I would recommend adding a flex agent to your clear.
Hope this helps.

 

[mach4g63t]

If your roof has cracked through the primer, then I would recommend sanding to the bare metal. Once you hit metal, you will need to spay a primer/sealer. This will keep rust from forming under your paint.
Dents: This will depend on the how extensive the dents/dings are. Are they the basic parking lot dings or hail storm??? Small dings can be fixed by scuffing up the paint in and around the ding with 80 or 100 grit sand paper. This will allow the "Bondo" to stick to the area. You need to put enough on to fill the hole and cover 1" to 2" around the ding. Know that most of the "Bondo" that you put on the car, you are going to sand off. Take a hand held block sander, start with 120 grit and get to sanding. Once its level, switch to 400, then 600 grit sand paper.
Shadowing: Take a flat black rattlecan and "dust" the area (keep the can far from the area and let the paint speckle the area. It should take nothing to sand off the "dusted" area. You need to be able to see the primer through the speckled black). Take 600 grit sandpaper and lightly sand over the "bondo" area. The idea is to check for low and high spots. If the black remains in an area (low spot), the area that the sand paper takes the black off right away (high spot). The sense of touch does wonders as well. If you can feel where you tryed to fix the area, you still have work to do.
Plastic: I have spay painted tons of "crotch rocket" fairings made of plastic and have never had an issue. I have treated it just like metal. If you are spraying plastic that will move or flex though, I would recommend adding a flex agent to your clear.
Hope this helps.

Thanks! I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to what I was looking for. I think I got the idea pretty well. None of these dents are major. They're the kind you really can't even see on the car from over 10 feet away. I'd say a majority of them are just from random hail storms/rock chip-dents from driving etc. But if I committ this much time to sending/prepping I want to do it right.

Also, I was looking into just using a sort of one-stop shopping paint. To clarify, this paint is said to require no clear coat. It's just a pour into the gun and spray. It clears on it's own. It says it doesn't hurt to apply a clear coat and it looks even better with it, but that's probably what I was going to use.

What kind of sealer do you recommend for the roof If I was required to strip to the metal? I mean it's pretty bad. The previous owner tried to sand it down once it started oxydizing (however you spell that where it turns white). I think in doing so it just let the paint/primer get worse and now it's like running your hand on 80 grit sand paper - very nasty. Would just a simple primer be good enough? If on bare metal, should i apply more than I would to the rest of the body?

And one mroe thing... for the lower body trim (side skirts), what do you use to readhere it to the body? One of mine is every so slightly loose in a spot and I can see TONS of goop underneath. I figure once I remove it some goo-gone and hard scrubbing will take it off. But what should I use to reapply these panels to the car and give it a professional/OEM appearance again?

Thanks again!


-Ninja Edit-

Also, what type of paints do you guys prefer? It seems there are a few types of single stage - Acrylic Enamel, Acrylic Uerethane, Acrylic Lacquer and so forth. What do you guys use? What has the best results? Price is typically a factor too. Thanks!