Help me paint my car...

[nickrule99]

Hey guys-

Ive decided to try and paint my car myself. Yeah, its probably pretty foolish, but its something I want to try, and Im pretty sure I can pull it off.

I will be doing all the primering myself, and I'd like to paint it the evo Titanium Pearl color.

I've got a few questions though...

What size compressor will be larger enough?
And can someone point me to a good spray gun? I'll will be used for primer, base and clear. - not sure fi the Titanium Pearl will make it more difficult to paint, I'd assume it will, right?

I'll be able to make my own spray booth, so Im not to worried about dirt and stuff. Im going to be doing a 2gb Eclipse conversion at the same time, so Im going to paint one of the bumpers first and see if I can pull it off or not.

Any constructive tips or comments are very much appreciated.

I figure this time last year I was having a garage replace my crank pulley, and now Im building an engine to throw into a car, so I know I'm capable of learning how to do this as well.

Thanks guys.

-Nick

 

[AdoreGSX]

I have a few questions that I figured I would throw in here as well.

I have a black 2g...we all know the black paint loves to become dookie and rocks love to destroy my hood, front bumper and side mirrors. So my question is...what do I need to prep my car before it gets sprayed. Also what is a good price for my whole car to just be sprayed?

 

[BLUEBLOTCH]

I am considering doing this myself aswell, For one the expeirence and two think of the money you can make buying and painting car and then reselling them. I have a few articels that may interest you.

http://www.thebugshop.org/bsfqpnt.htm#aboutpaint

Check the Classroom and forums

http://www.autobodystore.com/class.htm

Hope this helps.

 

[natef420]

keep this in mind guys. the paintjob will only be as good as the prep work under it. ANY blemishes in the body (bondo, fiberglass, dents, deep scratches, waves in the doors, etc) are gonna shine right though paint..especially pearl (which i dont suggest a first time painter to try). when you think youve gotten everything smooth and flat, block it down again. the best way to make sure its flat is to use several colors of primer.
lets say your doing the hood first. block sand it down, and prime it with..say gray. then block it back down and shoot it with black. block it again and look for gray showing though. anywhere you see gray is a low spot that has to be filled (filler primer). when you can sand down an entire color and not see another color, its flat and ready for the final coat of primer. thats how ive always done it anyway. hope it helped a little and good luck.

 

[1993eclipseGS]

Laying the primer is easy. The paint on the other hand, if you never even used a spray gun before... I'd just have someone do it. Keep it wet but no runs.

 

[Max-Eclipse]

...if you never even used a spray gun before... I'd just have someone do it...

That's not a very good philosophy IMO. If its something you want to learn, go for it. If nobody that hadn't done it before decided not to try doing something, nobody would do anything. People paint, therefore it must be possible to do it... you might mess it up, but you will learn, and maybe save yourself money on other paint jobs down the line...

good luck with it guys

 

[natef420]

something i forgot to mention in my last post was about colorsanding and buffing. this will make the differance in a paintjob. i really suggest searching the threads and find out as much as you can about both. i worked at a body shop for a couple years and saw some pretty shitty paintjobs turn out great due to color sanding.

 

[Gigaah]

The Primer and painting is the easy part. The Days and hours of sanding..priming..sanding priming are very difficult, must be perfect and are pretty boring. A lot of work goes into sanding, primeing, sanding over that, primeing,sanding over that, priming to get everything flat and smooth as glass.

Don't fool yourself paint don't fill in marks of any sort greater than like medium sand paper. If you can see it, and it don't look perfect before you lay the paint..it will only pop out more once you lay on the paint. If you want that silky show car finish wetsanding color and clear and doing a rubout finish will make everyones head turn. I've seen black cars that refect just perfectly as a mirror does on the flat portions..its almost unbelievable.

Do some heavy reading, see if you have something to practice one, start with the less critical areas.Good luck, don't forget how toxic paint is..if it contains isocyanates only a freshair breathing system will prevent you from going frying your brain and nerves.

 

[SurgeGT]

yeah what these guys said! it always amazes me. once you really get familiar with body work you'll see this primered hack jobs rolling on the street and laugh. honestly..if you can SEE bad body work on primer..its 30000 times worse with paint. a primered car better look PERFECT. only then it MIGHT come out well.

ok..im gonna try to avoid writing a book but your best bet is to get books...i can help you out with a million posts on this forum. and alot of bandwidth..but someone who knows being there to help OR a book is invaluable.

first...the different color primers is close. theyre called guide coats. first, throw on primer..which is easy to spray on (after the body work ofcourse) the LIGHTLY throw on any contrasting color, black is easiest...block sand with a GOOD block sander..adding additional primer to get a flat surface (again..this is a vague run down..there sooo many more details)

body work takes ALOT ALOT ALOT of practice. even if youre super man...i wouldnt expect your first car to come out all that well...its just the nature of the material...it take an acquired hand...

spraying a pearl is the same thing..man! youre jumping RIGHT in arent you?? trust me...youre NOT gonna get it right the first time...pearl is DIFFICULT enough if youre already familiar with painting solid colors...move onto metallics...then pearls...trust me...

if you insist, by all means do it.you have to learn somewhere...but taking on painting your car really isnt like...'hmm..i'll see if i can install my stereo this time) everyone can eventually learn..but its a STEEP learning curve...and materials are NOT cheap. (especially pearls!)

you'll neeed a compressor with at least a 60 gallon tank...some may argue...but i feel this is minimum...at least 8hp and 150 cfm...at LEAST. if youre still serious...i know of a great spray gun thats a little gem in the DIY paint crowd...some pros even use it. it can almost do it all (primer, spray, clear) and do a decent job of it. but for pro jobs, theyll use one gun for primer, and maybe one for base/clear. thats optimal..but again, $$$

did that shed any light?

 

[Turbo442]

I am restoring a 1957 Cessna 172 complete from the ground up including building a paint booth. I did not know how to paint when I started. I still dont know how to paint very well. Get a good painter to paint the car after you get everything setup. It wont cost much if he is just going to shoot it. Get a second respriator and let him show you everything he is doing. You will learn much faster having an expert show you how to do it the first time. There are just too many variables. Dust, temperature, humidity, gun types, paint types, colors, mixing...a million things. One thing you probably are not considering is how time limited things are after you shoot the primer. You need to get the gun cleaned and mix up the color with in an hour after shooting primer. Learning to setup and adjust the gun wont happen in five minutes. Painting is something you get good at after painting 100's of cars. If you really want to try and learn your self, go to the J-yard and pick up a bunch of cheap dented up hoods and start painting them. I think after you start putting time effort and money into the body work you will start to see things differently.

 

[rodwa4]

hey can somebody post a list of supplies, well more tools needed for a paint job? also, what is involved in building a paint booth? i'm gonna paint my dad's 56 GMC dump truck. cheers!

 

[n0c7]

As mentioned above, if your paintjob turns out shitty, and if its your first time it probably will be orangepeeled and dustnibbed like crazy with some drips, you can always wetsand and buff it. I painted my frontend once with 5 cans of paint mixed to my paintcode. It came out looking like you would expect from a spraycan. The texture was rough, very very orange peeled, lots of dust, and a few drips. I then wetsanded the majority of the piece with 1000grit, 600-800 grit over some of the drips, and 2000grit in some others. I then buffed it and topped it off with some showcar glaze. It took probably 20 hours total from prep to finish. It looks like glass. Theres some motivation for you, now imagine what you can do with a spraygun! Have fun.

 

[ampad2]

I'll be able to make my own spray booth, so Im not to worried about dirt and stuff. Im going to be doing a 2gb Eclipse conversion at the same time, so Im going to paint one of the bumpers first and see if I can pull it off or not.
-Nick

Your profile says you have a 97 eclipse, so why would you be doing the 2gb eclipse conversion?

 

[nickrule99]

Your profile says you have a 97 eclipse, so why would you be doing the 2gb eclipse conversion?

I want a 99 Front


No, I just bought a 95 TSI AWD.

Funny, after all my threads with questions about a 6 bolt swap, turbo selections, ect... nobody has told me I cant do it with my GS.


Anyways, thanks alot for all the replies guys. Earlier today I called a few places about painting it for me, one place said $1200 regardless if I did the prep or not. Im going to call a few more places tomorrow and see if I can find someone to do it for me.

I'll probably end up doing the prep myself, and trying my hand at painting something small, like a hood. I can get my hands on a compressor, so I'd really only need the gun.

If I cant do it, then I'll have to take it to a shop, but I cant just not try it. I cant stomach the idea of paying someone so much money for something I might be able to do myself. I dont mind taking the time to sand, spray, sand again.

Anyways, thanks for all the input and information so far, and if anyone else has anything to add, I would appreciate it. And if anyone could suggust a gun for me to use, I'd appreciate that as well.

Should I get the paint and primer for a local shop? Or some site online? Do the come premixed or will I have to mix it myself?

Thanks again.
-Nick

 

[destruckeclipse]

i know of a great spray gun thats a little gem in the DIY paint crowd...some pros even use it. it can almost do it all (primer, spray, clear) and do a decent job of it.

I would like to know the name of it!

I would suggest for sure getting junk yard parts really cheap or free and learning on them. Good thing is, if you mess up beat the shit out of it and start again! Once you can do these with good results, head on to your car. Practice makes perfect!!

 

[nickrule99]

Well, after going back and forth between doing it myself and paying to have someone do it, I think Im going to try my hand at it.

All the shops are quoting me 2000+ for the job, with me taking the fenders off, bumpers, off, ect. All they would be doing would be to prep the part and spray it.

Ive already got a compressor, and can make my own spray booth fairly cheap, so the only real cost will be getting a gun and paint. If I spend $300 on materials and fail, then I can stomach spending 2g's for a shop to do it.

Ive got a spare hood here, so Im just going to use that. If it comes out crappy, it comes out crappy.

Can anyone point me to a decent gun to use? Something not great, but something that will give my car a chance at looking decent?

I also found some water filters and pressure regulators on ebay for cheap, like $10 for the water filter and $15 for the regulator. Sound too good to be true? I dont know what this stuff would usually go for.

If anyone can point me in the right direction for a site to get the needed stuff off, Id greatly apprecaite it. Maybe even a site to get some paint?

Thanks guys.

-Nick

 

[crashed97tsi]

I'm doing the same thing right now. Luckily, I have two uncle's in the body shop business that helped me out the first time I painted the car. Just to reiterate, prep is everything. From the bondoing and sanding to the masking of the car before you paint it. If it is not all done meticulously and carefully, the paint job will turn out like shit. Check and recheck everything. Before you even begin to sand, wash the car down and go over every square inch of the car looking for waves, dents, dings, chips, etc. Any imperfections. Make a note of them either mentally or on a notepad and then start your work. When your all done then look over your notepad and see if you notice anything in the regions you indicated.

As far as the spraying, it is very hard to learn. But the good thing about paint is any mess ups can usually be color sanded out and then buffed to a mirror finish. Just make sure to spray a couple coats of clear because if your colorsanding and you go through the clear you will be very pissed off.

Good luck man let us know how it turns out.

 

[talonfromtenn]

Ampro makes a paint gun that shoots ok....it's not what I'd recommend for pearl...but at a cost of $50 it's ok to try it.....Advance auto parts carries it.....

 

[nickrule99]

Hows this gun?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=79702&item=4389687195&rd=1

Dont get me wrong, I'll spend the money if I have to, but ebay $35 is comparative to $50 retail... right?

I'm not going to be painting it a pearl anymore, its now going to be the 2002 Audi Seal Gray.

So again, thanks for all the help and any more advice/suggestions/links would be awesome.

Thanks guys.

-Nick