Has anyone heard of a "do it yourself" body shop? I want to look into repainting my car black (it is black already) because I had to replace some things and now the paint dosnt match and the hoods paint is all faded and worn out. I dont want to pay all that money to have it done professionally nor does it have to be perfect so I am looking into alternatives. I heard there was a do it yourself type thing here in Calgary, AB . anyone else used one of these before or know where one is? Also wanted to ask how I go about doing it exactly? do I sand down the whole car? and what do I do about the rust? which it has a little of under the gas cap and doors. I dont know much about painting cars so id have to learn the process... but I hope it dosnt come to just paying someone else cause then its not worth all that $$$
Honestly, to get it done RIGHT, it is worth all that $$$.
Rust is going to come back if you just paint over it. You basically have to cut that spot out and weld in new metal to get rid of it completely.
Get it done right. But if you dont have the money just get 3 rolls of painters tape, some sheets, and go crazy with rattle cans.
I painted my car and trust me its a lot of work I can give you some tips, and a place to get some paint cheap that holds up well:
Supplies:
Paint and Sealer - Go to paintforcars.com if you want cheap good paint, get urethane only!!! It's about 75 a gallon or 165 for a 2 stage
Sander paper- A lot of 220 grit that is what your going to use the most, if you got rust get some 60,80,120 as well
Automotive Tape- You want this so your taping is perfect and clean, good tape job takes at least 2 hours
Trash Bags or Plastic- Since your going cheap trash bags works fine to cover up windows, if you got money get the auto plastic from tcpglobal.com
Air Compressor- at least a 21 gallon 5hp motor compressor 3hp running and a gun to match it, Harbor Freight is a decent place to shop
Gravity/ Hvlp Paint Gun- If you get the compressor above go to Harbor Freight and get their 15-40 gavity gun it works well.
Hose- get around 25ft if your using the above compressor, 50 would be best but won't do well with that compressor
Water/Oil Filter- Unless you want water and oil in your paint get this, go to advanced auto it's like 10 bucks
Method:
Tape your car- this should take at least 2 hours if you want it to look nice
Sand you car- sand with 220 extremely well, get every little corner, especially around the handles and locks, if you have rust use 60,80, 120 and then 220, use a DA sander or a power sander but be very carefull with the power sander it can dig in and turn your work to crud. Once you think your done sanding, sand again, no joke.
Tape your car- Once sanding is done re-tape everything
Shoot it- Spray your sealer first follow the directions on the container exactly, usually it's one coat but make sure it's all covered and one color.
Shoot again- Time to spray your base coat after your sealer follow the directions exactly on container, do roughly 3-4 coats waiting 15min between for flash time.
Clear- If you got a 2 stage paint kit then you will have to clear it, same as done with the base 3-4 coats waiting 15min between generally, clear is runnier than base.
* Make sure when you paint that you stay about 8inches away if using a Gravity gun, and 4inches if using a HVLP gun, move in a side to side motion not to fast or to slow and flick your wrist at the end of a pass to eliminate runs and overspray. Look on youtube for video's and watch their technique, be sure to practice with the gun to understand how fast to paint. Overlap each pass roughly 50 percent.
This is just basic info if you need more hit me up, before you try painting watch a lot of videos and talk to a professional. It would be best to have an experienced painter watch over you to help ensure your paint job comes out decent.
That's the basic low down I paint my car using this setup only cost me roughly 500 including the guns and supplies. If you want more tips pm me, the paint came out good basically factory quality. Way better than macco would be for the same cost and mine was a 2 stage, clear and base urethane. This is if you want a cheap factory quality finish if you want show then you want better equipment, gun and paint. I have a good gun by Devilbiss but it wouldn't work at all with this compressor. If you want more tips hit me up.
Also the car in my sig is the one I painted, I will be painting it again this summer due to RX-8 headlight conversion and my wife wants a design put on her car.
if you dont give a @!#$ about your car and just trying to get it all 1 color, look into the poor mans paint job (i honestly think thats what its called). its pretty much rustoluem paint painted on. looks decent if your just trying to get the car 1 color.
Thank you that helps alot, I think I will be doing this soon and im going to use all that info. I am going to go to a place here to rent a booth and they supply almost everything except the paint... I think so once I get a little money aside and do it I will probably have some more questions for you. Heres a link to their website.
U- wrench It looks pretty good and they have pros around to give tips but wont do it for you unless you ask them to.
Thank you that helps alot, I think I will be doing this soon and im going to use all that info. I am going to go to a place here to rent a booth and they supply almost everything except the paint... I think so once I get a little money aside and do it I will probably have some more questions for you. Heres a link to their website.
U- wrench It looks pretty good and they have pros around to give tips but wont do it for you unless you ask them to.
And Im not going to rattle can my whole car, thats dumb, I want it to look good but I dont need it to be flawless like show car paint or anything just redone black.
its not a rattle can job and it actually comes out very good for a cheap $75 dollar job. check out some of the forums that people have done it on.
Rustoleum Paint Jobs
Jullien Segura wrote:Thank you that helps alot, I think I will be doing this soon and im going to use all that info. I am going to go to a place here to rent a booth and they supply almost everything except the paint... I think so once I get a little money aside and do it I will probably have some more questions for you. Heres a link to their website.U- wrench It looks pretty good and they have pros around to give tips but wont do it for you unless you ask them to.
And Im not going to rattle can my whole car, thats dumb, I want it to look good but I dont need it to be flawless like show car paint or anything just redone black.
ive seen people paint who used the whole booth and spray gun setup who didnt know what they were doing and it turned out worse then other peoples rattle can paintjobs.
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True that.... honestly if your going to do this don't expect perfect, expect it to look bad... watch a lot of videos and talk to as many people you can who know how to paint. That is the only reason why mine paint job came out at factory finish I studied a lot I want to know proper painting technique, mixing methods, taping methods, sanding grits, temperature and humidity importance basically everything. It was a lot of work and a great learning experience, so make sure you cover everything you can about technique, supplies, taping methods and so forth... also don't use newspaper to cover windows and things, if it's not layered enough the paint will bleed through onto your windows and such. Sand till your fingers bleed, or just strip all the paint off and primer it then sand which ever works best for you.
Also make sure when you sand you get all the clear coat off the car... any spot that is shiny or glossy after you have sanded and cleaned off the sanding dust then you need to sand those spots. Any glossy spot your paint is in jepordy of chipping/flaking off. Also your paint job is as only good as its weakest layer, so only use urethane paints/primers/sealers, you could get by with an epoxy primer/sealer though. If you aren't stripping to bare metal then generally you can use a sealer instead of primer, and if you use a sealer you don't have to sand any more and once it flashes you can go ahead and use your base (color) coat.
That's a pretty cool idea for that shop.
Props to them, I might drop by to see how they're running things, It looks interesting.
I wound up using Rustoleum Enamel with a Harbor Freight gravity feed gun. Worked great! The only issue I had were issued that I would have had with more expensive paint -- specifically, the first coat wound up as orange peel.
The nice part of the Rustoleum paint is that it is not catalyzed enamel. Well, this has pros and cons.
+ It isn't hazardous to your health! Or at least not as much as an enamel with hardener. If you wind up with a catalyzed enamel, you MUST protect yourself and any living creatures from the fumes. In the Rustoleum case, I purchased a $25 respirator that was adequate for paint. For the catalyzed enamel, you need to wind up with a positive air flow respirator.
+ I did the job outside with wind blocks to either end of the car. So what about bugs? Bugs wind up landing on their feet -- and sticking only at that part. Even big bugs have small "foot prints." The next day (after the paint has dried), wipe the car down with mineral spirits, and the bug goes away too. And the footprints are basically invisible. If you are spraying a clear coat, this may not be as easy. Rustoleum was a single stage application.
+ Whole job was 2 quarts of Rustoleum ($16) + tape ($3/2 rolls) + acetone ($6/quart) + mineral spirits ($15/gallon) + sandpaper ($4) + = $44. Plus the capital expenditures, of course.
- (and this is a big minus) Rustoleum takes a long time to dry. Can calls for 24 hours between coats.
Have fun!
--Mark
http://www.marksatterfield.com
Just a note about spraying. There is a fine line between orange peel and runs, you want to be right in the middleish teedering on orange peel. As others have mentioned, practice on an old hood or fender, in both verticle and horozontal positions. The horozontal part is going to hold material better than a verticle part. A run is 10 times harder to fix than orange peel. As long as the orange peel doesnt look like frosted glass you can sand and buff it out.
I cant stress enough that every paint system and material sprays differently, which requires a little of experimenting at first to find out how it acts. None of them act the same. This could make or brake a good job.
At work I pick a paint system and stick with it, It is just routine any more. But if you give me a different product to try , I dont know how its going to spray. It might need more air, more volume gun tip, slower spray pattern, etc.
I dont experiment on customers cars. I use old parts or my own car to test new products, and I may not spray that product on customers cars for up to a year. I want to see how it holds up. Redoos suck!
A book might help a little on prep requirements but hands on experience is whats going to get the best finish.
When you buy you paint supplies ask for MSDS sheets for your sealer/ primer, base coat, and clear coat. they will tell you exactly what the steps are needed to prep the panel as well as drying times and what product can be used over which. I dont know where you are but, We are required by law to have a copy of each MSDS sheet for the products that we use. The supplier has to furnish you with them.
So if your going to try it yourself, good luck. If it turns out poorly, your next one can do nothing but improve. hell sand er back down and repaint it. if it doesnt turn out . Gotta start some where. My first paint job was on my own, it was rougher that a corn cob!
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