Okay I'm thinking about doing a home paint job on my 91 RS.

So my questions are for anyone who has done a home paint job on their thirdgen.

How difficult was it?
How did it turn out?
What do I need to know?
Are you glad you did it youself, or should you have taken it some where?
How much did it cost in paint and supplies?
How long did it take?

 

#1 wasnt all that difficult although i had to learn as i went so it took me a lot longer than it should have.
#2 well as far as how it turned out here are some pics check page 1 for prep work and then go to page 2 for finished product also i havent wet sanded or buffed it out yet that will happen next weekend.
#3 TAKE YOUR TIME make sure everything is right before you move onto painting it if not youll be sorry.(trust me on this 2nd time i done it i rushed first time).
#4 im extremely happy i done it myself cause that way you know what you have done and have even more pride in your car than you did before.
#5 mine only cost $125 for my paint, primer, hardener, thinner ,and then there was prolly 40-50 in sanding discs for my d/a sander,plus wax & grease remover( a must) and tack rags really want a clean surface on there before you start painting it trust me you will not be sorry.
#6 well mine took about 8 months but in my defense i was only getting 1 day a week off so my time to work on it was sparse at best.
the link to the pictures are below.
pics

THOMAS

p.s. i hope this helps a little if you have any more questions lemme know.

 

I've spent about $700 in paint supplies alone but i went with PPG k36 primer and Omni base / clear paint. If your a person that wants perfection it's hard. I started painting mine and i took pretty much every part of the exterior off to paint seperately, figured the least amount of parts on the car when painted the less it'll look like a repaint. Stuff gets expensive because there's the things that you "might as well" do since the car's apart like new door hinges (there goes $270), new weather stripping (Another $500), gotta fix that door handle that had the little broken spring($40), no sense putting the ugly old emblems back on ($100). Then there's all the tools you'll need to buy if you don't have them already like a good air compressor and paint gun and DA sander. I also found an angle grinder to come in very handy. I'm on my 4th month of working on this thing. Hopefully it'll be done in the next two or so months with the weather warming up.

But I am glad I'm doing it myself even though it's taking forever and seems to almost be costing me the same amount . I've learned alot so far.

 

I took a class and we were able to paint our own cars if the instructor thought we could. Took the class 4 times since I always had a project to do and it was the cheapest way to get a paint booth and use all kinds of tools. Supplies for my cheapie paint job probably ran around 500-600 bucks for everything. Just something basic to hold me over till a real paint job. Since painting my car, I picked up a nice HVLP gun. Used that on 5 paint jobs so far, 2 were boat trailers though lol The others were a Corvette, GMC Dually and a dune buggy.

Difficult? nope, time consuming yes! My car was fairly straight to start out with. Still had surface rust in places and a couple dozen dings and dents around the car.

How did it turn out? Pretty darn good but years of parking lot encounters is making me want to paint it very soon with that better paint job.

Very glad I did it myself. There's nothing like standing back looking at your work after putting hours and hours of sweat and sometimes blood into it.

 

I only had about $350 bucks for my whole paint job and it came out great...I saved sooooo much money doing it myself (and my dad).....it even looks alot better then alot of the shops around here.....wetsanding is the best thing ever!

 

How much paint does it take to do the whole car?

I have one gallon of GM corvette yellow, will that be enough?

 

depends what kind of paint it is....I used 1 gallon of acrylic enamel to paint my old car (1984 Z28) I only painted the doors and the doghouse on my 91 and used about 1/2 a gallon...

 

Ye one gallon should be enough. I painted my whole camaro and still had some paint left. I think painting the car yourself is a great experience. Some advice...take your time in sanding. Don't rush when preping your car for paint. Use a big enough compressor that will hold the pressure for your gun. I did three coats of base and three of clear. IN my opinion it came out pretty good but had some orange peel. That comes out with a good wetsanding. Im still doing the wet sanding on my car so everything comes out perfect.

 

just done mien myself lol same time thoms done his firebird there.
u need to know how to paint basically liek how to get paint on even w/o runs or dry spots but if anything u want it in thin coats even w/ dry spots because u can buff it out later.
i paid 185 for a gallon of dupont centari single stage acrylic enamel , mid temp reducer and gloss hardner.
it took less then a day. actually like 2 or 3 hrs maybe.
i already had done all my filler work and bondo and had it primed so i just wet sanded the whole thing w/ 1000 grti paper. then let it dry off and sprayed it.
i wet sanded then hosed it off then let it dry itself, then most wil recommend this and almost all do it they will use wax n grease remover on it but i didnt and i had no spots at all. u just do not touch anywere after you've wet sanded it very throughly.
then masked off the windows and mixed my paint and sprayed it it was underneath a house in a garage w/ no fan exposed rafters or floor joists and had dust in there i know for sure it was lil dusty and not the cleanest place and had doors open on the garage and the frotn end outside w/ a gravel driveway and sprayed it had very very lil dirt specks in th epaint which wil buff out fine.
its not hard at all if youve painted w/ areosols or guns before it shouldnt be a prob.

sorry for the bad quality pic my sigital cam sucks badly and does the paint no justice u would not beleive the shine or color change due to the massive amount of flakes in my paint unless u seen it in person

 

got more pics some better then others here.

www.cardomain.com/memberpage/509905/7

 

Two questions

1. What is orange peel?

2. When you paint the fiberglass stuff don't you have to add something to it or else it will peel?

 

Orange peel occures when your to far away, moving to fast, low air pressure, or not wet enough. When the paint is dry, it looks like the outter peeling of an orange, real fuzzy and not very clear.


And for fiber glass......nothing has to be added to the paint when painting fiberglass. Fiberglass isn't bendable, it's just like metal, but lighter. Now urethane parts....you can buy an additive so the paint can "flex" with the part...like the front nose or ground effect piece. I used enamel and was told that the "hardner" actually works as a flex for enamel based paints.

 

yea i was told the same my dad had a 2nd gen trans and mixed flex in w/ his single stage acrylic enamel by dupont its centari brand. and i got the same for mine but they said u dont need flex on newer models liek our cars because the paint wil flex some itself and the hardner will help it as well so i said ok fine long as it bonds to my bumpers and doesnt flake off liek primers tryin to its fine but if it does im goin to be very mad.

good info on orange pell i only knew it to happen liek fish eye when u got oil on the surface and it rolls back and stuff but that is fish eye and orange peel looks sorta wavy to the eye but almost any body man will tell ya even the best of paint will get that wavy look thats why u wet sand and buff to make it flat and smooth.