I would like encourage everyone looking for paint jobs, to try it themselves, I painted my car in a dimly lit dusty garage and a 40 year compressor. It came out great. Not to mention I was only out approx 400$ to paint my whole car, and it was my first time painting anything without spray bombs I've seen a lot of great artwork done by some of the members, theres a lot of talent here and you should go for it, here is there very first thing I have ever painted:

 

Great job, looks great.

What was your whole process from old paint to new?

Do you paint together or apart?

What color is that? look like it has some pearl in it.

 

That does look very good.

Did you wet sand? On what layers, and how many layers of base and clear did you use?

 

yeah painting really isnt that hard just take your time and mostly anything you mess up you can fix with wet sanding. although i would recommend a clean garage and atleast two guns to paint anything. one for primer and color and the other for clear.
o yeah if your worried about dust just wipe everything down and wet the floor. everything should settle to the floor and you can just sweep it all away.

thats my .02 if anyone wanted it

 

Nice! I remember seeing someone's Firebird that was painted black....it was so shiny I couldn't tell it was black...thought I was looking into a mirror!!!

Got any more pics?

 

care to indulge on the compressor and gun specs?
was this a 12CFM automotive painting gun?

 

Nice job

 

You should totally write up an article about how you achieved those results. Did you take pics along the way? Even if not, take us step by step through the process and what materials/tools you used. I bet it could be made into a sticky on how to paint your own car at home with less-than-professional equipment and for thousands less than a shop. I'd read it!!

 

No one ever mentions about wearing a respirator. You should use a fresh air respirator. If u don't have the 400 bucks for one of them. find a good cartridge one.(there not really for paint but better than nothing)Make sure u change the cartridge on them often. also gloves and eye protection. Theses paints can really mess u up if u are not carefull.

 

I agree. That is a very important topic!

 

full write -up please,,,,what equip,supplies and where you got them, prep, ...........................plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

my gun is from tractor supply, hvlp,it has a full quart stainless res. came with the reg. and was 100 bucks. I got the low grade paint from stories auto body in louisville, the high grade is about double the price but isn't worth the extra cash, the minimal convinience it provides in coverage doesn't justify the price. Base clear is the way to go. I'm not saying do it in a dusty garage with no light but I could only imagine how much better it would have turned out if I had a sealed room with a lot of good light. As far as pre paint sanding, I used 80 grit to get er down, and then went in stages up to 320 before I primed, i used a high build primer, don't wet sand the high build, it will ball up and cause a cussing fit. I shot the primer then sanded then shot another coat then sanded that with 600. Then I shot my color (ps4 chrysler platinum metallic) I used 30 psi for the primer and color and 40 for the clear. I do have a dual cartridge respirator, I got it for like 50 bux at harbor freight. DO NOT breath in any of that, just a few breaths in heavy fog will make you smell reducer for 3 days. As far as body work, I did it all by hand, and the use of a long stiff sanding board is invaluble to getting a straight panel. Materials ran about 300 for the sandpaper, body filler, and paint, the paint, reducer clear primer activator etc being 198. I'm sure there are wholesale paint suppliers in every city somewhere. The good thing about hvlp, is once you get used to adjusting the pressures and seeing how they lay, you can get i to where you won't need to wet sand the car after its cured. unfortunatley I did most of my painting at night because I would start in the morning working on a panel and I wouldn't get done until that evening so if I didnt' shoot it right then and there I wouldn't have done it the next day, one of my lazy faults I rekin. Feel free to email me snakedoctor@insightbb.com I'm the guy with the TransMaro, I don't bite and i would love to get some more info on some more proficient painters so my next job will turn out better OH check out this run in the pic

 

Wow, that is one nasty run. Did wet sanding take that right out?

 

when u put clear on what i do is lay 2 light coats let it tack up. Than on the 3rd coat u can lay it on pretty wet. That way u will not get runs. And if u do they will not be really bad ones like those. lol. Keep doing it u will get better. The first car I painted I had dips of clear on the floor.

 

Only 200 bucks for the paint and that's what .. metallic base. .and clear coat ????????????? And that included the primer as well ?





How many coats of base .. and how many coats of clear ?

 

yeah it was really close to 200 or 250, I can't really remember, but I remember when seeing the price and then thinking about body shop prices, I'm in the wrong business lol. I used 2 coats of color and 2 or 3 of clear. That nasty run was a product of no light. Well wet sanding took out the run, but I tried to dab out the run when it began and it just turned the metallic into fingerprints, and in part of it I didn't wait till the color was completely dry before I cleared it and it wrinkled, so I had to sand that part with the run down to metal in some parts, primer it, sand, color, and then clear. I got some more pics of my screw ups I'll be more than happy to show, I did have some more runs, nothing that wont' come out with some buffing. When it gets warm Ima wet sand and buff the whole car and then take it to a i.m.p.o.r.t meet somewhere just to harrass them with my freght train sound mwah ha ha. And sealer is a good Idea too. This car was torch red before, and there are some parts where I primed metal and then right next to it I just primed over the red and you can see a LITTLE color difference but no one will notice it but me. But people you have to at least give it a shot, its WELL worth it and its addictive. I want to the the real flame paint work now, like do a whole car in it

 

What brand of paint, and esspecially what brand clear did you use? first of all to avoid the runs, dont spray as much on. turn down your fluid control some and move faster. next is to use a high quality clear(not cheap) we use this stuff called Glamour clear, its the cheapest clear we can get our hands on for jambing parts out, and it is the thinest runniest clear ive ever seen. when we are doing the actual painting of the vehicle we use one of the PPG 20xx clears depending on how much we are doing and what its for.

Also, try turning your air pressure down, in that picture look at the area above the run, see how much orange peel it has? thats most likely due to the overly high pressure.

 

i only throw the first coat on light. the second coat kinda light. and then hammer it on the third time. and if you want, go for a fourth and fifth coat. a cheap way to get rid of rund if you are careful is to shave them till they are almost smooth and just start the wetsanding there. i have never seen a run that bad, sorry lol. painting really is cheap and easy. people make a big deal about it, i take a class for a couple hours a day during the school day and i was painting decent after like 3 cars. everyone should do it themselves. we painted my friends 240sx outside, and it came out fine. the slight amount of dirt and bugs in the clear wetsanded out pretty quickly and we put enough clear on to make it smooth even after all of that. dont pay high prices for this stuff.

 

also rather ten trying to use your finger use the gun as a blower and just spread it out wont we so bad then.

 

grrr I have enough problems with clearcoating using a damn spray can

Was painting my Iroc grill ... messed up. .so I just coated it with black again

I always end up with either too little clear coat.. or it runs seriously.. looking like .. soap

 

just keep hitting light coats then, itll cover eventually. and then wetsand with 2000 and buff.

 

beleive me, the quality of the products I used were pretty good its just that I'm a novice and yes you can laugh at that run, it IS pretty funny lol

 

What did you use though?

even the good brands make cheap clears.

 

its a cheaper one...... I think the name of the clear is Gen-Tech? Smells like coconuts

 

Yea post more pics, i will feel better about what i am going to attempt, lol

 

I painted the underhood area of my GTA the color I'm painting the car before putting the motor in, it turned out pretty good, going to use a buddies paint booth to paint the car though when it's ready.