Well i wish to have my car painted soon (i hope)

Where or by who is what I am trying to decide.

Lets start with a little introduction about me.

i am 16 yrs old, in High School (I'm a Junior) work a job that pays nine dollars an hour (grocery store) and get 30 to 35 hours a week, and i am pretty satisfied with life so far lol.

Here is the dilemma: I want to get my car painted and would love to do it myself, although I have never done any kind of body work what so ever or painted anything that I expected to look good in the end, it would still be an AWESOME learning experience for me.

My question is, Would it be worth spending all the money on the materials/machines I would need for it to get it done right. Or would it be better If i just let one of the local shops do it for me?

What do you guys think?

Please I really want to know what you think, NO SUGAR COATING

 

If I was you I would get someone else to do it. If you don't have any experience doing body work or painting cars, save yourself the money and headache and get it done the right way the first time. Then after that if you still want to learn body work and how to paint cars invest your money into it.

 

agreed

 

What part of houston do you live in? I live in JV.

 

well I'll have to disagree with the others, If this is something that interest you, And you may have plans in your future to do another car or more then I say spend the money on what you'll need to do the job, Take your time, the key to a good paint job is in the prep work, And the only way to learn is get out there and do it, But it is your car, ,
I would never let others tell me not to do something, and there are a lot of those kind on this site , If I did none of my cars would be custom, they'd look like every other car out there

 

Leave it to the pro's,

 

he lives in southeast houston. as do i. do you paint cars??

 

I disagree T/A. He's 16 and doesn't have any experience painting yet. His car, that he wants to look good, is not the proper canvas to practice on. Now, if he has access to other cars that he can practice his flow pattern and consistency on, then I agree, do it yourself. The fact is, he doesn't have the equipment or the experience. And with $9 an hour and the lack of time because of his work, he probably does not have other cars or time to learn the process of prepping and painting the car.

Lmancha, if you have someone that can teach you while you do the job, and they are experienced, then by all means, do it yourself.

 

No I'm not a painter, but I'm doing some work on mine right now. I was just curious as to what part of houston, it's a big place as you know. Don't see very many thirdgens running around. I live way on the northwest side.

 

Well You can disagree and I respect and see what you are saying, I was 15 when I did my first paint job, I was working as a caddy and didn't even make minimum wage and that was 3.35 at the time I did all the bodywork and prep myself, and all I had was an air compressor and a spray gun, I made a make shift paint booth out of 2x2s and plastic sheeting, And the paint job came out better than factory, just a few runs. , but that was me,
I just think a person should try and see what they can do, heck he might like it and end up being the best painter ever, a good painter can make really good living a great painter can right his own ticket,

 

Lmancha: all the work is in the prep and the color sanding- if you go with base/clear. If you are not deterred by some of the responses, do your homework before you make a decision.
1) is there rust or bodywork needed? If there is, then leave that to the pros.
2) is the body straight? Depending on the dents and dings, get a quote from a 'paintless dent remover' to get everything squared away.
3) find a good paint and body shop and see if you can come in and just help out a couple hours a week- maybe on the weekend. Tell them what you are planning to do and that you want to do as much yourself as possible.
4) research on line how to sand and prep a car- it's not rocket science, just labor intensive.
5) if you want to practice 'blocking' a car, get some materials and go to the junkyard, find a car and practice on it!

Painting the car itself is the easiest of the three steps(prep, paint, cut and color sand)- you can train a monkey to use a spray gun(and Apparently some shops do!). So, find a shop that will either advise you or allow you to bring in the car ready prepped for them to spray- disassembled as much as possible, preferably- and either give it back to you to color sand or let you help.
We have a local 1 Day here that has a great reputation- they are working with me when I paint my car- even letting me bring it in with GFX and bumpers removed to spay seperately!
If you do the prep right and do the color sand and polish right AND use quality materials, it is really hard to screw up a paint job!
Good luck and let us see what you do!

 

Wow, didnt expect this many responses,

I respect all of you guys opinion's and appreciate you all taking the time to express them.

With that being said I just cant help but be the kind of person who is stubborn as hell and is going to do what he wants Maybe in the end ill regret it, but Im young and I still have ALOT to learn.

Just today one of my buddy's said his dad would be willing to let me use his shop to do all the work on the car he said it wouldnt be to much of a problem since he is currently doing his own truck. (just as long as I cleaned up around and paid for all the materials that I use)

But even with an opportunity like that I most likely wont be able to do it.
Due to the lack of time. Unless i wait til the summer.

Either way I wont be making my final decision until I am financial'y ready and am willing to spend the money.

As far as my lack of experience goes I believe that there is no better way of learning than by "experimenting" and of course by getting a couple pointer's here and there by all the AWESOME people here on TGO.

 

See if you can get him to give you some pointers etc. Show you how to do it. Then find something to practice on. With some practice and pointers then you will know if it is within your ability to do a decent job or even something you want to try.

 

I would paint the car myself since you are already leaning towards this option. You also have a big advantage of using someone elses space to paint indoors so you don't have to worry about outdoor factors affecting paint quality.

A few big reasons to have a body shop do it is because it's easier and they will be able to make it look better. Another is if you are not good a spray painting in general.

Like some of the other members already said, get practice on cars in the junkyard or go to a body shop during the summer so you have time. Waiting until the summer will give you time to save up some money for the materials and paint you will need.

It is probably most advantageous when you will plan on painting multiple cars (both of my cars need paint that I will do myself).