Ok, so my wife and I are thinking about repainting our Z28. She wanted a project we can share together and our car happens to need paint on the nose and passengers B pillar. Ok a little background on where I am and whats available. So we currently live with my folks and saying space is limited is an understatement. This needs to be done outdoors, there is no garage space. We need to share the driveway with Mom's truck, dad's car, and the wifes car. They can be moved out to the street temporarily during spraying, but cant stay there.

Also, I can buy a cheap spray gun, but the compressor we have is quite small and wont support a spray gun for extended periods. It was used for spraying wood varnish before, but the tanks and motor are not large enough to do a constant spray long enough to cover a car all at once. I do not plan on buying a $300 compressor to paint my car once and never use it again (we are moving to an apartment, so I would have nowhere to store it later on even if I had a use for it)

Ok, so now that you know my extreme limitations, can anyone advise if it's even remotely possible to get an OK looking paint job by doing it in small stages? Like do the nose one day, then the hood another day. The car is also my daily driver so I cant really tear it down without being able to put it back together in a weekend and have it drivable on Monday. Im looking at single stage paint to save time btw.

 

"OK" is a relative term, and ultimately will be based on your perception/taste.

You can paint in sections, and it is probably going to be alright doing so. One thing you will find though, is you are going to spend a lot of time masking off areas multiple times over the course of this project.

The biggest issue you are going to run into is that you are going to end up with a lot of "trash"(bugs and dust primarily) in the paint by painting outside.

 

Yeah I realize I will be masking over and over again. That will really depend on how much we think we can do in a weekend in terms of sanding and prep, then spraying. Maybe we get just the nose or maybe we are fast enough to get the nose, hood and fenders. Wont know until we actually start.

Im also hoping I can lay enough paint down to color sand most of the garbage out of the paint. I've read a few threads about guys painting outside with decent results. I really only need to repair 2 areas of the car, but figured if Im going that far, I may as well just do the whole thing while Im at it. My passenger rear quarter is showing some clear coat blisters and my nose has a ton of very large spider web cracks, some wide enough to see the undercoat (or maybe thats the nose itself, either way you can see gray lines on a black car and it's not good) I also have 3 little dings in the passengers door to fill in, so thats nearly half the car right there being resprayed.

I was just most worried about blending the areas done first with the areas done last. Would hate for the fenders to not match the doors in the right light, know what I mean?

 

If you are going to paint the car a solid color then you should be ok just spraying a panel here and there but if you are painting the car in a metallic color then you will Probability have a color match problem

 

I doubt any compressor under $300 would be good enough even for panel painting, especially with a cheap high pressure gun. If you're really serious about this and want to try it with the compressor you already have then buy yourself a spray gun and test it out before you start sanding on the car. You may find that it can only spray for 15 seconds or that the pressure isn't high enough to lay paint down adequately.

Also consider the time this may take. A professional might only have 30 hours into a job like this, but a novice may have triple the time into it. A novice panel painting and using not so good tools and compressor will take even longer. Are you sure you're ready for that?

 

I dont know what size compressor you have but I have sprayed bumpers before with my compressor at home it is a 33 gallon tank and it never ran out of air the big thing you have to watch out for is water and oil if you are doing a panel or two yours should work fine and you can buy filters that screws to you paint gun when you are spraying and you should use them for priming and painting

 

I've sprayed primer out of my dad's compressor which is probably a 12 or 15 gallon and it could only spray about half of my hood at a time. That was an alero hood, a third gen hood is quiet a bit bigger even. I don't know how small your 'quiet small' compressor is, but you might need to upgrade. Maybe a friend or relative has one you could borrow?

 

This is one way you could do it. Prepare the whole car's surface one section at a time/day at a time. Use spray can primer compatible with your top coat. Electric power tools will make sanding faster and fun. Cover bear metal with primer each day. Read and follow product direction. So far no big air compressor needed. After your happy with your body work.
Plan a day to rent a compressor and paint. Be prepared. Have every thing you need ready to go.

 

The problem with spray can primer is that most of them are lacquer which wont keep water out and you will have rust under the primer and you wont know until you have a problem later there are 2 part spray can primers high build and epoxy but they are $$$ and they are bad about cloging up the tip of the can I know Eastwood has them and there are others just surf the web

 

You could sand almost everything one weekend and then next weekend just do a light finish sanding before starting to spray. What about a URETHAN paint many of them you don't need a clear to look good but can spray one later for extra gloss. Say the following weekend if time is tight. Also check around some places rent compressors or Harbor freight has some ones close to $300 like that might get the job http://www.harborfreight.com/2-horse...8127-8026.html

I have painted a truck with a 10 gal compressors but it had a 5 horsepower gas engine.
Make sure u have an oil/water separator and the humidity is low.

Also for location think about the time of day/ wind(overspray) ur temperature and the big thing bugs!!!
IE do not paint near dusk. I would think of maybe some bug repellant near the car.

 

I looked at that compressor and I never did see a CFM rating mine is a 33 gallon tank and has a 6 HP motor and it make 6.8 @ 90

 

Guys I appreciate all your input. It's looking like I probably wont be undertaking this project after all. Just going to have a shop do it as that will be whole lot easier (obviously) I was really looking forward to trying this out, but the circumstances of time and space really wont be conductive to getting it done even remotely correct.

 

Good luck and find you a good shop