I'd like to start prepping for paint and eventually take my car in to a local painter for a quality job. Problem is it's my one and only car. I'm trying to debate whether I should go ahead and buy another car to be my daily driver for now (Neighbor lady has a clean 98 DeVille that I could probably get for a steal - it just sits there) and THEN start saving up for a paint job? (I make about what your average college student makes) Or do I use the money I have to get a jump start on the paint job, get it done sooner, and just deal with trying to prep the car for paint and daily driving it at the same time, doing without it and biking around town while the painter has it?

I know it's "My choice" but I'm so torn. Any similar situations? Is it that worth it to have another car to use allowing you to work on your third gen at your leisure without pressure of having to drive it to school on Monday?

 

get the deville. it SUCKS having deadlines, and for paint prep, if you dd when its not primed and bondoed/just primed, you'll get rust, or the primer will absorb water, and in the end you wont be happy with your paint. i tried working on mine as a dd, then got a cheap truck, WAY better and my car is in better shape in general because its used WAY less

 

I say get a different DD. Speaking from experience, trying to drive your car in constant project form is awful hard and your jobs can end up being rushed. The little things I have done have gotten a lot better since I've had a seperate DD. The downside of a different DD is there will be more times than you will want that you will be spending money keeping your driver running and not building your project.

 

i also say get the DD, without one, my iroc wouldnt be what it is today.

sitting in a shop being fixed haha

 

Well, it all depends on how much is your budget for your paint job? How much is the car you wanna buy? And how much you have to spend? Having another car as a DD is nice but that might take most of your budget for the paint. I don't know. To keep it more in a budget I would find a body shop that will do all the paint job on your car, I mean prep, paint everything. Ask them how long it will take. I wouldn't think it would take more than a week. Schedule a date to have it painted and have an agreement with the shop to paint it in let say a week and rent a compact car while your car is getting painted. Ask for a rental car from them. They might have some kind a deal thru them. ASK. If the they don't finished as promise then have them pick up the tab for the rental car for the additional days needed. I wouldn't think you'd spend more than $200 for the rental car. $200 is alot cheaper that buying the Cadillac. Just an idea.

 

deffinately buy the other car. bondo absorbs water, and the only primer that doesnt is epoxy primer. but you dont want to have that primer on forever and then paint over it. so then you'll be re-sanding and reshooting again. deffinately better to buy the car.

 

Lol make sure you throw some D's on it.