DIY Paint Job

[Jts-t]

Hey everyone, just wanted to know if anyone has had any experience doing they're own paint job on their cars and if so, how did it turn out? I am looking into painting my R32 GTS-T next summer and i just want to know exactly what im getting myself into. If anyone has any pics of a DIY paint job they've done, feel free to post some pics.

Thanks guys, and any tips an tricks would be great!

Cheers

[Tony-R32]

Someone posted a link on here in the winter time about a person who painted their car with a paint roller, and it turned out really good!

[MKIV]

For the love of God please do not encourage anyone to ever paint their car with a roller. Spray cans should also be illegal!

To the OP: Having worked at Napa for a while now in the paint division (aka Cmax) I dealt with all the body shops in the Toronto and surrounding area. There is a reason why a decent paint job costs upwards of $3000. The work involved, depending on the type of paint used and your budget, is always a lot more than people imagine.

Assuming you just want cheap paint, you'd buy a gallon of Nason Basecoat in your color, as well as acrylic clearcoat.
If you wanted to cheap out even more on paint, you can buy Nason single stage, which, as the name implies, does not require clear coat. (single step process, SS paint does not have good rep)

Of course, then we have Cromax Pro. Keep in mind you'd pay over $1000 for a gallon of this stuff, but this is manufacturer spec OEM paint. Must be clear coated.

Oh also don't forget, before paint, you have to take care of any surface rust, either fill or cut/weld new metal, sand down, prime, and then spray the first coat of paint.

Before I go into anymore detail I want to say, if you like your car, save up and get the job professionally done by a reputable shop. If you could care less, hey, find your local Cmax and order a bunch of aerosols! (highly not recommended)

I hope this helps OP and I hope you don't take my sarcasm the wrong way

[blkgtr02]

^ DITTO! Never have I once seen a spray paint or roller job on a car ever look even close to good...at most decent...and the guy wet sanded and cut and polished for 3 days to take out runs and dirt and fly's that got stuck under his clear...happy rolling =)

[craftz]

When I got my car the bumpers and spoiler were really faded. I said to myself, self, I'll paint these with the intention of having the whole car painted later. I spent about 200 on supplies and sprayed them in the garage taking as many precautions as I could to keep dirt out. They look OK but still not professional and still got a few runs. I will leave all bodywork and painting to the pros in the future.

[Bossman]

Practice makes perfect and don't rush. I spent some time doing minor body repairs before I painted my first car with 10 cans of spray paint. I would say I did a decent job, not Rolls Royce quality work but good enough that people were surprised when I told them it was a DIY with spray cans. I've also repainted a number of kitchen cabinets with foam rollers and polyurethane paint. I would say the quality were "factory finish" grade since many people were a little puzzled that the cabinets look the same as before but the finish is like new. Kitchen cabinets are easier to do because the individual painted areas are not that big, the surfaces are mostly flat and it is easier to control the work environment. If you want to know everything about auto body repairs and paint it will take a "book" to explain it all but that's how I learned it 30+ years ago from books and self practices (before there is this thing called the internet!).

[kev]

My garage paint job...
Done with lots of love and a $30 HVLP gun from Princess Auto...

[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]
[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

[craftz]

I have seen kev's ride. He did a beautiful job on it.

[rolyaT]

Tip: Wet the ground before you do, keeps dust from picking up onto ur car. Helped with a few DIY paint jobs, most turned out very good actually. Just take ur time.

[craftz]

One more tip I thought that helped was an exhaust blower. I used a furnace blower and vented it outside the garage using 10" flex duct. Gets rid of the paint fumes and mist quickly. These paints and hardeners and such are very toxic. Make sure you use protection. I had outside air pumped to my mask. Read the labels and this will scare the shite out of you.

[MKIV]

I'm sure a lot of you who went into a lot of attention and detail had your DIY paint jobs turn out satisfactory or rather well in your perspective. However, the common misconception with inexperienced want-to-try-it-myself-er's is that their mind set is Step 1: buy aerosol can of color matched paint (which by the way most colors here in north America are shared with 90's Subarus) Step 2: spray car outside or in dusty booth and expect perfection.

I encourage you if you have interest in painting autos to do research, or even pursue a post-secondary education as it's always an active market. (Accidents every day)

I don't encourage you to try-it-yourself on a car you like.

[Jts-t]

Thanks for the Tips everyone and the heads up MKIV. i have done some paint work on my car (trunk, GTR wing, hood and lip) which have all turned out great. it was very time consuming but got the results i was looking for. The next step is just figuring out if i want to commit to painting the whole car. i know the steps involved like sanding , wet sanding getting rid of rust and its a lot of hard work. i will think very hard before i do it. Thanks again!!!

[MKIV]

Best of luck fellow enthusiast

[cortexx]

I used to paint cars years ago , the paint technology has changed alot now , we used manly 2 pac for decent jobs and acrylic synthetic one coats for cheapskates.

The quality of the finish is 95% prep , 5% paint application tecnique.

We repaired a ford fiesta xr2 that had been rolled. car was 6 months old so insurance wanted it repaired. We cut the damaged roof off and replaced it with new , replaced fenders and doors and rebuilt it. 3 of us every day for 8 hours and it was done after 2 weeks. Thats 240 hours of labour.

I painted an austin mini metro , stripped down to base , sprayed it with a sealer , sanded it and primed it for 4 days before I actually painted its top coats.

Also , prep includes the booth, we used to hose down the walls and ground before we rolled the vehicle in to paint it.. then at least an hour with tac cloths to remove any loose dust , dirt that had settled back onto the paintable surfaces.

If you want a great finish you cant do it in your driveway or in your garage.

[klys]

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150261988348687.347913.696168686&l=ba71d74765&type=1

my complet car repaint
2.5 days of prep 3 hours of actual painting.
about 5-6 hours of wet sanding after and buffing