[Bull]

How many of you guys have painted cars yourself? What were the results like? Where did you do the painting? Two of my Pontiacs could use paint, and I am considering working on one over the winter (in my unheated barn) and trying to get it ready to shoot primer and paint in the spring. How long does it take to do the job right for a daily driver/non-show cruiser?

[Bull]

How many of you guys have painted cars yourself? What were the results like? Where did you do the painting? Two of my Pontiacs could use paint, and I am considering working on one over the winter (in my unheated barn) and trying to get it ready to shoot primer and paint in the spring. How long does it take to do the job right for a daily driver/non-show cruiser?

[Walter Lansing]

My first reaction to this question is wondering if you have a good comprehetion of the amount of labor involved in painting a car. The best way to sum this up is when you are start spraying paint on the car you are about 85% of the way done. That is if you don't color sand and buff and not counting body work. Do you have a good compressor and spray gun, that in it's self can help pay for parts of a paint job. If you buy good brand name materials and supplies you can plan on spending $1500 to $2000. If you have not done much painting there will be the enevidible do overs (I have lost count of my own). But if you take your time and follow instructions you can produce a very nice paint job, it is not hard just very very time consuming. And looking at a nice paint job that you know you did.......
you will like that part.

[Bull]

Hi Walter,
In answer to your question, yes, I have some concept of the large amount of time that must be invested into prepping a car for paint. I've been working on old cars for a long while, so I'm not totally in the dark. I also know that good materials can be expensive. However, balancing that out is the fact that dropping my car off at an autobody shop and saying "do everything" would be thousands more than any job I did on my own. I'm a teacher, so money is definitely an issue, since it isn't growing on any trees in the back yard. I guess that it's not easy either way, but that comes with the old car hobby, you always have to balance time, money, motivation etc. Where do you paint your cars?

[78 GHOST]

I painted my first GTO (Conv.) My Father and I did the body work in the driveway and rented a booth to shoot the color.

This was several years ago and at the time was a complete pain. The results were good and after the skin grew back on my fingers, I was pleased.

I have 2 vehicles I'm planning on doing completes on in the next couple of years if I can empty the GTO (frameoff) out of the garage.

There are some great tips Walter mentioned, factoring time and cost into the equation. Also, the air supply is a big deal.

There are some innovative methods of containing the overspray, and providing breathing air that won't make you sprout another limb.

If you're going to shoot it in a barn, you're going to be challenged by sub-optimal temperatures for virtually all materials, IF you're in the north. In addition, you'll be fighting dirt contamination.

You can certainly make things work, but as you might expect, cleanliness helps. I say take one panel and get after it!

[Colin]

You can always use some thick plastic to make a ceiling and walls around the area where you will be painting. Then lightly wet the plastc and the ground(or floor) with a mist of water to keep the dust down.

[Squidward]

Do the bodywork in the winter, shoot the paint when it warms up. Doing a quality job on the bodywork IS most important. I found that a cheap paint job can go quite a ways when the bodywork is solid, but no amount of expensive painting will hide flawed surfaces and wavy panels.

[freebird69]

Like others said, spraying the paint is the least of the work. Prepping the body for paint and taking things apart, color sanding, assembly and buffing is where the work and time consumption occurs. I did my first complete paint job on a driveway... big mistake, no way to control wind and dirt etc. The next four or five were in a garage with no real thought to cleanliness other that wiping everything down right before shooting. I left doors part way open and used box type fans for exhaust and these jobs actually turned out very nice. One I did in a shop and after that I had access to a paint booth. I have also painted many parts in the basement during winter and garage during mild temps using a tent made of plastic.

Thinking back one of the big problems I had during the early jobs was lighting. The paint booth had excellent lighting and made it easy to see what I was doing.

[jagginroun]

I've painted 3 cars in my garage. I say , you gotta go for it. I agree with the previous posts that most of the work is in the preparation. Actually laying on the paint isn't that big of a deal. With today's materials, if it comes out pretty orange peely, sand it down and buff it out. Get a few runs, sand 'em down and buff them out. I was very pleased with all 3 cars that I did. Each one seemed to take me about a month to complete. Check out www.autobodystore.com, they have a great message board on auto body repair and painting, everthing from building your own spray booth to equipment, to paint, to repairing panels....Just about anything you want to know.

[ErikW]

Go for it Dave! Don't let anybody scare you out of it. Like others have said. Use thick plastic to build a tent of sorts around the car giving yourself plenty of room to manuver. I painted my first car, pictured at left, 11 years ago in an open shop. I think it turned out great. Just had to sand and buff out all of the dirt (stongly recommend the plastic thing). But the others I painted using the plastic (12'X 50' roll from home improvement store $30.00) turned out great. Put a fan blowing out at one end and some furnace filters at the other end. WEAR A GOOD RESPIRATOR!! and a Tyvek suit. Spend your money on the gun and respirator. Good Luck! It's not as hard as you think. Just my 2 cents.

Erik

[D Stroud]

http://forums.performanceyears.com/g...11&m=377108318

I think this should help a lot

[Bull]

Thanks to all of you have have responded. I think that I probably will end up going for it. For those of you who have done it before, how much would you say you ended up spending on materials? Is it best to take the car down to bare metal, or rough up the existing paint and patch any rusty areas? Thanks for the links to those two sites, they do look pretty extensive and informative. One good things about being a teacher is having summers off, so I can spend a lot of time buffing/color sanding to compensate for my lack of experience and rudimentary spraying environment. Oh, one other question, did you stink up the whole neighborhood while painting, or do the fumes not carry that far?

[Forrest]

try to do it yourself the reward is great!, I did my first car about 8 years ago, now I`m in the " buisness" with about 8 cars inline( all gto`s!!) built a shop and spraybooth , love this!

[GTOken]

I also have decided to do my own paint. Just ordered hopefully most all of the stuff I will need. Guess what the price tag was,,, yep, $455. Can you believe it? An omen. Should start next week. Going to do body work and primer in back yard, depending on how that goes will determine if I will look for a place to paint indoors.

[freebird69]

Depends on what kind of job you want to end up with. If you're planning on keeping the car a long time you might want to take it all the way down so that you uncover all the sins of the past. If you don't who knows what might surface in the future. I have painted over old paint many times after a good sanding and never had a problem. As far as cost it depends on the quality of equipment and materials you use. You can paint a car with a budget gun and cheap paint and actually get a decent job but I wouldn't recommend it unless you don't care to have a top notch job. Seen it done many times, just be prepared to do some sanding to get it smooth. If you're looking to save money ask around you might be able to borrow or rent a gun and compressor then spend the money you save on good materials.

[shawn e.]

I decided to all the work on my 66 tempest including the body work and paint. Dont forget about all the little surprises you may find hdden under window trim and rocker mouldings. As you dis-assemble the car the project tends to grow and grow . And dont forget, If you cant afford "the right tool" you always have plenty of elbow grease .

[Dryseals]

Catalina Dave,
Take your time and do it yourself. I have painted many cars at home and its not bad at all, prep is the killer. In my humble opinion, I would not take it down to bare metal unless you have to. Go as far as the factory primer and stop. Build up from there.

Also instead of going into the never ending sanding pit, get out a razor scraper and work some areas. Take your time and you'l be amazed how much paint will come off. So often the party that painted it before used short cuts and never obatained proper adhesion.

[ErikW]

Had a buddy who stripped his entire 69 GTO with a box of razor blades. It does work on some cars.

[carcrazy]

Got about 800-900 so far in my paint (epoxy and 2k) and have't got to the top coat yet. This doesn't include the small fortune I've spent on filler, sandpaper, metal for patches, cutoff wheels, cleaners, etc. After you have done this one time you will understand why a shop charges so much. It is a lot of work!!!

[Forrest]

800.00 - 900.00 for epoxy and 2k primer? what are you painting: a airplane boeing 747, what did they charge you for that stuff, I use it all the time I spend at the most 300.00 per car for the same primers