Painting my car

[I4betterthanUR4]

Hello, I havnt been on this forum in a long time I feel like a stranger here. It's getting warmer outside and with more sun the paint cancer on my 8g is getting worse and worse.

I'd like some advice from people who have been in this situation before. I've never did any of my own body work but I'm pretty competent when it comes to working on cars. The plan is to sand, bondo(where needed) and then primer the car myself. I then plan on finding someone with the right tools to do the paint job for cheap. I don't care about door jams or engine bay this is going to be a cheapo paint job. I'm starting this thread in hopes that people can give me some real world help and tips and if you know of any good tutorials to go over that would be appreciated as well.

Another question I have is about the primer, I see a lot of guys around here rolling in just primer and I'm not sure if they're going for the primer look or not but that got me wondering. If I intend to actually paint the car how long can I drive around with just the primer and will weather affect it? Same question for sanding, since this is going to take some time I will probably be driving around in a car that's been sanded with bondo patches around the car. How concerned should I be about rust and other affects.

Lastly is it even worth it doing this or should I just go to macco or something and get their cheapo paint package? (Yes I know a lot of people are going to say macco is s#!t) I wouldnt mind doing it myself to save some cash.

Gotta hand it to mitsubishi for selling cars with horrible paint Thanks all in advance.

[Jeffylou87]

Talk to Galante on this one.. I believe he's painted his own car.. Oh, and MKO..

[Bloody Arro]

What you could do is do all the prep work yourself, but only if you know how to do it RIGHT. Then you can take the car to MAACO and get them just to paint it and not clear it. Then you could take it to a reputable shop to get them to clear it.

From what I've heard, MAACO's PAINT isn't bad, it's the clear they use that f!!ks you over.

[Mike_ODell]

I heard the same about maaco paint. Dont get their enamel 1 step paint...your whole car is orange peel...but you get what you pay for. If you can afford the other paint like the factory paint jobs from maaco then I'd just go with that because it would save you soo much time. This paint costs more than the 1-step enamel but will last longer. I never thought of having them paint it and just take it somewhere else to clear it. That sounds like a decent idea. Or if you just want to cover it up for now try and tackle it yourself...and save until you can afford the paint job you want.

[AmericanJambo]

If you want a decent paint job you're going to need to primer it with 2K primer. Make sure after you sand down your bondo and what not you use an 800 grit to prep it before primer. Do a couple coats of primer using 800 grit wet sand paper between each layer. You'll want to hit the entire car with 800 grit before having it painted. It pretty easy but it's labor intensive. Also if you have MAACO do your paint you'll want to tape up the inside of the door sils, trunk and hood since they don't tape them up for you and they just let the paint blow into those places.

I've actually seen a car that was painted entirely by spray can in a garage. They guy sanded between each layer of paint and color sanded at the end. It actually looked beautiful but took so much time an labor because of all the sanding. And since he was using spray cans instead of a paint gun he had do do light thin layers of paint.

[Bloody Arro]

Personally I'd just save up and get it done right at a reputable shop though. It costs quite a bit, but like was said, you get what you pay for.

[I4betterthanUR4]

Personally I'd just save up and get it done right at a reputable shop though. It costs quite a bit, but like was said, you get what you pay for.

I agree but I also paid some decent cash when I bought the galant so I guess you don't always get what you pay for. It's my understanding that I'm not the only one that has this problem.

[LatinoX20]

i heard good and bad about maaco, i think it depends which shop it is... i knew a guy who got his paint at maaco and they painted over a line of ants lol u could see them through the paint...

[keith6110]

I've painted my car myself. It turned out great after a week long headache of thats not right and do it again lol. If you don't have a gravity gun/air compressor to primer with then it's probably not worth explaining everything to you as your paint won't stick as well as if you were to do it properly. If you want to do it once then it has to be done right the first time.

Let me know if you plan on doing everything yourself, it can be done but you must be a weekend warrior lol. It seems like there's a ton of stuff to be done. Its actually more time consuming just sanding and waiting for primer, paint, and clear to dry than anything else. I do have a typed up list of things that need to be done from start to finish if you're interested.

[LatinoX20]

post the list, im interested aswell

[keith6110]

by Keith6110 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:03 am

Lets start off with an items list (in no particular order):

Sandpaper = 400 grit (20 full sheets)
Sandpaper = 600 grit (20 full sheets)
Primer = EPOXY Filler primer (1 Gal) (Brand used: Shopline)
Primer Hardener (1 Liter) (Brand used: Shopline)
Paint = Grabbed number from firewall (1 Gal) (Brand used: Shopline)
Paint Hardener (1 Liter) (Brand used: Shopline)
Clear coat (1 Gal) (Brand used: Shopline)
Clear coat Hardner (1 liter) (Brand used: Shopline)
scotch-brite steel wool (2 Bags of 10?)
Can of final clean (Brand used: Dupont Final Klean)
Terry cloth
Microfiber cloth
Gravity fed gun
In line Air controller for gun to limit and filter pressure to 50-60psi
Obviously an air compressor
Buffer with buffing compound to perfect your paint after everythings
dried.
Mixing Cup (for paint, primer, and clear)
Lacquer thinner to clean the gun and mixing cup out.
Steps to a successful paint job:

IMPORTANT:
-TEMPERATURE MUST BE above 60 degrees F.
-Make adjustments to Gravity fed gun before sprayer. Use final Clean to
Test. Will need to test Paint to air mix + The area the spray is
covering. The finer the area you're spraying is; the more concentrated
the Paint will be in that particular area.
-Use Lacquer thinner to clean both your gun and your mixing cup after each application. (primer, paint, and clear coat)

1. First off you wash your car.
2. Tape off anything you don't want to paint. If you're not painting a big area, it will be easier to use paper or plastic and just tape off the perimeter.
3. Wet-Sand the whole car with 400 grit sandpaper. Go with the way the
wind would travel around that part of the car.
4. Wait for everything to dry, if you see any clear-coat left on the car,
it's time to do it all over again. This second time should take just as
much time as the first, this time concentration on edges of the body.
5. Final clean the whole car. Grab those CLEAN rags you've got laying
around and use wipe the car down with final clean until it looks like all
the residue is off the car.
6. Mix the primer with the hardener. My particular brand wanted a mix of
four parts primer to one part hardener. Mixing cups are given when you
buy everything. Mix with mixing stick. Mixing sticks are one time use
only.
7. Use filler primer to prime the whole car. Light coats are fine. I did
three light coats to ensure there weren't any runs. Make sure by the end
of the second coat, all of the color is now primer. (15 minutes between
coats at 70 degrees)
8. Let Primer Dry. Minimum of 4 hours!
9. Guess what? Time to Wetsand again! This time with 600 grit paper.
Yep whole car all over again. When you're done, do it yet another time
to make sure everything is sanded, corners and all.
10. Mix the paint, This is also 4 parts paint to 1 part hardener.
11. Apply paint the same way as you applied the primer. (15 minutes
between coats at 70 degrees)
12. Let paint dry for a minimum of 4 hours.
13. Mix Clear coat four parts to one again.
14. Wipe down paint with Terry cloth to get all dirt off. Whatever you
don't get off will be stuck in your clear forever!
15. Apply Clear coat, light coats. Clear coat isn't as easy to see when
spraying. Four light coats of clear on the whole car is good if you're
doing light coats because youre an noob like me lol. (15 minutes between
coats at 70 degrees)
16. Let Everything sit overnight in room temp.
17. Buff that car to make it shine =)
18. Drive it out of that garage and go picture taking.. Yes this is an
important step

Here's a pic of my car just after paint



I actually just got done painting a jdm grille black as well.

[OMEGA PHX]

^^ Nice write up very helpful, makes it look simple lol except for the sanding.

[keith6110]

For anyone that has not looked at my edit, I have shown pictures of the results. Its a ton of stuff to remember but when its done, it does look awfully nice.

[LatinoX20]

what size compressor did u use?? and whats a good gun to use? and how much body work experience did u have? lol sorry for all the questions

[keith6110]

what size compressor did u use?? and whats a good gun to use? and how much body work experience did u have? lol sorry for all the questions

Haha not a problem. Compressor is a 120 gallon connected to a 200 gallon tank. I don't think that matters too much, it just makes the compressor work less often. The compressor itself has a 5hp engine. Its adjusted to make up to 120psi and turn on at about 90psi. Gun adjusted to 50 psi limit so the psi shouldn't matter too much either from the compressor.

The gun I used is made by finish line. I had gotten it from harbor freight about a year ago for just under $300. As mentioned before, the gun is a gravity type.

Body work experience - I've used rattle cans before, lol! A ton of trial and error when I painted the car. what should have taken a weekend, it took about a week to perfect everything.

Ask anything else your curious about, I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. Welding and painting has become kind of a new hobby of mine.

[LatinoX20]

so overall with everything needed, how much $ did u spend??

[Alfmeno]

keit6160 could u paint my car!!?! xD how much would u charge me....well do it together to get it done faster...im 2 hours away from PA

[keith6110]

so overall with everything needed, how much $ did u spend??

between $1200-1500 for the entire system being on the high side. But the next paint job will only cost you about $350 lol. thats the way i look at it. My car actually got hit back in feb 2009. Instead of taking it to a body shop to get it fixed, I used the insurance money to buy all this stuff.

keit6160 could u paint my car!!?! xD how much would u charge me....well do it together to get it done faster...im 2 hours away from PA

haha if only i had the extra time...

[OMEGA PHX]

Wow the car turned out beautiful, what went wrong the first time you did it for it take the full week to perfect?

[Boosted]

i heard good and bad about maaco, i think it depends which shop it is... i knew a guy who got his paint at maaco and they painted over a line of ants lol u could see them through the paint...

Maaco uses poor quality materials and tools. I know this first hand as I have worked there.