Questions for painting my car

[Racer88]

What is the best most cost effective way to paint my car? I have heard that using a paint roller and surrendering many hours of your life is a very cheap and effective way of getting a durable paint job but I would like to look at other option if possible. Has anybody here painted using the above method or any other method? Thanks guys!

[warnersiegle]

How much do you wanna spend?

[muffinman]

Originally Posted by Racer88

I have heard that using a paint roller and surrendering many hours of your life is a very cheap and effective way of getting a durable paint job

Put down the roller!!!!!!!!

[Racer88]

Really the money isnt so much the issue. I mean i dont want to spend tons and tons but I still want the best paint job I can get by doing it myself. I pretty much have everything except the paint gun and paint if I wanted to do it by air.

I have seen a lot of cars where people used a roller and it looks really good but like I said they paid $50 to $75 bucks but it took them hours and hours.

I mainly just want to know what my options are and then i can go from there.

[petedynamics]

$300-600 FOR the PAINT and CLEAR and thats it. Depends on the color. Then you would paint it.

[warnersiegle]

I bet the reason the roller took so long was the hours of sanding you would have to do to make it smooth. The economy paint job can be done will by going to your nearest harbor freight store and getting the cheapest top load paint sprayer they have. If you aren't near one check harborfreight.com.. they are a good store with middle quality but inexpensive tools. (on a side note I highly recommend the 3/4 metric color coded deep socket set, I've actually used them with an impact gun and they have held up amazingly)
After that go to NAPA auto parts and get sealer, primer, paint, clear and reducer. Don't forget to get the plastic additive for painting plastic parts other wise it will peel over time.
Make yourself a decend and extremely clean painting area.
I use homedepot construction plastic to create a paint room out of my car port. Then I vent it with and exhaust fan and an intake fan. With a filter on the intake fan. This keeps dust and general outdoor crap out of your new paint job.

Sand sand sand sand sand.. Rough up your paint a little and then mask mask mask mask.
masking is really tedious on mr2's so make sure to have lots of supplies and patience.

Finally, spray your sealer,(wet sand) primer, do your spot body work,wet sand, tac cloth and get your paint on..


Lastly love your 500 base clear paint job

[lepichichi]

i've been wanting to do this to my car but i'm afraid to messed it up

[PHOENIX]

Do all the prep work yourself and take it to Maaco and have them spray it. 90% of the time there paint jobs turn out crappy is because they spend 10 minutes prepping and sanding the car.

If you take the time to sand and prep the car for painting yourself and then bring it to them to spray for there $300 dollar deal.......it usually turns out pretty nice.

[Racer88]

Thanks guys. That definately helps. Ill get pictures up when i get it painted.

[iceNine]

The most important thing to do before sand, sand ,sand is clean, clean, clean. The surface that you are going to paint must be thoroughly cleaned of ALL surface dirt and more important all wax and oils. You need to wash well with a mild soap (sometimes two or three times) then use a solvent type paint cleaner and a cloth with no chemical residue (virgin cheesecloth is good) and apply and wipe off several times. If any wax or oil is left on the surface the paint will not stick to that spot and the surface will be irregular. Be careful that you don't touch the clean surface with your fingers (or even lay a roll of masking tape down - leading to adhesive residue on the clean surface) or you will leave skin oil and have to clean it again. If you sand before the old surface is completely clean you will just be driving the dirt and oil into the surface and you may not be able to remove it later. As for using a roller I don't know if that is a very good idea. Most automotive paint is pretty thin and formulated to be sprayed. Usually rollers for house painting, etc. are made for much thicker paint. You could probably get better results with Krylon spray cans if you cleaned and sanded well and weren't too particular.

[warnersiegle]

Originally Posted by PHOENIX

Do all the prep work yourself and take it to Maaco and have them spray it. 90% of the time there paint jobs turn out crappy is because they spend 10 minutes prepping and sanding the car.

If you take the time to sand and prep the car for painting yourself and then bring it to them to spray for there $300 dollar deal.......it usually turns out pretty nice.

This is actually a really good idea.... Be sure to mask everythign.. Maaco did the car I just purchased.. They got freaking paint on the dash when they sprayed the jams.. *******S..

[Jackstand Queen]

A good quality paint job at a body shop runs around 4 to 5 thousand. A low end paint job at the same shop might be under 2 thousand. Mako for under a grand. The difference is masking, preparation, trim removal, and the the quality of the end result.

Don't buy a sprayer and attempt to spray it yourself. This involves a set of skills so difficult to master that even wtih practice and instruction, not just anyone can do it.

I have the same problem as you. I needs paint bad. So I'm gonna do all the prep, masking, trim removal myself. Then I'm gonna find a skilled painter who does work out of his garage. I figure that after I buy the paint, misc. supplies, and pay the sprayer, I'll spend way less than a thousand . . . and end up with a really good paint job.

Car show competitors often spend 10 to 20 thousand dollars on a paint job . . . just for comparison.

P.S. Icenine is so utterly, and completely dead on right about contaminants and surface preparation that I'm going to hand out a "thanks" to him.

[Racer88]

I totally understand what it takes to paint. My father is a welder/Painter and I grew up learning how to do both. I know and have the skills required to paint I just wanted to know what option I had. Only difference in what I have seen is that I am buying a bottom feed sprayer because thats what I have always used.

I am definately not worried about screwing it up. I am also taking everything off the car to paint it. It is going to be lengthy but should turn out better.

[mhamrick]

I will love to see the results of your paint job. The last person I heard that from wished he had not been so cocky but painting is not that bad. Get a paint that will dry relatively fast as this will keep stuff from getting in the paint. There is another method of painting that uses the large foam brushes instead of the roller and it lays down better so not nearly as much sanding.

If you want a car that looks a 10 grand then you are going to spend the money for the paint job. If not then you will most likely get what you put in, and that may turn out fine. The key to a good looking finish is wetsanding. That is how all those high dollar jobs pop is by progressively using a higher and higher grit (up to 2000 and higher).

Good Luck!!!

Oh and be sure to use a grease and tar remover. It would suck to have the paint lift, craft, etch, etc, etc because you forgot to do this step. There is paint kits you can buy online that are decent quality and a lot cheaper than going to your local Napa. Think about a place that sells millions of gallons of paint a year opposed to a place that sell maybe 500 if they are lucky. Also the range of colors is more extensive on here and basically any color is available. DO NOT USE DUPLICOLOR!!! There is pre mixed paint is crap. It is a waste of money, time, effort, and you will not be happy.

[iceNine]

OK about sprayers and paint application:

So you have a compressor and an appropriate quality paint sprayer for automotive applications. I'd recommend an HVLP (high volume low pressure) sprayer as they give better results with less overspray and overall use less paint to cover the same area (good automotive paint is expensive).

Well, about the compressor; the air that is supplied by the compressor must be CLEAN and DRY. So an oil based compressor is a problem. You will need some pretty good inline filters to even hope to remove the oil that is bled off into the air stream. As to an oil-less compressor this is better but some people use inline oilers for their regular air tools so even if you remove that from the system the air hose has been contaminated by oil and will still shed off oil into the air that will mix with the paint spray and make it not stick well. Even if you just aid oil directly to your tools it can run back into the line and come out again when you spray paint. So buy a separate air hose for painting and never use that hose for regular air tools.

Removing water from the compressed air is also a big problem. There are a lot of inline filters that claim to remove water vapor but in my experience they only filter large droplets and the more atomized water is allowed through. You really need to add a drying cartridge filter inline with the regular filter to make the air really dry. This filter has a dessicant that absorbs water vapor from the air and when it is staturated it turns color and you throw it away and put more in (or dry it out in a hot oven if you are really a cheapskate). If you don't do these things the paint will go on contaminated with oil or water and no matter how good your spray technique is the job will never look great.

[curvesrgood]

IceNine has some good info there... I'm glad someone got into that as I didn't want to explain, lol! We did paint and body work for a while and the water out of the compressed air deal is spot on (we have filters on ours of course). I'd definately spray the car... just step away from that roller.

Also the MAACO comment is spot on... if you take a car there, take it prepped and taped off with everything you don't want the color they're spraying taped. Or they'll spray anything that isn't glass. Seriously, I'm not kidding... trim will be body color, turn signals and lights will be oversprayed, etc. We had a white Supercharged car like that (poor thing).

Also you DO indeed get what you pay for... good paint will usually look much better (even when fresh) and a year later (or 3 years later), should still look like it did the day you finished the car. Junk paint always seems to break down quicker and look worse much sooner than a good quality paint. We painted my N/A in house, but had it not been my car it probably would have been around a $3K to maybe $4K job when everything was factored in with labor and supplies.

By the way... IceNine... isn't that from the Recruit? Wasn't that what they were trying to steal? (or maybe my mind is failing, lol).

[iceNine]

The term ice-9 is from a book by Kurt Vonnegut called Cats Cradle. It is a crystaline form (fictional) of water ice that is solid at room temperature and also acts as a seed crystal that converts all water to ice-9. So in the book, a crystal is dropped into a body of water and turns all water on earth solid thereby effectively ending all life. Although ice-9 is fictional other forms (ice-13 I think) are theroretically possible under very extreme conditions (say on the surface of Jupiter).

[mmaxrossixx]

awsome info great stuff on this post

[tq_mr2]

I have a question for you spray paint experts. Years ago, a paint store made up a batch of matched paint for my MR2. The paint is suppose to go into a spray can, which they supply. Since then, the store has gone out of business and nobody will put the paint into a spray can. I have enough to spray the area that is right below the front bumper, above the rubber "skirt".

My question is: Can I use a cheap plastic garden spray bottle for painting? I'm talking about the type of bottle that is pressurized by pumping.

[SW21T]

I'm currently painting my MKI, what I did is sand it down(not to the bare metal) just enough to remove the clear and some paint layers. then took out my dents today. Haven't made it to paint but for that I'm going to go to Napa and get the paint there and spray it my self, first I'm going to primer though.. Heres my thread of my progress maybe it will help.

http://www.mr2.com/forums/body-shop/...-pictures.html