Painting a shell - On a budget

I'd like to spray the interior and exterior of my shell. I know I could Rattle-Can it, but I'd like to try spraying it, this shell is as much a tool for me to learn how to drive as it is for me to learn how to build. I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'd like to use durable paint (don't mind payign more if need be). I don't really care if the shell looks perfect - I just want the paint to adhere properly. I'd like to protect all the work I've done.

I've got a budget of ~$400. I can borrow an air compressor, but I'll need to buy the rest.

Can I do it for that price?
What all do I need?
What am I looking for in a gun?
What are all the layers of paint?
I have allot of bare metal on my shell (other than the roll cage). Do I need to use a self etching primer?
Prep. what's the differnce between preping bare metal and an OEM painted surface?

Any tips and tricks would be great.

As always, Thanks!

EDIT: Oh, and I think I'm going to paint it all white. That's the colour of my spare shell...





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2009 08:35AM by Daniel Buehler.

HVLP gun.

We've been using paint from paintforcars.com. Not the greatest, but okay. It's cheap. Especially good for first time as you can paint it again in future.

Lots of cars here in CO that have been painted with just some scotch brighting done to the exterior. It's a rally car so you'll probably end up painting it again in a few years anyhow.

Maaco.

---

Grant Hughes

I painted mine for less than that, and it looks great.

Prep is the key. If you can, sand or scuff the factory top coat, don't go to bare metal if possible. Buy a can of etch primer to hit all the bare spots on the exterior, you really should then apply a coat of sealer, then use a single stage top coat. I used "performance White" Enamel, it was $129.00 for the paint, reducer, and hardner.

For the interior, I went to the Rodda paint store and bought a quart of red oxide primer, and a gallon of white Equipment enamel. I test sprayed a sheet and it was really glossy, and after it dried (took a week to fully cure) it is hard as stone. I hit the sheet with a hammer, and the paint wont chip. I made the mistake of thinning it with their synthetic hardner, and it took the sheen out of the paint, but it still looks way better than rattle cans. The paint stuff at rodda was $50.00

Buy or borrow a HVLP. you will need a big compressor. Practice, and read up on the internet on gun set up.

Just do it. even if it looks like crap, it will still be a rally car.

phlat65 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I painted mine for less than that, and it looks
> great.
>
> Prep is the key. If you can, sand or scuff the
> factory top coat, don't go to bare metal if
> possible. Buy a can of etch primer to hit all the
> bare spots on the exterior, you really should then
> apply a coat of sealer, then use a single stage
> top coat. I used "performance White" Enamel, it
> was $129.00 for the paint, reducer, and hardner.
>
> For the interior, I went to the Rodda paint store
> and bought a quart of red oxide primer, and a
> gallon of white Equipment enamel. I test sprayed a
> sheet and it was really glossy, and after it dried
> (took a week to fully cure) it is hard as stone. I
> hit the sheet with a hammer, and the paint wont
> chip. I made the mistake of thinning it with their
> synthetic hardner, and it took the sheen out of
> the paint, but it still looks way better than
> rattle cans. The paint stuff at rodda was $50.00
>
> Buy or borrow a HVLP. you will need a big
> compressor. Practice, and read up on the internet
> on gun set up.
>
> Just do it. even if it looks like crap, it will
> still be a rally car.

This is great advice.

---

Michael LeCompte

Yeah, but what is the weight on that equipment enamel. Ha. Just kidding.

---

Grant Hughes

phlat65 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I painted mine for less than that, and it looks
> great.
>
> Prep is the key. If you can, sand or scuff the
> factory top coat, don't go to bare metal if
> possible. Buy a can of etch primer to hit all the
> bare spots on the exterior, you really should then
> apply a coat of sealer, then use a single stage
> top coat. I used "performance White" Enamel, it
> was $129.00 for the paint, reducer, and hardner.
>
> For the interior, I went to the Rodda paint store
> and bought a quart of red oxide primer, and a
> gallon of white Equipment enamel. I test sprayed a
> sheet and it was really glossy, and after it dried
> (took a week to fully cure) it is hard as stone. I
> hit the sheet with a hammer, and the paint wont
> chip. I made the mistake of thinning it with their
> synthetic hardner, and it took the sheen out of
> the paint, but it still looks way better than
> rattle cans. The paint stuff at rodda was $50.00
>
> Buy or borrow a HVLP. you will need a big
> compressor. Practice, and read up on the internet
> on gun set up.
>
> Just do it. even if it looks like crap, it will
> still be a rally car.


Hey I've seen this car and it took a second to realise it was the rallycar since it was so good looking, only hint was the cage. It was black---like nearly all Xratty rally projects---but poof NICE smooth shiney glossy white.


Daniel, the big deal of real auto vs rattle cans is the hardeners.
The paint hardens and is durable.

One tip. don't spray on too dry, it needs to be wet, you aren't "dry film coating"

You want it shiney, make sure its wet---but no runs!
Practice! (like everything else)

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I just resprayed by car this past weekend....

Originally when we painted the car, we did it in a makeshift booth, made from tarps hanging form the cieling of a friends garage. Materials were about $300 cdn, and it turned out ok (you've seen it).

But it became evident over time that we didn't do enough prep, stuff was peeling off etc.

Last weekend a friend has a good friend who runs a body shop, we spent all day preping, then the next spraying. Turned out really good in Impreza Aspen White.

Both times we used a Single stage Urethane paint.

For what i paid (good buddy discount), it was SOOOO worth it to have it sprayed by the pros. The mess we made in my buddies garage, and likely of our lungs was not worth the $$$ saved.


now....BEFORE you put that roof back on, and windshields back in...you MUST prep the cage/interior/trunk/underhood, and get this painted...Trust me. Leave the doors off it, everything, just the bare rolling shell.

Then..go home, Put everything back together, and get the exterior sprayed.


Honestly...think about finding a Maaco or something. If you do the prep work yourself (just time, and lots of it), then haul it over there and get them to spray it. They spray cars everyday, and will do a decent job. There are a couple placed in/around Concord that will paint a car for like $300.

Your best bet. Go to a Napa Cmax Store, or a Carquest Paint Store. Go talk with the guy behind the counter, they will give you the info.

---

Chris

Awsome post!

So for all the exposed metal, use rattle-can etch primer? Cage included?

The cage is REALLY difficult. The DOM stuff is really oily greasy when you get it, and even after the cage is done it's still there. You need to seriously go at the cage with a ScotchBrite pad, and chemicals to get everything off, so the paint will stick.


If i was to do it again...I'd do the interior, engine bay, and trunk myself at home. WITH THE ROOF OFF!!!!!

Go talk with the guys at a paint store, and if you have a good compressor, find a "touch-up" HVLP gun...you'll get less overspray and it'll be better.

Ask Ryan what he used on his cage...it looks good...it's probably just Tremclad...which does hold up really well. It will stick to just about anything!

---

Chris

I figured I'd have to scuff until the tubes look like thet're actually metal. With that black coating on them, they aren't even starting to rust.

I've seen Ryan's cage in person and the paint looks great.

Yep, tremclad. It's not hard at all, and I used semi-gloss so not super shiny, but whatever, it works. Most of it's actually brush on. Rallycar, will get beat to shit, I'll have to grind it off in spots, I didn't want to get fancy and get annoyed later when I notice I missed something or want to weld something to the shell and burn the paint.

---

Ryan Huber
VA3AWD

Yes, the cage. I had the windshield removed, and I painted it before we glued the sunroof patch in. I spent a couple hours with scotch brite pads, scuff it really well. clean it with some prep sol, or something. I sprayed the red oxide on 1st, then 2 coats of the equipment enamel. My plan was to spray the first coat, then brush the areas I could not get, then spray the second coat, but with the roof open and windshield out, there really was not any spots I missed. You have to get pretty creative through windows and such. Also, I painted the rear half of the interior at the same time, but did not do the front half floor so I could climb in there. I will spray the front floor after I finish up a few more brackets. There are a few runners, but I am happy with it.

For a rally car this is what I do:
I used a palm sander with some 220 to rough up the existing paint, spray any bare metal with primer/sealer (rattle can is fine), go over all the edges/nooks/crannies by hand to get as much roughed up as you can. Things will start peeling from the crannies if you dont get in there and rough it up.

tape off what you dont want to paint.

Next wipe everything down with first a cloth/paper towel with some wax & grease remover/prep-all/paint thinner, and then with a dry clean cloth/paper towel to wipe up the excess.

I use implement enamel for the actual paint.
Benefits are:
ITS CHEAP! $30 for a gallon (which is enough to do 4 cars) vs $200-$1000 for real automotive paint.
Its available at every autostore in the country probably. You can brush it on, spray it on, roll it on, dump it on, doesnt matter.

The paint is too thick to spray as it comes so thin the paint out with some regular old paint thinner ($3 for a gallon of that and you need it anyways for cleanup.) It takes a couple tries to get the right viscosity, but my gun came with a viscosity guage (cup with a hole in it and a chart for how long it should take the cup to drain based on the kind of paint you're spraying) so its pretty easy to mix up once you play with it some.

Then spray away!

Here are some fenders I did for my (ex) rally car (sold it last weekend.)



I painted them outside on a gravel driveway. Pick a non-windy day, preferably after it rains. You'll get some bugs and dirt in there, if you want you can sand them out and polish it up, but who cares its a rally car.

Black is the hardest color to paint and those fenders turned out nicer than the real automotive paint on the rest of the car. So for my money from now on I'm just gonna go with the implement enamel. It doesnt last as long as the expensive stuff, but its a rally car, right?

Hell, even Krylon rattle can looks pretty decent. It goes on very smooth and doesn't splatter that I could tell. That's what I used on my flat black hood (yes, I realize it would look different if it weren't flat, but I'm just saying.) Kris Marciniak(?) and a few other of my friends also suggested said paint.

I would stay away from duplicolor rattle can though. I've had nothing but splatter and paint lines with them, no matter how hard I tried. Of course, one must also take into account that I painted was painting a flat surface horizontal to the ground, which, to me, is much more difficult to get right. And again, black is a super-difficult color to get right.

Here I go with contradicting myself, but I did use Duplicolor on my mazda fender, and it turned out really good. I dunno, I guess just stay away from duplicolor black if you lack experience like I do.

---

Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com

I just wrapped up the paint job on my car - white interior with full color change on the outside (really dumb idea -too much work in the end). it isn't perfect, but way more durable and attractive than any rattle can job. I used cheap-o Dupont Nason single stage urethane. Was like $225 total for the white, the blue, and all the catalyst/reducer I needed.

I would highly suggest the already suggested HVLP "detail" gun for the cage (uses ~1.0mm tip), and another HVLP gun (~1.4mm tip) for the paint. There is a chinese made kit my ATP tools that has 3 guns in it (paint, detail, primer) that works pretty good so long as you make sure you use the high volume air hose fittings designed for HVLP. I ponied up for a Devlibiss Finishline kit - 1 gun with 4 tips (1.0-1.4.1.6-1.8). I still wished I had gotten a detail gun for the cage.

It takes some time to get used to spraying this paint, so if you screw up plan on getting extra paint. I would highly suggest starting small and working up to painting the shell, otherwise things could get ugly. I would stay away from metallics for your first job - I didn't and I have some tiger striping on my car. You need to have alot of finesse and proper gun setting to shoot metallics evenly enough to get the metallic nice w/o runs/sags or orange peel.

Good luck! (painting sucks!)