Painting a shell - On a budget

Have you got some time?

Is there a Community College near you with an Auto Body program?

Most of them will paint a car for free - you just have to pay for materials.

NGTD Wrote:
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> Have you got some time?
>
> Is there a Community College near you with an Auto
> Body program?
>
> Most of them will paint a car for free - you just
> have to pay for materials.

Around here the cars must be within 5 years old max "becuase we want the studentskis to have experience on current car types".
Unless you work there. And I have a couple of my long term Saab customers who work at 2 of the local community colleges, then the rule is waived.

I tried to reason "Yes for body work and repairs that makes sense, but painting is painting....."
No go.

Can't hurt to try.

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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.

A lot of new cars have the plastic bumpers and trim pieces which use different paints and primers and adhesion promoters.

Otherwise, painting is painting.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

phlat65 Wrote:
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> 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.
>
> 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 about what I did as well.
~160$ worth of paint for me (this is in Denmark - prices doesn't "translate" that good though).
Get a somewhat decent HVLP gun with the cup on the top of the gun (gravityfed) - this means you can run thicker paint with lower pressure, which will give less tendency for runs.

When painting the exterior, I tend to agree with someone who mentioned: Leave doors, hoods and hatches OFF and do them separately at a later point (or prior).
It takes some careful planning and experience to paint a whole car inside out, with all doors etc. on.
Handling the gun with one hand, opening and closing doors with the other, moving ladders, handling the hose, making sure you get coverage on ALL edges, etc. - is actually quite a big task. Too big for me it turned out :-).
So for you first project, I would definitely take it in a few steps like: interior, exterior, hoods/doors/etc.

The advice on 220 grit paper for OEM-paint, scotch brite pads for all nook and crannys, and some primer for where you accidentially go through to bare metal, are the exact same thing I do.

Oh - and get a proper filtermask - not just those paper-thingys...
Use goggles since the stuff gots in your body through the eyes as well. Gloves - obvious too....

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Brgrds
Brian

Dazed_Driver Wrote:
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> A lot of new cars have the plastic bumpers and
> trim pieces which use different paints and primers
> and adhesion promoters.
>
> Otherwise, painting is painting.
>
> Feisty Peacock?
>
> My noodle I doodled was ate by a poodle

Actually, I thought this as well but the guys at the paint shop told me this wasn't the case anymore (at least with the urethane paint I was getting). I asked them about adhesion promoters and flex agents/etc and they said that you don't need them (the docs from Dupont don't mention it although they do mention bumpers/etc as a substrate). I did end up buying a can of "Bulldog adhesion promoter" and used it on my front bumper before the respray but aside from that painting was painting. Could be that with other/older paint technologies you needed it, but the Dupont Nason "2K" Urethane is apparently designed to go straight on with no special prep. Hopefully it doesn't fall off!

My price was a bit higher because the color I chose was more expensive and I'm sure the place I bought it wasn't the cheapest (it was the closest/easiest). I went with this color solely to annoy all the people on here that hate blue Subarus!

If you're going to use automotive paints and finishes, make nice with the guys at Wesco or your jobber.

They know the products and can really be your best resource for doing a good job.

Paint jobs are nickle-and-dime affairs. Abrasives, prep chemicals, catalysts and reducers are actually significant or perhaps majority cost of the jobs. Paint is usually around half the total materials in my experience.

You definitely want a single stage product--acrylic enamel. Can be really cheap if your favorite color is white or black.

For the cages and interior--after doing it both ways--I prefer a brush on method. Hammerite works pretty good, isn't real expensive and holds up pretty well. I'd probably try to reduce it a bit next time though. Easy to touch up.

What is the best way to deal with suspension attachment points. Should I just thread a bolt into the holes and paint away? Will the paint a chip away the first time I torque things down?

I'm thinking about the warning I've heard when powredcoating/painting wheels. How the coating chips off and the lugnuts come loose.

I've bobbin'd some of the shell:



I'm worried most about them. I'll be painting the bottom of the car by hand... brush and roller (I think - That's the plan).

Anyways... any thoughts/tips are welcomed.

Don't worry about it, just paint it. Use a good etch primer... It should stick.

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Michael LeCompte



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2009 04:17PM by pikespeakgtx.

If you have the bolts, you might as well thread them in. Whats the extra 10 minutes?

Besides, it will make fastening the stuff a lot nicer, with out paint gunk in the way.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

anyone here used oil based rustoleum thinned down spray??? i have read that it workes well...on other forums.... (can mix it you get your color. very inexpenive.)

maybe not so well as urethane on the underbody?

Don't know, but the single stage white for my car was $127 for all the materials. paint, reducer, hardner

phlat65 Wrote:
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> Don't know, but the single stage white for my car
> was $127 for all the materials. paint, reducer,
> hardner

And I've seen the car, its way better than the usual 50/50 race car paint job.
I didn't even recognize it.

---

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.

It's nice having a car that looks decent but as we all know, the paint is going to get destroyed so there's no point spending big bucks on paint.

The last touch up I did on my rally car was using proper automotive paint since I needed to match the existing color. It came out real nice and the finish is hard enough to sand and polish out runs and orange peel but it has already been destroyed after 4 rallys.

I've painted a couple of cars with thinned out hardware store enamel (tractor paint) using a cheap harbor freight gun with good success and it's a lot cheaper than buying automotive paint and reducer. Spraying thinned enamel is even cheaper than rattle cans if you have or can borrow a compressor, it can look good and should hold up pretty well for a season. Another good thing is, if you pick the right common color it'll be easy to match panels and do repairs as necessary.

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www.DMackTyresUSA.com

is there a rustoleum paint somewhat equivalent to the orange on your car?? or mix this rustoleum color with this color to get the orange?

i have long planned that my rally car will be sprayed with thin downed rustoleum... for cheap build and cheap repair. which just might be a hyundai accent- i can buy them for cheap and find donor cars for even cheaper. 140hp is good enough for 2wd with an OEM motor and ECU. plus it passes OBD2 state inspection.

-Brian Barton

brianallmotor Wrote:
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> is there a rustoleum paint somewhat equivalent to
> the orange on your car?? or mix this rustoleum
> color with this color to get the orange?
>
> i have long planned that my rally car will be
> sprayed with thin downed rustoleum... for cheap
> build and cheap repair. which just might be a
> hyundai accent- i can buy them for cheap and find
> donor cars for even cheaper. 140hp is good
> enough for 2wd with an OEM motor and ECU. plus it
> passes OBD2 state inspection.
>
> -Brian Barton


I don't know the actual orange on my car so I had a paint shop match it and mix up some paint. They have this cool little scanner that scans a patch on the car then spits out a paint recipe.

I can tell you that I restored a couple of tractors in college and used some Ace hardware enamel (basically generic Rustoleum) they have a range of tractor colors; John Deere green, International Harvester red and I used Allis Chalmers Orange which was similar to the color on my rally car. I also painted my old vanagon with the Ford blue color they had. It was like $30 for a gallon of the paint and I thinned it with lacquer thinner, looked great from about 5 feet or so,l perfect for a rally car. I also foam brush painted my old Landrover with similar paint and you would never guess from looking at it, really time consuming though.

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www.DMackTyresUSA.com