As the title states, I am going to try and paint the car myself this summer. From my income tax return I am going to buy my supplies, and paint it at my fathers work where they have a sray booth, so I actualy wont be there by myself so I will have some guidance. my questions are
>what kind of paint should I use...acryilic enamel, urethane or lacquer ?
> does anybody have any info I can read before I do this (website, books ect)that you would recommend.
> how many gallons of paint will I need of the primer, color and clear.
> do you think $800 will get me the supplies I need

I am not doing this just for the car, I am also tring to find out what I want to do as a career, so if I enjoy this and do well I may just pursue it.

thanks for your help guys
Greg,

 

i dont know much about painting, but i wish you the best of luck! i think that would be a fun thing to learn! goodluck man!

 

if your fathers job has a paint booth wouldn't he be able to offer you advice? and #2, any body shop supply store should be able to point you in the right direction, for a first timer on the cheap nothing beats single stage, but it will fade faster than a base/clear, but will be half the price at least.

 

What color? If it is white, go with a single stage. They are cheap, and with white you will never be able to tell the difference once its cured and waxed compared to a base/clear.

 

think what hes talking about is PPGs concept line of paint. i painted a plane for my buddy with that stuff to save weight and it turned out NICE i really like concept. in most cases concept will look better.

 

If you are going with a metallic color don't use single stage. It'll be very easy for a beginner to model, or tiger stripe, the metallics. Spray 6 to 8 inches off your panel, with a 70% overlap, don't try to do it in all one coat. It's not hard to do if you are painting the whole thing. Blending is where things can get tricky.


Me personally, I'd stay away from laquer paints all together.

 

No offense to anyone who has already (or will be posting), but make sure to take what everyone says with a grain of salt. This isn't exactly the best place to ask for expert advise about painting a car. If you want something that looks amazing, I'd suggest finding a forum for hotrods, maybe look around www.hemmings.com or ask a professional painter. I've seen too many poorly painted Camaros on ebay, so I'd heavily suggest finding out how to do it right from a pro!

From what little I know, single stage paint tends to be dull. That's really all I can offer.

 

i agree... if you would like you could take a look at my car the link is in my sig. i didnt really paint it myself its just alot easier saying it than explaining it. I did all the body work and pre work and my ole man shot the paint. my ole man has been painting since god knows when and hes 50 now. hes had a few cars that hes painted go across barrett jackson and sale for good money a few over 125K. not to brag but he knows his **** and i would only trust about 2 other guys to even think about spraying paint to anything i own. iv seen alot of guys on this site doing some shady stuff and trying to get other to do it as if its the best thing to do IE filling holes with bondo WRONG!!! or taping up everything on the car to shoot paint instead of taking the parts off... anyways if you are going to do it make sure you do it right the first time. finding a good site that deals with just body work would be a great idea. as far as the laquer base... not my deal id go with a urathane (dont know how to spell it) based paint. if you would like to know more just PM me.


edit: i have also seen a few guys that actually know what they are doing on here too just to clear that up.....

 

He's painting the whole car (i'm assuming), there is no blending involved in it, unless he is spot painting.

I wouldn't recommend what you're doing. To paint your first time with your own car with little or no training....it's not going to turn out well. There is a lot to remember and get used to before your arms and hands physically remember what to do and you can do a good job. Speed, distance, angles, aren't easily learned for most. Some things I can tell you to remember off the top of my head that has not already been mentioned:

-let go of the trigger when you change directions
-for a beginner, I'd recommend you change up your spray pattern. By that I mean, spray to the edge of a door first coat, then end your path well into the next door on your second coat with the edge of the door being in the middle of your path. You may even need 3 coats of base.
-Spray things like side view mirrors first, so that you do not get overspray on a just painted coat on your door. So spray the mirror, then the door.
-Mask well, use the correct tape where necessary and CAREFULLY peel the tape off around the edges of the paint before the clear is completely dry to prevent the tape from peeling off your paint when you de-mask.
-Do not test spray on the car, do that on a suitable peice of paper on the wall.
-Clear is sprayed a little differently than basecoat, do not spray in the exact same fasion as you did the base.
-I prefer Urethane paints
-Depending on your booth, keep the floors wet to prevent trash in your clear or even worse, your base. It mostly occurs in the clear, though.
-Take everything said here with a grain of salt, as said before, even from me. One guy says 70% overlap, I think he's wrong, he'll say I'm wrong......so, just ask your dad.

If you are going ahead and doing this, I'd recommend videos mostly. Like Kevin Tetz's Paintucation videos.

http://www.paintucation.com/

Obviously, only buy the DVD's or VHS's that pertain to painting, unless you need some body work.

Are you prepping the car also? IE: bodywork, Primer? There is more I can tell you of the primer stages.

 

yes, I am painting the WHOLE car its orignial color bright red. Thanks everyone for your help especially MarcR94v6. Like I said though, I will be reading up alot on this . I am also going down to barnes and noble to see if they have any books on it. I am not planning on doing this till the end of spring so I will have ample time and I will practice on a junk vehicle we have.

 

I was misinformed about the overlap. 75% is good. I am still a student (not at an overrated tech school), afterall, but I can vouch for the rest of my info because I've done it.

 

Do you ahve any painting experience?

 

No but my father does, so he wont let me screw it up. Hell i had no experiance when i rebuilt my motor and so far its ran over 3k miles.

I will post pics throughout the endevor.

 

Man.... kid I dunno what to tell you... don't just jump out and poaint your car.... use his both to practice and learn how to do it. So you wont have to do it twice.

 

I used to paint houses professionally for years. I can say that I am an excellent painter for houses. I can also say that painting cars is nothing like painting most anything else. I also have seen more lousy paintjobs on cars done by individuals than I have seen good ones. I am sure it is like painting houses as it took me years before I had it down well enough to the point at which I considered myself "good".

Ask the pros who have been doing it a long time. They will be able to give you the best advice on all of this. It is something that would be awesome to learn, and could make you a bit of money if you wanted to do it as a career. At the same time (not trying to be discouraging), I woulnd't expect you first few paintjobs to turn out so good, even with great advice, unless you physically have someone with experience at your side while you do it.