This past winter I bought a 1994 Z28 automatic with 84,000 miles on it. Only thing wrong with it was the paint. I am planning on painting it sometime this summer and hopefully doing most of the prep work myself.

I'm new to body work and relatively new to cars so I've got a lot of questions. I'm planning on re-painting it red so I'm not changing the color on it.

What type/how much prep work is involved?
-materials?
-amount of time i can expect to spend on it?


What are some good brands of paint and possibly websites I can look at different shades of red?
-how much will paint cost me? primer?
-also going to need some black paint for the headlights and the middle of the car

What body parts should be removed to paint?

how much time can i expect the entire project to take?

If theres a thread or possibly websites that might help please let me know. I appreciate any help/feedback in advance!

 

Steps on How to Paint a Car

 

That guide only says to sand down the rough or dented areas. I thought to do a paint job you have to sand the entire car?

 

you do, I would recomend taking to the car and having it sprayed at the very least. 60% of the cost of a paint job is prep.... and prep lol



Block sanding every panel, filling, taking off all trim and windows, taping and covering off anything you dont want paint on. Wiping the entire body with a prepsol mulitiple times. Than once its painted and cleared it needs to be wet sanded and wheeled out. This isnt everything.

If you could get it to the point where its ready to be sprayed you could save alot of money and than have the professional make sure its right before he sprays it. Also the darker the color the more imperfections will show... scratches, wipe marks, dents, dirt in paint, etc. The lighter the car the more forgiving a paint job will be.

 

yea i plan on doing all the prep work myself so il make sure its done right. My dads mechanic sets up a paint booth in his garage so i might end up having it done there so i can see the entire project through myself and do it every step of the way.

 

PPG and Dupont make good paints. I use PPG, When selecting your clear coat, there are differend grades of clear that have different levels of UV protection etc, obviously you get what you pay for. You need to get special primer that will expand and contract at the same rate as the plastic on the car or it will crack, not any primer will work. I would find a paint supply store and talk with them, they can give you alot more advice since they work with paint and applications everyday.

 

bump. i could use a little more info, im sure theres someone around whos done a paint job on a fourth gen...

 

Just painted my sons car and did almost all the prep work. What specific questions do you want to know? I work at a body shop so I can ask questions I don't know. Things like the type of sand paper and what ever else.

 

yeah type of sand paper is good haha, how fine to go on the sand paper. best way to take care of imperfections (dents) in the body and what type of body filler to use.

how many coats of paint to do. total cost of paint and supplies, etc...

I want to re-paint it red, as close to the original as possible or maybe a little deeper red so it wont look pinkish red

 

This is probably kind of dumb, but on Pimp My Ride I always saw them mixing some color with some kind of oil(s) and that's how they made the paint for the car. What were those materials they put together?