call me crazy but this is something I'd like to learn!

I remember as a kid seeing my uncle doing this at home with an air compressor and a lot of time and it didn't seem all that hard (from the 10 years of life experience I had back then )

Is it reasonable to start investigating this or should I just let it to pros?

 

As a former professional painter, I can tell you that it will not be easy to do at home. There are 3 main considerations here: 1) Cleanliness (and proper airflow) of your workspace will have a huge impact on the results, 2) You can get into legal trouble if caught spraying the stuff at home (not as much of an issue if you live in a rural area, but worth mentioning), and 3) Your experience with the products. To elaborate, you need an EXTREMELY clean and well-ventilated area to paint a car, unless you feel like sanding mosquitoes out of it (yes I had this happen once). The old adage that "a paint job is only as good as the prep work" is quite true. You need everything as clean as possible to minimize the amount of work you do later. As far as airflow, I mentioned this because you need to get the overspray out of the work area. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) It will land back on the car, which you want to avoid (I'll spare the long explanation of that), and 2) You don't want a big nasty cloud in your workspace. Regarding the legal issue, it is illegal to spray any automotive finish containing isocyanates outside of a proper facility (aka bodyshop with a paint booth). Granted, I've done paint work at home, but that's a chance I'm willing to take. Finally, your experience/knowledge of the products is crucial. Improper prep and/or spraying will cause alot of different problems... Solvent pop, excessive orange peel, dry spray, fish eyes, and runs, to name a few. To avoid a long *** reply, I'll leave it at that. Feel free to ask more questions if you like. I'm more than happy to help.

 

I have basically two cars: the TA that needs a fresh paint and a beater 5th avenue with random body damage, etc; I would totally be ready to practice on the 5th avenue and not care much if I mess it up.

I have an empty garage I can dedicate to that and I could make sure it is dust free; but one problem is that, while the 5th avenue is all metal, it it not the case for the TA and I assume the products and processes are different and this means I have nothing to practice on for the non metallic panels.

I am not worried too much about the law, considering I am in California and everything is forbidden anyways, so I stopped caring.

Now, this is not an attempt to save money and do it home, but rather something I'm curious to learn; the only thing I've ever painted was motorcycle panels after fixing them with bondo and that was with a spray can

Are there any good resources to read you would recommend?

 

I absolutely recommend practicing your skills on a beater car. I wouldn't worry about the difference in materials too much unless you're planning to strip the car of its existing finish. The only ways you would screw up the plastic parts are 1) sanding on the bare plastic with overly coarse sandpaper, and 2) applying an epoxy primer to the plastic (it can eat into the plastic). The plastic fenders and bumpers require slightly different prep methods, but the main thing is that the bumpers need a flex additive in the primer and clear coats (NOT the color) to prevent cracking. As for books, I have no specific recommendations. Just pick up any modern book on the subject and read it until you understand it, then practice what you've read about. This will at least get you familiar with the GENERAL process. When it comes time to paint, ask plenty of questions at the place you're buying the materials from. It would take me weeks to explain every nuance of each paint manufacturer's products, because each product line is different. For what you are looking to do, I'd say go with PPG products (or their budget brand OMNI) I've used PPG and DuPont, and DuPont is more complicated than I would recommend for a first-time painter. PPG tended to be more forgiving when I was first learning how to paint. Just read as much as you can and ask plenty of questions. And as for your rattle can comment, a friend of mine painted the tins on his bike with a buzz bomb, and it looks almost as good as if I had done it with "real" paint. Just don't buzz bomb your T/A!!! uke:

 

cool, thanks a lot for the info!

I'm definitely going to do some reading and educate myself!

 

Is the paint peeling on your TA? You might be able to claybar and buff it out.

 

There's no flaking, just lots of little nicks here and there; no major scratches either;

the nose has discolored a little bit and looks very dark gray instead of black.

Once cleaned and waxed, it actually looks very good, but from close I can see a lot of imperfections, but it's still the original paint.

Would it make sense given the overall shape to simply paint over?

 

Being a black car (aka a solid color with no metallic or pearl), you can bury some imperfections in the new paint. However, I wouldn't rely on this approach unless you have experience. Basically you would need to apply the paint (both color and clear coats) thicker than usual to fill in the areas where there are rock chips or deeper scratches. When you do the final wet sanding of the clear, it makes the blemishes disappear. It's kind of a hokey way to do things, but it can be made to work reasonably well. If you wanna try to spruce up your original finish a bit, you can just wetsand with 2000 grit and rub it out. But again, if you're a novice, you can f@#$ it up pretty bad. I had good results with this approach when I did my 96. I was able to smooth out the factory paint and polish it to where it looked like it was resprayed fairly well. Too bad you don't live in Ohio, cuz I'd be able to give you a better idea of how to approach this if I could see it in person.

 

right, maybe that's what I need: find someone local that knows this stuff and be the helping hand that goes to get stuff and carry things, etc. Seeing it done by someone that knows on another car will surely teach me

 

So you're volunteering for the position of shop bitch? LOL J/K man. But yes, I definitely recommend finding someone local who knows his stuff and seeking his advice. I should mention one caveat though... Every body guy has his own way of doing things, much like the more mechanically inclined guys on the board who argue over whether it's better to pull a motor from the top or bottom. There isn't just one "right" way to do things. I learned that lesson after changing shops and going from the #1 guy to the lost-in-the-shuffle-sh!tbag. All I'm saying is don't take one guy's word as the gospel (Kind of ironic, considering I'm giving advice.)

 

hehe shop-bitch I have never heard that one but it rings good!

I'll definitely do some reading first; thanks a lot for all the feedback you provided!

 

Ive worked in bodyshops all threw high school and college. Spraying a car is not something you can just learn to do. I sprayed primer a thousand times and the few times i shot paint and clear were very poor jobs. Its something like golf, it takes time, lots of time, commitment, stress management, etc.

I really would suggest you to just take it to a shop. By the time you get all the tools. (air compressor, paint guns, sanding blocks, 10 different kinds of paper, a DA to do finish sanding, a buffer, etc) you would of been able to pay someone for a much better quality job. Mainly because it willl be done in a booth. With proper ventalation(sp), a very clean enviroment so your not sanding out bugs in the clear as mentioned.(funny tho, makes me think back to all the stuff i had to do)

I know you could say that for the next time around you would already have the tools and know how. But are you going to start a bodyshop our of your garage?? I dont think so. You may do another 5,7 cars in your lifetime but not enough to justify the costs of buying tools.

I guess i am kind of being a debbie downer but i really think it would be more cost effective to take both cars to a shop.
If you have a compressor and could just pick up a da and a buffer you could do all the finish sanding and buffing yourself to save some money.
Than you would also have the ability to remove imperfections from other cars too. I would say this would be it as far as the do-it-yourself kind of things.
oh and btw, you could also do a lot of the prep too if you had a da and buffer. You can use spray can to spray primer because it will later be sanded. I know this post is all over the place, sorry just at work with nothing to do and keep getting side tracked.

whatever you choose. Good luck

 

I think I'm not too concerned about the costs of the tools, etc and pros will surely do a much better job, but to me it's more about curiosity and learning. I would work on my beater car first anyways; I guess I like to tinker with things and if I mess up, I can always pay someone to get it right later

 

No harm in learning as you go, aside from the high price of the materials. You have to learn it by doing, regardless of whether you're doing it for fun or for a career.

 

Im not trying to be negitive at all. But after working in a shop on and off for 7 yrs i know that i still couldnt paint a car and produce the quality a *GOOD* shop would. I understand where your coming from about the parts and money though.

I would go to a few local shop and get a old hood and maybe a fender. Try to get something thats pretty F ed up and see if you can fix it.

When i was 17 and learning how to buff and do finish sanding this is what i did. I would stay at work an extra hr every day and practice on junk parts. This kept me from burning paint or pulling paint off the edge on customers cars.

Occasionally I still would mess up and we would spot it in, but i got the bulk of my trial and error done. So go pick up something plastic thats cracked, bondo, sand, paint it, and see how you do. Or get a hood or door with a big dent(make sure its metal tho). Pull it out, and re finish.
Good luck