Marcquito

First of all- Thanks in advance to anyone to decides to look at my photo gallery and answer any of my questions. I was a bit hesitant to start this project, but after thinking about it and finally saying to myself "why the hell not?" I decided to go for it...

...I'm going to paint my own car. Myself.

My goal is to make one helluva sweet paint job the first time around.

I have a few modifications I would also like to conquer as I do this. First mod is the front bumperette delete. I hate them. They look horrible. If you look in my photo gallery- I have a few pics of the front bumper taken off the car and sat upon some saw horses. You will see some studs sticking up on either side which was originally under the rubber bumper which goes straight through and bolts to the aluminum bracket. How does one delete this? I figured some grinding and aluminum welding would do the trick. Is this right? Also, the turn signal light has a gap between the light and aluminum bumper section once the rubber bumperette is removed. How to close this gap? Sorry- no pics of the light assembly.

Anyway- Here is my photo gallery with the sanding: http://gallery.mac.com/marcreymon#100015


I started with 220 grit.

Any advice? Any comments? Any... anything? I am doing this whole project ON MY OWN!

Oh yeah- I'm building an actual paint booth within the building the car is in. I have an air compressor and a series of paint guns. I just need to build the booth.

Okay, I'm done blabbing.

GTSilver944

For the bumperette delete, I ground off the studs and aluminum welded the holes. I used a wire mesh and a light layer of filler for the turnsignal area (somewhat lazy I know, but it has held up over time). Without the bumperettes on, you'll notice that the bumper isn't quite flat on the front side. It will probably need to be leveled/a very light layer of filler could be put on. I didn't "snub" mine though.

Enjoy painting - it's the one job I never want to do again.

Marcquito

Ah, thanks for your wise response already. The snubnose mod... I forgot to mention. I have considered doing this. What exactly do you do to 'snub-nose' the car? ...Correctly, I mean? I have done a search and came up with people doing as much as pushing the nose of their car into a wall and drilling out the cylinders to let the oil out. Something like that. I am not quite sure what I read. Any help on that topic?

FRporscheman

Grind those little nipples off, and fill the holes with anything you like. You could weld them, but bondo works just fine. Or resin, or epoxy, etc. To fill the gaps by the turn signals... I don't know. I'm sure someone has made something clever before, but I don't recall. If & when I go to do this, I will try to fit some very low profile micro bumperettes right over those gaps. Kinda like the euro bumper.

You don't have to sand that deep. I repainted my own guards red 944. You only need to scuff up the existing red, as it will act as the perfect primer for the new paint. The car looks good so far, but like the bumper looks like you sanded too much. Np though just hit it with primer.

Are you going to do the painting yourself too? Are you going to set up a booth and spray it, or go with the rustoleum fad? Or take it to a shop? On my previous 944 I did all the prep then had a shop do the painting.

You can do it! And kudos for going for it.

Smoker324

Marc,

Looks sweet so far... I am planning the same project as soon as I rebuild the suspension, rebuild the engine, redo the ... in a long time....

Looks like you have a good jump on the sanding, but what are your plans? What color? Same? Clear? Keep taking pics -- I want to learn more about painting.

Good Luck

-Dan C.

Marcquito

I actually haven't sanded too much on the bumper. The paint was very thin and came off almost immediately. I was quite surprised.

As for the painting- yes, I will be painting it myself. I have enough room, so I will build a booth to put the car in and shoot it. I'm not too into the rustoleum thing. I'd rather take advantage of my space and tools and do it the 'right' way.

Marcquito

Thanks for the compliments. My plans are to definitely keep the OEM Guards Red colour. I am not convinced to use a clear coat as of yet. My father was never a fan of clear coat for what happens to it during exposure to sunlight. I may just wet-sand the paint and compound it enough for a great glossy finish.

I will definitely be updating my gallery for others to see. I think it's great to show off a project like this.

GTSilver944

Talk to Burma shave (?). He was very helpful when I was painting my car.

alordofchaos

You'll also want to check out Allan's blog and update posts (search RL for amjf088) and Andrew's paint updatte posts (apierce918) for his old 944.

Amazing paint jobs...

GloriaRedStang

Good for you for tackling this. In a perfect world I would do this myself, too. As it is I don't even have time for a recreational drive now and then and I barely have space for a proper tool chest. I'll probably prep it myself and take it to Earl Scheib or Maaco.

Keep us updated, Marc.

schwank

Since mine is a race car it will probably get the budget treatment. It is definitely getting some rustoleum on the interior, but I want the exterior to look halfway decent.

IT just pains me to only spray the outside and have the lines on the door jambs. But it is a race car I guess.

When I paint the 951, THAT will be a PITA, as I intend to dramatically change the color.

Relaxed90

Marc,

Why no clear? Unless you do a single stage paint, I would strongly recommend a clear coat on top of a base coat that's meant for a base/clear job. If you do not want to apply a clear coat, go with single stage. If you go with a basecoat with no clear, you'll be buffing away paint particles every time you refresh it.

While you're at it, go ahead and shave side marker pockets and you'll have one clean, smooth car as a result.

If you need help shaving side markers, let me know. Remember I was into Minitruckin. We shave everything off of a truck including door handles. All you need is a MIG/TIG, sheetmetal, and body filler and you're good to go.

FRporscheman

My red 944 also had very thin paint. Non-clearcoated paint tends to get thin over time, as the elements erode it away, and people polish it off. I hand-sanded my entire car with 320 then 500, and tried to minimize the exposure of primer. If I would rub the 320 in one spot for, say, 10 strokes back and forth (20 strokes I guess) the primer would show.

I know clear coat is tempting but you shouldn't put it on any color that will get oxidized or take UV damage, like red. Because it will turn pink, and you won't be able to polish it! Waxing monthly is the ticket........

Just IMWO.
Either way good luck and have fun!

500

You are going to learn a heck of a lot doing this! Take heart, a very good paint job is attainable for a first-timer. That was how I did mine, I didn’t even practice before hand. Painting is not hard (in the way that TIG welding bicycle frames was hard skill to learn). It does not need any really special skill, but it is ALL about the time and detail that you put into every step. There are way too many “tips” to pass along all at once, but the few that I think are crucial are:

1) Make your prep perfect in every regard. Sand with the correct grit for YOUR products (that info will be on the manufacturer’s data sheets – for the Glasurit HS primer I used, it was P320 girt for example)

2) Disassemble EVERYTHING.

3) The cost of quality paint products may surprise you. Don’t skimp – buy quality. ANY paint can be made to look decent, but there are very real quality differences. Some people don’t care, but after putting all this work into the project, you probably will. I have always been picky, but after my painting odyssey I became WAY more picky about what constitutes good paint work. It has got to the point where I can mentally rip apart many paint jobs that I formerly would have thought were pretty good.

4) Related to buying quality paint products, also stick with one manufacturer and system. There are very real incompatibility issues. Professional painters may know what products can be cross-applied, but for guys like us, staying with one system start-to-finish is the way to go IMO.

5) Invest in the right equipment: Regulators, moisture filtration and spray guns (you will need a few…) and all the other ancillaries.

6) Breathing protection. Activated automotive paints are serious chemicals, nothing like what you get out of a rattle can. I used a supplied fresh air system, which essentially pumps clean air into a hood you wear. That is the ultimate safe way to go and systems can be had for $500-ish. Many will say that is overkill for one car, but $500 seemed ridiculously cheap protection. I also wore a 3M organic paint filter as back up in case I had to remove the hood for a few seconds.

7) You will need some sort of booth. I built a temporary one, which in itself was a project. Next time I paint a car, I will seriously try to see if I can rent a booth at a body shop and have my prepped car flat-bedded over.

There’s so much more and I can go on and on forever, please feel free to PM with any specific questions. There are also some pros here (Burma Shave) who have forgotten more in the past week than I ever knew!! Two final thoughts:

1) After painting my car, I understand why a truly nice paint job costs $7 to 10K.

2) Everything that you choose to do or choose not to do will have an impact on the final result.

Good Luck!!

Burma Shave

Excellent advice & beautiful car. I suspect it looks as good in person as it does on screen.