Dom1

As a painter I recommend you let a painter do it. Unless you plan to do a lot of painting it does not make sense to buy the required equipment. You will also need a relatively dust free area to do the work. If your at all picky you won't be happy with a home job, except maybe after a few attemps and having aquired hands on knowledge and skill. 9 out 10 times you will end up with a mess and then when you bring it to a painter to have it done properly they will charge extra.

Dom

gt37vgt

I had an apparent pro do mine took forever and not right and cost stupid i got my car back afer 11 weeks and there was a 2300$ bill above what i had already paid i never paid due to the poor job and never went back as i fugured if they cant get it right in 11 weeks why bother . i think next time i will go half way do the prep my self and pay to paint it . another option I'l consider i think i can hire a booth .

azmi951

I'm in the process of painting my car right now. Alpine white. Total cost minus most tools (already have them) is about $550 for DuPont Chroma base. This is a 2 stage, base/clear and is the upper quality levels. I have painted a few other cars before with fairly good results, all of them being better than the previous.

As a note, I would never take a street car to maaco. All the quality is in the prep and they don't do much of that. A race car would be fine to take there. Masking is slipshod at the maaco places and that stuff really shows as crappy looking.

I think even more important than a good gun is a dust free environment. Your garage is ok but you will need to prep it to be able to spray. Plastic sheeting stapled to the ceiling all around the car and draped to the floor is a must. Keep the floor wet during painting and this should be OK. If you are painting with a 2 stage you can sand and buff any minor mistakes pretty easily but a single stage metallic is a no go on sanding and buffing.

I will post some pictures tomorrow of my setup.

So far I have spent about 3 weeks working a few hours a day on it.

gregeast

Thanks Jeremy and Mike!

reno928s

I had a 94 4x4 which I had Maaico paint. I removed everything that I did not want painted. Ie: roof racks, side mirrors, taped the handles. And the job came out actually perfect. Plus they repaired three large dents two in the rear quarter and one door skin. All for 900.00.

Eharrison

Just make sure you get a good quality paint brush....$10.00 or more...................






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The DareDevil

I sprayed my hood. Check out my post: https://rennlist.com/forums/concours-and-car-care/360074-sprayed-my-hood.html

420WHP944

I've painted mine at home using top quality paint ( sikkens ). You can do it if you follow simple rules and dont try to rush things or cut corners. It's easy putting the paint on but all the real magic happens in the wet sanding and buffing/polishing stage - It's at this point which determines a top class finish over a bad one.

Slate grey is a metallic so it requires 2-3 coats of clear over the slate grey base coat.

Here are some pics of my results

M Danger

if there is a Blonde involved make sure so clarify the differnece between the Porsche and the Porch!

azmi951

Here are some progress pictures of my home paint job. I should be shooting the first paint Wednesday.

I have a DeVilbiss plus reduced pressure gun. I can not wait to see this thing done.

I even got the girlfriend to help.

dime1622

I painted my '93 S-10 GM Torch Red. Red is difficult and requires a lot of patience, but was a ton of fun. Got a good gun and went to town.

Things to remember:

- I made a plastic room in the garage. You CANNOT afford to have dust floating around. For ventilation, I put a box fan at one end (which turned red) blowing out and then had a vent about 2' tall and 10' wide at the other end and used furnace filters as a screen. I also had a hose inside so I kept the floor moist.

- Apply thin layers. I applied five layers of red and three of clear. If it doesn't look like you're getting enough, that's ok. Hit it the next time around. Else you run the chance of having runs.

- Apply at the proper time. Hit it with another coat too soon and you'll run into serious problems.

- Take your time, invest the money, and really concentrate on the bodywork beforehand. If you do, you'll come out with a very good product for much less than you would pay at a body shop.

sm

Can I beg you to take the tail lamps out before you paint?

azmi951

Shot color on Friday, here are some results. I have never seen such a great surface on a flat panel. I'm pleased with the results so far.

I recomend the DeVilbiss plus reduced pressure gun pictured. I bought it from spraygunworld.com and they have great prices as well as fast shipping. I'm not afilitaed, just pleased with the prices and service.

My only regret was not getting a face mask that covers the eyes, but a good VOC filtering mask is of the utmost importance. My lungs thank me but my eyes were cursing me.

azmi951

for those who have cut and buffed their paint what system do you use, example 3M perfect-it...? Foam vs. wool pad?

420WHP944

I used the 3M perfect-it system with the 3M foam pads with fantastic results.