mloya1994

The previous owner of my fc spray painted the car, not that the best looking paint job obviously but the paint has visible runs around the car. Looking to paint the car but not looking to drop a lot of money on a paint job. Cheap options for paint? I would do plastidip but dont really want to worry about repainting it if it peels.

nepopolus

there is a ton of options if you are capable/have the tools to paint it yourself. Otherwise the cheap option is basically maaco...from what i have seen this is hit or miss, since maaco is a private ownership the quality can greatly vary from store to store. This is what made me learn to do it myself instead of gambling money

mloya1994

Maaco is what i was thinking. From what ive heard the maaco in.my area does a pretty decent job. But the way i see it a cheap maaco job will be bettet than the spray paint thats on the car now

nepopolus

usually the story I hear about maaco is if you do the prep work correctly, and only have them spray it, The car will turn out pretty good. But if you just drop it off they will cut corners, especially with a spray bombed car, I would say you need to prep the car personally. At the very least get the spray paint off the vehicle, if maaco ends up spraying over it, and it has a compatibility issue with there new paint, then it will not probably last more then a year before flaking off.

mloya1994

What exactly is the prep work i need to do if you dont mind explaing?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Debatable.

If you ever decide to properly paint the car, the Maaco paint will be much harder to remove than the Plastidip you mentioned before.
At least the Plastidip doesn't pretend to be permanent like Maaco does.

All the bodywork- like rust repair, dent mitigation, panel straightening.
All the sanding/stripping.
All the cleaning.

Maaco will get overspray on absolutely everything, so unless you want it painted you'd better mask it yourself. This includes by the way, the entire underside of the car and all of the engine bay.

The odd thing is that actually spraying the car- just the time you spend with gun in hand- is the ONLY fun part of the process and also one of the shortest. If you do all the **** work- and that is the most accurate description of bodywork- you're paying Maaco to do the easiest part of the whole project.

nepopolus

after you have done all that is the exact reason it is kinda goofy to go to maaco....why put in the INSANE amount of time to get the cars body into the best shape that you can, only to get it sprayed by a random dude with mediocre at best paint. The hardest part is not the paint itself, fixing small dents/ rust is a massive time sink especially for a novice. This process is exactly why you would pay someone quite a bit of money to paint your car.

mloya1994

My boss got her car painted at the local maaco and said they did great. But assuming i do all the body work how much would i spend on buying a gun and paint to just do it myself? And im not looking to get an expensive paint job simply bc most of my money will be going into the t2 swap and interior and body work. I need new fenders and i need them rolled. New bumpers and all new interior. Random question what is the process of rolling fenders? How could i do it myself?

mloya1994

Okay i talked to my dad about it. Thinking ill go ask what their whole prepwork process is so i can make up what they dont do. Then throw on my drift wheels and tires (since it doesnt matter how they look) cover all the glass myself and tow it in to get painted

nepopolus

if you are doing a swap I would wait until after that is completed to paint the vehicle (besides engine bay if you want a color change)
better to have a running vehicle with the power you want then a pristine newly painted chassis with no engine, especially on a budget. I would also think quite a bit about how much money you are about to start dumping into this car, finding a turbo 2 would overall be a better option.

start adding up all of the pieces you will need to get the car to where you want it.
1) jdm engine and trans for swap, THIS WILL NEED A REBUILD, running a engine that has a probability been sitting for years will more then likely have a short life. This cost an average of 1300$ and a rebuild will be around 1000$ if you get lucky and have all good internals, and the trans is fine.
2) turbo rear end, driveshaft, axles = 650$ and I am lowballing this

just with those 2 things you are over 3000$ and that is not even adding in a cooling system, clutch, ecu, exhaust, etc.

personally I would say save your money or maybe do some suspension upgrades to enjoy the car you have, And if you do decide to get a turbo car you can swap the suspension parts you buy over. You are basically talking about redoing an entire vehicle witch is fine I suppose if that is what you want, but keep in mind I would not be surprised to see you spend over 10k on this car to get it somewhere close to where you want it.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yes, indeed.
Get all your mechanical/modifications out of the way, then pull it all apart for bodywork.

For an interesting take on the whole process, see Aaron Cake's Cosmo project.
He hasn't gotten to body/paint yet but does show the long crappy job of getting there.

In a meta sort of way those videos are the perfect bellweather of your ability to do the work. If you haven't the patience to sit through @10 hours of horrible similes, you don't have the grit to perform the actual labor.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

THIS, There is over 3 maaco in my area and 2 out of the 3 have no idea what body work means. It is like the techs learned body work from a "paint by numbers" coloring book.

The third how ever, Fantastic work. Not $10000 straight lined frame off restoration quality, but I was rather impressed with how 4 peoples cars I knew turned out for the money.

Me personally, would find a guy who does body work on the side. Someone who I can leave the car with and say "take your time with it, no rush" I have a guy like that, and if I give him a car at the beginning of winter, come summer I get a fantastic job at a good price because hes not in a hurry to push 15 cars through that week.

Time is money, Patience is saving

mloya1994

Idk probably doing paint second to last then engine swap. Not sure tho engine bay is white and green and the cars gonna be light blue but i dont really care so much about the color of the engine bay so probably wont paint it.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Not caring is a luxury you forfeit when you begin the job.
All the little things you didn't care about will add up and sabotage your effort.

Actually, not painting the bay is probably a wise decision; it's twice the job the body is.

mloya1994

I figured seeing as id have to remove everything. Plus my cover is white and green and have green hoses. Not looking to buy new hoses