So! Lets see, the car started off simple. A silver 1988 gxl. I had been around the car my whole life. I remember being in it as a little kid and always calling it my moms "sports car". So many years later I started driving. The car had sat on the side of our house for around 5-6 years. Cleaning out the gas tank, getting new spark plugs and a new fuel pump was all it needed to run. Anyways, I don't have any stock pictures, just the ones after I added rims and the re-amemiya mirrors. oh and after my dumb *** wrecked it.. enjoy.

 

So I ended up buying an s5 parts car and used what I needed to fix the car.


the car looked like this for a long time. Oh yeah, added the turbo hood.

 

The car was in DIRE need of body work.


Got that done and also did a bonez exhaust from the downpipe back. Picked it up for 50 dollars!

 

Excuse the nasty blacked out tails and monster truck height. Here's some pictures of the exhaust.

 

So keep in mind I was doing this at 16-17 so the money situation sucked. I had even quit one job as I needed to go to texas and pick up a TurboII

Anyways, the next big project was paint. And I wasn't about to take it to some place and spend a ton of money (that i didn't have) when it was possible to do a rustoleum paintjob. My dad was up for it, so why not?

Sanding, sanding, and more sanding!

 

Great to see a car with so much history.

Rattle can paint jobs can look pretty good when done right. Good luck

 

The prep work is really what makes the paint job. And instead of rattle can we actually used a paint gun! Thinning it with mineral spirits.

 

I always wondered if that would work.

Could you let us know what your ratio would be with the paint/mineral spirits? Some say the viscosity of milk, but I don't know the ratio for that is.

 

ive done the rustoleum through i spray gun before, and at the time i thinned it out 1 part paint to 3 parts mineral spirits.

can't wait to see the pictures of how it came out man

 

I hear rustoleum lays very nice with a gun.

If you seal it properly and take care of it, it shouldn't fade.

 

Pics please!

 

okay some primered pics (rattle can) and some pics after the first few coats. Last pictures are after 4-5 coats.



I'm super happy with the quality of the paint. Make sure if you're going to do this paintjob you need to do a minimum of 7 coats. We also did wetsanding after every 2 coats with 600-1000 grit sandpaper. Then after the final coat, do a wetsand with 1500 grit.

Also, the ratio of the paint was a bit iffy. It deffinately plays off the environment/temperature/humidity of the area you are painting in. We painted this car in a NASTY garage where dust particles were flying around everywhere. DO A GOOD WETSAND!

We started off with a 50/50 ratio and went all the way to a 70/30 of paint/mineral spirits mixture. Paint came out very thick and had awesome coverage. Play around with it!

 

A couple more pics of finished product. Car was compounded and polished.



Had some s4 tails that i refinished and I think they came out pretty damn awesome. The trim was also painted with black rattlecan rustoleum. Got new windshield moldings and other little bits.

 

super impressive!

 

Looks great.

What was the total cost?

 

wow that **** turned out really nice

 

Yeah man it turned pretty damn good!

 

Pictures of the shine? Looks great!

 

Got the car lowered on these tokicos and tanabe springs! Last pic is the only one I have after the cars been lowered.

The price was around 300 dollars if you already have a gun and the supplies needed to shoot the paint. You really can't go wrong with that lol! Just remember, it's a ton of work, but everytime I look at the car, I'm happy with all of the time I put into it!

The cars only been cut and polished, when it gets another polish we will wax it and then it will really shine! Photoshoot!

 

wow what dedication and time put into it man.. NICE!

i really like the way it came out too.. super clean man goodjob

 

I am shocked it turned out so good. Great job!

 

Great results!

This is really tempting to try, but for 300 plus shooting supplies (200+) I could do all the prep work and take it to get sprayed. Plus theres the time it would take to learn how to get even coverage and adjust the ratio. But if I had the skills/supplies....

Btw, what did you do for clear coat?

 

I'm quite impressed. Body work and paint scare me, but to see it done by someone and have it turn out like that, may get me working on my hood

 

$300 really? you could of bought some real paint for that. but looks good for diy.

 

I didn't even do a clear coat. I hate seeing cars with the clear peeling off and making the entire car look junky.

and hyper- Another big reason we did rustoleum was cause it was easier. Gonna do a corksport s4 lip. This will also get rattlecanned, and then I won't feel as bad when it scrapes. Touch ups will be waaay easy.