Awesome, I was going to do this with my car except I was just going to do the sunroof and see how it turned out. Guess ill do the whole car now.

 

ok guys, i started painting....its gloss hunter green

Zak

 

my pointer is to do some small areas untell you get used to mixing the paint. There is no way to say how to mix it exactly. Just mix it so its a bit thicker than water.

 

yeah i got the consistency down pretty well...how long did you wait between coats. i forgot how long

Zak

 

ok so i started today like i said, and i found a camera like i said i would too...haha...

so this is after my initial wetsand, and first coat of paint. sorry guys the pics were to big for me to just upload straight to this page, had to use putfile

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

take a look!

Zak

 

Not to flame here, but after painting a few cars myself I will tell you it is not the cost of the paint that's the issue in the cost of professional paint jobs, it's the prep work. Plus the automotive paint is marked up for the public. If you get to the car to the stage where it's at now, ie trim off, doors off and block sanded..etc..etc a maaco job will turn out damn nice and you pay a little extra and get the good paint (ie hardener added to the single stage and an extra coat of clear). Wet sand yourself and you'll have at least a 5 footer. Remember 95% is prep.

Plus you factor all the hours you have in it...my last car took me a solid week. Looking at it that way, $2500 for a good job (found a guy that does cars on side) is a SREAMING deal.

 

when it comes to budget paintjobs, nothing better than DIY...

 

yeah...well i appreciate taht but i dont have 2500 dollars to throw around, i have time though at the moment before my new construction job starts up...so for me its well worth the time and effort to have a decient looking car. no flame taken

Zak

 

I've watched my friend paint many cars and I agree with that. You can go to a paint store and depending on they type of paint used you could spend $50- $200 or more on the actual paint. Of course the equipment costs money, a good indoor location to paint costs money and it is a ton of labor to prep the car and mask off everything. Most of painting a car is labor so that's where most of the cost goes. Crazy airbrushed cars don't always cost a whole lot more in actual materials used but the added labor is where the expense comes from. A cheap paint job might not do the door jams and may not do any serious prepwork on the car. The paint isn't going to be good without the prep work. That's where the savings are.

I do think this process is actually quite interesting. To the people that complain that this process is too much work, don't think you are saving much time by doing it properly in a shop somewhere. They are also putting in tons of time. That's where the money goes. This is a nice technique for the person who can not afford to pay someone and who doesn't have access to the proper equipment or location to paint. This can be done practically anywhere. Is it to say that this rivals the worlds best paint jobs? No. It is something that can be done to make the car look quite nice for cheap and it can be done by almost anyone anywhere. That is it's appeal. I would surely do this over getting a cheap paintjob at a shop. I've seen what a $200 Maaco paintjob looks like. Don't do it.

 

its been totaly diffrent depending on the day, if its hot or humid.

usally about 6 hours to fully cure so i can paint it again or wet sand it.

 

can someone plz list the detail tools that's need for this project, cuz it's so complicated to summarize the original thread. thq!

 

Don't me to hate but damn that looks like emerald green.

 

the color will start to really show on coat 3
as for tools,
nothing other than a 4" roller with the white dense foam roller pads
and a small foam brush to get at the details.

 

update:
hood and light covers were hit with 1000 then 1500, they feel great and should look great after i polish.
fenders got coat #5, same with bumper and scoop.
ill give all of them their final 6th coat later today.
doors are on #1 (they will get #2 and maybe #3 today)

 

That looks sweet. How much time/money are you up to, now?

 

nice

 

time ~15 hours
money $28 it may go up a bit im running low on 800 grit and need a new detail brush.

 

can someone tell me the reason y wet sand the car after every coat? thq.

 

Looks Great Snowball Keep us updated! I might do this to my 88t2 as well! (pro paint is just too expensive) i paid 2000 for my last one and it was crappy...

Kai, i think the reason for wetsanding is to take out some of the orange peel and at that high grit of sand paper i think it makes it actually smoother than the roller can make it

Edit: also snowball, i'm curious to know as how you are going to paint the door handles, because there is such a small tolerance for paint there without the door handle scraping it off when you open the handle..

 

you wetsand after each 2 coats...because it gets out any impurities, and it also makes everything about the same "level" for the paint to stick nicely for the next coat....just to make everything smooth as glass. the tools, here ill go take some pictures of everything that i bought, so you can see... i got everything at home depot. so far i have spent about 20ish for the roller, with 2 extra foam rollers, 1 foam brush, a pack of 400 grit paper, 1 sheet of 600, 1 sheet of 800 and 1 sheet of 1500. and a pint of the paint.

Edit: ok so coat number 2 is done... at about 8:30pm eastern time ill be wetsanding, then hitting with a third coat whoo hoo!

Zak

 

can we get some pictures of the paint from really close, i mean, around 2" away from the camera. Set the camera to micro mode so we can really see the surface of the paint.

 

i would but right now the camera is being gay....hopefully after tonight when i get the wetsand and the 3rd coat on i can get a closeup shot

Zak

 

hahaha if i was still a cheapo fc owner i would... ive since moved on to an fd and couldnt dream of doing this.. but i do think its awesome what your doing for 50 bucks it beats flat black, primer, or mix n match looking crap cars... honestly for all of you complaining would you rather this guys car be painted white and kind shitty or be primered, absorb water and rust to oblivion.... right on

 

thanks for the vote of confidence, (*even if you were talking about the other guy doing this with his white car), haha but its all good. doesnt really matter to me if people think this method is un-conventional, it seems to be working and saved me a **** load of cash taht i dont have....ive got the time to spend at the moment so why not right?

Zak

 

little update, whole front end has 6 coats just need to finish sanding and polish.
doors now have 2 coats 3rd will go on in an hour.