The miata is multiple colors, salvage title, and rough looking. Its a true beater.
I want one color. I want it cheap. I want it decent. I want to do it myself.
Im seriously debating rattle cans. Krylon/duplicolor gloss colors.
Couple if years tops. Want to experiment with different colors and designs to see what i like.
Is@this stupid?
Other than having to strip back down to factory paint, what long term problems will i create myself?
This may also happen to the challenge car. I consider the miata a test bed.
Do you have a compressor? I'd consider spraying it with some thinned marine topside paint.
Here's an old thread that talks about rolling it on. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/my-57-paint-job/16401/page1/
I've tried the roll on method with Rust-Oleum and it was kinda a PITA. Spraying would make the process go so much faster.
What I used for the miata.
With no experience and an undersized compressor, it came out...Not terrible, for cheaper than I estimated rattle cans to be.
It looks worse under my leds, better in full sun from the driver's seat.
Implement paint with hardener and a $35 HF or Eastwood spray gun will get the job done.
No matter what you spray on top, results are going to be determined by the primer and block sanding work that you did or did not do.
I know that this is not your intent, but for a car that mattered long term, I advocate that you can save money by doing all the work up to the color coat and then take the car to Maaco.
I usually dont keep a car more than a year and a half. Usually.
Without knowing what color i want, or design, im hesitant to actually do bodywork/paint of decent quality. Additionally, i dont think return on investment would be there for a good paint job. Its a 90k california car with a salvage title due to front end impact. Its a 2000.
Tops it will ever be wirth is 4k. I could honestly get it painted and done for 300 bucks in black or white. With bodywork and base/clear. But.....
Might I recommend vinyl. It's not hard to apply. It's less time consuming as far as prep. And if you work with a buddy it won't be hard. (Though you can do it with one guy) the other thing is there are a ton of color options including sparkles. And who doesn't like sparkles? It lasts awhile too. A miata would take less than your average car. I'd estimate about 250$
If you have a compressor, do it yourself. Use NAPA single stage paint, it's quite forgiving to work with. HF HVLP guns work pretty well, especially the smaller detail gun - and being HF, you can get them stupid cheap. The one thing you don't want to cheap on is a breathing mask, isocyanates are pretty evil.
Plus, if the car ever needs to be repainted, the future owner will thank you for using proper paint instead of some abomination.
No paint needed.
I had actually bought vynil. But paint seems easier.
Didn't realize napa paint was that cheap. Looks like 50 a gallon. I already have a spray gun from harbor freight i have never used, and a compressor.
In reply to Stampie:
Nope. Not my thing.
Dusterbd13 wrote: I had actually bought vynil. But paint seems easier. Didn't realize napa paint was that cheap. Looks like 50 a gallon. I already have a spray gun from harbor freight i have never used, and a compressor.
You won't need a gallon 
I did a full color change on a Miata including hardtop and it was less than 2 qts if memory serves.
I rolled on Rustoleum after thinning it 50% with thinner. Worked great and no overspray. Just dust from sanding which was easy to clean up.
I would just roll on a coat in the morning before heading to work and it would be dry by the time I got home so I could do another coat.
In reply to Stefan:
How did it hold up? And was it even gloss? Ive seen a lot of talk about the process, but not life afterwards.
The only reason I can think of for doing a roller job is if the over-spray is intolerable to surrounding stuff ( like the neighbor's car). Fine, use the Rustoleum paint if you must, but if there is any way you can spray it, life is easier.
NOHOME wrote: I know that this is not your intent, but for a car that mattered long term, I advocate that you can save money by doing all the work up to the color coat and then take the car to Maaco.
Not so long ago I too would have advocated that. Then I read the horror story, ummm, I mean article, on the Maaco experience with Curmudgeon's rotary Miata project.
Duke wrote:NOHOME wrote: I know that this is not your intent, but for a car that mattered long term, I advocate that you can save money by doing all the work up to the color coat and then take the car to Maaco.Not so long ago I too would have advocated that. Then I read the horror story, ummm, I mean article, on the Maaco experience with Curmudgeon's rotary Miata project.
Details?
In reply to mtn:
They painted it with bassboat-style metalflake red instead of Miata red, then basically said, "Oh, well, hope you learn to like it, because we can't unpaint it." No mention made of any discount offer or anything, at least not in the article. Also, the overspray was positively epic - like they didn't even try not to get paint everywhere. Seriously, the car looked like it was painted by these guys:
I was in Tractor Supply the other day and stumbled across the "GRM Challenge livery supply" section, aka their tractor paint. It was $34 a gallon plus $12 for the hardener. Puts you about even $$ money wise with NAPA but it's another option.
appliance_racer wrote: I was in Tractor Supply the other day and stumbled across the "GRM Challenge livery supply" section, aka their tractor paint. It was $34 a gallon plus $12 for the hardener. Puts you about even $$ money wise with NAPA but it's another option.
It fades bad and gets chalky on vehicles not stored indoors. Like within a year
Dusterbd13 wrote: In reply to Stefan: How did it hold up? And was it even gloss? Ive seen a lot of talk about the process, but not life afterwards.
It's holding up just fine. The car has been sitting outside in the sun, snow and rain for years and it still sticks well (even on the fiberglass) and cleans up just fine when I take a pressure washer to it once a year or so.
I used white gloss and the spray cans matched perfectly for touching up a few spots that were easier to spray bomb.
I took a couple of weeks start to finish once the major body work was finished and it was just prep and paint.
I never bothered to wet sand or polish it properly, so once it goes back in the garage again this year, I might actually get off my butt to do that, since I want to add some graphics and stripes.
This site talks about how well it's holding up afterward as well as the overall process:
The limitation is the colors available, but they can be custom mixed, if you want. You just lose the ability to use off the shelf spray paint.
You can often get small cans of the stuff at Home Depot/Lowes, so gen some and some thinner and try it out on a couple of spare chunks of sheet metal.
NOHOME wrote: The only reason I can think of for doing a roller job is if the over-spray is intolerable to surrounding stuff ( like the neighbor's car). Fine, use the Rustoleum paint if you must, but if there is any way you can spray it, life is easier.
You can spray the Rustoleum paint too. Just thin it further, but overspray, especially in a garage is a miserable thing to deal with, personally.
In reply to patgizz:
That bad huh? I guess I'll just go down the street to NAPA. Thanks for the heads up.
In reply to Keith Tanner:
This is relevant to my interests as the Challenge Riv is going to need to be painted.
Which paint exactly do you recommend? They've got a lot of different ones...
I went around and around on this issue a couple of years ago when I was going to paint the E30. I came to the conclusion that, if you are going to do all the work of prep, sanding, masking, removing trim, etc, you might as well use "good" paint, it's not that much more expensive, really. And it'll hold up a lot better.
You'll need to log in to post.
