Let's talk cheap automotive paint

Seems like the roller jobs work well for guys without compressors, and who only require black/white or solid colors.

I have a compressor, and the e30 needs some rust and body work. I want to repaint it, but I want it to look pretty darn good too.

What are the basics for a driveway spray job?

And also, I have heard that some paints (with isocyanates) require extreme care and protective gear, while other paints do not. Is there a paint that is safer for hobby use that will still give good results?

Here's the best picture I have of the paint on the e30.

It looks like most of it is in the rockers and lower fender. If so, I'd consider spot painting. I've produced respectable results with a HF touchup gun in the driveway - an automotive paint store mixed a small amount of matching paint. I've even rattle-canned the clear on occasion.

I knew a hack body man who used to say 'below your knee, no one will see".

The rust is all really low, and that's a really good point.

The hood has some clear coat issues as does the roof. The passenger side has about a 6" x 6" area that has completely lifted and water is actually getting trapped between two layers of paint. Never seen anything like it before to be honest.

Wherever you spray, you'll need some way of dealing with the overspray. Overspray from spraying outside will wind up on the pavement, on the house, on nearby cars, possibly on the neighbors rosebush, etc. The effect on the neighbors may be more imagined than real, but it's something to consider.

Setting up a temporary paint booth is possible. Check local laws.

Water based automotive paints are available. Try Eastwood.

X2 on just painting below the rub rail.

Speak to your body shop supplier about rattle can options. The one around here will load spray cans with catalized paint and you head home to spray the stuff that afternoon.

It is not cheat at just under $40/can but cheaper than getting a gun and a compressor and all theother sutff. And you are using real automotive paint that should be close to the original color.

I often paint the rockers on my cars with 3M Rubberized undercoationg; it leaves a nice satin black finish, and is much more chip resistant than paint...and if you do a quick 'touch-up' every year or two, it will always look new. The bodywork underneath only needs to be marginal at best as well.

On the Focus I also did the lower part of the rear bumper using a crease as the 'masking line'.

Turn your garage into a spray booth. I use plastic sheeting from lowes stapled to the ceiling, then screen door material covering the garage door opening and two fans for exhaust. Also make sure the floor is clean.

If you need to kill as much over spray as possible you can shut the garage to the top of the fans, then hang wet towels in front of them to catch the overspray. I prefer having the door open to let in more light and using the screen material to keep bugs etc out, but if you're in a neighborhood that may not be an option for you.

When I painted my 944 turbo I put it on jack stands to help me get the lower portion of the car.

As far as cheap paint for a BC/CC job....I've used PPG shopline, but really didn't like it much, so would suggest House of Kolor. It isn't the cheapest, but EXCELLENT paint for the money. As for clear I order from a place in Georgia called SPI. Decent prices and very good clear. I use the universal clear.

This place has good prices on HOK: http://www.coastairbrush.com/categories.asp?cat=44

SPI's website: http://www.southernpolyurethanes.com/index.htm

Isocyanates....yep nasty nasty stuff. I buy the dual filter painting masks at the local autobody store that specifically mentions protection against isocyanates and I use new filters with every paint job. I also tend to wear a headsock, painters jumpsuit, and gloves. Also, when I have to mix more paint I mix outside of the booth/room, so I'm not sitting in there with the chemicals as much.

Also, for BC/CC jobs you really don't want to go too cheap on the paint and clear. These days I'm either using tractor paint for a quick, single stage, (make this POS look better) type job or I'm using glasurit or HOK base with SPI clear for a pro level paint job. BC/CC is a lot more work, so if I'm going to invest the time I try not to cheap out on materials too much. Good luck!

Edit: Another thing to think about. If the car is in pretty good shape minus the places with clearcoat issues you can always reclear just those areas. The downside is the paint will look fresh there and older everywhere else. I did this on my suburban because the clear on the hood and roof was in bad shape. I sanded the dead clear off and sprayed fresh clear and those areas looked much better, but really too good compared to the rest of the truck. I've thought about trying a low gloss clear for areas like that in the future, to try and match the old clear better, but have not had a chance yet.

http://www.paintforcars.com/

Good place to buy paint it you're going to paint the whole car.

What's the story with the garage in the background? Any air flow through it? Line the side walls in plastic. Frame out of door with plastic/screen - on the ends - box fan sucking air through and and a couple of furnace filters where it's screened. Pretty much any paint beyond an alkyd (rustoleum) with hardeners will introduce some isocyanates into the mix. Acrylic Enamel is pretty easy to use. Urethanes can be a little trickier to shoot well. Both can go over a lacquer primer. While I've used half-masks, for recommending to someone , spend the $100 and get a full face mask and the right cartridges (3m 6000 series and organic vapor filter). Your eyes are a vulnerable spot for absorbing chemicals...

Acrylic enamel sucks. I like PPG Omni for "cheap" but "real" paint, but spring for the acrylic urethane for durability. Do your metal work, then MP170 epoxy, then filler work, then MP170 epoxy as a sealer, 3 coats of MP182 high build for glazing / guide coating, then your urethane single stage or BC/CC. I forget the number but the Omni clear is also pretty sweet to spray for a garage guy.

Beware the epoxy recoat window - I think its three days else you gotta scuff and reshoot. Also beware MP182, it shrunk on my black paint job and revealed some of my 400 grit sanding lines. Try for 600 grit on the MP182.

Also - like the other guy said bedliner is a great way to coat the rockers. The aerosol stuff is smoother in texture than Rhinoliner, and it also fades in the sun, so plan to touch it up every few years.

Edit - avoid rustoleum too. You can't put anything on top of rustoleum, except rustoleum, in the future. I found out the hard way.

And like most things in life, you get out what you put in.

Is there any good rattle can clear coat that I can use to touch up the clear?

I've been struggling with some similar issues on a Miata I bought recently. (No rust, but some clear coat issues.) I suggest you spend some time on one of the auto body/paint forums for good info. I've been spending time on autobody101.com. These guys say you can't, or at least shouldn't try to apply clear over an existing coat. If you need to clear, they say you need to shoot a new color coat first.

I'm also working on painting a race car using a single stage urethane system. There's definitely some skill involved in getting a good smooth coat. The whole project is taking much more time and effort than I expected.

Also, the auto body guys say that metallics are tough to spray well, and that silver (the color of my Miata) is the toughest color to get right. Don't know about gray, which I assume your car is.

For what its worth, I would probably do the rockers as advised with the bedliner. If you want the rest of the car to look good, I would take it to a real body/paint guy. A partial repaint of the hood and top shouldn't be too costly if you look around. Based on my research and experience with the single stage urethane, that's what I'm going to do with my Miata.

-chris r.

If you intend to touch up more than 1/2 the car I would paint the whole thing.

Buying paint shop premixed paint in cans adds up fast. If you have a small compressor you can buy an inexpensive jamb gun (lower air cfm requirement than a full size gun) for under $50 and it will WAY outperform the rattle cans. Plus if you clean it well it can be used many times.

Overspray can be a real mess. Do not spray within 40' of anything or anyone you like. The paint smell can also be offensive and will carry for 100' or more.

Use a good respirator. It is the equivalent to good jackstands. Being cheap is not worth risking death.

An alkyd or acrylic enamel will give you decent gloss right from the gun, but takes a while to dry so you would want some type of garage-booth set up to decrease the number of bugs becoming permanently part of your paint. If you cannot make up or rent some type of booth, you could spray lacquer since it dries extremely fast but has to be wet sanded and polished to get any gloss. Lots of potential pitfalls with lacquer, but most are not a big deal if you are not very picky on the results.

With practice and care, you can do a pretty good job with an acrylic enamel and a jamb gun in a garage with plastic to cover the walls as very-well described by others. Only difference to a cheap professional job is the amount of dirt in the paint and their ability to lay down good consistent gloss.

Is there a significant savings in getting a pro to shoot paint if I do all the prep and most of the disassembly first?

Or is it always such a headache for them to have someone else do the work that it's just not worth it.

A lot of pros will not paint over someone else's prep.

Here is the problem with letting a "pro" shoot you paint after your "prep", any painter I know that has a car brought to them, goes back over the car. Remember, it is THEIR name on the line. So, if the prep is subpar, but they shoot it anyways....Unless it's Maaco.

I think it would be reasonable to do as much prep work yourself as you can and then bring it to a pro - as others have said the pro may well go over it again themselves, but you can remove trim, do basic sanding and rust repairs (assuming you do them right, not just filling up the holes with bondo.) The more you can do correctly, the less they have to do.

As far as painting it yourself at home, I'd be hesitant about doing the work in that garage since it's attached to the house...in my opinion the potential of smells or overspray getting inside (as well as the potential for fires) is too great.

Taiden wrote: Is there a significant savings in getting a pro to shoot paint if I do all the prep and most of the disassembly first? Or is it always such a headache for them to have someone else do the work that it's just not worth it.

It can be if you find someone to do it, but you'd better make sure your work is very good. I'm no pro, but was doing a favor for a friend and painting his jeep for him. He asked me if I'd spray it after he finished the bodywork and prepped it. I said I would.

I show up to spray and that thing wasn't even close to ready. He spent another couple of weekends on it before it was ready to spray. Even after that I spent a day with him tackling small issues and prepping it myself.

Is it really true that doing a roller job will result in FAR more work if you want to get it painted by a pro later down the road?

Yes.

The solvents, or chemicals in the real automotive paint are strong enough that they will actually act as a paint remover on paints like Rustoleum. It will make it lift, curdle, and peel right off. If you've ever spray painted over another paint and had it wrinkle up and peel off easily, that's what happens.

As far as I know, a pro cannot and will not spray over rustoleum or boat paint, so they would need to totally remove that paint before they applied anything else. They would probably want to strip any panels painted with that sort of paint, so that is a fair amount of work.

A couple of other options to consider:

You could take the car to a local community college with an auto body program and see if they will take it as a project. I've known a couple of people who went that route that were satisfied with the results.

If you know any racers in the area, ask them for recommendations. They may know someone who will work with you to get the paint work done economically.

-chris r.

To me, the real issue is to figure out what your goal is. If you want to learn to paint a car, then do the research and by the appropriate equipment/supplies, and dive in. It will cost a fair amount of money and you will probably do much of the work over several times before you get the hang of it, but you will eventually figure it out. I wouldn't even attempt this in a suburban garage and without the appropriate safety equipment.

If your goal is to quickly arrive at a car that looks good, take it to a pro.

The only other option that I know of is the rustoleum/boat paint route.

-chris r.

Almost any good paint/body supply shop will give you excellent advice on this. The also usually have good single-stage commercial-grade paint that won't cause problems if you need to paint over it, but is still cheap. We paid under $100 for enough to do a car last time for both parts plus reducer.

if you're gonna convert your garage into a paint booth like others have said don't forget about bugs. They are there even if you can't see 'em and will end up in the paint once the lights are lit... or maybe they just like the solvents, I dunno.

I close everything off like said above, leave the area then shoot off a can of bug bomb... no more bugs throughout the spray job.

How do I know... ever try to pick skeeter legs outta drying paint, they are one tough mutha'.

I have been in the body & paint trade for over 40 years. Also have been a factory paint rep for Sherwin Williams. If you do a good job on the prep work and remove as much trim as possible, Maaco will do a far superior job to what you are likely to achieve with no experience or training. There are also the the other factors of where you will spray it and proximity to neighbors etc. Although it is possible that you might get a satisfactory result on your own, you can save a lot of headaches and possible expense by having a pro spray the car. Also, as has been mentioned, what you think is adequate prep and what a pro expects is likely to be worlds apart. I would suggest you talk to a local shop or Maaco for a cost estimate. You might be suprised at how cost effective having them spray the car would be. All that said, if you do your homework and are meticulous in your prep, it is possible to do it all yourself with satisfactory results. Good luck!