Painting Tips

[Tidybuoy]

Since I have never had a car painted before, I was hoping that some of the experts could give me some tips.

Being on a limited budget, I plan on doing some of the prep work myself to reduce costs. I plan on removing all trim, rocker panels, lights, handles, seats, carpet, engine, weather stripping, wipers, targa vinyl, etc...


I have a few specific questions:

1) Is is better to paint with the door, hood, & trunk lid on or off the car?

2) What is an approximate price for a decent paint job. My car dosen't have any dents, but there are a few minor dings that I want fixed?

3) Is it customary to pay a % up front & a % after completion

4) Any recomendations on the type of paint that I should be using. With my current level of skill, I would have to leave it up to the shop but I thought I would try & educate myself as much as I can.

5) Does the time of year matter for painting. I live in Central California which is hot most of the year but foggy in the winter.

6) How much time should I plan for this project. I'm sure I can strip the car in a couple of weeks but I want to make sure the shop does their part - correctly.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. This will probably be a next Spring project as I am still collecting parts & stuff - but, I want to get organized.

Thanks....................Vern

[M. Hendrix]

1) Is is better to paint with the door, hood, & trunk lid on or off the car?

Off, easy to spray nooks, complete coverage.

2) What is an approximate price for a decent paint job. My car dosen't have any dents, but there are a few minor dings that I want fixed?

After all the body work is finished, painting without any materials runs between $500-$2000.


3) Is it customary to pay a % up front & a % after completion

Hmm... yes.

4) Any recomendations on the type of paint that I should be using. With my current level of skill, I would have to leave it up to the shop but I thought I would try & educate myself as much as I can.

Depends

cheaper, durable, and nice shine, 1 stage urath.

more expensive, showshine, prone to nicks, 2 stage laq.

super shine, 10 feet deep, if anyone touches it you'll scream, hand rubbed multi layered laq.

There are many other options

5) Does the time of year matter for painting. I live in Central California which is hot most of the year but foggy in the winter.

Late spring for you??? lowest humidity.

6) How much time should I plan for this project. I'm sure I can strip the car in a couple of weeks but I want to make sure the shop does their part - correctly.

Whatever it takes you, and a day, to a month (or more)

You need to ask around locally, get a feel for where the best job is done for a fair price, and talk to those people.

They all work differently.

There are normalish paints that cost more than $2000 for the materials, and then of course there are $50 buckets of basic black, and everything between.

G'luck!


M

[Zeke]

1) a concours car would be painted apart but at the same time. It is hard to reassemble w/o nicking something.
2) materials are more than you think. So $1000 for a roll in and spray to $5000 for a show winner. You can spend more, sure.
3) yes, but not 50/50, IMHO
4) in CA you don't have a lot of choices due to environmental laws. It will be most likely a 2-stage paint with a clear coat. Most shops have their own mixing machine and tints.
5) shops have heated spray booths now. Any time of year is good. At a shop.
6) many times a shop will give you a little better price if they can use you job as a fill-in for work. But, you may not get your car back for weeks. Shouldn't take more than a week on a normal schedule. As far as your part, figure out how long you think it will take you and then triple that and add 50% more. You may still not make it time wise.

[Biggy72]

pulling everything off and spraying is easier, but it's harder to match paint. What I plan on doing is spraying all of my nooks and crannies and the under side off the car and then put the stuff on and spray a top coat over everything. This will ensure that the flow is the same on all body panels.

With time you can probably do most of the work. Taking the stuff apart's not that hard, and putting it on isn't so tough either, but if you can do most of the sanding and prepping you can save yourself alot of money. And if you can do most of the sanding yourself, it's not that hard to shoot really once you get a feel for the type of gun you're using and how wet or dry your paint is.

[914GT]

Tidyboy

Here are a few more opinions:

1) With painting doors and hoods off the car, you have to watch out for shading differences especially with metallics. It's best to paint everything at once and with same orientation as on the car to prevent shading differences. I just painted my 914 with doors and hoods off. If I was to do it again I would have shot the door jambs and inside trunks, then reattached the parts, masked-off, and painted the outside last. I think I would have got a little more uniform coverage of the basecoat and better coverage on the edges of panels.

2) I don't know, I do it myself cause every paint job I've had done has been a disappointment. Urethane base runs about $100/gal and clears $120-$150/gal. The paint, hardeners, reducers, primers, etc. will be around $300-$500. The labor all depends on how perfect you want the bodywork and paint done.

3) I wouldn't do it without half the $$ up front.

4) The best paints are polyurethanes. I like base coat/clear coat but some prefer single stage. You need BC/CC for metallics. These can be immediately sanded and buffed to show-car shine. This is the best choice for a driving car. Extremely durable and resistant to sun and air pollution.

5) Pro shops have the equipment so weather doesn't matter. Smaller home garage operations have to watch out for humidity (dry compressed air) and temp (choice of reducer). New paints don't need to be baked, they are a chemical reaction to harden and don't dry. Unless it's really cold in the shop.

[Tidybuoy]

Thanks Guys!

Sound like a good idea to paint the inside parts off the car & then put together before the real paint job. Hopefully, I can find an accomodating shop.

There's no way I will paint the car myself. I have no patience & would surely $#%@ it up. I definately don't trust me.

[skline]

Originally posted by M. Hendrix
1) Is is better to paint with the door, hood, & trunk lid on or off the car?

Off, easy to spray nooks, complete coverage.

2) What is an approximate price for a decent paint job. My car dosen't have any dents, but there are a few minor dings that I want fixed?

After all the body work is finished, painting without any materials runs between $500-$2000.


3) Is it customary to pay a % up front & a % after completion

Hmm... yes.

4) Any recomendations on the type of paint that I should be using. With my current level of skill, I would have to leave it up to the shop but I thought I would try & educate myself as much as I can.

Depends

cheaper, durable, and nice shine, 1 stage urath.

more expensive, showshine, prone to nicks, 2 stage laq.

super shine, 10 feet deep, if anyone touches it you'll scream, hand rubbed multi layered laq.

There are many other options

M

Laquer is not even available here in California anymore.

I went with the single stage Urethane and shot it myself. The 2 stage is actually much nicer. I may re-do it later.

[skline]

Oh, I have seen paint jobs with the doors and trunk lids off and there was a difference in color between all the parts.

[SGB]

If you do the body prep yourself use a short fluorescent tube to wave over the wet, just sanded primer ( a few feet away of course) to look for distortions in the straight edges of the light reflected back on the primer. You should be able to highlight the contours of the body- look carefully. That light should show as a consistant white line as the reflection passes over the surface. You will be amazed. Primer hides imperfections really well. I may use it as a finish coat some day ( like Paul Newman's 356).

[Zeke]

Primer hides imperfections really well. I may use it as a finish coat some day ( like Paul Newman's 356).

You won't be the first. There are more cars now than ever in "velvet."

[jeffdon]

Would any of you even consider prepping a car with rattle can primer? If so, what sort?

[M. Hendrix]

Depends on what the topcoat is, use the proper formula.

The best part of using a real rig is being able to mix, and control..





M

[914GT]

Originally posted by jeffdon
Would any of you even consider prepping a car with rattle can primer? If so, what sort?

Not really a good idea. First of all they're too thinned out to provide real filler properties to allow sanding out imperfections. The other thing is they are solvent based so can shrink and result in topcoat problems. Most are lacquer based and can be incompatible with urethane paints. You'd be much better off getting a compressor and a cheap HVLP gun and spraying on a couple good coats of epoxy or 2k primer. Something else you can consider is using a foam roller to apply a good primer-surfacer, then block sand. Believe it or not but the pros are using this method especially for spot or panel repairs. You get 100% of your primer on the car with no overspray to worry about.

[SteveStromberg]

Take your car to Beach Boys Racing in Venice Next to Ottos. Bob 's guys Know these cars in and out Plus they dont have any parking which means they get your car done quickly. Steve