Starting that $50 paint job

[brownj218]

K, I have read most of the thread from the Moparts website. I think the whole idea is so cool, and since my colour looks like shit right now, and I'm doing bodywork anyways, I figured I would try it. The first thing I am going to try it on is this hood.
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6734/momshoodsl3.th.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=momshoodsl3.jpg)
It came off my mom's old Windstar, so I want to test on it first before I work on my car. I'm not sure if anyone else here has read more on that thread than I have, but I am still not sure exactly which paint to use. I have two links from Canadian Tire. #1 (http://canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp;jsessionid=GlYJN8Fs3ACJgPfU46PL eQcSl126c3JSpS2Om8XKObh1vdUxytwE!-957065567!172915476!7205!7305?postal=l4s1g9&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524443296704&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396672823&bmForm=form_set_price_list&bmFormID=1176869065894&bmUID=1176869065894&bmHash=c34c745e3b4c0847b58e53c44549e43c6bc649b7) and #2 (http://canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=140847439 6672823&bmUID=1176622770883&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524443297908&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true). I have posted the same links on the Moparts site, because I have no idea which one to go for. I was planning on buying the paint tomorrow, and then starting on the hood Thursday. If anyone else can give me some insight into the paint to use, that would be awesome. I'll post pics when I start. Thanks alot guys!

[paso100]

Oooo. I'm very interested in doing this, too. It looks like #1 is what you need, as it is labeled "base coat". #2 is specifically for rust appications and only comes in red .....?
Take plenty of pics and write down measurements (paint/mineral spirits ratio) and what kind of foam roller, etc., you use. And would you take pics after each coat to let us see what the process looks like??
I still can't get over having a glossy, durable and SMOOTH finish for about $50 ?????
Good luck and let us know how it looks.

[Crazybird]

no the second one comes in many colors*

and brown where are u from from Canada cause ur obviously from Canada hence the "Canadian tire"

[88Accord-DX]

Not that I'm a painter, but I have done my share. Since your doing the roller brush thing, might want to use acrylic 'single stage' paint. The base/clear coat is going to take more time to sand down. The prep work is what is real important in getting good results from any paint job. The ratio for acrylic enamel is 8 parts paint, 2 parts reducer, 1 part hardner.

[brownj218]

I'm from Richmond Hill. Just north of Toronto. And the website specifically says, all you need is the paint thinned with mineral spirits. Many people did that with great results, so I don't want to deviate from what they did. Though, I am still unsure of the paint. I was also thinking #1, but I'm not sure. Anyways, thanks for the input so far people. If you know about the paint, post it!! thanks.

[2ndGenGuy]

I still think that the $50 paint job doesn't work. I know we've seen "great" pictures, but it's a picture for crying out loud. Thats like saying "wow, your car looks great from 250 feet away, or at 800x600"

$50 = 50 feet.

Sorry to be negative. But I saw your car pics of before, and I think you would be making a grave mistake doing this to your car. Your paint looks pretty good, and I think you'd be better off putting the $50 towards new door moldings.

However, doing this on a test panel I think is a fantastic idea! It will be a great learning experience all around. I recommend hiting it with a couple 50MPH rocks as well to simulate what your front end of your car will be doing when you're going down the road. Test the durability as well...

[brownj218]

Ya, I would never paint my whole car without doing the test panel first. The only reason I am doing it in the first place is because
1. I hate the colour I have now
2. So many people said their car looked good after, and I see no reason for these hundreds of people posting on the Mopar site and bullshitting, just so that other people will screw themselves over by trying it
3. I am painting it white, which will hide most imperfections
4. I was going to buy a spray gun and paint it myself, where I know I could make it look good, and I will still do it if the roller job doesn't look good.

Point is, that thread is years old, and still people are using the same method and saying they are getting good results. I will try it on the hood, and if it works, I see no reason why I shouldn't do my 3g. And about these door molding....I don't mean to sound like a complete noob (which I am)...but what is a door molding, and why do i need to replace mine? Messy also mentioned it, but I have no idea what they are, and why i should be replacing them.

[MessyHonda]

Ya, I would never paint my whole car without doing the test panel first. The only reason I am doing it in the first place is because
1. I hate the colour I have now
2. So many people said their car looked good after, and I see no reason for these hundreds of people posting on the Mopar site and bullshitting, just so that other people will screw themselves over by trying it
3. I am painting it white, which will hide most imperfections
4. I was going to buy a spray gun and paint it myself, where I know I could make it look good, and I will still do it if the roller job doesn't look good.

Point is, that thread is years old, and still people are using the same method and saying they are getting good results. I will try it on the hood, and if it works, I see no reason why I shouldn't do my 3g. And about these door molding....I don't mean to sound like a complete noob (which I am)...but what is a door molding, and why do i need to replace mine? Messy also mentioned it, but I have no idea what they are, and why i should be replacing them.


i ment you will need to weld some sheat metal to the hole

[2ndGenGuy]

The moldings are the door protectors that you removed.

[musclecarboy]

mouldings are the black things u popped off. what most people do is just fill the holes that used to be for the clips, and just leave the indented channel along the side of the car. u have a few choices.

[brownj218]

Alright. Bad news... I think. I did my first coat, and it looks like shit. This is only the first coat tho, and that was my first try. But still. I posted these pics on the moparts website, and I'm hoping someone will come to my rescue. I'm thinking I put it on too thick. O well. It's just a hood.
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/7774/dsc00745is6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9427/dsc00746mi9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/9623/dsc00747qb4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Since I'm way too lazy to type out everything I said on the moparts website again.... here is the link (http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3447779&page=0&vc=1&PHPSESSID=#Post3447779).

[Catalyst]

I think you are supposed to do like 4 coats, wet sanding in between coats... The first coat always looks like shit. If you think you layed it on too heavy, sand it down a little more when you wet sand your first coat. Remember, nice, light coats are important. Instead of going all over the place with the roller, try going up and down the hood in nice even lines, don't go side to side.

[brownj218]

I an throughly annoyed. I just spent the last 2 hours getting all the paint off that stupid hood. I put it on wayyyy too thick. Please, if you are going to try this....THIN THIN THIN THIN. Whoever wrote 1:8 as a paint to mineral spirits ratio on the moparts website is an idiot. DO IT BY FEEL. It needs to be thin. Anyways, the hood is outside drying right now. I wasted half my mineral spirit jug (3L) on pouring spirits on the hood to remove the paint. I will post pictures once I start painting again.

[AccordB20A]

when i painted my car i thought it was the shit..until..as 2ndgenguy said...it deterioated.... clear coat is a must and thats 100 bucks a can so yeah my job would have costed 100 bucks if i did it properly. i got my silver paint for free and didnt bother taking out the dents i just sanded the car down.. but... im going to paint it again...blue maybe

[brownj218]

did you use the roll on method wohdog?

[88Accord-DX]

Seems like rattle can would be less wet sanding for the same effect. Then use a buffing compound on the last finish.

[AccordB20A]

aircompressor and a spray gun. alltho i must admit i could have done a better job i kinda rushed mine

[2ndGenGuy]

Clear coat won't do anything for the adhesion of the basecoat. Clear might make a layer over top of the base that will kinda hold in the basecoat. But overall, you'll just wind up getting the clear coat flaking off along with it.

[AccordB20A]

yeah good point. so far my paints all good its just .......wait this threads not about MY paint its about painting a car for $50bucks:D ill shut up now

[brownj218]

lol wohdog. if i had a few thousand, i would deff get a professional job. since im strapped for cash right now tho, this will have to do.
k, instead of starting up another thread, since i have already started up like a million, i figured i would ask my question here. its along the same lines as this topic anyways. I was wondering how I should go about painting the window trim in the pic, so it is black again.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5525/41jf2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I figure i'll just run to home depot or wherever and grab a can of black spray paint that says 'use on metal' and just spray away. ideas?

[russiankid]

lol wohdog. if i had a few thousand, i would deff get a professional job. since im strapped for cash right now tho, this will have to do.
k, instead of starting up another thread, since i have already started up like a million, i figured i would ask my question here. its along the same lines as this topic anyways. I was wondering how I should go about painting the window trim in the pic, so it is black again.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5525/41jf2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I figure i'll just run to home depot or wherever and grab a can of black spray paint that says 'use on metal' and just spray away. ideas?
That is what my brother did on my car when it was his. I believe he used automotive grade paint though. I know for sure that he did a great job because the paint is still holding up, no fades or anything. He also painted the wiper arms and antenna mount with it and they all look good so far. Has been about a year since he has done it and the car see's the sun all day.

[brownj218]

hey russian kid. are you talking about the whole paint job, or the trim? and how did he do it. did he thin with mineral spirits, roll on the paint, did he sand, use tremclad? and how many coats? let me know the details.

[russiankid]

hey russian kid. are you talking about the whole paint job, or the trim? and how did he do it. did he thin with mineral spirits, roll on the paint, did he sand, use tremclad? and how many coats? let me know the details.
I was talking about the trim since that was what you circled. I believe he scraped off all the old paint, then sanded the trim a little bit. He then cleaned it up with alcohol and not sure on primer but he painted it and just let it dry.

[brownj218]

O ya, mi bad. i think im just going to do that, using the tremclad black instead.
About the hood, i completly sanded off the crappy first job i did and started over. after 2 coats, it looks awesome. i havent even wetsanded yet. once i wetsand, i will post pics.
About doing the whole car, i think i have the technique down, and i'm pretty confident that i would be able to do the whole car. so i'm going to give it a shot. i know there are alotta people out there that are going to advise against it, but i figure that if it starts flaking in a year, i will have the cash to do a professional job anyways. so once i get the body work done, i am going to sand the car and get started. in the mean time, i will keep posting pics of the hood.
I just have two concerns and i need advice. One is the paintjob itself. Which looks better.
Pure white
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7530/fca33d26ym2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
or
the normal white paint job
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7766/5744281fullhi7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I got thos pics off the floss ur 3g thread, just to give credit to who they belong to
Anyways, I really like how the pure white looks, but I just want to know if anyone has actually seen one up close, and what they thought.
My second concern...is about the door moldings. Do i leave them off and bondo over the holes, or do i buy clips and putem back on...and then do i paint them black or white?
Thanks alot for your help people.

[russiankid]

It would be better to remove the moldings and paint under them. There is a way to remove them without breaking the clips, but i do not know how. You can just replace the clips. I think it would be better to do the regular white, and have the moldings black. Personally i wouldn't paint the moldings white because when they are black on white they tend to stand out and look better.

[chickensandwich]

^^ IMO it looks better with the mouldings painted white

as far as paint goes, myself, like everybody else, thought painting the car would make the car look worse in daylight then nightlight,

but its quite the opposite, at day, the paint looks awesome, but at night, the paint looks almost oily/glossy but not in a good way. But overall, im happy with the results, only because i hope to get a other car soon, and leave my 89 as a daily.

[brownj218]

Alright, I finished the hood. It looks amazing. I'll try to post a pic tonight. I actually only finished the 6th coat, I still need to get the sand paper. But like, it seriously looks good enough to put on the car now...even without a sand and buff. After doing the whole hood though, it got me to thinking.. I'm way too lazy to do the whole car.

Lol, like, I already don't have enough room to begin with, so I would have to clean out my garage first. And then sanding the entire car..6 coats, wetsanding...polishing. I mean, I know I could make it look good, but I'm not sure if I am up to it.

Which is why I'm posting, I'm wondering what it takes to touch up the paint. I have a bunch of scratches on the trunk... and that body rust that I still need to repair. I need to know how to blend the paint so that you can't even tell that it was touched up. Is that possible? I just pulled off the pin stripes today... and it looks like the sun didn't touch the paint one bit. But if I weld new sheet metal into the quarter panels, is it as simple wetsanding and polishing to blend the paint? I would bring my gas cap to a store and get a can stirred up for me, but would I get automotive paint?

Lol, so many questions, if theres a thread about this already, could someone link me to it. If not, I could really use the instructions on how to touch up. Thanks.

[Pico]

Sounds like a good job done , cant wait to see the pics..

[brownj218]

alright, heres the pics of the hood. i kept them as big as i could so you can see details.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8869/dsc00769xe0.th.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00769xe0.jpg)
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5827/dsc00771em3.th.jpg (http://img514.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00771em3.jpg)
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2355/dsc00772iv4.th.jpg (http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00772iv4.jpg)
I'm going to be honest, just like 2ndgenguy, its only a picture. I will admit that the hood looks way better in the picture....but thats cuz I haven't sanded it yet. I dont want to discourage anyone that wants to try this. My garage is really dusty, so it isnt that smooth. I'm just saying, i havent sanded it yet and it still looks like that in the pic...which i think looks pretty good. Honestly though, I would drive my car if it looked like how it does now. I'm thrilled with the results.
I still need to know how to touch up paint if anyone could guide me. I will need to touch up a few scratched spots, plus the new sheet metal that I will be welding in. If anyone could tell me how to do that, or send me a link that explains it, that would be great. I'll post another pic of the hood in a month one it has cured, and I sand and polish it.

[brownj218]

lol, and it was sunny as hell out, so thats y the hood stands out so much in the 1st pic

[Catalyst]

Wow that turned out well! Nice work!

[bushbean]

What kind of primer should a person use if the plastic bumper is being painted with Rustoleum/Tremclad? I mean, use the regular Rustoleum primer or the special primer for flexible plastics?

[brownj218]

Well, the moparts website says that you don't have to use a primer. You just paint it on like the rest of the car. I'm sure that a flexible primer wouldn't hurt....but apparently you don't need to prime anything

[bushbean]

My bumper is bare plastic, has no paint on it at all. I would think primer is needed. I would also think that if you have old paint, then you probably wouldn't need primer because there is already primer underneath the old paint. However, I'm not even close to being an expert on this subject. Hope an expert can comment.

[Catalyst]

Well I think you may be fine on the bumpers without priming them as long as you get them really clean, make sure there is no wax, or anything else on them. Also, if you bumpers are really smooth, you may want to use a scuff pad or something to scuff them up a little bit so the paint has something to stick too. Also make sure that the paint you are going to use is flexible, because being plastic, the bumper will flex and bend a little, and you don't want your paint to crack or peel.

also, if the paint on your car is still in decent condition, without lots of cracks or peels, you can probably get away with just cleaning, and scuffing them before paint as well.

I'm no expert, but I thought I'd share some knowledge from my experiences.