$50 paint job...dyi..and hot as hell

[import racer]

Wet sand with 2000-3000 wet paper then buff it out.

[Civic Accord Honda]

yeah def need to use atleast 2000 and then buff it out with a cheap $10 walmart buffer....made some of the spray paint jobs ive done look glossy as hell and clean.....and yes bugs and debris cause rage!

[Dr_Snooz]

If the 2000 doesn't do the trick, maybe you will need to hit it with some polishing compound? I think the idea is to really go finer and finer with the grit until you can't see the haze or scratches anymore.

This. You go progressively finer with the sandpaper. Then move to polishing compounds. You can get some very fine grain polishing compounds at paint and body stores. Finish up with a clay bar and six coats of wax and it will really pop.

[POS carb]

i gotta do some hunting around. the finest I could find is 1200 grit at harbor freight

[Civic Accord Honda]

autozone should have it lol...my HF had 1200 and then 2500... i wanted 1500 and 2000

[POS carb]

def have to polish! This paint will never look good unless you do that... Here's a link to VERY good way of doing this...

thanks for the link. I'll use those steps on the next parts I do.

dried coat debris shot:



decided to practice polishing on the damaged hood
wetsanded most of the hood with 1000 grit:



working on the left section of the damaged hood:




I decided to hit it with the scratch remover again and got this (no wax or glaze yet):

[Dr_Snooz]

[Civic Accord Honda]

that looks pretty good when its shiny like that!. i think ill def be trying this on the coupe in summer unless i scavenge up the money and want to macco it lol...car is made out of bondo so its not worth anything expensive haha

[JJ'sAccord]

I tried this a the other day a slightly different method but i will share when i get final results

[JJ'sAccord]

I tried this a the other day a slightly different method but i will share when i get final results

my canvas:

[JJ'sAccord]

As you can see thats only coat 2 and no wet sanding yet.... so far i have done 6 coats with no wetsanding. i let it dry to see how the finish would be... to my amazement it actually wasn't as orange peely as i thought it would be... i have more pics coming soon. also when i am done i will take sun photos to show off the paint job. this is my first time ever trying to paint a car... i will show you the materials i used and what the hood and headlight look like now that it is completely dry.... (my prep work was slacking) but even then i am highly impressed with the outcome

i picked up everything but sandpaper at walmart of all places(paint was like 8.50/Qt) I got gloss black as you can see

i mixed the paint to about water consistency(thinned it wil oderless mineral spirits)

along with a high density foam roller


hood dried after 6 coats of paint(a little orange peel and a couple spots you can see lines from roller, but once i sand it should blend it)

[JJ'sAccord]

As you can see thats only coat 2 and no wet sanding yet.... so far i have done 6 coats with no wetsanding. i let it dry to see how the finish would be... to my amazement it actually wasn't as orange peely as i thought it would be... i have more pics coming soon. also when i am done i will take sun photos to show off the paint job. this is my first time ever trying to paint a car... i will show you the materials i used and what the hood and headlight look like now that it is completely dry.... (my prep work was slacking) but even then i am highly impressed with the outcome

i picked up everything but sandpaper at walmart of all places(paint was like 8.50/Qt) I got gloss black as you can see

i mixed the paint to about water consistency(thinned it wil oderless mineral spirits)

along with a high density foam roller


hood dried after 6 coats of paint(a little orange peel and a couple spots you can see lines from roller, but once i sand it should blend it)

the headlight turned out amazing with a nice glossy finish without buffing

[JJ'sAccord]

now granted i realize its not 3k paint job quality but for $25 i spent on hood and both headlights to get prep'd and painted and ill finish it with wet sanding 4-6 more coats and polishing compound... on a budget i doubt even the cheapest discounted paints can come close.... i wont roll the whole car like the guy in a forum i read (who gave me this technique) but i will go to harbor frieght and pick up a 30dollar gravity fed spray gun and spray using this same paint thinned out with mineral spirits..... this seems like a really decent durable alternative to automotive paint.

[AC439]

ok, I read enough that I have decided its time to do it. My car looks horrible (Maaco paint 6 years ago). Wife said its too ugly and redneck and won't ride in it.

My 86 LXi is originally metallic grey (factory) in color. I'm just not too sure Rustoleum has a color that is close to it. POS Carb posted pics that looks very similar to the factory color of my car. But I googled the Rustoleum color and not too sure which one it is. I am afraid I may picked a grey color looks like a warship. I'm thinking another route is to change the color to red. I had a Corolla AE86 years ago that has red color with dary grey color bumper and trim but I'm afraid changing color of the car will get me in trouble (Florida) with DMV or insurance co. What do you guys think about color change ? POS Carb didn't posted which color of Rustoleum he was using.

[JJ'sAccord]

ok, I read enough that I have decided its time to do it. My car looks horrible (Maaco paint 6 years ago). Wife said its too ugly and redneck and won't ride in it.

My 86 LXi is originally metallic grey (factory) in color. I'm just not too sure Rustoleum has a color that is close to it. POS Carb posted pics that looks very similar to the factory color of my car. But I googled the Rustoleum color and not too sure which one it is. I am afraid I may picked a grey color looks like a warship. I'm thinking another route is to change the color to red. I had a Corolla AE86 years ago that has red color with dary grey color bumper and trim but I'm afraid changing color of the car will get me in trouble (Florida) with DMV or insurance co. What do you guys think about color change ? POS Carb didn't posted which color of Rustoleum he was using.

im sure you can get them to mix what ever paint you want. but you cannot do metallics with this cheap method.. just solid colors
to finish off my "master piece" i did this for less than $20 thanks to a guy i found on a different forum that just so happens to have posted here in this thread too






no clear coat no spraying i did it with a high density foam roller and rustoleum stop rust enamel paint from walmart.

[AC439]

cool ! I didn't know they can mix color. Single color is fine with me. What color did you choose ? Black ?

[JJ'sAccord]

cool ! I didn't know they can mix color. Single color is fine with me. What color did you choose ? Black ?

yea gloss black. Like i said man it turned out amazing... i will post some before, during and after pictures soon.

they have flat, semi-gloss, and gloss in the rustoleum stop rust protective enamel paint that i used.

[AC439]

JJ, I just went to Lowes and talked to the paint guy. They said they don't mix color. Whatever standard colors show on the shelf are all they have. So, I'm back to square one.

I don't like that smoke grey, its like a battle ship color. Not sure if I will get into trouble changing the color of the car although FL does not have a law to report change in vehicle color, some people said the cops will pull you over if the color doesn't match what the registration is.

So, I'm down to black or red and I will check with tag office to see if I need to update vehicle info after painting.

** My other idea is to buy grey and black and mix them for charcoal grey. Will it works ?

Any advice is highly appreciated.

[Oldblueaccord]

JJ, I just went to Lowes and talked to the paint guy. They said they don't mix color. Whatever standard colors show on the shelf are all they have. So, I'm back to square one.

I don't like that smoke grey, its like a battle ship color. Not sure if I will get into trouble changing the color of the car although FL does not have a law to report change in vehicle color, some people said the cops will pull you over if the color doesn't match what the registration is.

So, I'm down to black or red and I will check with tag office to see if I need to update vehicle info after painting.

** My other idea is to buy grey and black and mix them for charcoal grey. Will it works ?

Any advice is highly appreciated.

We used to use tractor paint like at farm and family stores it was usually about 40 bucks a gallon.

[AC439]

Report: I found a youtube video about someone simulated smoke grey color by mixing Rustoleum black and aluminum together in a 5:1 ratio. I went to HD and got both of them and tried the 5 black to 1 aluminum mix. First, when I opened the aluminum can, I found a big chuck of semi solid substance at the bottom. I realized this is prob fine aluminum powder mixed into the paint that had settled when it was sitting on the shelf. I knew we can only do solid color (for rolling, not spraying) but I gave it a try anyway. If this doesn't work, I will just strip this off and redo it. Color came out really matching factory color but sure enough it doesn't work for roll on paint. It is also very hard to mix the two colors well.

I bought odorless mineral spirit as well from HD and to my surprise, it is not clear in color like thinner. It is like milk in color. I wonder if I got the wrong mineral spirit.

next plan: Get battle ship grey (they call it smoky grey) and mix with black to produce a charcoal grey color. I think the $50 budget won't be enough for my case.

[JJ'sAccord]

Bad ass remember the sand paper... wet or dry. And get rubbing compound and polishing compound. Thin it out alot you wont be sorry you can always make it thicker next coats. Im curious to see how this will turn out. My mineral spirits was clear lol but i doubt it matters much

[JJ'sAccord]

Report: I found a youtube video about someone simulated smoke grey color by mixing Rustoleum black and aluminum together in a 5:1 ratio. I went to HD and got both of them and tried the 5 black to 1 aluminum mix. First, when I opened the aluminum can, I found a big chuck of semi solid substance at the bottom. I realized this is prob fine aluminum powder mixed into the paint that had settled when it was sitting on the shelf. I knew we can only do solid color (for rolling, not spraying) but I gave it a try anyway. If this doesn't work, I will just strip this off and redo it. Color came out really matching factory color but sure enough it doesn't work for roll on paint. It is also very hard to mix the two colors well.

I bought odorless mineral spirit as well from HD and to my surprise, it is not clear in color like thinner. It is like milk in color. I wonder if I got the wrong mineral spirit.

next plan: Get battle ship grey (they call it smoky grey) and mix with black to produce a charcoal grey color. I think the $50 budget won't be enough for my case.

I thibk mixing will be fine.. you can do anything stores can do with the right equipment/ witts about you.

[AC439]

I spent some money past few days for tools (had none), sandpaper and paint etc so I can start tomorrow. I have decided to mix black with white (probably 7:1 ratio) for a deep grey. Will report here the result.

[JJ'sAccord]

bad ass man im looking forward to it. im curious. did you use the aluminum paint? or you went back to white?

[AC439]

Man ! My back hurts !

I started early this morning mostly working on getting the bad Maaco paint off the hood (3 hours). Bought a power sander with 60 grits but ended up using razor blade to scratch off all paints from the hood. Reason to do this first is the car was in minor accident many years ago and the body shop replaced the hood. The car has since went through another Maaco cheap job 7 years ago. There was no primer before the actual paint for sure.

I mixed the paint with only black and white rustoleum. I completely ditched the idea of aluminum in the mix. I put approx 10% of white to make it a dark charcoal grey which is the original color of the car (just like my avatar). I rolled one coat on the hood and it looks like hell for now (but sure better than before when paint was peeling off). Too bad I cannot do another coat later today due to visitors coming. But I will continue to do something to the car tomorrow, prob light sanding off some Maaco paint on the other part of the car and looking into applying another coat. I will also put more mineral spirit in the next mix to thin out more. The first coat was prob 30 to 40 % MS in paint.

I sure will post pic along the line. Now its nothing exciting yet.