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redsprinter
9th January 2009, 04:48 PM
hi guys .

its come for that time for me to paint my car .bing that it is summer and all with the nice hot days helping the drying time of the paint and all, i wanna give it a go myself.. i pretty good with the spray can hehehe ...

i was hoping some one who has done it successfully ... (i thinking steriodchicken , seeing that i have been following his build thread )... to provide me with a list of specific tools ... like air compressor size . air gun , what sort of paint to use , garage or car port ..all those little tips and tricks.

i know its a big ask , but if someone can provide me with steps and the specific tools to use when and where it would be much appreacited.

john.

superbmobile
13th January 2009, 08:56 PM
http://www.autobody101.com/
Go to this site for everything you need to know.

Vance
13th January 2009, 10:36 PM
unless youre certain that this isnt going to be a once off type thing you might be better off paying someone. after you buy all the gear and the paint you will be looking at a few bucks less than a professional job.

ke70dave
14th January 2009, 12:03 AM
unless youre certain that this isnt going to be a once off type thing you might be better off paying someone. after you buy all the gear and the paint you will be looking at a few bucks less than a professional job.

i dunno work it out....

i painted my car and it didnt cost anywhere near the money it would cost to get it done professionally. having said that it didnt turn out anywhere near as good as a pro, but its shiny and blue...

me and a mate painted my car in 1 week about a year ago.

we started taking the thing appart on monday morning and completed the clear coat on sunday arvo.

bloody terrible job:P

my car had stacks of small dents so spent monday-friday bogging and sanding. but the actual paint turned out very nice though (big up to my mate greg he was the one behind the gun).

i can give you a more detailed idea on what you need to do but you only asked for a list.

-DECENT compressor, borrow or hire one, you need a big one that can withstand a whole pot of paint without needing to recharge. like 1.5m long type of thing....big.... cost: hopefully free or cheap, prolly 700$ if you were to buy it with all the fittings though.

-go to a proper paint shop and buy a decent top feed gun, cost us around 80$, you can go way more expensive or you can spend 15$, but mine came out ok.

-get a water trap for your compressor, cheap as, like 50$

basically 3 types of paints.

acrylic: best all rounder (what i used), easy to spray, cheaper than 2-pak, you need to use a clear on metalics and you need to rub it back with really fine sandpaper and buff it to make it shiny, its really dull when you finished spraying. cost me around 400$ for all the paint for my ke70.

2-pak: tough as nails paint, more expensive than acrylic, illegal to spray if you dont have a proper booth, bloody toxic, very hard to paint perfect, orange peel is hard to get rid of it, but if you get it right, unbeliveably awesome finish.

enamel: cheapest paint, shine off the gun, dont use a dark colour or it will fade easy.


dont spray in high humidity or it will turn out crap (my bonnet). needs to be quite cool and dryish.

use a closed in area, i used a carport and put up the plastic sheets up, worked great but its easier for the heat to up the area as the sun can get in.

there are some nice pics in my thread on the old forums, http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/board/index.php?showtopic=13266

shows some pics of the setup we had and how it turned out.

your best bet is to show up to a place where they sell paint aand ask. the guy who sold the paint to me gave me a lesson in how to use a gun, showed me what to do. explained everythign in great detail. much better job than im doin thats for sure.

btw your looking at like 3k+ for a professional job, and if your not after a show finish...i dont think its worth it.

cha54
14th January 2009, 09:03 AM
I've painted a couple now at home in acrylic, the last one was an old Liberty for a mate which came out really well.

I'm doing my mrs's Levin in Iso-free 2-pack when the weather starts to cool down a bit to see how that paint goes. Acrylic needs a lot more effort to keep it looking good.

I use a tradetools RP17 (from memory) 3cyl single phase compressor, basically the biggest mobile single-phase compressor they sell. With this I use a good quality water trap and then another water separator further down the line. I made a dedicated spraying airline which is only as long as it needs to be to get around the car so you have less pressure drop. I'm now using the more expensive Devilbiss guns but previosly used the cheap $80 top-feed star guns. I have separate guns for primer and colour/clear. I've found the Devilbiss guns to be much nicer for spraying metallics and easier to setup the fan pattern etc.

The prep-work is the most time-consuming part of the job, the actual spraying of paint takes no time at all. The quality of the job really comes down to how much prep-work you do.

For lung protection I use a Sundstrom half-mask with gas and particle filters, the auto-paint shops sell these too, about $80-100 for the kit.

Here's two pics of the last car I sprayed in Acrylic, 1st pic is the paint straight off the gun, second pic is after a rub-back with 2000grit wet/dry and a buff with cutting compound. No polish/wax on it yet.
http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl0uxv/shanes/2008_08170003a.jpg
http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl0uxv/shanes/2008_09010003a.jpg

redsprinter
14th January 2009, 03:25 PM
thanks guys.

cant wait till i got some money saved up and get stuck into it.

i wanna do a full re-spray including the inside and underneath ... how do you go about preping the inside of the car with all those bumps and grooves.... is just alot of elbow grease ?

oh how do you guys find painting it inside a closed area say a garage ? does the paint get all over the walls ? im renting at the moment and i dont wanna be pissing of the landlord ... and car is atm in a single garage ... imo looks like this is enough space to do it ... what do you guys reckon?

cha54
14th January 2009, 03:31 PM
tons and tons of elbow grease :p takes forever.

If you're not spraying at rediculous airpressure there's not THAT much overspray, it will still cover everything in the area you're spraying but cleans off pretty easily.

70XIN
14th January 2009, 05:55 PM
use an HVLP gun, bugger all overspray, less paint wastage, and yeah .. awesome results

Vance
14th January 2009, 08:15 PM
i paint my cars but if you dont have any gear already it is pricey.

compressor $200
gun (cheap) $40
paint $500 (for primer, thinners, colour, clear, hardener)
sanding gear $100 (depending on what you get)
easy sand filler $30
other (paper, tape etc) $20

so thats about $900 do get the gear. a decent spraypainter would only quote about $2000 to do it all (on average) and you might get away with cheaper if you shop around.



if you do decide to do it yourself:

i would highly suggest getting a good gun. a star evo-t gravity fed is what i would suggest

http://www.airless.com.au/Star%20New%20Century%20EVO-T%20Spray%20Guns.htm

make sure the gun you get has correct nozzel size for your application.

i use iso-free 2pak so i like 1.2-1.4 nozzels

speaking of which im gonna start a thread (or look for one in the tools section) for spray guns and see what you guys use

BeeJay
15th January 2009, 04:23 PM
this is a home job I did myself (with some help)
http://xs135.xs.to/xs135/09034/img_2807654.jpg
http://xs435.xs.to/xs435/09033/img_2852686.jpg

Slightly bigger car, but Riojin is just about spot on with the costings.

I forked out $400 for a good gun and spent a bit more than $500 on paints (2 packs)
being 3 colours, paid a little extra for proper masking paper & a few other things that I needed.

Already had a whopping big 3phase compressor and 2 water traps, so that made life easy.

Dont spray if its too hot, it will flash off before it hits & be super hard and grainy on the bodywork, makes it a pain to sand, if you dont sand it will give a rough finish. 25-35 degrees at around 60-75% humidity is good, especially if you are in an area which is not too far effected by the weather.

If you're painting in flats (ie non metallics) dont be too worried about doing it all in 1 big hit, do the doors and small things one day, then come back for body the next. Even with the metallics if you mix up enough base to do it all and make sure its well agitated before you paint it will come up matching fine.

I Would do it a different way next time, but its nothing really I can suggest here - except for the fact that prep is everything: bog, sand, check, bog, sand, check, clean, prime, sand, check, clean, bog, sand, check, prime, sand, clean, urrgh!

I've also painted in Acrylics but they're not brilliant for cars, they chip quite easily unless they're baked.

Number 1 rule is Be paitent, if you stuff up, wait, let it dry fully, sand it and try again!

Vance
15th January 2009, 07:57 PM
i like painting in acrylics on cars if its a pure thrasher. i like the no show, all go look.


patience is the key to spray-painting. other little things you pick-up whilst doing it yourself.

if you do a bad job just sand it back and try again

Mr Awsome
6th March 2009, 08:05 PM
I do this shit for a living.

I did the Back end (Roof, quarters, back panel, seal panel, inside edges of where the hatch and doors sit.) of my car (ae86) at work on a saturday. Taken me ruffly 4 hours all up.
the prep is the key and the colour that you paint it.
Mine was a solid so the prep isn't that 100% but its white.

(This is on a ae86 with all the bits pulled off. On a 43o day)

Equipment used: Velcro buzzer, Devilbliss Gti, Glasurit paint, Velcro block.

It went like this.

(1) Wiped the area down with thinners. 5mins
(2) Fix panel work minor dents and scratches most sanded out. Minimal bogged used. 30-45mins tops .
(3) Buzzed it all with 400 and then scotched the shinny and harder to get at bits. 10mins
(4)Blow off, wipe down with water, blow off then prepsol. 5mins
(5) Quick mask, followed by another prepsol. 15mins
(6) Prime 3 coats + bake time. 50mins (i used medium hardener/reducer. (The flatter you get it the less rubbing needed)
(7) Blocked it like crazy 180,240. blow it off, buzzed it with 400 soft then 800 soft pads. wet rubbed/scotched corners and edges and so on. 45mins
(8) Blow off, wipe down with water, blow off, then prepsol. 5mins
(9) Mask like crazy, 15mins
(10) Prepsol, blow off + tack rag. 5mins
(11) Paint it 2.5 coats + bake time 1.15 hours (Used normal hardener slow reducer. Came out like glass)
(12) Unmask and bask in the glory of your awsomeness. 5mins

Those are ruff times on what it would of taken me.
But i had to be in and out asap.