Has anyone painted their own car? Options

[thomasotten]

I was just wondering if anyone here has painted their own 914. I recently took a stab at painting my wifes' 91 honda. I did the roof and the front hood. Came out pretty good after sanding down the clear coat and buffing. I figure, since I am doing a color change on my 914, I would practive on the insides of the trunks and such. Then, if I felt confident enough, I could try painting the outside.

[Mark Henry]

Semi-pro, never painted a teen but painted many a bug. I have all the pro equipment.

It's all in the prep work (and pro materials) but the last few cars that I have needed done, I've traded engine/machine work for the job. It takes me to long to prep a car, that's why I didn't do it myself.

That said, I've done bugs, so painting my teen wouldn't scare me.

[bondo]

I painted an MGB.. came out ok, but got a couple runs in the clear coat tho.. I did it in my garage, which worked ok except I didn't have enough light to really see what I was doing. Make darn sure you can see everything well.. my new garage has 1280 watts of fluorescent light, so when I paint my 914 it will come out better.

--Royce

[Kargeek]

I painted mine-a complete color change ( single stage paint) on a bare shell car with all of the inside parts like the trunks and engine compartment in a home made spray booth in my shop. I rented a booth for the outside of the car. I had painted a few cars before so I knew what I was getting into. Next time I paint a unibody car like the old BMW 2002 I'm restoring, I'll first paint all of the outside panels first. It's easier to first paint the outside, mask all of the outer panels, then spray the jams, trunks etc. It's about impossible to keep overspray out of freshly painted inside areas and you are going to color sand and buff the outer panels anyway. DH

[skline]

I painted mine-a complete color change ( single stage paint) on a bare shell car with all of the inside parts like the trunks and engine compartment in a home made spray booth in my shop. I rented a booth for the outside of the car. I had painted a few cars before so I knew what I was getting into. Next time I paint a unibody car like the old BMW 2002 I'm restoring, I'll first paint all of the outside panels first. It's easier to first paint the outside, mask all of the outer panels, then spray the jams, trunks etc. It's about impossible to keep overspray out of freshly painted inside areas and you are going to color sand and buff the outer panels anyway. DH

I saw this car at Dunkels, it was the cleanest 914 I had seen to date. I painted mine in my driveway. He is correct when he says its all in the prep work. No paint job in the world can make up for preparation. Many hours of wet sanding and smoothing and blocking it. The yellow one i painted int he driveway came out ok, not bad for my first try at it. But it needed hours of color sanding afterwards just to make it look nice. If I would have prepped it better, it would have come out much nicer. Oh, and yellow is not a color you would ever try to paint outside, it attracts every bug that flies. Hundreds of them. Color sand those out.

[GWN7]

I'm planning on doing the 74 myself. If the weather plays ball. I'm doing the trunks and door jams next week.

BTW it's a yellow car painted white and going back to yellow