Paint it myself?, Decisions, decisions... Options

[Bogaat]

I am getting my car back from the body shop today. They filled a few holes and basically got the car to the point where I just need to mask, sand lightly and then put on my base/clear coats. I have a guy who can do it in his shop for some amount of money, but I am thinking I could just do it myself. I have a garage I can setup, compressor and I can buy one of those Eastwood guns. I have done a little spray painting a few years back, but nothing to the quality of an exterior paint job. Should I do it myself or shell out the money? The body shop I was at wanted an extra 1200 to do the paint...didn't make sense. All thoughts are appreciated. I will post pics of the car when I get it back later this evening.

[jasons]

I can't tell you what you should do. But, there are other factors to consider. What color are you doing? Do you want a metallic? Base/clear or single stage? What all does $1200 buy you?


The reason I ask is, the material costs add up. If you want metallic, I would definitely farm it out until you had a few paint jobs under your belt. For a single stage with medium grade paint like PPG Omni or NASON you can figure on $300-$500 for paint/primer/chemicals alone. So, by the time you buy a gun, a decent respirator, and everything we can't think of now I bet you will be closer to the $1200 mark than you realize.

Don't forget, you will probably want to wet sand and polish too.

I would do it for the fun/experience. But, I'm not sure you will save enough to justify it.

BTW I'm assuming that $1200 includes paint materials and final wet sanding and isn't just labor on shooting the car.