So this isnt exaclt the next thing on my to do list but i am thinking ahead here. I am planning on getting a bigger compressor and some spray guns to lay the primer down with. initially i was planning on doing all the body work, laying the primer and then taking it somewhere to be painted. with some recent motivation i want to paint it myself. I am pretty experienced with finish work with laquer (high grit wet sanding and then buffing) but i know that isnt exactly the same thing. so the question is do i attempt to paint it myself in my garage or is there any reason this would be heavily discouraged. THANKS

how do you want it to look? if you do it yourself, it may look like a maaco paintjob... if you want it new-car/show quality, pay for it IMHO... the only way I would paint my own car is to say "I did that, Yo!" other than that, it's worth the money to have a quality shop do it... if I was closer to mexico, that would be the route to take...

Do it. I have painted about 10 cars over the years, all in my garage. Stripped most of them to bare metal, did the body work, primed and painted. If you are going to the trouble of doing body and priming yourself, may as well do the final paint which is the most fun.
Read the tech sheets for the products you will use. They will give you all the info you need assuming you have experience with a spray gun. If not, there are plenty of books on DIY car painting.
I can honestly say my first job was my best ('58 Corvette, taken down to bare glass). I read a book or two, practiced using the gun on cardboard hung on the wall, worried myself to sleep many nights. It came out as good as I hoped. After that I thought I knew it all, took short cuts, etc, and never again had one turn out quite as nice.

Ok just to toss my .02 into the works I would say if you can spray well and are smart about cleaning your space before hand by all means do it. I worked at a paint shop for two years when I was in high school and there is a lot of misconception about what makes a good paint job and a maaco one.
First of all get the very best materials you can, that makes the most difference in final over all finish, after all you can wet sand and buff to your hearts content but bad paint still looks like ass.
Second beg, borrow, or steal the best spray gun you can or find a painter and buy him a 12 pack and get him to help you out, we did a lot of "come in sunday with a case and we'll see what we can do" jobs.
Third either get your garage or booth as it were spotless before hand, dust is your number one ememy once you get good paint and a good spray gun. I like to use painters plastic to fashion a booth right in my garage, it's amazing what you can do with some plastic and 2X4's in a short ammount of time.
Lastly go for it! After all if you do the hood and it looks like junk you can just stop there and turn it over to a pro, most shops will use the materials you provide if you end up going that route later.

do it... i just did the rattle can thing to mine today, its all black for the first time in years and its has a 50 yard paint job right now

QUOTE (tnorthern @ Apr 14 2005, 11:59 AM)

I like to use painters plastic to fashion a booth right in my garage, it's amazing what you can do with some plastic and 2X4's in a short ammount of time.

I have been practicing to eventually paint my own car.

I would like to explore this idea of creating a paint booth out of 2X4's and plastic. What did you do, just make an enclosure around the car (a bubble)? Did you have to leave ventilation holes? What about a fan? Is it necessary to draw air in and out of the bubble? My garage is 20' long and 12' wide. Is that big enough?

BTW, if you are looking for a great gun, see my thread on the Devilbiss G670

HERE

thanks for the replys. I am now 99% sure that when i actually get to this point, i am going to paint my own car. maybe i wont be half bad at this and it will turn out decently. so now......i want to compile a list of what i will end up buying for this. I am looking for any suggestions on a good compessor for the job, a good spray gun, any good books, blah blah.... Also if there any pics from anyone who has done there own paint that would be awsome to see. THANKS!

I was aksing the same questinos a few weeks ago. Check my progress thread...it's not as bad as you think. I was worried sick about it...till I did the primer. Now I'm excited about it.

Take your time. Search here for that topic...it's been discussed again and again.

Go to your local PPG dealer and chat with them. They'll take care of you..they WANT you to do a good job. Plan on about $600 for single stage, and $800 for 2-stage pant. That's for primer, mixers, tyvec suits, masks, guns and everything else. I'm using a 21gal Harbor-Freight compressor I bought for $150. Has been doing an AWESOME job.

QUOTE (CptTripps @ Apr 15 2005, 09:10 AM)

I was aksing the same questinos a few weeks ago. Check my progress thread...it's not as bad as you think. I was worried sick about it...till I did the primer. Now I'm excited about it. Take your time. Search here for that topic...it's been discussed again and again. Go to your local PPG dealer and chat with them. They'll take care of you..they WANT you to do a good job. Plan on about $600 for single stage, and $800 for 2-stage pant. That's for primer, mixers, tyvec suits, masks, guns and everything else. I'm using a 21gal Harbor-Freight compressor I bought for $150. Has been doing an AWESOME job.

well as long as you keep updating your progress thread i will be good. yours is looking awsome and i am taking notes

Here's a good paint scheme.

Something you really need to consider if a DIY paintjob or if have it done somewhere is what kind of paint to go with. If the car doesn't get driven much and kept in the garage most the time, you can use acrylic lacquer assuming you can buy it in your area. However this paint will not hold up well for a daily driver or if it spends a lot of time outdoors. Acrylic enamel is more durable but sucks in my opinion. I've seen enamel jobs fade in a year and it's hard to buff them out. The best paint is polyurethane single-stage or basecoat/clearcoat. These are two-component paints and they can be sanded/buffed 12-18 hours after spraying, and hold up for years if it's a driving car. It's what is used on all new cars today. With reasonable care the paint job will last at least 10-15 years, maybe 20. Unfortunately polyeurethanes can cause some serious health problems without the right protective equipment. They have isocyanates and if you breath enough of the stuff you'll develop permanent asthma or it'll kill you. The only recommended respirator for these paints is a supplied-air respirator which is what I use. A regular respirator is not good enough but you can get away with it if you want to take your chances. I also fully suit-up in a paint suit and neoprene gloves when I paint, not only to protect myself but keep dust from floating around and getting into the paint. Just the respirator costs about $400 but it's worth it to protect your only set of lungs.

I bought a 3M mask with disposable filters....the guy at the paint shop told me "if you can smell paint...get out of there, and replace the filters."

Here's my mask...it was like $50. I bought some of those Tyvek suits, but it was too hot to wear it, and I'm only doing Primer right now.

QUOTE

I would like to explore this idea of creating a paint booth out of 2X4's and plastic

Sorry I forgot about this thread, but yeah basically I build a frame four feet larger than what I am going to paint and lay it out on the floor. Then i just attach plastic to the roof and start building my little plastic box, for something the size of a car I would most likely forgo the plastic and frame and just clean the piss out of my garage and put plastic down to keep the floor clean and make one plastic wall. In order to get ventilation I would build a wooden frame that can be closed into the bottom of my garage door and houses like 3 HVAC filters and has plywood sealing the rest, then do the same around a nice big box fan in your outside door. This is almost the exact same setup as a side draft paint booth, fresh air in, paint air out. Of course the rage nowadays is downdraft but you will need a jackhammer and shovel to make that one in your garage, not to mention a lawyer to handle the divorce

I've thought about doing something like this out of PVC pipe. You could get a bunch of elbows, and build a pretty sturdy box. Then drape tarps and make a brace for 2 box fans in, and 2 out....

I'm going to Lowes in a few min to get a new shop-vac. I'll do some rough pricing to see what I can come up with.

i like the pvc pipe frame idea. i think it would be pretty slick to build a frame around the car in the garage so if you price out parts for that, please let me know.

It will take a lot longer.
It will look a lot better, as long as you take a long time.

Got mine back from the painter today after being scraped all the way down one side while parked at Harbor Freight. The finish is great. The masking is awfull. If you do it yourself you can take off all the things BEFORE painting, instead of AFTER, and won't have to figure out how to get the paint off all those rubber parts.

This is how I suit up when painting.

forgot the pic...

QUOTE (914GT @ Apr 15 2005, 07:52 PM)

This is how I suit up when painting.

hey and you can handle extremely toxic chemicals too it looks like

So how does a "supplied-air respirator" work? Is it kinda like scuba diving? How does it supply you with air?

you have a large compressed bottle of air or a bank of them. the pressure is regulated down and fed into some kind of face piece. the pressure is high enough in the face piece to create a positive pressure environment . kind of like SCUBA but the hle face area is infused with air.

I just leave my garage door up about 8" and wear the mask I pictured earlier. For the casual painter (1-2 cars a year) I can't imagine needing more than that.

Now that I got the mix-down right, that primer I bought ROCKS! I'll bet it'd fill a 30-grit scratch like nobody's business. I sprayed it yesterday morning and wet-sanded last night. I'm waiting for a buddy, but I'm going to lay a coat of paint down today and see what I end up with!

Check my thread for updates, but it is a LOT easier (skill wise) than I originally thought it would be. If you are on the fence...I'd say go for it.

yeah i got my last door in primer yesterday, now just looking for minor stuff before i paint it.

First off, you say you may get a larger compressor, what do you have now? When I first started out all I had was a roll around Devilbiss (3 h.p. 20 gal) and it was good for painting. I stepped up because some of my air tools and mainly my sandblaster killed it. You don't need a large compressor to paint. Secondly save the compressor $ if possible and buy a GOOD paint gun. A nice gun will run from 300 - 500 depending on how often you will use it. I use a $70 NAPA gun for my high builds (it has a 2.0 tip) and have a nice Devilbiss for my primers and top coats. The other thing to consider is, will you ever paint another car? As I said a good gun is minimun 300.00 + 500.00 for paint = 800.00 and you don't have the right environment. So if you figure on 1200.00 total for one paint job (400.00 being to build a makeshift booth and other materials) you could pay a pro that, and not have the headache! Just some food for thought.

Hi
I am pricing out a paint booth/system rite now. But in my world there are pemits,inspections, explosion proof ventilation (2000$ motor).
Just be carefull with your health.
Regards
Joe

QUOTE (thomasotten @ Apr 16 2005, 10:35 PM)

So how does a "supplied-air respirator" work? Is it kinda like scuba diving? How does it supply you with air?

The hood gets air through a hose from a small blower you set outside safely away from the paint spray. Basically it's a vacuum cleaner motor with a HEPA filter on the inlet mounted in about a 1 cu. ft. box. You could probably buy a new small shop vac and attach a 3/4" garden hose to the outlet, and there you have your supplied air source. Just don't use the vac for anything besides breathig air. You can buy the hoods separately.

I bought a complete hooded system, much like the one described by 914gt, from a fellow who markets them on Ebay. He has 2 or 3 styles. Cost was about $300 incl. shipping. I have tried it out but have not yet done any painting with it. I think it is a good product. It will take some getting used to, and keeping a second line in order will require practice, but it should be a lot better than a simple respirator.
I have heard conflicting info re: fumes. Some say, as mentioned above, that you are OK if you don't smell paint. Others say that's not good enough. Isocyanates (which are the worst component) cannot be detected and will pass right through a standard charcoal paint respirator.