My do-it-yourself paint job writeup

[Double_take]

For the last 6 months Ive been working tirelessly to repaint my car in the garage for as little money as possible while still using top quality materials. Here is my story and how you can do the same. I have included tips and tricks along with prices and links to most of the products I used. Enjoy!

In January, the chipping pink paint finally got the best of me and one afternoon I was bored out at my parents house (famous last words) and started pealing paint off the front bumper. Here is the story of the next 6 months. I have tried to cover all processes and prices as best as possible. Hopefully this will help convince someone else to take the plunge and start their own paint project. There is no right way to paint a car, just lots of wrong ways.

Before you get started do some reading. I purchased the following books from Amazon. They mostly cover the same information, but its good to get different perspectives and each lent their own unique tips and tricks.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/How-Paint-Your-Motorbooks-Workshop/dp/0760315833/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215968707&sr=8-1"]How to Paint Your Car[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Paint-body-Hp1394-Richardson/dp/1557883947/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b"]Pro/Paint & Body[/ame]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/How-Paint-Your-Budget-Cartech/dp/1932494227/ref=pd_sim_b_1"]How To Paint Your Car On A Budget[/ame]


Now that you have some idea of what is in store for you, its time to start taking off the paint. My car was in bad shape. Someone had done a crappy pink paint job over a crappy red paintjob (actually 3-4 crappy red paint jobs). The paint was bubbling and chipping all over the place and it had been badly keyed on all the fenders, across the rear, and even one T-top! Here it is last summer after I got it running nicely.








I didn’t want to use a chemical stripper because I had heard some bad horror stories. I figured the x-acto blade method would work the best in my situation because I was just trying to take off as much paint as possible, but didn’t necessarily need to go down to the glass.




I had a lot of paint on the car. As a result, it was coming off in large chunks. This posed a problem because after getting the razor blade more than ½” under the paint it would jam into the blade handle and force me to rotate and break the paint chip. This got to be a very slow and tedious process after a while. After a cold one and some brain storming, I grabbed a 2” metal painter’s trawl and sharpened it on a bench grinder making sure the tip was smooth and straight across. The process really picked up now and I was pulling off even bigger chunks (the biggest was about 4”x6” off the rear deck).




I was able to get most of the pink paint off easily. A few areas had some body filler under it making the removal process very difficult. This paint job is only going to be a temporary fix until I do a frame off in a few years. Therefore, I didn’t mind just sanding these areas and using some body filler to even things out.

Here it is when I was done taking paint off with the trawl.

 

[Double_take]

Once the paint removal process was done I took a trip to my local Sherwin Williams automotive branch. If you live in Chicago and are looking for paint supplies PM me and I will give you all their info. The manager there matched every internet price I mentioned plus gave me at least 10% off on every purchase I made including the first one. Make friends with a local paint supply house. As great as the internet is, it pays to have a local guy who can help you out in a pinch and save you money on shipping.

I had a long list of things I needed. The body had a few small cracks and I needed to fill in some holes from the pace car style front spoiler and the sport mirrors (I wanted chrome ones).

I bought some Evercoat Fiberglass resin

and Fiberglass mat

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The books I bought didn’t cover fiberglass repair work very well so I turned to the internet. This website does a great job describing the process. It is very easy to do and work with. Remember to use some wax paper between your mold and the fiberglass resin/mat mix. Before mixing up any resin, cut all the mat pieces you plan to use and lay them out on a scrap piece of cardboard. Mix up your resin and then apply resin to your first piece of mat (this should be your smallest piece) using a cheapo paint brush. When the mat is clear and not white, put it into place and use your brush to squiggy excess resin off of the mat. Repeat this process with the second piece. 3-4 pieces is all you need. Sorry I don’t have pictures of this process.

Fiberglass repair price breakdown:

Evercoat Fiberglass resin: $25.00 qt. (this stuff goes a long way so if you only have a few small areas just get the pint)
Evercoat Fiberglass mat: $9.50 1 sq yard
Misc brushes, latex gloves, wax paper (if you cant steal some from the Mrs.) $10

Total: $44.50

 

[Double_take]

The newly fiber glassed areas are going to be a little rough and may not be perfectly contoured to the surrounding area. To fill in these imperfections along with any other major area that will be more than 1/16” thick but still less than 3/16” I used a short strand fiber glass filler.

Evercoat Everglass: $14.50 qt

For the rest of the body I used Polyester Glazing Putty. Also recommended was Metal Glaze. Next time I plan to use the metal glaze. It is supposed to lay down smoother and more easily than the glazing putty.

Evercoat Glazing Putty: $26.21 qt. I used almost the entire qt. I think a gallon is overkill, just buy more qts as required.

This stuff isn’t going to sand itself! For that I needed sand paper (LOTS OF IT) and some good sanding blocks. I used DuraGold Long Board Rolls in the following grits. 80, 180, and 320 ($24.98 each). This stuff is half the price of the 3M stuff and it worked really well. It didn’t load up easily and there was plenty for the entire job.

I mounted these up onto Dura block 7 piece set

$59.99
These blocks rule. You can bend them to almost any contour, and after a little practice, I had a great understanding of how to apply each block to smooth out all those difficult curves on the C3.

The most confusing thing when I was getting started was what grits to use and when to use them (all sanding is dry unless otherwise noted). As mentioned above I had 80, 180, and 320 grits (more on finer grits later). The 80 grit should only be used to quickly knock down excess filler and fiberglass resin. Try not to sand into the lower areas because the 80 grit scratches will need to be filled with filler at some point. 90% of the work is done using the 180 grit. Cover a panel with a thin layer of Glazing putty, mount up some 180 grit on the largest board that will fit in the area and go to town. Make sure you sand in a diagonal pattern and switch it up frequently (be sure to lift the board when switching or you will have scratches all over the place.

Sand like this

Front of car
\
\
\

Then like this

Front of car
/
/
/

You will need to apply several coats of filler in certain areas and the goal is to sand off as much as possible while leaving the panel perfectly smooth.

Here are some more progress pictures. The white areas are the filler. The red areas are the bottom layer of paint which, in conjunction with a layer of primer left on the car, I used as a high build primer (See below for more on high build primers).







An alternate (and possibly better way) to approach this would be to fill in the major problem areas using the short strand filler and a little of the glazing putty and then spray the entire car with high build primer. I spent more time than I needed on filler IMO. The primer would have filled in a lot of the little holes I spent days fixing.

When I was done sanding the entire car with 180 grit, it was time to clean her up and lay down some high build primer. Before you spray primer, let the car sit in the sun for a few days, the longer the better. This will allow it to fully dry so it doesn’t shrink underneath your brand new paint.

 

[Double_take]

I chose Evercoat Slicksand as my high build primer. A high build primer is designed to be a thick coat of sprayable filler which covers most of the finer scratches and holes. It also gives you excess material to sand off when smoothing out the body panels. Do not spray over 80 grit scratches, the scratches can come though your paint months or years from now. I also bought a Dewalt 15 Gallon Compressor from Home Depot, all the hoses, and 2 moisture traps ($450) but im not including that in the total price because this compressor has so many other shop uses. If you have access to 220V power in your garage get a 60 gallon one and hardwire it in. The extra capacity and higher SCFM is worth it.

To spray the primer I needed lots of supplies.


Devilbiss FinishLine FLG645 Gravity HVLP Gun w/2.2mm Tip $129.99
Grease and Oil remover: About $30. I bought the Sherwin Williams brand, but anything should work.
1” and 2.5” 3M masking tape. $15 Get the blue stuff, nothing works better.
3M 18” wide green masking paper: $13.99
Tack Rags $7.99
3M Dual Cartridge Respirator Assembly: $44.00

Slick Sand: $62.99 for a gallon
Paint suit $9.99. I bought a hooded one from SW for a little more which is reusable.
Paint booth supplies: Plastic drop clothes, 2 box fans. $50

I didn’t make a complex paint booth at all. I just cleaned the garage a 2 days before paint. I swept, used a blower (ceiling, walls and floor) and finally scrubbed the floor with a mop. I put 4 drop clothes, 1 on each wall and setup 2 box fans aiming out the side door and taped around them. If your going for a show quality job spend some extra time and money and build a full booth. There are lots of internet sites detailing how to do this.

Prepping the car is a lot of work and must be done carefully. First blow as much dust off of the car as possible. Use a compressor or a leaf blower (the leaf blower is best). Make sure you blow out the interior, engine bay and every other nook and cranny. Next, wash the car with a mild detergent (Dawn works well). Pull the car into your paint booth and start masking off everything you don’t want paint to get on using the tape and paper. Here is a tip for masking large areas like the engine bay. Run a piece of take along the edge you want masked then put a 2.5” piece on the edge of the paper. Stick the second piece onto the first piece. The first piece gives you your sharp mask line without having to hassle with a giant piece of paper at the same time. When your done masking, use the blue lint free shop towels and your grease remover to wipe down every inch of the car. A little bit of grease or a fingerprint can cause the paint to lift or bubble. Finally, wipe the entire car and all masking paper using a few tack rags. The tack rags are designed to pick up the last little dust particles right before you paint.

Im not going to get into paint techniques. Again read the books and check out youtube for lots of how to’s.

Here are the results of my primer.









Its back to sanding! Pull out that 320 grit paper roll and get to it. You will also want a guide coat to help point out high and low spots. I used the 3M Dry Guide Coat With Applicator ($38.99). Spread it on the panel to be sanded, slap your 320 on a long board and start sanding. Keep applying the guide coat and sanding until you are sure the panel is smooth.

If you want you can keep applying coats of high build primer until the car is perfectly smooth. I did most of my work before the primer so I only applied the one coat.

When you are done with the 320 grit I sanded the entire car with 600 grit paper. This is a little extreme, but was recommended by my paint manufacture.

DuraGold 600 Grit sheets $22.98

Cut the pieces in quarters and wrap them around the smaller sanding block. Sand in long light strokes. The 600 grit isn’t really enough to create waves, but be careful and don’t linger in any one area or you will definitely have a wave. You should only be removing the 320 grit scratches, not contouring the body. All of that should have been done with the 320 grit.

Body work price total: $601.65

 

[Double_take]

Paint time!
I chose to use AutoAir Paint because it is a water based urethane and I had airbrushed with it for years. It is easy to clean up, doesn’t use chemicals which your neighbors will complain about and has some great colors. It acts just like any other urethane paint and can be used with any urethane compatible clear.

First I prepped the car the same way as before. Remask the entire car. You don’t want dust and primer all over the place. Its not much work compared to the rest of the process. The paint process has 3 parts. The first step is a sealer. It acts as a barrier between the filler/primer and the paint. The second step is the color, which is then followed by the clearcoat. I chose pearl blue as my base color. It had been my favorite color from autoair for years so that was an easy decision. Before spraying anything be sure to read all the data sheets!!!!!!!

The sealer comes in 2 colors: black and white. If you’re painting your car any other color you want to “color key” the sealer. This means add some base color to the sealer or if doing silver or gray mix black and white sealer together. Since I was doing a pearl blue, I bought Midnight blue to mix with white sealer. I choose midnight blue because it was the darkest solid blue (by solid I mean not pearl or metallic). The sealer/color should be mixed 4:1. I also mixed in a reducer which helps thin the paint and spray better. Spray it using a 1.2mm tip (1.3mm if you cant get a 1.2mm) @ 40 psi. Apply 3 coats of sealer to ensure even coverage.

Color time!
I mixed the pearl blue with the same reducer in a 10:1 mixture and loaded up the gun. 4 coats later I had a really awesome looking car. (I don’t know where my pics of the section of the process went. I will post them if/when I ever find them).

The final painting step is the clear. I chose House of Kolor’s UC35 clear. UFC35 is their top of the line clear, but is relatively soft and susceptible to paint chips. If your doing a driver stick with the UC35. I bought the reducer and catalyst at the same time as the clear. I ended up doing 2 rounds of clear (more on that later), the first time I used the medium reducer and the second I used the very slow. The reducer varies the dry time of the clear. The slower it dries the more time it has to “flow out” and level itself. This will give you less orange peel and require less wet sanding. The downside is the slower reducer allows more time for dust and bugs to get in the paint. I recommend using the very slow reducer unless you are planning to paint outside and not in a booth.

House of Kolor is well known for their top of the line paints and high prices. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how inexpensive the clear was compared to some of the other top of the line clears. I have broken down all the paint prices below.

Sealer white $85.24 2 qts
Semi-opaque Midnight Blue $24.24 1 pt.
Pearl Blue $102.26 2 qts
Reducer, medium $22.92 1 pt.
House Of Kolor UC35 Clear $110.30 1 gl.
Very slow reducer $15.16 1 qt
Catalyst $61.24 qt

(ask about the UC35 kit. They will give you a discount on all three together.)

Here is the car after color and clear was applied:




And after it was put back together for the Chitown cruise:

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There was lots of orange peel in the paint due to the medium reducer and my amateur spray skills. When spraying the clear, you never want to spray more than 3 coats at a time. More than that can cause cracking and is generally not a good practice. To get more clear I did what’s called a “flow coat.” I wet sanded the entire car with 1500 grit paper ($16.98) using the small sanding block and then reprepped the car for three more coats of clear using the very slow reducer. This time around, I improved my spraying technique and the results were much better.








Painting total price: $438.34

 

[Double_take]

We are almost done now. We just need to cover wet sanding and buffing.
I wet sanded the car with 1500 grit paper and 2000 grit paper (16.98) again. This process will make the entire finish look dull, but don’t worry we are going to bring it back. One tip is when using the 1500 grit sand one direction, then come back with the 2000 grit and go the other diagonal direction. That way you can quickly see that the 2000 grit has removed the 1500 grit scratches.

When I finished the 2000 grit I washed the car using a mild detergent and pulled in into the garage.

I am still kinda working on the buffing process. I only had a week to wet sand and buff the car before Bloomington gold. I bought a 7” buffer for about $80 (I don’t have a link, but all the major tool manufacturers make good ones), a wool pad and a foam pad ($35).

The first buffing step is to take some 3M Rubbing Compound ($8.99), using the wool pad, and the buffer set between 1500-2500rpm’s slowly work around the entire car. Again I will refer you to the books and youtube for the best techniques for the entire buffing process. Now the shine should be coming out, but you will still have some swirl marks.

After the rubbing compound I used Evercoat Machine Glaze ($24.95). It is designed to take down 2000-4000 grit scratches which should be about what the rubbing compound left behind.

Total wet sanding/buffing to date: $165.92

This is the step Im at right now. I am going to keep going with ever finer machine glazes. DO NOT USE WAX OR PUT A CAR COVER ON THE CAR!! This will trap the solvents in the clear causing bubbles and ruin all your hard work. After 30 days it is safe to put the cover on and wax the car, but I am taking no chances and will not wax it until at least next spring and am going to hold off till this fall to put the cover on. The longer you can keep the car in the sun the faster the solvents will come out.

Total cost of project: $1205.91


I hope this has been some help. By no means am I an expert and please take this as a good starting guide for your project. If I have made any glaring errors please let me know and I will edit accordingly.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Double_take]

After finishing the writeup i decided to take the car out for a cruise and get some new photos of it. Its not done yet, but she looks good.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Are those rear lights tinted? Looks like the sidemarkers are too. That's nice :thumbs:

 

[mrvette]

Wish I could get you to do mine......:bump::zzz:

 

[MYBAD79]

Great job and a good color choice, the car looks awesome now. :thumbs:

 

[Double_take]

Thanks guys!

TT: Yeah they are tinted using the tint in a can stuff. Spray 9-10 light coats and wetsand. I really wanted everything to either be black, chrome or blue (even the front badge). Now I need to get some LED's out back. The stock bulbs arent nearly bright enough. Any ideas while keeping the stock lenses?

Mr vette: drive it up to Chicago and maybe we can work out a good deal. lol

I do enjoy painting, but I need a good garage to do it in. My parents are very accomidating while im renting an apartment, but i need my own house/garage now.

 

[MYBAD79]

I've used automotive clear with a few drops black to tint headlights as well as taillights. Works great, way better than that rattle can tint - you can even wetsand and buff the lenses just like any other painted surface.


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