Diy Car Paint Job

[tiv]

Hi there,

So As the topic says, I ve got hold of a compressor, and all the necessary bits, and a decent car with a tired looking paint job, and Few weeks upcoming free time and along with a few long weekends, if weather permits

Before I attempt this project,

Could the pros please help me with these questions?

1. Is it possible to add a coat on top of the current paintjob? Same colour code ( After correcting the imperfections of course and priming those small areas; thereby prior to painting it will be a mixture of the original paint scuffed + corrected primed areas) There is no clear coat on the car

2 Is it possible to apply a slightly different colour as a new coat over the existing paint? ex: Pearl White Mica over Plain White

3. A paint booth is not available, is it a must?

I do of course know that scraping to the bare metal and priming then base coat is the ideal way, but the body is 99% straight (1997 YOM) other than day to day scratches here n there and tiny bubbling only in 1 spot

But I have however seen my questioned method used in some garages.

Also; this is intended to be DIY bucket list sorta thing and not a cheapskate paint job and i'm not planning to sell the car after a make do paint job, thereby assessing feasibility first and I can afford mistakes

All comments and advice will be greatly appreciated

Hope you fellas go a bit light on this one

Edited December 18, 2014 by tiv

[The Don]

Tiv, first and foremost I've never done it myself, so my comments are based on observations so don't treat it like expert commentary.

1. I've noticed at least in SL, after treating dents etc, and primering relevant areas, the paint guys water sand paper the entire body and then wash and dry the car before applying paint. This might be to get a good hold surface and get rid of surface impurities which might stop the new layer of paind blending in.

2. I think it is possible to apply a different colour on top, but depending on the difference the number of layers needed may change to mask out any differences. Paint does bond to other paint, but the bottom colour might be seen through the top colour so you need to adjust the layers accordingly. But with different shades of white I don't see an issue. Always test on a small area/ panel first, and if its not seen from outside even better!

3. Paint booth is a nice to have but still only a few places have them. What you need is an area which is not exposed to the environment but has good ventilation at a minimum. Dust, falling leaves, insects etc are of course fairly detrimental to the final finish, and you need good ventilation as though modern auto paints are also water based (check the tin as not all of them are) inhaling them is probably not the best. Wear a face mask if possible. I've noticed some paint guys using some high powered halogens to cure the paint so maybe this is something to try. Real paint booths will have all of them integrated.

[Rumesh88]

tiv, I tried my hand once on painting a few panels of a Mazda 626 but the outcome was not very satisfactory. To add to my woos the paint was of a dark metallic color and it was only a few panels of the car. Things I learned from my experience was that you need to set the nozzle right to deliver the right amount of paint to keep up with the pace of your hand movement. Then you need to set the viscosity of the paint right. Do some spare panels first to get a hang of the idea and then work on a area like buffers. Also one needs to exercise lot of patience to finish a paint job properly. So just be prepared but there is nothing to prevent you from trying it out. Good luck ad post some pics when you do it.

[tiv]

Tiv, first and foremost I've never done it myself, so my comments are based on observations so don't treat it like expert commentary.

1. I've noticed at least in SL, after treating dents etc, and primering relevant areas, the paint guys water sand paper the entire body and then wash and dry the car before applying paint. This might be to get a good hold surface and get rid of surface impurities which might stop the new layer of paind blending in.

2. I think it is possible to apply a different colour on top, but depending on the difference the number of layers needed may change to mask out any differences. Paint does bond to other paint, but the bottom colour might be seen through the top colour so you need to adjust the layers accordingly. But with different shades of white I don't see an issue. Always test on a small area/ panel first, and if its not seen from outside even better!

3. Paint booth is a nice to have but still only a few places have them. What you need is an area which is not exposed to the environment but has good ventilation at a minimum. Dust, falling leaves, insects etc are of course fairly detrimental to the final finish, and you need good ventilation as though modern auto paints are also water based (check the tin as not all of them are) inhaling them is probably not the best. Wear a face mask if possible. I've noticed some paint guys using some high powered halogens to cure the paint so maybe this is something to try. Real paint booths will have all of them integrated.

Planning to do this under a Shed, about 15ft in height walled off partially, So what you are saying is they sand paper over the existing paint a bit, or rub it down to bare metal?

Of course a mask is yet to be purchased

tiv, I tried my hand once on painting a few panels of a Mazda 626 but the outcome was not very satisfactory. To add to my woos the paint was of a dark metallic color and it was only a few panels of the car. Things I learned from my experience was that you need to set the nozzle right to deliver the right amount of paint to keep up with the pace of your hand movement. Then you need to set the viscosity of the paint right. Do some spare panels first to get a hang of the idea and then work on a area like buffers. Also one needs to exercise lot of patience to finish a paint job properly. So just be prepared but there is nothing to prevent you from trying it out. Good luck ad post some pics when you do it.

Yes, I'm totally new to the nozzle bit, got hold of a dented door, thereby will try on that, then the abused rear bumper along the way,

Makes me consider to simply go with the original color, The mica is pretty though

The hideous weather is messing up my schedule

My next worry is getting the roof sorted

[similarnames]

This link might help. I downloaded this sometime back to share with hoonigan "How to paint your car" by Dennis Parks

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=56D489312A2ACB0E!137&authkey=!ANm6CygyR9LGsHE&ithint=file%2cpdf

Edited December 22, 2014 by similarnames

[Supra_Natural]

Tiv, send MD a PM, he's DIY painted a few cars and he's likely to have some useful input

[The Don]

Planning to do this under a Shed, about 15ft in height walled off partially, So what you are saying is they sand paper over the existing paint a bit, or rub it down to bare metal?

Of course a mask is yet to be purchased

Yes, I'm totally new to the nozzle bit, got hold of a dented door, thereby will try on that, then the abused rear bumper along the way,

Makes me consider to simply go with the original color, The mica is pretty though

The hideous weather is messing up my schedule

My next worry is getting the roof sorted

Don't rub the paint down to bare metal. That is likely to scrape off some of the protective galvanise layer as well.

You should a hot blower to melt the existing paint and then carefully scrape it off. This will give the best finish.

[tiv]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions guys

But this appalling weather is ruining my plans

[Ripper]

if you've not used a paint gun much, i'd say it's best you do some trials on few large panels first.

expensive guns are more consistent and in my limited experience cheaper guns sometimes tend to have a mind of it's own.

getting to know how a particular gun operates is critical.

I use 3 for my little diy stuff and all three have different characteristics.

Nozzle size too is important as i'm finding out these days trying to lay down some chameleon flakes.

Should be interesting project, good luck

[Kavvz]

if you've not used a paint gun much, i'd say it's best you do some trials on few large panels first.

expensive guns are more consistent and in my limited experience cheaper guns sometimes tend to have a mind of it's own.

getting to know how a particular gun operates is critical.

I use 3 for my little diy stuff and all three have different characteristics.

Nozzle size too is important as i'm finding out these days trying to lay down some chameleon flakes.

Should be interesting project, good luck

Ah! Here we go with the size again...EVERY Asian knows size doesn't matter son. Its what you do with it that...* okay sorry, sorry! I just couldn't resist drawing an parallel. And yes, I shall scope what little grey matter I possess out of the gutter as I exit...But before I do, let me just make this observation:

Shouldn't you try painting something else with said paint gun ( like for example a bbq like ole Ripper, some roofing sheets, a gate, a WALL even before you set off painting a car?

I don't mean to be negative, but if you're really serious about getting someone to buy this car afterwards, you should let a professional paint it. IMHO paint is not a DIY job. Especially if this is to be the first time you're going to have at it with a paint nozzle / gun.

[tiv]

Did a few try outs on an old panel, it didn't go that well, considering the health risk associated with fumes and dust, as it is at home and not well ventilated

However thereby I decided to pause the project. And the weather ruined my free time

@Kavvz- I mentioned before that I have no intention to sell off the vehicle, thanks

however I will attemp this project once I acquire a decent location and a better ventilation setup

Thanks for the help guys, please do keep dropping in ideas, as it will help us in some point of time,

cheers

[The Don]

tiv, practice using spray cans, to get your technique right and develop a steady hand and the correct angle. Then practice with an actual spray gun. Set the nozzle for a very lean spray and then slowly adjust up. I think this is a case of practice makes perfect. Personally I think, when you are starting off, its better to have thinner layers so you need to have more layers rather than have paint dripping due to your wave action not being fast enough to match the nozzle setup.

[charithar]

Hello guys, I am new around here. I'll share my experience on DIY paint job that me & my brother (He did the most of it) did for the Maruti 800 we owned.

We painted the whole car once in solid white. We used 1K paint single stage solid white paint to do the job (Yes, you could put new paint over the existing paint and even a slightly different color too). It was bit of an experiment which the results turned out to be quite good (Didn't get the factory finish but it was acceptable). I'll write down some important points we noted during our experiment and how we carried out some of the tasks.

Paint Gun

You should find a decent paint gun to do the job. You could mange with a Chinese paint guns which costs 1k-2k but they are bit unpredictable unless you are used to it. But our experiment was done with such a gun that 1.2mm nozzle (Few year later we got hold of "Ingco" brand paint gun (1.8mm nozzle) which turned out to be quite good too. But it's expensive).

You should first take a metal panel (a wall or wood panel won't do because they are more absorbent than metal) and try the gun yourself. Paint guns usually have valves to adjust air flow and paint flow. And there is another adjustments for spread area. You should get familiar with these adjustments so you could get desired outcome.

The distance from the gun to paint surface is also very important. If you get it too close your paint will start to drip. If it's too far the sprayed paint will turn into dried dust and deposit on the surface. The optimum distance changes with the gun and its adjustments.

Painting surface

Our subject had a solid white paint without a clear coat. So we sanded it using 600 grit sand paper to make the surface rough enough for the paint to stick properly. As far as I know clear coats should be removed completely. We used wooden & rubber blocks when sanding to avoid getting uneven surface.

Painting area should be made absolutely even (We did as far as we can). And it should be free from oil, grease or other contaminants which affect the paints ability to stick to the surface.

Repairing dents

When repairing minor dents we removed the paint layer also but didn't go down to bare metal since the OEM primer seemed to be quite sturdier than the ones we could find in the market for the price we looked for.

We used metal filler (cataloy, apploy etc...) to fill the dent and sand ed it down when it's hardened. We repeated the steps until we get a very fine surface over the dented area. Then we used a primer over the area.

Removing Rust

Removing rust was a tricky business. We tried to sand it down but sometimes it was not possible because of the uneven surface. In those case we used Phosphoric acid. It could dissolve rust faster. It does react with the metal too but at very slow rate. We used a tooth brush and this acid to remove rust in the places where it's difficult to sand.

It doesn't burn our skin but better to you gloves when handling it.

Paints & Primers.

Stick to one brand of paint and primers. Don't mix different brand because sometimes because of incompatibilities of the paints they start different chemical reactions. The paint may start to bubble up after you sprayed it. It happened to us once.

You could have an idea of the terminologies like 1K paint, 2K paint etc... from here http://www.eastwood.com/1k-coating-vs-2k-coatings

As far as I know 2K paints are bit toxic than 1K paints. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Place to the job

In our case we used our garage in front of our house. It's surrounded by 4 feet walls int two sides, one side by the house and the other by the gate. We used polythene to cover the gaps from the walls to the roof so floating dust could be avoided. We also fixed a blower fan to suck the paint fumes out of the enclosure. This was quite sufficient for what we did.

Weather

We selected dry days to do the painting. Don't spray paints early in the morning and very late in the afternoon. Since it's bit cold during these times of the day the paint gun tend to accumulate water inside it unless you have a water filter fixed to the air hose of the gun.

And don't spray paint when the paint surface is cold. It could happen in early mornings.

Safety

Please use a mask to cover your nose and mouth. You could buy one from a shop which sells safety equipment. Also wear a safety glass.

This write up is entirely based on our experience and some information found in the internet. So don't expect it to be professional advice. I hope it might help you out. You could find lots of Youtube videos on this subject which are very helpful.

[Davy]

Hello guys, I am new around here. I'll share my experience on DIY paint job that me & my brother (He did the most of it) did for the Maruti 800 we owned.

We painted the whole car once in solid white. We used 1K paint single stage solid white paint to do the job (Yes, you could put new paint over the existing paint and even a slightly different color too). It was bit of an experiment which the results turned out to be quite good (Didn't get the factory finish but it was acceptable). I'll write down some important points we noted during our experiment and how we carried out some of the tasks.

Paint Gun

You should find a decent paint gun to do the job. You could mange with a Chinese paint guns which costs 1k-2k but they are bit unpredictable unless you are used to it. But our experiment was done with such a gun that 1.2mm nozzle (Few year later we got hold of "Ingco" brand paint gun (1.8mm nozzle) which turned out to be quite good too. But it's expensive).

You should first take a metal panel (a wall or wood panel won't do because they are more absorbent than metal) and try the gun yourself. Paint guns usually have valves to adjust air flow and paint flow. And there is another adjustments for spread area. You should get familiar with these adjustments so you could get desired outcome.

The distance from the gun to paint surface is also very important. If you get it too close your paint will start to drip. If it's too far the sprayed paint will turn into dried dust and deposit on the surface. The optimum distance changes with the gun and its adjustments.

Painting surface

Our subject had a solid white paint without a clear coat. So we sanded it using 600 grit sand paper to make the surface rough enough for the paint to stick properly. As far as I know clear coats should be removed completely. We used wooden & rubber blocks when sanding to avoid getting uneven surface.

Painting area should be made absolutely even (We did as far as we can). And it should be free from oil, grease or other contaminants which affect the paints ability to stick to the surface.

Repairing dents

When repairing minor dents we removed the paint layer also but didn't go down to bare metal since the OEM primer seemed to be quite sturdier than the ones we could find in the market for the price we looked for.

We used metal filler (cataloy, apploy etc...) to fill the dent and sand ed it down when it's hardened. We repeated the steps until we get a very fine surface over the dented area. Then we used a primer over the area.

Removing Rust

Removing rust was a tricky business. We tried to sand it down but sometimes it was not possible because of the uneven surface. In those case we used Phosphoric acid. It could dissolve rust faster. It does react with the metal too but at very slow rate. We used a tooth brush and this acid to remove rust in the places where it's difficult to sand.

It doesn't burn our skin but better to you gloves when handling it.

Paints & Primers.

Stick to one brand of paint and primers. Don't mix different brand because sometimes because of incompatibilities of the paints they start different chemical reactions. The paint may start to bubble up after you sprayed it. It happened to us once.

You could have an idea of the terminologies like 1K paint, 2K paint etc... from here http://www.eastwood.com/1k-coating-vs-2k-coatings

As far as I know 2K paints are bit toxic than 1K paints. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Place to the job

In our case we used our garage in front of our house. It's surrounded by 4 feet walls int two sides, one side by the house and the other by the gate. We used polythene to cover the gaps from the walls to the roof so floating dust could be avoided. We also fixed a blower fan to suck the paint fumes out of the enclosure. This was quite sufficient for what we did.

Weather

We selected dry days to do the painting. Don't spray paints early in the morning and very late in the afternoon. Since it's bit cold during these times of the day the paint gun tend to accumulate water inside it unless you have a water filter fixed to the air hose of the gun.

And don't spray paint when the paint surface is cold. It could happen in early mornings.

Safety

Please use a mask to cover your nose and mouth. You could buy one from a shop which sells safety equipment. Also wear a safety glass.

This write up is entirely based on our experience and some information found in the internet. So don't expect it to be professional advice. I hope it might help you out. You could find lots of Youtube videos on this subject which are very helpful.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

Wish I had the equipment (and was brave enough) to try this on my own.

[Ripper]

Hello guys, I am new around here. I'll share my experience on DIY paint job that me & my brother (He did the most of it) did for the Maruti 800 we owned.

We painted the whole car once in solid white. We used 1K paint single stage solid white paint to do the job (Yes, you could put new paint over the existing paint and even a slightly different color too). It was bit of an experiment which the results turned out to be quite good (Didn't get the factory finish but it was acceptable). I'll write down some important points we noted during our experiment and how we carried out some of the tasks.

Paint Gun

You should find a decent paint gun to do the job. You could mange with a Chinese paint guns which costs 1k-2k but they are bit unpredictable unless you are used to it. But our experiment was done with such a gun that 1.2mm nozzle (Few year later we got hold of "Ingco" brand paint gun (1.8mm nozzle) which turned out to be quite good too. But it's expensive).

You should first take a metal panel (a wall or wood panel won't do because they are more absorbent than metal) and try the gun yourself. Paint guns usually have valves to adjust air flow and paint flow. And there is another adjustments for spread area. You should get familiar with these adjustments so you could get desired outcome.

The distance from the gun to paint surface is also very important. If you get it too close your paint will start to drip. If it's too far the sprayed paint will turn into dried dust and deposit on the surface. The optimum distance changes with the gun and its adjustments.

Painting surface

Our subject had a solid white paint without a clear coat. So we sanded it using 600 grit sand paper to make the surface rough enough for the paint to stick properly. As far as I know clear coats should be removed completely. We used wooden & rubber blocks when sanding to avoid getting uneven surface.

Painting area should be made absolutely even (We did as far as we can). And it should be free from oil, grease or other contaminants which affect the paints ability to stick to the surface.

Repairing dents

When repairing minor dents we removed the paint layer also but didn't go down to bare metal since the OEM primer seemed to be quite sturdier than the ones we could find in the market for the price we looked for.

We used metal filler (cataloy, apploy etc...) to fill the dent and sand ed it down when it's hardened. We repeated the steps until we get a very fine surface over the dented area. Then we used a primer over the area.

Removing Rust

Removing rust was a tricky business. We tried to sand it down but sometimes it was not possible because of the uneven surface. In those case we used Phosphoric acid. It could dissolve rust faster. It does react with the metal too but at very slow rate. We used a tooth brush and this acid to remove rust in the places where it's difficult to sand.

It doesn't burn our skin but better to you gloves when handling it.

Paints & Primers.

Stick to one brand of paint and primers. Don't mix different brand because sometimes because of incompatibilities of the paints they start different chemical reactions. The paint may start to bubble up after you sprayed it. It happened to us once.

You could have an idea of the terminologies like 1K paint, 2K paint etc... from here http://www.eastwood.com/1k-coating-vs-2k-coatings

As far as I know 2K paints are bit toxic than 1K paints. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Place to the job

In our case we used our garage in front of our house. It's surrounded by 4 feet walls int two sides, one side by the house and the other by the gate. We used polythene to cover the gaps from the walls to the roof so floating dust could be avoided. We also fixed a blower fan to suck the paint fumes out of the enclosure. This was quite sufficient for what we did.

Weather

We selected dry days to do the painting. Don't spray paints early in the morning and very late in the afternoon. Since it's bit cold during these times of the day the paint gun tend to accumulate water inside it unless you have a water filter fixed to the air hose of the gun.

And don't spray paint when the paint surface is cold. It could happen in early mornings.

Safety

Please use a mask to cover your nose and mouth. You could buy one from a shop which sells safety equipment. Also wear a safety glass.

This write up is entirely based on our experience and some information found in the internet. So don't expect it to be professional advice. I hope it might help you out. You could find lots of Youtube videos on this subject which are very helpful.

i looked an at ingco gun just last week. was looking for an hvlp gun and when i saw it at the hardware store i assumed it was one.

but it was just a regular high pressure gun

it was however not gravity feed but with a large container hanging on the bottom.

was a tad north of 2000 bucks from my memory.

http://www.topmaq.co.nz/item/view/INGCO-1000cc-Spray-Gun?sku=AISP1250

something like that but hopper being plastic instead of steel

if this was the gun you used... were there lot of waste as it's suction fed and not gravity fed?

I was thinking of buying it as build quality seemed a lot better over typical chinese guns

The suction fed tube thingy seemed like it'll end up leaving paint behind.

[charithar]

Hi Ripper,

The link points to the product I mentioned before. And yes it does leave some paint behind but it's not a considerable amount. In our case the wasted amount was about 10-20 ml. Feed pipe of the tank is metal and its end is placed near to the edge of the tank floor rather than just touching in the middle. So we had no issue with it. And it's way better than the other Chinese products out there.