kidoekid

hey guys, im thinking about painting my LS on my own. not even a year ago, i paid big money to have my RSX painted rosso corsa (ferrari red), and i ended up totaling the car like 2-3 months later, so im not really looking forward to paying money to paint the LS this time.

anyway, heres my contemplation issue. im pretty good with paint usually. i have been painting other things for a long long time, but never cars. im pretty sure i can manage to paint my car on my own, i just need some help figuring out whats the right tools/supplies to buy, like the spray gun, compressor, paint and how to mix it, and all that good stuff. i have done some research on this stuff, but would like to hear it from someone with experience if possible? ive been looking at a Devilbiss gun, but know nothing of it. any tips/help? thanks!

Rocan

sorry to say, but unless if you have a big old perfectly clean garage, a nice compressor and other things, lots and lots of time (and patience), your paint will turn out like junk.

by the time you set yourself up youll have covered 70 percent of the costs of getting it done.

only good thing is if you do your car again, youll save yourself the costs.

but otherwise not worth it, not to mention the risk of screwing it all up, chipped paint etc.

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

yep what rocan said, unless u got a sealed room its hard.

kidoekid

i have all the patience in the world, im an artist, so patience is there, i also do have a good place to paint the car. all im looking for is tips on the tools/supplies and steps for the process.

lets put it this way...im standing in a booth next to the car ready to start, yet, i have no sander, no gun, no supllies, no steps in order to follow through...where do i begin?

of corse, first and for most, im looking for recommendations on the right quality equipment as well.

AzHotLS

iTrader: (1)

The $75 Paint Job

http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/Painting.html


This one has an interesting idea for keeping dust off the car.... balloons:

http://auto-paint.org/car-paint.html

19psi

i've painted some.....
you need a big comrpessor first of all, like 50+ gal.
the gun is up to you, obviously a more expensive gun will help, but a good painter with a cheap gun will make the paint look better than a rookie with the most expensive gun.
get a book on painting techniques from a book store.

get the body prepped! dont' skimp on bodywork or it will look like *** when you're done.
aside from that, practice!
find some old fenders or something to practice spraying.
the base coat lays down nicely, it's the clear that's hard.
you could always cheat and do a matte finish paint job, it lays down great and you dont' have to mess with clear coat. it's the newest hottest thing anyway....

kidoekid

perfect! thank you!!!

see, now thats what im talking about! now im extra motivated, lol. i do plan on practicing on my old RSX's stock fenders and hood that i have left in my garage. thanks bro

selkirk

I got into painting last year. A few tips...

1. Respirator, respirator, respirator! Good paint contains isocyanates and you do not want to breathe that stuff. Isocyanates were what got released at Bhopal. You need to protect your lungs (and skin, too - long shirt and pants no matter how warm it is) and this means a good mask. 3M 6000 with the 60926 cartridges as a bare minimum - if you can afford it, go with full face or (better yet) supplied air. One good paint job will burn through a set of cartridges but it is money well spent.

2. Good paint gun - Iwata LPH440 for primer and LPH400 for top coat. Not cheap but they do a terrific job. I went with Limco stage 3 urethane which was a decent, not too expensive BASF product. On a later project we shot some PPG urethane which also turned out great.

3. Compressor - you need clean, dry air and plenty of it. Keep in mind that department store compressors have wildly optimistic HP ratings - you want to look for adequate CFM for whatever gun you choose. My compressor does 20+ CFM (Emglo 4cyl.), enough to run a sandblaster at 100% duty cycle, and it was working VERY hard the day I painted. This will heat up your compressor and put water vapor into the supplied air, not good! You can get disposable filters that take out water vapor, but even better is to have some decent filters in line before the disposable one. I got a few NOS Wilkersons on flea-pay for chump change, and it was a real eye-opener to see all the crud that came out of them at the end of the day. To cool the air down before the filters, make a few loops of air hose, set it in a bucket, fill it with a bag of ice from the 7-11, and top off with water.

4. Prep!! Paint makes a very thin layer and if it isn't smooth before you paint it, it won't be afterwards either. If you're painting something that's already painted, go over it with the DA sander and some 300 grit to rough it up so it will accept the new paint. You also need to make sure it is VERY VERY clean with no wax, dust, or other crud on the surface.

5. If you're planning to wet sand, you want at least 3 coats of paint over the primer. Wet sanding goes through paint thickness pretty fast and even at 3 coats, my paint is thin in a few spots where I sanded too aggressively.

6. Call up Eastwood and get the Kevin Tetz "Paintucation" DVD set. I learned so much from watching him... and my paint job turned out pretty good. To be honest, by the time I had bought all the equipment and paint, I didn't save anything compared to having someone paint the car for me. But the next time we painted, I had all the equipment =) and besides, now I have an air compressor!

7. Get a good night's sleep the day before - painting my FJ took something like 14 hours. You will be tired when you go to bed!

Hope this helps