Home Paint Job

[inertiadrft]

I been wanting to get my car painted for some time now, well, its TIME!!! but I will do it at home.. the reason is all of the car's mod's have been done at home by me, it has not been to a shop ever since I bought it stock a year & 9 months ago, so why break the streek? I will try and finish by this month, that means I have 27 days to have it done... keep in mind this will be done in my back yard, I can only work on the car on my spare time, I work at night and sleep all day, so i guess the actual painting will have to be done on a weekend.... oh! and I have never painted a car before, well, except for primers and interiors with spraycans.I will try and keep posting everything I can throughout this project.if anyone thinks im insane or that it wont work, PLEASE STOP ME NOW!!wish me luck!!!

so the body work begins!!! the new vertex(copy) rear bumper that fits like crap!!

I decided to shave of the rear corner lamps.. I am going wingless, so the holes get pacthed up..same goes for the antenna.. it finally fits... any tips or sudgestions will be apreciated..

[~4N~]

Nice job so far. I like the current color scheme. What color are you going with?

[MeanGreenS13]

ok so you want tips... i work at a body shop. i admire what your doing, not many people want to take on painting their cars because it LOOKS difficult.

anyway...

do your final sand on the car with 400 grit paper. if you really want, you can go to 600, but youll never be able to tell the differnce. also, make sure you use a really good prep solvant. Duplicolor makes a pretty decent one that you should be able to pick up at any local autozone or anything like that. also, make sure to use compressed air to blow into all the cracks etc prior to cleaning and painting, this will assure you that there will be little if any dirt in the paint job, YOU DO NTO WANT TO HAVE TO BUFF AN ENTIRE 240! lol ive done it, IT SUCKS. my only other tip really is use PPG or BASF paint, (preferably BASF) and use a gravity feed gun. on from that, have fun good luck and make sure you do light even 50/50 coats.

Phil

[MeanGreenS13]

oh yeah and what wheels are those =)

[Sandy sx]

Nice job! Definately diggin the work on the antenna. If only I had the patience to do such things... :/ Or the talent.

[let5l1de]

Wow! Looking good!

I can relate to almost all your troubles. Unfortunately I don’t know much about bodywork or painting. I had to drop mine off at TPR in City of Industry, CA for the magic spray... Other than that, it’s been a full solid year of sourcing parts and reassembly… It’s so close that I wish I could just drive it now…

[Jiggyfry]

Im planning on doing the same thing in the next year and I have almost no knowledge of bodywork either. Ill be following this one closely. Glad to see your gonna do it all yourself, my reason for painting the car myself is the same as yours.

[ken240sx]

welcome to the world of home painting lol, luckily when i'm ready to paint my school will let me use their garage, paint, and any tools...so it's all free lol! but anyways, it's important that you find a day with really no wind at all. you wouldn't want that great paintjob i know you're going to do get ruined by a few leaves or specks of stuff flying into it, that would suck. just for a little advice about bondo, i saw when you shaved your rear marker you used a nice chunk of bondo, it's good that you used the metal screen for support, but if you end up shaving something else i would suggest brushing a little fiberglass resin on the screen and surrounding area and put a piece of fiberglass matting that's saturated with resin over top of it, and then brush more fiberglass on it. let it dry, then bondo it. i only suggest this because you really want to use as little bondo as possible as it will crack with very little effort, it's also very flammable. the fiberglass would just be an extra piece of mind knowing that your bondo isn't going to crack. but so far the car looks great...before you paint it also spray each panel with a mild degreasing solvent so its shiny, and that simulates what the car would look like painted and clear coated...this will allow you to see any uneven spots or flaws. if it's all ok then just wipe it off and go at primering it up, if not then fix it, spray it again, wipe, then primer. good luck man, i hope everything goes well.

[safxtacy]

Nice job! Definately diggin the work on the antenna. If only I had the patience to do such things... :/ Or the talent.

haha i think u have way more than enough patience. or are u tired of not being able to drive ur car when u were doin ur swap.

[mrzabala]

great stuff. I cant wait to try patching and shaving stuff on the car. Good luck and hope it turns out the way you wanted or thought

[fijianrocket]

Totally digging the shaved antenna. I agree with ken240sx. You want to keep your bondo usage to as light coats as possible. i.e not have thick layers. I learnt the hard way about bondo usage when I was learning to do my own bodywork. Your doing a great job. Even the messups are rewarding knowing tht your doing all the work yourself. My ride is going to be a bunch of primer patches soon since I have some impending bodywork to do. I'll be watching this thread. Good luck

[PantherRacer]

YOU DO NTO WANT TO HAVE TO BUFF AN ENTIRE 240! lol ive done it, IT SUCKS. Phil

well I just watched my friends S13 200SX get a buffing to today(was recently painted), didn't look so tough. then again. they did have to polish and then wipe off afterwards....and go over it again...but the paint looks so wet now!

[inertiadrft]

thanks allot everyone!! I apreciate your help..

[turbo_dreams]

goodluck bro, you're brave, i'm way to scared to paint my baby, then again maybe cuz im 16

[babowc]

up-daterooooooooooo

[let5l1de]

is that a corona on the floor?

[D*star]

Ive always liked your car, cant wait to see what it comes out looking like. Please tell me your keeping the flares...

[lord_hypnos]

Couple things:1. What are you using for your antenna since you shaved it.2. What did you use underneath the holes when you patched them with bondo?

[babowc]

1. who still uses am/fm radio?2. fiberglass works well.or you can get mesh to get the holes smaller and it'll hold the bondo well.but fiberglass works the best.unless you can use those metal fillers like the hot rod guys do.

[inertiadrft]

sorry everyone, I havent had a chance to update..to answer a few questions..

1. they are 15x7 Enkie's with a 0 offset all around.

before I replaced the antena I bought this one that goes on the inside of the car, you can put it on the back window or windshield or prety much anywhere you wanted, I got it at a local autozone for about $14.00it work's really well

I used this mesh thingy on the inside of the antenna hole and then I patched up the hole with JB WELD, then I sanded & glazed over it..

Most likely I will not be using the flares on the car anymore, insted I want to roll my back fenders out and maybe go with oversized on the front..By the way!! does anyone here in SOCAL have any extra stock headlight brackets for the s13 and does anyone know who can or has a fender roller that can do a home delivery thanks!!ohh yea!! and it is a corona bottle

[D*star]

If you dont want the flares anymore.....how much do you want for them?

[Logan76]

i just took my spoiler off my zenki today, and my antennas been off forever now, im going to weld in sheetmetal, in those holes then im going to grind it down smooth and use glaze and sand that, but ur way seems to have worked pretty well I may reconsider my way.

[lbrowne]

Good job, I did a very rough patch job on the rusted rear of my 240 - but hey, it was done out on the side of the street since I don;t have a garage yet.

Werd on the thin coats of bondo, applying that in the beaming hot sun worked against me today I'm certain of it. Definitely will be sanded down and done again.

Did the full step by step of POR15 though.

[Sandy sx]

haha i think u have way more than enough patience. or are u tired of not being able to drive ur car when u were doin ur swap.

Hehe, well. The swap is done. I'm driving her around now. Lovin' it, by the way.

But, body work... in my eyes is a masterful art that I cannot comprehend or begin to attempt, especially with how picky I am in the first place. Eventually I'd probably sand and re-sand the car down to nothing.

But excellent work. Love it.

[9095240SXDUCK]

it looks good.

I am about to do the same thing to my 92!

[inertiadrft]

ok, so I started covering/masking the windows & stuff and then I soon realized I was out of tape <- thats me

so I went to get more... so far so good, everything seems to be coming out good, Im now getting a little confident on the bodywork... (eye of the tiger) theme song in the background....



also I decided to shave the water squirter on the roof...(no more wiper)

so far I have been using this sanding prosses, if the surface is nice & straight then I just start sanding with -180grit- to get rid of the shiny finish and any small inperfections..

then I clean it with this stuff..

and then sanded again with a -1000grit- to smooth it out..

and then clean it again, sorry for the crapy photo shot, I was tired..

tomorow I will primer the roof and then wet sanded with a -1500grit- to make it super smooth, I been doing this and the primer gets a shine that almost looks as if it had a clear coat on it..

[s13jus10]

looking good.. ^^but no wheel covers? I already see some overspray..

[DeuceX]

Looks like you're doing a pretty good job, keep it up. I plan on repainting my s13 once I get home in the spring.

[inertiadrft]

looking good.. ^^but no wheel covers? I already see some overspray..

It aint, its only primer dust, actually im gonna take the wheels off soon and put the car on jackstands, cover up my coils and brakes....

[eds13]

It aint, its only primer dust, actually im gonna take the wheels off soon and put the car on jackstands, cover up my coils and brakes....

good good thats what i was gonna mention. lookin really good! i really need to paint my car too