I need some advice for painting my car CHEAP, heres why

[lbrowne]

I have an 89 240sx, paint is severely faded on top of the car, the hood, the trunk lid is now black from being replaced cuz the original was very rusted.

aside from my fenders going to be replaced and various spots along the body sanded and smoothed down what can i do to make her one colour aside from getting her professionally painted?

Reason being is I don't plan I getting into this car heavy duty (paint, rims, and more than basic mods) for a while yet. but it would be nice to have her all one colour, no matter what the colour.

even flat black primer colour. something i can do myself, ANYTHING would be better than what it is now.

has anyone tackled such a feat before?

thanks,

lbrowne

[Dragon240]

Maaco $249.

[randybunctious]

are those maaco jobs really that bad, how bad are they?

[Dragon240]

Don't really know. But if you catch that $249 special and it last a year isn't it worth it?

[red240ne]

Dude, buy that touch up spray paint stuff from advance auto and go over your whole car. It will look brand new. Don't spend 250 bucks that you don't have.

[VQdriver]

i read in SCC that they used fine grit sandpaper over a the bodypanels. rubbed them down with acetone. and used kylon flat black (5-6cans) in a random pattern to eliminate the streaking. they said to move the can in a quick motion 1-2ft over the surface. they applied 2 coats a few minutes apart since it dries relatively quickly. use newspaper for the trim and windshield.

[SloS13]

you could always hit up some bodywork websites, and learn how to sand and wet-sand and primer your car, then take it to a bodyshop and see if they'll paint it for cheap. Oh yeah, you could learn to mask your car too, just bring the supplies with you to the bodyshop, so all they gots to do is paint it

[Infamous]

i say you sand it all down and just put it in primer black. i bet if you sand it down yourself and get a shop to put a coat or two of primer down it would be pretty cheap.....thats just my opinion tho

[Exessive26]

I painted my 91 with satin black, and it came out pretty well.I won't win any car shows, but those suck anyway.

[gibbo80]

Ya i think there was a article in scc about painting with spray cans. I did a top for my scout his way but you have to have more than one person to keep the paint wet so that you dont get dust lines, or if you sand it you can have someone do the painting for 500 for a pretty good job. alot of guys do this stuff in there garages on the side just ask around youll find someone

[AZhitman]

Dude, go find an Earl Sheib or a Maaco. I dropped $149 on a full color-change paint job on an 84 CRX I was selling... Blue to black - I prepped it real well by sanding it and removing emblems, interior, and trim before delivering it to them. Paint still looks good six years later.

You'll also save $$$ by choosing a color that they have left over (or call some paint shops and get leftovers).

Trying to do it yourself is OK, but w/o proper equipment and a spray booth, you're gonna be disappointed (and piss off the neighbors). Besides, rattle cans ain't gonna cut it, regardless of what SCC says they did.

[Phantom]

Well if your in the military there are spray booths and equipment, but if your not just take it in and spend the money their way like macco or something.

Hey if you lived in Florida, which I see you don't I would have done it for free.

[lbrowne]

the spray can to flat black primer colour is kinda of the method i was going to go. you really need to see the condition of the body of my car to understand.

its not a simple sand down, touch up some rusts spots type job. i would literally need new rocker panels welded in and the like.

thats why i said i wanted to do something very very cheap just for now.

thanks for your input, i really appreciate it all

[PapaSmurf2k3]

wait for a nice warm, not windy day, tape and newspaper your windows and trim off, sand the whole car lightly with 80-100 grit paper, wipe it off with a rag real good, then hit it with a black primer (I found marine grade corosion resistant works pretty damn good) then hit it with a high gloss black, then finish it off with clear coat. wait a couple hours, then pull all the masking off.

[Dragon240]

What part of florida? I'll let ya paint my car for free

[lbrowne]

This plan is now back on the table, I was going to go with the whole HVLP spray gun with compressor, go with a nice stock red paint the works.

Due to other influencing factors I'm going back to my original plan.

Here are my questions:

1. Shouldn't I use 300 grit or so for sanding down the body and existing paint?

2. Does the clearcoat take properly to the primer, or should I jsut leave as is. I'll be getting a lacquer based primer, for a smooth finish.

thanks,

lbrowne

[corn322]

if you wanna get rid of the paint already on there, sandpaper will do it, just takes time. a long time. I got my hood sandblasted for $30.

do a good primer job. it helps a lot.

[vwluv10338]

I said the day I got my car back from Maaco that I would have to support them. I got my accord painted through one of their deals, I got the $500 paint job for $300. My paint looked good enough when we picked it up that my girlfriend droped her car off to get painted. What sucks is hers looks better than mine. Oh well. I have been happy with that paint for $300. I think if I get my 240 painted I will go all out for a better paint job, of course Maaco does offer a urethane + clear top of the line job for around $860.

Eric

[auto180sx]

primers easy as ****, me and a few friends did it easy http://www.502streetscene.net/...=1578 it dosent look too bad, and he also got the paint job for cheeper then usual because we alredy primered it

[lbrowne]

auto180sx: here what I get from your link:

You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons....

its asking me to log in.

[auto180sx]

thats gay, its a thread whats your email, i'll send you pictures!

[lbrowne]

[email protected]

thnx!!!

PS: I'm really leaning towards sanding the existing paint down, basically scuffing it...then applying a lacquer based primer and call it quits. ooooor, giving it a quick sanding, cheap primer job....then buy 7-8 cans of the one colour at crappy tire (they have torch red, black sapphire, and many man other colours! hahaha)

[auto180sx]

we got a friend to do a paint job, he works at a place that dose it, but we primered it ourselfs

[auto180sx]

before

[auto180sx]

after

[auto180sx]

those two pics should help, i know that im not spending that kinda money when i can spend a little while doing it myslef and it looking like that, some money on a paint job them... bam! i thought it looked real clen after the paint job was done, but the primer dosent look that bad

[auto180sx]

oh sorry the pictures came out so bad :/ but you should get a idea of what it'll look like

[S13 Power]

i dont know if this has been said yet but why dont you try it a local high school. My old auto body teacher painted several cars and we got stuck doing all the sanding and removing dents and shiet. but the cars turned out really well. Just find some inexpensive paint. youll defenetly beat earl shieb and macco

[S13 Power]

oh yea i think most high schools will have all the tools ya need. Paint booth, average spray guns, and lots of help.

[lbrowne]

Not in this small city theres no schools for me to take it to.

Nice advice though because if I was anywhere else I'd be following that advice. Or even the trades colleges always looking for cars to do school work on

So what you think, sand her, quick primer, and then spray her with 8-9 spray cans of some paint? Its either going to be red or blue! haha I like the black sapphire....its like a dark dark blue