painting cars

[gen2teggy]

do u have to take it down to the steel?

[Phuqu]

No. As long as you have a suitable substrate for the paint to adhere to.

Sanded OE paint - Good.
Over rust - Bad.

If you did take it down to bare metal you would need an etch primer or some sort of epoxy primer.



What did you have in mind?

[gen2teggy]

just repaint my car a new color

[dieselpower91]

If your car has been repainted quite a few times you might have to take it down to metal. There is a certain thickness that the paint will not cure properly or stay on the car. I think it's usually about 2-4 paintjobs depending on how many coats of paint/clear, then you should take it down to metal.

[heavyD]

For a proper job you should remove everything up to the original paint. Prep is the most important part of a good paint job. Any rust should be removed, dents filled, and a complete sanding job should be done. In my experience maybe 20% of all shops do proper prepping.

I busted A1 Autobody on my wife's accord years back. There were some areas where the factory paint was peeling. Those fuckers painted right over the peeled paint without even sanding. Needless to say, 6 months later the new paint was peeling in the same area and pattern as the old paint.

The bigger the shop, the more tools they have hired. Best bet is to go to a small shop where you actually see the person doing your car.

[shane]

would going to a private guy be any good,, i need to strip my cars down cause paint is peeling all over,,, and i called this guy from the bargin finder, he told me 1800$ thats a good price,, but do you think he would do a good job considering hes doing it by himself and using his own tools etc...

[Rockski]

it all depends, he could have the propper tools, which isnt hard. having tools to do the job is easy, having GREAT tools is a little harder.. for example, he could have a canadian tire special type gun, OR he could have a specialty titanium gun that costs around 800$. the gun from canadian tire could get the job done good if its in the right hands, but the higher quality gun will give you a more consistant airflow/paintflow.

[carson blocks]

I wouldn't hire anyone out of the bargain finder without seeing their work, and even then I might be a little leary. I've started doing my own paint work, I got a compressor and cheap paint gun ($150ish i think) and my work is far from perfect but it gets better each time I paint. Plus I get satisfaction from having done the job myself, even if it does have some flaws.

lol Eventually I might even get good..

[7thgenvic]

Originally posted by carson blocks
I wouldn't hire anyone out of the bargain finder without seeing their work, and even then I might be a little leary. I've started doing my own paint work, I got a compressor and cheap paint gun ($150ish i think) and my work is far from perfect but it gets better each time I paint. Plus I get satisfaction from having done the job myself, even if it does have some flaws.

lol Eventually I might even get good..

if i were you i wouldn't be worried about painting your saturn perfectly or spending lots of money! and small compressors for canadian tire as well as crappy guns don't give the best work, you can have top of the line tools and a pimp compressor and hardly have ot worry about screwing up! get the job done wayyyyyy faster and you have wayyy better results, BUT ITS ALLLLLL IN THE PREP!!!!

[carson blocks]

Originally posted by 7thgenvic


if i were you i wouldn't be worried about painting your saturn perfectly or spending lots of money! and small compressors for canadian tire as well as crappy guns don't give the best work, you can have top of the line tools and a pimp compressor and hardly have ot worry about screwing up! get the job done wayyyyyy faster and you have wayyy better results, BUT ITS ALLLLLL IN THE PREP!!!!


lol I'm not worried about painting my Saturn perfectly. I don't have any plans at all to paint this car, it's just a driver to me, I have no illusions about the car and it's purpose.

I'm just trying to encourage gen2teggy to think about the possibility of a DIY paint job. I've done paint on friends vehicles, I did some paintwork for a small used car lot, and I painted my stock car back when I raced. It's just something I enjoy

My gun is on the cheap side ($150), but it seems to do ok. Not nearly as nice as some i've used, but acceptable. My compressor is pretty decent though, it was about $800. And I sure know prep is everything.

[gen2teggy]

hmm ic