So I plan on having my car re-painted this summer when all the work is done to it... I have a friend who said he'd paint the car (I already have the paint sitting in my room) for free, but he's one of those people who says they'll help you, but when the time comes, they're impossible to get ahold of. Anyway, I really don't want to pay a shop to do it... so to anyone who's painted a car before:

how hard is it?

Would someone who happens to be very proficient with rattle-canning be able to do a half-decent job at painting a car? I know I won't have show-stopping results if I do it myself, but is it really that hard to paint a car and do a good job? If I do it, I plan on pulling the bumpers/fenders/hood off and painting them individually.

 

its a lot of work, ive helped my dad paint 2 cars. It involves quite a bit of sanding after a coat (if you want it done) and makin sure its all smooth and even. Honestly, if your body work is done, might as well let a shop paint it. I dont like painting

 

Exhausting...75% into it you wish that you never started.

 

blah blah i learn how to paint in elementary, i say start off with something small like a bumper and if u like what you see do the whole car good luck!

 

Start off with something small, if it looks good keep on going. I have painted my bumper and it came out decent (not perfect). But i do plan on painting my hood next so fingers crossed.

 

I plan on doing that too, body part by body part with a spray can. Kind of ghetto but the clearcoat is falling off on its own and I don't have money for a shop to do it. Plus, I want to try it out of curiosity. I see it (quality work that is) done on TV shows so it looks relatively simple (considering they have all the right equipment, time and experience).

If it comes out good, then I'll start a business. Just kidding.

 

Definatly don't try to spray a whole car at once your first time. If you are going to do a good job, you need good equipment. You will need a big air compressor (60 gal +) and an HVLP spray gun. You air compressor has to be able to put out high volume at a low pressure, so like 6CFM at 40PSI is what an HVLP gun takes. Smaller compressors won't be able to pump out 6CFM at 40PSI. Of course, this is needed if you want to do a really good job. If your compressor isn't as good, you can use a syphon feed gun which doesn't require as much CFM. You will use more paint and have more overspray with the syphon feed. Also, you have to make sure the garage you have is taped off well, you want to make a spray booth. I remember my high school autoshop teacher told me about the time he painted his Mustang. He got a tarp or something and made a mini spray booth for his car. He also got some fans to circulate the air around. You need the tarp to make sure crap doesn't get into your spray area because getting crap into the paint will mess up the job. Its hard to paint cars, there is a lot of sanding involved and you have to pay attention of you want to do a good job.

 

well personaly I WOULD NEVER rattle can a car if you cared about it or put to much work in preping the car.... with most rattle cans they are not made all at the same time so shades can be different! not to mention will look pretty bad...
you can rattle can small parts but nothing larger than a mirror!


the prep work is the hardest work id say, painting is easy. its all the sanding before painting that sucks!
also if you dont have a booth ID HIGHLY ADVICE you painting the car in the spring! if you paint it outside early enough, that its warm enough outside and not to windy, and hopefully there wont be many bugs out to fly around and land in your paint!
ill be painting my 94civic outside..... if ya cross your fingers youll only have a few bugs land in the wet paint.... just sand them out and put over another layer of paint and continue.

but if you do take the car apart to paint it in pieces or ANY PARTS..... COUNT YOUR COATS OF PAINT AND CLEAR COAT!!!!!!!

when i painted my impala with it pulled apart and i didnt count my coats... so now my seperate pieces are different shades some light blue and some darker blue. it sucks...

 

Do NOT rattle can your car. It looks like ****, always does always will.

If you want to try to do it yourself look up "$50 paintjob" on Google. You're going to need about a week or more because it is a very time consuming event and it is not at all easy to do.

By the way, if you want to do a good job, you'll need to take all of the removable body panels off. Otherwise your paint will almost definitely start to chip.

IMO, do it proffessionally.

 

^ Never said I was going to rattle can it... I said I was proficient at rattle-canning (as far as the "looking good" and "no runs" thing goes). I plan on getting a spray-gun and everything. Honestly, I'm not worried about paint prep (I was going to do it myself anyway), I'm just worried about the difficulty of using a spray gun affectively and whether or not I can do it with no formal training.

Anyway, I plan on getting one of those tarp/tent type things (they're what, $50 at wal-mart) to use as a makeshift paint booth... and I definitely plan on taking as many panels off as possible