sixfiveoh

So, this is ending up to be more of a $150+ paint job as of right now, didn't buy the right paint at first, went with more expensive paint, etc. I'm posting in the $50 paint job thread right now and this is my progress so far.

These are quoted from the other thread, so they might not make much grammatical sense, as there are some questions and responses to what people are saying in the other thread.


DAY 1

Well, I took the plunge and started doing it today. I'm doing it on the hood only first, because if I screw up and don't like it, I was planning on getting a CF hood anyways, and I'll let MAACO take the job of painting the rest of my car.

Problem is, I think I might have already screwed up. I originally wanted a color called sand, wanted to go with a beige look. But in the stores, sand looked too brown. So I went with a color called shell white, because on the label it looked to be the right shade. Well as of right now, it looks just plain white. I'm not sure if it'll get darker or have more color when I'm done or not, someone please tell me so I can start over while I still have time. Also, I just realized that the color I got isn't gloss. In fact, it says Satin on it.



Here's a shot of the hood before sanding. SOOOO much oxidation



And here's after one coat of paint and no wetsanding. Looks like regular white to me






DAY 2

Well I stayed home from work today to pick up some better supplies. Sanded the hood down again.

Went to a marine store, got 2 quarts of beige color, much more the color I was going after, I'm really happy. Do you think 2 quarts will be enough to cover the whole car? As of right now, I'm thinking no. Anyways, heres some pics.

Really wish I got some putty or something to fill in that huge dent on the front of the hood, oh well, I'll have CF soon enough.

Here's the first coat, no sanding.



Let it sit for only like 2 and a half hours. Wet sanded that with 800 grit and soapy water, dried it off with a shammy, then wiped it down with mineral spirits. Went on to a second coat.

And this is how she sits now.





I was going back and forth in my mind on whether or not to colormatch the side moldings. That decision would pretty much allow me to start on the rest of the car.

After comparing like 100 DA pictures, I decided to colormatch the moldings as well. My bumper had a TON of dings in it, and for some reason, I bought the putty stuff but didn't decide to use it. Hopefully the paint will fill in enough that it wont be TOO noticeable.

Did the front bumper tonight. Damn did it take a long time to mask, and it was really hard to get to with the roller, had to bust out a brush, which unevened the paint alot. The front bumper will probably be the worst looking piece on the car, because of all the cracks in it as well

Heat for keepin us warm and dryin the paint faster



First coat, unsanded. God it looks good in this picture, I'd be amazed if it actually looked like that



Here's a closeup of all the imperfections. We sanded it pretty good, it felt smooth before we threw the paint on. Probably shoulda gone with the putty and made it even. Oh well, hopefully things will take shape in a couple coats?





Also, we forgot to mask off the rubber seal-ish trim black trim thingy that goes between the bumper and the fenders/hood.

hope we can sandpaper it


DAY 3

Well this is just a quick mockup, this is my DD, so I need to drive it daily. Gotta go to work in about a half hour, so I threw the bumper on. This is the first coat on the bumper and second on the hood. Bumper looks pretty shoddy. Tonight our project will be my friend sanding down certain spots on the bumper and applying the putty and me popping off and sanding the fenders







That dent in the hood is really starting to bother me Only reason I don't do anything about it is I plan on replacing it with CF soon enough. And yes, it will be dropped as well I just got the car and I just wanted to take care of the paint first.

Here's a question for you guys. What about the lip? Paint it or leave it black?



Will update more tonight

DAY 3 (CONT'D)

Well, we got around to filling in some of the cracks on the front bumper, had to sand a good amount of the paint we laid off, but it's ok. It's still a little rough, but smoother than before. Decided to leave the sidemoldings black, so we're gonna hafta respray them with some black spray on the front bumper after it's all done. Took off the drivers side fender and started some work on that, and put a third coat on the hood.

So far, the coats are

Hood: 3
Bumper: 2
Fender: 1

I'm not sure if we're done with the hood or not, when we were wetsanding to put the third coat on, a little bit of the teal was showing thru. Not literally showing, but we could see a hint of the color. We'll see. Anyways, on with the pics. Sorry they're dark, just got finished, it got late!

Filled in bumper



1st coat on fender



3rd coat on hood



In for the night



Thanks everyone for the props, and thanks for all the negativity as well, of course some bad comes with good.

DAY 4

Just threw everything on and snapped a few before work. You can still see some teal thru the fender, but thats because it's only on the first coat.





The front molding will be sprayed flat black after all the coats are on



DAY 4 (CONT'D)

Got quite a bit out of the way tonight I'd like to think. Popped off the other fender, coat a coat on, put the 4th coat on the hood, 3rd on the bumper, 2nd on the drivers fender, and laid one on the drivers door. Screwed up my door panel kinda bad popping it off to get the sidemoldings off. Oh well, I'm planning on replacing the whole interior with ones out of a leather equipped DA

Wetsanded, sanded, torn down. Ain't she purdy?



Fenders comin out alright




One last shot before she goes to bed. I'll have better shots of the car tomorrow morning




DAY 5

Here's a few pics of the work that got done last night.

First coat on passengers fender, fourth on hood, and third on bumper.



First coat on drivers door, 2nd on drivers fender





Gonna hafta use the foam brush on this



Starting to come together a little bit




DAY 6

Holy crap. I'm so sick and tired of sanding/painting. The project in general is getting pretty frustrating, but I'm gonna stick thru it and see the final product no matter what it takes. So we basically sanded the rest of the car down and got a coat on anything. Seems simple, but damn it wasn't. We were up till around 3am sanding and prepping the body, and I just got done laying on the paint, which barely went on at all, I don't think we sanded enough . But I don't care right now, I just need to take a shower and crash on the couch. Anyways, here's some pics.

2am...





The next morning...







Some paint laid.

Hood: 6 Coats
Drivers Fender: 4 Coats
Passengers Fender: 3 Coats
Drivers Door: 3 Coats
Passengers Door and everything else: 1 Coat





I'm ****ing exhausted.




DAY 6 (CONT'D)

Thanks for all the support, guys, it really keeps me goin. Anyways, I went out and bought another $50 worth of supplies (more sandpaper, rollers, wax, compound) chalking up the total of this project to around $200.

Basically, I put another coat on the whole car, it's getting closer and closer to the final product. I finished the hood, 6 coats was good enough for me, sanded it down with 1500, then 2000 grit and used rubbing compound, polish, then wax. The hood wasn't sanded down GREAT, maybe just a 10 minute job, but you could definitely tell what a great sanding job would do. There were a few spots that we hit really good on the hood that look and feel AMAZING, had we spent a good 30-45 minutes making the whole hood that smooth, wow. But like I said earlier, I'm not too concerned about the hood, because I'm going CF, but I'll remember this in the future when I'm doing the final sand on the other body parts

Just two pics for you guys tonight.

First pic is of the hood before any compound, polish, or wax has been applied.



Second pic is a small spot after a quick rub with compound, polish, and one coat of wax.



Some improvement can be made, but this was a quick impatient final sanding process, should have taken my time. Just goes to show, when done properly, this paint job really can be stunning




DAY 7

Just did one more coat around the full car, no pics, I'm just posting this in here so I can keep track of how many coats I have right now

Rear Bumper: 2
Front Bumper: 4
Drivers Fender: 6
Passengers Fender: 5
Drivers Door: 5
Rest of Car: 3
Gas Tank: 1
Inside of Door Handles: 1

Will update with pics of everything back on the car later



DAY 7 (CONT'D)

Here's some pics of the car still with 3 coats to go, don't worry.

The paint is actually still a little wet in the pics, thats why it looks kinda rough. Oh well, I just wanted a few pics of the whole car to get the idea of what the color would look like.







The back bumper has about 2 coats on it, looks like crap in this picture. Although it's coming together, I still have a LOT of work to do


DAY 8

Well, sanded down the hood, decided it's best to throw some more layers on it. Put another layer over the whole car, it's startin to shape up. I didn't take any pictures, because I'm lazy

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of it, I'm probably a week away from completion of this project (thank god) I'll run out of paint tomorrow, however, and I think the marine store won't restock till Wednesday

Oh well, we'll see what happens

Ordered some Ksports today as well as some amber turn signals. As much as I wanted to go with a better brand of coilover (I LOVED my Tein HAs on my CL) I just really couldn't afford it this time around. Oh and the gf is hinting a set of JDM one pieces for xmas


Drivers Fender: 7
Hood: 7
Passengers Fender: 6
Drivers Door: 6
Front Bumper: 5
Rest of Car: 4
Rear Bumper: 3
Gas Tank: 2
Inside of Door Handles: 2


DAY 9

Holy crap I'm getting so frustrated with this paint job I just want it to end. BLAHHHHH, so today I said f*ck it and went ahead and finished the hood after 7 coats. There was definitely enough paint, except for the low spots, which made for a pain in the ***. Basically my car has 3 or 4 little "bruises" of Jasper Green left on it now. Depending on the angle and the lighting, the paint job either looks incredible or ghetto as hell. Let me demonstrate.

Here's a pic highlighting the low spots, and how awesome it makes my car look



Here, however, is a picture which makes me look like I know what I'm doing. In this pic, only the left portion of the hood was finished.



I guess I'm just gonna finish the painting to 7 or 8 coats all around the car and just get this over with. It's getting tiring going out there every night, and I just want it to be over, so I can concentrate on something else.

DAY 10

No pics or updates today, I was getting a little discouraged but I'm gonna stick it out for this project. Bought another quart of paint today, gonna try to get the whole car to around 9 coats. Got an exam to study for tonight, updates will start again tomorrow


DAY 11

Going out right now to lay on some more coats. Here's what I'll be at when I'm done.


Drivers Fender: 9
Hood: DONE
Passengers Fender: 8
Drivers Door: 8
Front Bumper: 7
Rest of Car: 6
Rear Bumper: 5
Gas Tank: 4
Inside of Door Handles: 4


DAY 12

Well, I feel bad about it, but I got really frustrated and gave up for a while. I took all the tape off and put the sidemoldings back on. Tried to sand down the front and back ones, I ended up scratching up and peeling off alot of paint around it There's still some paint on the bottom part of the moldings, but you can't see it in person, because the car's so damn low, and that isn't paint in the left foglight duct, it's some tape I forgot to get. Didn't have time to put the lip back on either

I was so frustrated but I just wanted to get the car back to normal. Put the JDM amber turn signals and coilovers on, took off the hubcaps. I'm sure when I get back from my vacation on the east coast, I'll calm down and begin the sanding process, but for now, I actually kind of like the orange peel, so it works. Oh well, I'm sure I'll throw some more paint on and clean up the moldings at some point, but I'm fed up right now. Anyways, here's some pics. JDM one pieces and CF hood coming in a few weeks.








DAY 13

Finally got my *** back into gear. Too bad it kinda turned out like crap.

well, heres the shots. the hood actually looks really good in these pics, the fender has a really great shine and feel to it in some spots, but i hit alot of low spots. but for some reason, they're not teal. they're white, how'd that happen?



see the white?



But, I also got my lip and JDM one pieces back on today. Startin to come together a little bit...




DAY 14

Masked off and sprayed the front molding with trim paint, brings the car together SO much better. Really happy I decided against colormatching. I covered up those white spots on the fender with a thin layer of paint with a brush, probably gonna do another thin layer tonight and sand it out tomorrow. But this is how she sits now.



DAY ???

Just read my whole thread again, I haven't owned the car for a few months, but just wanted to check in with the thread again. The paint job was definitely an experience, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you love to DIY, and want to save a few bucks, go right ahead, I definitely learned alot and saved some $$$. Don't expect a perfect, or for that matter near perfect paint job though. It will definitely have it's flaws and drive you crazy if you are a perfectionist, like myself. One last pic of her, a few months after the paint, in all her glory. God do I miss this car, did all the work myself, made her mine.

astroxtc

brushed on?

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by astroxtc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">brushed on?</TD></TR></TABLE>

rolled

Rayz_Si

not bad, not bad at all keep it up i wanna see the whole car done!

Fook_me_honda

looks good, i might have to try it when summer rolls around

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Fook_me_honda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks good, i might have to try it when summer rolls around

</TD></TR></TABLE>

HA! HAHA! ROLLS around. PUN! no? sorry

msTEGGY

i wanna see the completed product, just because I am a fellow DA owner

.::miLan

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .::miLan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> </TD></TR></TABLE>

What a gangster.

Sparkles

Whoa, looks like some serious work to get that paint to look good. Good luck and keep us updated.

B_CRUZ!

props but putty that **** up. come on man... you'll get lazy and not do it later on.

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B_Cruz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">props but putty that **** up. come on man... you'll get lazy and not do it later on.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I really should have.

Think it will be ok if I putty it up a little bit when I wetsand the first coat? I plan on doing 2 more, so will it cover it enough?

gsp ej1-em1

i have the same heater!. nice progress

Danger

what the hell is goin on here ??

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Danger &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what the hell is goin on here ?? </TD></TR></TABLE>

ITS MY MAD JDM CUST0M PAiNT J0B, f00!

Danger

atleast put some mad jdm spot buddy on that bumper

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Danger &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">atleast put some mad jdm spot buddy on that bumper </TD></TR></TABLE>

BAHHHHH I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT!

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sixfiveoh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Think it will be ok if I putty it up a little bit when I wetsand the first coat? I plan on doing 2 more, so will it cover it enough?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

DC4KiD

iTrader: (4)

lol wtf... this is a weird 'paint job'

Danger

i dont paint cars or anything but usually the bodywork comes first , then the paint

does look shiney though

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DC4KiD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol wtf... this is a weird 'paint job'</TD></TR></TABLE>

BYS, y0!

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Danger &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i dont paint cars or anything but usually the bodywork comes first , then the paint

does look shiney though </TD></TR></TABLE>

i know, i shoulda taken the time. i was excited to get the paint on tho

maybe i'll try to putty them in between coats, i really down wanna start over.

Desired_Speeds

eh whatever, but it look like ur doing a pretty good job on it.

Stoic

you really should have filled all the dings before painting....

Desired_Speeds

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Stoic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you really should have filled all the dings before painting....</TD></TR></TABLE>

no kidding

I think you can just fill it and put another few layers over it. the paint u use for this paint job is easy to just add onto.

sixfiveoh

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Desired_Speeds &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

no kidding

I think you can just fill it and put another few layers over it. the paint u use for this paint job is easy to just add onto.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I think I might. It's marine paint, the **** they use on boats. It goes on anything.

I'm probably gonna try patching it up tomorrow.

American.Graffiti

iTrader: (7)