I really want to paint my car but i have some concerns.

- first off i have a blueish gray paint job right now on my 95 accord but i want a dark gray color.

I went to macco and they said to paint the gray over the blue it would be 450 + 50 for each jam. But my concern is will the paint chip off since that is only a paint over? Should i pay the extra 500 and let them sand and primer it or do it my self. If i do it my self how hard would it be?

What is the cheapest way to accomplishing my new paint job?

 

i was also wondering how hard it would be to paint my car myself. any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

There are three basic processes to getting to the point of applying paint.
They are:
a) Chemically Strip paint to bear metal, pull any imperfections, fill and blend, prime, fill again, sand and re-prime and repaint.
b) Sand color-coat gloss off, fill, prime and repaint
or
c) Chemically etch old paint surface and repaint.

These are listed in decreasing desirable order

P

 

how exactly do you sand the car and with what?

 

OKay let me clear somethings up, because i just got my car outta MACCO yesterday from a paint job. Their paint is pretty decent actually and i dont know if the macco around you works with any body shopz because the one around here does and well heres the story...

Sanding the car your self is a hella pain in the *** trust me!!! because u gotta use like a 500 grit or somehting like that and water to sand thru the clear coat and basically go down to the factory primer which is about 5 layers of paint because i tried doing that my self while i had my body kit on (being young and very bored after graduating from HS) and it is not worth the time and hassel and also if you were to sand it your self and primer it they will not give you warentee on the paint do to it not being their primer or not know what kind of primer it is.

How ever you should first look around for a body shop that will prep your car for cheaper and ask the body shop if they are in contract with Macco because for example a shop in DE did my body work Mitchems autobody and he charged me like 175 to prep and fix dings dents and rust! and they were in contract with macco.

i took it to macco and they charged me like 387 which included the urathane paint and clear coat somthing, basically it is a 599 paint job for the fraction of the price you can go here http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2107647 and see the after where the guy did my body work... continuing on...

Paying extra to get the jams painted is Bullshyt dont even do it unless you are completely changing the color from like red to black because if it is like a little light gray inside and darker gray outside it wont matter. example: my car OEM color is like bourdux or something like that like maroon (1994 honda accord LX) and i painted it like candy red with mad shine to it they added (33 of metalic flakes in it from original color OEM:30 MACCO:33) ill take pics tomorrow to show you...

Now if you want to primer the car yourself here are some tips......

you can sand atleast the top clear coat of with some 500grit sandpaper and some water and when u sand it it will be like some milky color comming off (smells good tho Lol) make sure to get all the clear coat off) and then if you have an air compressor and air gun then you can go out and buy some self etching primer which will basically fuse itself to the paint and metal of the car. and just spray it down in a clean and closed space and of course tape off what u dont want painted.

you can go either way..... but Macco somtimes like to rip people off they say they'll sand you whole car down and primer it but what they will do is sand it a little and put heavy amount of primer down. i think the primering job you can do your self and just take it to get it painted.

Best of luck to you... this is my boys whip down the street.




Sand and primer sand and water sand and primer lol

 

You could just be like all the ricers around here and strip it, then just leave it. Claim you ran out of funds because you needed more boost before paint. Or go a step further and primer it, again, the loss of funds excuse could allow your primered car leniency for a good year or two...

 

You might want to check out some of the article on painting on my Morgan web site:

http://www.team.net/www/morgan/tech

under the body work, painting section.

When I painted my Morgan I used a lacquer primer and a hardened acrylic enamel
top coat. But that was 13 yrs ago.

I'm in the process of painting my Bricklin and my 2 Voyager vans. So a couple
of additional notes to what has been said already.

1. The wet sanding, you'll need wet and dry sandpaper. Regular sandpaper won't
stand up.

2. If you want to strip it to bare metal, you can use a Dual Action (DA) air sander
and some 36-80 grit sand paper. This makes the job a lot easier and faster.
For large flat surfaces, you might want to use an in-line sander with 80 grit.

3. Bare metal will rust!!!!! So you want to keep the car out of the weather if you
can. After I get it down to bare matal, I treat the metal with DuPont's 5017
Metal conditioner - which is phsophoric acid. It will kill the surface rust.

4. If you are going to do the car in sections, and or have it on the road while you
are painting it, be sure to get a polyeurathaine primer. These are the ONLY
primer that are NOT hydroscopic - absorbe moisture. Most primers will absorbe
moisture from the air, and then allow the metal to rust from under the paint.

5. If you don't use a polueurathaine primer, you will have to get the top coat of
paint (color coat) as fast as you can to keep from getting moisture traped in
the primer.

6. Once primed, you'll need to block sand the entire body before you top coat it.
Don't use over 300 grit sandpaper. Then newer paints require a rough surface
to bite into, unlike the older paints - lacquer which chemically bonded with the
previous layer of paint.

7. Metal flake (fire mist) what ever they are calling it these days, is a lot harder to
shoot than a non-metalized paint, and can "tiger stripe" on you.

8. 2 stage - base coat, clear coat - is a pain, and I usually don't shoot that for
several reasons:
a. cost - you'll end up having to buy a gallon of color, and a gallon of clear,
more hardener and more reducer.
b. it's fast for production - base coat dries fast but doesn't shine. That's the
job of the clear coat.
c. time - you have to shoot the car multiple passes of both base and clear

That said, they are easier to get a good shine than a single stage paint.

9. When you've finished painting, especially if you used the single stage, you'll
probably have to wet sand (also called color sand) with 2,000 grit then buff
it (with an electric buffer) back up to a nice shine.

John

 

So from everyones posts ive decided ill take it somewhere else, get it sanded and primered but get it pained at macco.

 

You are wise, GrassHopper..........

Ever wonder why you see so many cars in primer on the road?? It's because that's as far as a Do-It-Yourself(er) can get without the proper paint spraying equipment, the correct materials and the Spray Booth. Spray Cans in the Back Yard doesn't do it.

Good Decision

P

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accordisslow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
you can go either way..... but Macco somtimes like to rip people off they say they'll sand you whole car down and primer it but what they will do is sand it a little and put heavy amount of primer </TD></TR></TABLE>
No, they actually sand paper the entire car, and then prime it.
For your knowledge, if they didn't sand the ENTIRE car, the new paint would not stick to car, even if primered.
If you want to do it yourself, you must make sure you don't leave any shiny spost on the car, or that, will create a spot on the paint (even if primered and painted).

 

How long would it take like 3 guys to sand and primer a car?

Will cans of spray paint primer from auto zone work?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gianinline &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
No, they actually sand paper the entire car, and then prime it.
For your knowledge, if they didn't sand the ENTIRE car, the new paint would not stick to car, even if primered.
If you want to do it yourself, you must make sure you don't leave any shiny spost on the car, or that, will create a spot on the paint (even if primered and painted).
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well like i also said there are about 2 maccos around my way and i was just informing because the guy who did my body shop told me the one of them they would poor prime the guy example: if you had like highway chips on your hood they wont sand it all the way down to metal they would just apply alot of primer on the hood to fill in the holes the best they could. im not saying macco does a terrible job they actually do a decent job! i just got my car out of there and its looks pretty fckin hot lol

 

I painted my father's old 71 Impala in his front yard. It just happened to be love bug (little bugs that are always stuck together) season. It didn't come out too bad except for one thing. There were a lot of legless love bugs when we were done. Hard to see those tiny legs though, so it was all good.

 

A good paint job requires quite an investment in money, labor, and time. 90% is preparation. If your planning on using rattle can to paint a car.....you mine as well just use a brush or roller. I've been doing some paintwork.....after about 1000.00 in tools and PPG/DuPont materials only. You get what you pay for:

Strip part\parts....

Get the tools...


Deltron or appl. primer...sand...primer again

PPG basecost/clearcoat in proper temp/humidity....

 

I've always wanted to learn how to paint cars professionally but haven't had the opportunity. Any of you pro painters out there want to share your secrets and tool list... i would be very interested to hear what you have to say on this topic.

 

Well... 3 guys could sand paper the entire car in about 2 hours (maybe 3 hours). You could use a prime from small cans... but... see if you find the liquid itself and maybe you could rent a air compressor machine. When you prime the car, that is no big deal, just make sure you have a pressure of 30psi to 70psi and spray it at one or two feet away from the car. That will avoid sagging or runs when priming it.

Sand the entire car(200 to 280 paper), then prime it (descently of course... lol)
Now sand it again(280 to 400 paper), and prime it one more time. This time just go "overall" the entire car.
Wet sand the entire car with (1200 or 1500 paper), make sure you have a little bucket of water to avoid sanding without water. That will keep the surface smooth and even.
The next step would be the final preparation before actually painting, but you could leave that for the body shop. They will use a product that degreases the car, removes oil from your fingers that touched the car and stuff... and will allow the sealer to protect the entire body.