It's been a year since I've owned my car and almost a year since my girlfriend's mom has backed into me.
We also struck a deal that instead of going to a body shop...she could reimburse my for a "$50 paint job"
After looking at threads like Gourley's it was time to do it.

This is what I was starting with.


Not too bad, but I wanted a blue color and matching parts to go with my new fenders (I'll post the infamous Z3 ones my car came with )

I went to Pepboys for the bondo and sand paper; then right around the corner for the paint.

Rusto Royal Blue Gloss
Mineral Spirits
Sandpaper (60, 320, 1000, 1500, and 2000)
6" Foam Rollers and roller tool



I'm off to surgery for right now (wisdom teeth FTL!!), but will post up bodywork and first three coats later tonight!

 

Can't wait to see how this comes out. You guys got more guts then I do

 

i cant wait to see either-


just some advice-

ive seen some use the 60 dollar wagner sprayer from home depot to spray the paint

it gives you the ability to lay down the paint more evenly and quicker.

however wetsanding is the same either way

 

In my experience, the Royal Blue didn't turn out as dark as the label indicated. Still a nice color though.

Remember to thin the paint well. For me, anything thicker than 50/50 didn't level enough, but thinner than that resulted in lots of bubbles. Practice on your gas door cover first

 

cant wait to see the turnout!

 

Well I woke up early today but the percocet they have me on might hinder my painting for today. I'll just update with what was done over the weekend and yesterday morning.


Saturday was mostly pre-prep work.. removing headlights, tail lights, bumper and trying to find dents and holes to fix.

Bump where I was backed into.




oh no!! my baby's face!!



Now onto sunday... sanding galore!

Unfortunately my friend's electric sander ran out of batteries and needed to be done by hand




Spoiler holes..

My friends came by to hang out too


Now bondo work....(i'm terrible but the results are acceptable until i get a new CF trunk/hood lol)




A final wipe of mineral spirits was good enough for painting.

I started with a paint/ spirit ratio of 32oz:12oz to roll more thick and fill in small cracks.




second coat.. about the same thickness..



Monday....

Woke up and did a quick wetsand to clear bubbles and chunks out of my paint; then put down a third coat.

Edit: The third coat was thinned a lot more to almost water... can't remember the exact measurement but it was pretty thin.







I'll see if my dizzyness will let me paint today since work starts again friday.. but i think it's coming along nicely





btw... getting some flat black to do mirrors and side moldings ftw!

 

nice progress-

i dont think many have done that color with their 50 dollar paint job

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by spray2020 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">nice progress-

i dont think many have done that color with their 50 dollar paint job</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah me neither to be honest. It looked darker on the label and gets a little bit darker in shade the more it covers.

but it's growing on me and looked really good with the headlights in and will look better with flat black side moldings/mirrors and a CF hood/trunk later on

 

Man that looks pretty good. Looks a lot lighter than what I would call royal blue. I'm so tempted to do this to my ek, I keep having to tell myself to just wait till spring and spray it.

 

Same experience here, it's a nice color but even with about 10 coats I never got it as dark as the label.

Make sure to sand out all that orange peel, this color magnified undersanded areas quite a bit.

 

Looks good buddy!!!

 

keep up the work. how many coats are you planning on putting?

 

good work! subscribe!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jooleeus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Make sure to sand out all that orange peel, this color magnified undersanded areas quite a bit.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I can agree with that..it definitely has it's way of showing it's imperfections lol. But at the same time it's cool to show a little texture imo.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mistahmac &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">keep up the work. how many coats are you planning on putting?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The third coat is looking pretty good right now (I got ballsy and layed it on pretty thick ) so hopefully tomorrow if my medicine lets me paint it would be 4th coat....wetsand....and maybe 5th coat (maybe 6th) before final sanding... Mirrors and a few other touches will have to be done after that but I don't feel that the whole process is that far off.

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



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

thanks!

 

if I get my car back tonight, I'll drive out and hangout !

 

Def. on your way to something nice. Are you gonna paint ur door jams and stuff? Or did u already do it and i jus missed the pic of it?

 

I went over most of the jams with a spray can just to make sure it would be alright from the outside.

I put on a 5th coat last night and touched up as well...this job is a pain lol.

Pics will get up later after the car is put back together tonight and paint is removed from my windows

 

Looking good. I'm on my 4th coat with gloss white. I think the blue would look even better if you used 2 quarts of it mixed with 1 quart of black.. But, then you couldn't make a rattle can to match for the jambs.

 

yeah mixing would be better since this came out way too light...(and uneven ) i'll post up pics tomorrow

 

i really want to give this a go....but i havent got the ***** to actually commit.....nice work though....ive only seen white,black and red $50 jobs, blue is a bit different....hope it turns out well for ya, its looking as if it will :D

 

looks streetdream.did u have to wetsand after every coats?what grit u used??

 

nice work!

 

i'm taking forever to get pics up.. sorry
after care for wisdom teeth is killer :killer:
plus there was the honda meet in LBI yesterday (which i got some hate cause my car wasn't finished)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KILLAB17VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">looks streetdream.did u have to wetsand after every coats?what grit u used?? </TD></TR></TABLE>
i didn't wetsand every coat since i rushed this whole process... but i wouldn't recommend every coat unless you roll it on thick enough

when i was sanding// it was every 2 coats at a very light motion 320 grit (to knock out bubbles and dirt but not rub too much off)

started to buff/polish/wax last night after the meet and the front end looks better (this color doesn't want to shine at all..)

i'll have finishing pics later on tonight

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Site123 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i really want to give this a go....but i havent got the ***** to actually commit.....nice work though....ive only seen white,black and red $50 jobs, blue is a bit different....hope it turns out well for ya, its looking as if it will :D</TD></TR></TABLE>

thanks man! people always question the smurf color (i thought it was going to turn out darker) but it seems to grow on a lot of people....mostly females....but it grows haha

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


i appreciate the support guys

 

Ithink the carsdope!!!Iwish we could of finished it at my house!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gourley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ithink the carsdope!!!Iwish we could of finished it at my house!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol thanks man. i'll bring it by soon though. i'm going to finish buff/wax/polish today and get some pics


madd kids were hating on it yesterday