So last year I picked up a 1990 Honda CRX to use as a autocross/track car. It was a great chassis in that it has very low mileage (140k), zero rust, and a straight frame. But the paint was pretty rough in general and the drivers door had been hit around 20 years ago and the repair had faded to a nasty yellow color.

So while I really wanted to make the car look nicer I also knew it wasn't wise to spend $1000+ for a real paintjob. So since I couldn't make it any worse I decided to paint it myself. I used rustoleum paint but sprayed it with an el-cheapo harbor freight paint gun instead of rolling it on.

Here are pics of the car when I first got it:





My first step was to replace some banged up fenders and the bondo filled door. I also rewelded the little door stopped in the door jam. No more popping sound whenever the door is opened/closed!





I used rustoleum professional paint in gloss white in a 75/25 mix with mineral spirits and I also added some hardener to help the paint dry quicker and look glossier!





Here is a pic just after the first coat, it already looks pretty glossy. This is without any wetsanding or buffing!




And here is around 5 coats later right before the final wetsand, buff, and polish:





In these next 2 pics I wetsanded 2 panels and quickly buffed them out as a test:





In the previous pictures the rubbing compound I was using was pretty worthless so I went to a auto paint store and purchased to good quality rubbing compound and polish. This made a BIG difference! This next picture is after buffing and polishing:




And here are 2 pics after everything is done:






I'll get some more finished pics soon. I still need to wax the car which will help protect the paint. And after waxing will be a good opportunity to roll the car out for a little photo shoot.

Overall I'm EXTREMELY happy with how everything came out. Spraying instead of rolling is definitely the way to go. I don't own any special equipment and I don't have any skill as a painter but I was able to do a pretty decent job. Also it really wasn't too bad as far as labor goes. The paint laid out pretty well and didn't need a ton of sanding. The majority of the sanding I had to do was just to correct my painting mistakes, and many of those were due to not having good lighting...

There are a lot of $50 paint job haters/unbelievers here and I can understand it. This isn't for everyone, but I had great honest results out of it! And if you are an autoxer and want to see it in person I'm at a lot of national level events...

 

NICE!!!! worth the effort.

 

Looks sweet man good job

 

nice job!

 

Another?
There was never a succesful 50 paint job. lol
This is the best 50 dollar paint ive seen. Good Job.

 

Good job man.

 

nice job...

 

nice work man ....

 

Ridiculous, thats a clean job for 50

 

****? This is one of the better lookin $50 jobs ive seen for sure. I usually hate on it, but since its your autox car, obviously you arent aiming for something to drive around scared to get chips in it and **** lol Id do the same thing if I was in that position. GJ.

 

what size compressor is that? that doesn't look too bad at all

 

A few things I forgot to mention. First I would say that after doing this paint job with a spray gun versus rolling. A spray gun is definitely the way to go! With a spray gun you really don't have to sand that much. Seeing some of the pictures of the first few coats of a rolled job makes me cringe with the thought of how much work it would be!

Another trick I employed to avoid sanding was in the finishing stage. After the last coat I waited over 48 hours for the paint to get a harder. Then I went over the car wetsanding it only once. In unimportant areas like the roof and rocker panels I used 1000 grit (to save time) and then 1500 grit everywhere else. From there I used a 3m trizact p3000 sanding disc on a cheap dual action sander. This is a MASSIVE time saver as you can go straight from 1500 grit to 3000 grit in minutes and without breaking a sweat! After that just a orbital buffer and VERY aggressive rubbing compound and then a porter cable polisher and polishing compound.

Here is a pic of the trizact p3000 disc. It's not exactly wet or dry, you use it damp. I only needed one disc for my whole car but a crx is pretty small. The only weird thing about them is that 3m doesn't offer them individually so I had to call around to a lot of auto paint shops to find somewhere that would just sell me just one ($7):



Here is a video of the trizact disc in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nE01A71n1I

You're right that the $50 paint job isn't for everyone. For my situation it was pretty perfect.

I think it's a 25 gallon.

 

looks good $50 paint job FTW.

 

looks really good Davidss, but a few questions.

How much harder did you use? what grit did you use to wet sand? guessing 1500/2000 grit. and what kind of rubbing compound did you get from the auto paint store?

 

dam man that looks good...glw your car bro...

 

Best 50 dollar paint job I've seen for sure!

 

man thats a nice job! how u applied the paint to the car?

 

50 dollar paint jobs are never "successful",they look like *** after about a year being exposed to the elements, adding hardener to a non urethane based paint has absolutely no effect other then contaminating the mix

 

oh looks like you used enamel hardener, nevermind then

 

Very nice! Reminds me of my $50 job. Kudos sir, very well done!

 

successful and $50 paint job do not go together in the same sentence.... not to mention theres already a $50 paint job thread u could've posted under... but on the bright side it looks good in pictures over the internet!

 

Actually, they can. There are plenty of "$50 paint jobs" out there that look awesome. Heck, you might have even seen a few in person and never knew it because no one told you, or they lied about it, who knows!

I know when I got mine done, I recieved many compliments at local shows/gatherings on my paint from people who last saw it in primer before I painted it. Thing is, I never told them I did it with Rusto, I just told them that I painted it myself, and many people thought it was very nice. They never even suspected it to be Rustoleum. Shouldve seen thier faces after I gave them each a few days before breaking the news to them.

If you're ever in N.Y. feel free to stop by and check mine out, since pictures on the internet are apparently not good enough for you. Hell, Ill even buy the beer lol!

(p.s. Im sure there are PLENTY of "real paint jobs" that look really good in pictures on the internet as well, but probably look like *** in person. Just a little FYI.)

 

guess you dont have much experience with real paint, because i can tell how dull your paint is strictly from the pictures you posted, im sure it looks worse in person.

 

I think it looks good my man, and for 50 bucks you can beat it!

 

If you are reffering to my car... A.) It is not dull. Its not like looking into a mirror, but its definatley not dull. and B.) Yes, it is actually a little better in person, looking at it with a natural eye, not a camera. You can stop by with the other guy if you want, and like I said, ill buy the beer!

Also, for you people that dont like this type of paint job... Why do you seem to keep popping up and ragging on someone for doing it just because you dont like it? Its pretty simple, if you dont like it, go to a different post or thread.

Again to the OP, you did a pretty damn good job!!!