I heard a few rumors about being able to achieve a showroom finish using spray paint. So i decided to experiment and spray my EF down from black to red. Well i did all the prep work and got the red on there. This part was the pain...sanding. In order to achieve this finish you must sand smooth using increasing grits of sand paper. I started with 320 then moved up to 800. From there i went to 1500. Found 2000 not to be necessary but if you really want a good finish you should go ahead and do it. After that you use some rubbing compound and a buffer...and there she is. You throw some wax on that baby and it really does look great. The problem is cost....It took way too many cans of paint...I could have bought a cheap gun and got better results. Another downside was the sanding...Im still not done yet. Ive been at it for 3 weeks when im not working and i might be halfway done. Not something i would recommend doing but it is kinda cool when your friends **** their pants when you tell them its a backyard spray job. Even though im not completely finished my friends are speechless when they see the parts that are buffed out. Ill post more pics when i am finished up with the entire project.












It looks really shiny in these pics because i used gloss rustoleum. When you start sanding it, of course it starts looking shitty but after you work down to the rubbing compound you have a surface water beads off of. Its pretty shocking how it comes out. Ill have more pics soon.

 

Doesn't look bad at all, just keep working at it and it will come out good

 

In this one you can see where i stopped buffing.






Another transition from buffed to sanded not quite as nice as the first.

 

The trick is sanding out that stupid over spray roughness on the paint, thats a pain in the *****.

 

All in all I would say it ended up costing me around 200 bucks...but alot of time and effort.

 

use some meguirers scratch X after you wetsand it down with 2000 grit...

did you use clear on top or not?

anyhow, it will turn out like this(painted with .99cent flat black and rusto clear from home depot :

 

and you could have had automotive paint for that

 

yeah i know i could have, but i wanted to see if it could be done.

 

Well tonight I finally finished the hood and it came out pretty good.



Thats my other whip in the background.

 

 

i did use clear coat, but not enough at first. Istarted sanding through it so i bought like 4x the cans i sued the first time around. If i did it over again i would probably try to do it panel by panel rather than all at once.

 

That looks excellent man, you did a great job.

 

thanks-

I spent a while wetsanding it with 2000 grit and polishing it.

Post some photos during the day time- the reflection will show much more.

But beware- the spray paint will not harden the same as automotive paint- if you want to keep it shining you will need to go over it from time to time.

 

Yeah ive noticed that already. Parts i finished first are dulling slightly. Since ive noticed it ive been keepin wax on it and that seems to help prolong the shine.

 

theirs no UV protectant in spray paint not designed for cars

 

Yeah i figured that, Like i said the wax seems to help. This whole project wasnt really just to beautify my car. It was really to do it myself and find out what works best. Just an experiment really. plus even if it doesnt last long it looks way better than it did when i bought the car. When i get back home I have everything i need to get the job done right with some automotive paint. This project has been pretty entertaining and definitely a learning experience and thats exactly what i wanted out of it.