<FONT COLOR="red">PLEASE READ THROUGH BEFORE REPLYING</FONT>

hey. heres the short story:

i bought a 94 del sol. its red, i like it. i got it cheap.

as we all know, more likely than not, a cheap car has to have something wrong with it. this one has poo-poo paint. the front bumper and fenders were repainted, and look like a million bucks. the rest of the car leaves alot to be desired. the paint it turning pink, and clear coat is peeling on the rear bumper. there are a couple door-dings up the passenger side and 3 little rust spots. one on the fender, one near the door, and one on the trunk where it looks like someone dropeed the targa on it.


(paint looks decent here, but dont let it fool you, its as fake as a headshot of a fat girl!)

now, here is what i want to do. i have read through the detailing thread a dozen times or so looking for info, but there doesnt seem to be much on painting and bodywork. i would really like to save the $2500 and do some of this work myself.

does anyone have any information on doing bodywork yourself. i know the basics of what i need to do, but not the specifics.

i figure i will do the following-
-strip the lights and such
-sand the body to near bare-metal.
-sand out any rust spots, rebuild with a nice bondo job.
-cover the car in a skimcoat. i learned this from a friend that restored an old hot rod. essentially, you cover the car in bondo, and drag it along the body, pulling it past the flat parts, and letting it fill in the dents on the doors and such.
-sand the car smooth again

at this point, it should be ready for primer/paint/clearcoat.

i am undecided if i should attempt this myself, especially with the garage i have (messy )

i have heard good things about the trenton macco in central NJ. a friend got a job done on his 1st gen. eclipse when he bought it (the prep work was already done) and it came out show worthy.

so, thats the story.

now, if anyone can contribute information to this thread that would help me, and anyone else that would like to do this, we could eventually make a sticky that could be part of the FAQ.

thanks in advance.

 

please dont do that to your car, if you dont know what your doing dont do it at all.

the car does not need to be sanded to bare metal.
DO NOT cover the whole car in bondo
DONT use cheap materials
Take your time, and find someone to help you that knows what they are doing
those are my suggestions, because my car is in my garage almost ready for primer, its a DIY paint job and these are the things i have learned

 

i dont know what im doing, i said that, but i would like to learn.

i know not to bare metal, but down into the original paint.
the whole car wont be covered in bondo, a skim coat only fills the dings and imprefections.

can you post more information on what you have done?

 

go to these forums:

http://p080.ezboard.com/fpaintucationfrm1

and

http://www.autobodystore.com/c...index

 

definately attempt it yourself. it's the greatest learning experience. I have the EXACT same car, and i shaved the front license place mounts, emblems, and reflectors myself, filled dings and dents, and am in the process of repainting, all with NO previous experience. all it takes is a little bit of common sense......

 

I would deffintly do it, sorry that I dont have any info to help you.
the only reason I wouldnt do it, I have no time!
but go on with it

 

subscribing*

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WrongWD &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">definately attempt it yourself. it's the greatest learning experience. I have the EXACT same car, and i shaved the front license place mounts, emblems, and reflectors myself, filled dings and dents, and am in the process of repainting, all with NO previous experience. all it takes is a little bit of common sense......
[img]http://visualrapture.homeip.net/Car/car.jpg[/ig]</TD></TR></TABLE>
repainting samba green?

 

its alot of work trust me.
heres my project: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=941805

theres alot that needs to be done before you can shoot it.

FWI: paint is extremely expensive. 1000+

1. if theres dings and dents remove them and use the least amount of bondo you can.
2. block (sanding) the bondo down to even it out with the rest of the panel.
3. you only need to primer the area that you used bondo on.
4. after a FEW layers of primer, you wanna sand it again.
5. spray gluidecoat (any black spraypaint will work) then block it again. the gluidecoat will show your highs and low spots on the panels. sand to its all evened out.
6. wipe and clean the surface really well.
7. apply your basecoats.
8. apply your clearcoat
9. wetsand the entire car to get rid of highs and low on the paint (orange peel).
10. cut, buff, and polish the car.

USE QUALITY PAINT PRODUCTS.... house of colors, dupont, and PPG

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xdriver &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its alot of work trust me.
heres my project: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=941805

theres alot that needs to be done before you can shoot it.

FWI: paint is extremely expensive. 1000+

1. if theres dings and dents remove them and use the least amount of bondo you can.
2. block (sanding) the bondo down to even it out with the rest of the panel.
3. you only need to primer the area that you used bondo on.
4. after a FEW layers of primer, you wanna sand it again.
5. spray gluidecoat (any black spraypaint will work) then block it again. the gluidecoat will show your highs and low spots on the panels. sand to its all evened out.
6. wipe and clean the surface really well.
7. apply your basecoats.
8. apply your clearcoat
9. wetsand the entire car to get rid of highs and low on the paint (orange peel).
10. cut, buff, and polish the car.

USE QUALITY PAINT PRODUCTS.... house of colors, dupont, and PPG</TD></TR></TABLE>

awesome. i thnk i am going to strip my car down just like you did do all the body work, and get it completely painted to champ. white.

:D

 

veery intersting..

how come u can get paint jobs for like 400$ then?&gt; if supplies cost 1000+....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DarkspeedVtec95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">veery intersting..

how come u can get paint jobs for like 400$ then?&gt; if supplies cost 1000+....

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

the paintjobs you can get for 400 arent that good... theyll only last you for a short amount of time, while the more expensive paintjobs, like ones that use PPG paints.. (a really big name around here) will last you a whole lot longer, if applied correctly.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DarkspeedVtec95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">veery intersting..

how come u can get paint jobs for like 400$ then?&gt; if supplies cost 1000+....

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


cuz when you say "paint my car" thats what they do. i've seen maaco jobs where all they do is use a air gun to blow the dust off, then spray the paint.

thats paint on top of dirt, wax, clearcoat, and old paint.

grimey.

 

ok so u dont have to strip the previous paint.. u can just sand down a few layers....
?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DarkspeedVtec95 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok so u dont have to strip the previous paint.. u can just sand down a few layers....
?</TD></TR></TABLE>
correct. 400 bucks gets you a cheap single stage paint where the clearcoat is integrated into it. where expensive paint job is a dual stage paint (base, clear), or tri-stage (base, metallics/pearls,clear).




Modified by xdriver at 8:42 PM 9/20/2004

 

nope, thats definately not samba green. plus, as you can see, it used to be milano red, and i said its the exact same car, and samba only came on the si's

 

it's a hella lot of work painting yoor own car

 

ah. what color is it then? doesnt look midori... is it even a stock honda color? haha.

 

im not saying to not try and do it yourself. But just becarefull on what your doing its not hard to mess **** up. Im lucky enough to have a friend who is a painter and a neighbor that is a body man. Plus having a 30x30 shop doesnt hurt
some of the stuff we are doing
180 DA basicly the whole car
pulling dents and using Rage body filler and glaze coat
then 180 DX over that, also 180 on a longboard for blocking
some times if the filler is thick we start with 80 grit DA
then we will do a prime, block it out if it looks ok from there we will paint if not we will do another coat of primer then block again

 

im not up on the terminology whats 180 DA?
:confused:

i want to strip the car down to the bare chassis and do a full color change.

 

sorry, 180 is the grit of the sandpaper, a DA is the orbital sander that runs on air

 

oh. awesome to know. thanks

 

not much help but give you a idea- https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=990330
and you do not need to take the car to bare metal for a color change!!

 

I used omni paint, which is ppg's economy line. My neighbor used omni, his 66 fairlane came out awesome. Everyone i've talked to who has used omni has liked it for the cost. I have only painted the interior and engine bay of my car using omni single stage so far, when I do the outside I will go with an omni base and probably ppg clear. The clear is what really matters I'm told. The guys that run my paint shop say alot the body shops are switching to omni because its comparable quality to ppg for a fraction of the price, and it was highly recommended to me by them.

I've heard a lot of people knock omni, but i've been pretty pleased and have never heard bad things about it from someone who knows what they're doing.

Also concerning the skim coat of bondo, they do that to their cars on American Hot Rod and all of Charlie Hutton's cars turn out awesome so I don't see a problem with doing it. I was gonna do a little more research on it and consider doing it on my next project. Good luck.

 

omni is ok, but is more of a low line paint
im using some diamont, and matrix products

i would only use bondo/filler in places that need it