Respray at home?

[B'stard Child]

Mr2Mike said:

Pistom said:

Why would you want to paint at home?

That really is a pretty sad question.

Why repair your own car rather than take it to a garage, why paint your living room instead of hiring a decorator, in fact why do anything yourself if you could pay someone else to do it?

If you have minimal practical skills, no spare time or facilities and plenty of money you might have an excuse, but understand that other people actually enjoy working on their own car, and gain a lot of satisfaction from getting a good job done at a fraction of the cost.

I agree - plus the satisfaction of knowing you did that yourself

I've never painted other than rattle can repairs and touch ups but I'm going to paint my next track car myself -

A - cos it's a horrible gold colour which looks awful

and

B - Because I'm on a limited budget and I don't want to spend 5 times my budget for the whole car on a professional paint job

I'm leaning towards "battleship grey" or "signal orange" (mainly the signal orange because it wouldn't matter if it had peel)

[buzzer]

Perfectly possible to do it at home, and get good results. I have a double garage and recently painted the side and rear of my MX5 after it was written off (twice!) I have a pair of fans off a Range Rover that take air from the roof space an blow it into the garage. when I spray I leave the garage door up a couple of inches and the result is practically no overspray. the fans shift a HUGE amount of air!

I was a cellulose man for many years, but recently I have moved to modern paints... which are quite frankly fantastic. Solid or metallic are fine, but I would always use a clear over base system using two pack paint. Two pack primer is fantastic stuff, so easy to go on, and sand off.

A few things I would say from experience…. Buy and use a good mask, they are not expensive. Mix the paint as the manufacturer recommends. There are various speeds of hardener you can use, ask advice from the paint supplier. Clean the gun out soon as you finish… if the paint dries, chuck the gun in the bin! don't fret if you get a bit of dust, you can always flat it out with some P2000 wet and dry, and polish it.

My mate has just painted his BMW 2002 in his garage… he only has a medium size compressor so he has done it a panel at a time. The results are simply astonishing, better than some professional jobs I have seen. Every panel is perfection, took him a long time mind… As others have said the time and end result is in the preparation.

Here are a few pictures…

[TooMany2cvs]

Why not just brush or roller? Obviously, for a "clever" metallic/pearl/meh-bling finish, it's not going to be great, but nor's a home spray. For a solid? It'll probably be better than a home spray.

[john2443]

Mr2Mike said:

..manufacturers hands are tied in terms of paint systems they are permitted to use

Mr2Mike said:

..a blind man rubbing a paint sodden cat over the panels

Although H&S does go too far in some cases, I can understand why they would be concerned about this approach

[JeffreyB]

I've sprayed a number of cars at home over the years with good results (eventually!)
The colour you have chosen will not be easy to use - I can do a decent job with solid colours but it's difficult to avoid shading differences with metallics. My advice would be to stick to a solid colour, follow the paint manufacturers instructions to the letter, spend plenty of time on preparation, use an air-fed mask with appropriate filters, damp the garage down and make sure the doors/windows are well sealed to keep dust out. Good luck!

Alternatively, do all the preparation yourself and hand the car over to a specialist - it might be cheaper than you think.

[buzzer]

JeffreyB said:

I've sprayed a number of cars at home over the years with good results (eventually!)
The colour you have chosen will not be easy to use - I can do a decent job with solid colours but it's difficult to avoid shading differences with metallics. My advice would be to stick to a solid colour, follow the paint manufacturers instructions to the letter, spend plenty of time on preparation, use an air-fed mask with appropriate filters, damp the garage down and make sure the doors/windows are well sealed to keep dust out. Good luck!

Alternatively, do all the preparation yourself and hand the car over to a specialist - it might be cheaper than you think.

In the old days I would have agreed with the shading on the metallic... Modern paints there are no problems with that as it dries flat and it only comes to live when you put the clear coat on.

I agree about letting a specialist do it though... A local company does a basic paint for not much more than you can buy the paint for!

[Slow]

john2443 said:

Mr2Mike said:

..manufacturers hands are tied in terms of paint systems they are permitted to use

Mr2Mike said:

..a blind man rubbing a paint sodden cat over the panels

Although H&S does go too far in some cases, I can understand why they would be concerned about this approach

This is just one example of said cat!

[Mr2Mike]

john2443 said:

Although H&S does go too far in some cases, I can understand why they would be concerned about this approach

I can't condone the use of domestic animals for the application of paint, though even my fluffy Maine Coon moults less than a B&Q budget paintbrush.

[lostkiwi]

Slow said:

This is just one example of said cat!

At least the bulkhead looks solid....(fingers crossed its metal not filler!)

[aww999]

THe thing that has always put me off is that, if you want the best finish, you need to use two-pack (2K) paint. This has some seriously nasty stuff (isocyanate) in it. That means, in order to be safe, you need a full suit and an airfed mask. You also need to think very hard about whether your neighbours are likely to be exposed to the fumes.

Lots of 2K safety advice is available on the net, I suggest you spend a few hours researching the correct protective equipment etc.

[Mr2Mike]

aww999 said:

THe thing that has always put me off is that, if you want the best finish, you need to use two-pack (2K) paint.

You can still get an very good finish with cellulose, it just takes more work.

[TooMany2cvs]

Slow said:

This is just one example of said cat!

That's crappy prep, though - the paint just never stuck to what was under it in the corners that were a little bit harder to flat down.

[Slow]

TooMany2cvs said:

Slow said:

This is just one example of said cat!

That's crappy prep, though - the paint just never stuck to what was under it in the corners that were a little bit harder to flat down.

Theres a 6 inch gap of peeled off paint on the wing too, cant be that hard to sand there. Just doesnt appear to have had anything done bar paint sprayed over the top.


Hence why no matter how bad I fk up, it cant be worse.

[996TT02]

Days gone by I spray painted a Series 3 using Duluxes' best gloss enamel in a fetching shade of beigy-cream. It takes a hell of a lot longer for enamel to dry so my enthusiasm to get it over and done with was reflected in the resultant unintended vertically textured finish.

Must add the windscreen frame on this "car" was attached to the roof, but not to the bulkhead, which attachment points for the hinges had dissolved, so I got screen wiggle on anything other than perfect roads.

But I sold it for a decent price so no complaints.

Yes just do it.

[lostkiwi]

You could always do it military style. Take a bucket of olive green camo paint, dip in a rag and away you go....

[lord trumpton]

TooMany2cvs said:

lord trumpton said:

With an old landy like that than painting it in anything other than the OE colour would be sacrilege IMO

Aren't these old boys a bit of a collectors car these days? Needs to be saved not finished off imho

It's a battered D90, ffs... not an 80" s1!

Just make sure to empty the sheepdogs out of the back first.

Well, that confirms my level of knowledge (and interest) of the Land Rover scene. They all look the same to me

[IvanSTi]

I've just done the front bumper on my car with rattle cans, finish is OK but not great, colour match is spot on, maybe if I spent 3 weeks doing it, rather than just the one week it would have been good. It cost me £100+ for paint, primer, lacquer, sand paper etc. If I'd taken it to a garage down the road to get it done, it would have cost £100, only taken 2 days and would have a good finish. I know what I'll be doing next time.

[budfox]

My brother painted his Dolomite Sprint with a brush and black emulsion.

[Mr2Mike]

IvanSTi said:

I've just done the front bumper on my car with rattle cans, finish is OK but not great, colour match is spot on, maybe if I spent 3 weeks doing it, rather than just the one week it would have been good. It cost me £100+ for paint, primer, lacquer, sand paper etc. If I'd taken it to a garage down the road to get it done, it would have cost £100, only taken 2 days and would have a good finish. I know what I'll be doing next time.

If it took you an entire week and £100 worth of materials to get a crap finish on a bumper, then definitely hand it into a paint shop next time.

You didn't get the paint and paper from Halfords did you?

[IvanSTi]

Mr2Mike said:

IvanSTi said:

I've just done the front bumper on my car with rattle cans, finish is OK but not great, colour match is spot on, maybe if I spent 3 weeks doing it, rather than just the one week it would have been good. It cost me £100+ for paint, primer, lacquer, sand paper etc. If I'd taken it to a garage down the road to get it done, it would have cost £100, only taken 2 days and would have a good finish. I know what I'll be doing next time.

If it took you an entire week and £100 worth of materials to get a crap finish on a bumper, then definitely hand it into a paint shop next time.

You didn't get the paint and paper from Halfords did you?

Nope, was rattle cans remember. Wish I had just bought the paint to spray with the compressor, but felt lazy so opted for rattle cans, wasn't expecting it to take 8 cans of each to get a decent covering.

Took a week as I do work during the day so only had nights, some rained, some were too hot, but car was off the road for a week. Plus I took the bumper back to plastic which took a lifetime.