inexpensive paint job

hi. I am trying to paint my car in the driveway and am on a very limited budget. I was wondering what would be the best way of doing this. What type primer and paint? I've been looking at the paint you can buy at advanced auto or napa. Any help?
thanks

 

What system are you using to apply it ? also color is important some colors cost more than others.. Give us some more info on what your looking for in a finished look

 

I remember when I painted my first car over fifty years ago in my buddies garage. You have to understand that you will be getting some strong opinions about what you are trying to do. Getting a good paint job in your driveway is almost impossible, and first off you have to be very aware that many of the new paints are very dangerous without breathing protection.
Preparation oif the body is the most important part of the job, before you get to the paint.
I strongly suggest you do searches here and read all you can about the process. There are many threads here about the subject.
Good Luck!

 

Don't let them get you down. My father was a body man with a shop of his own and we never had a paint booth. We used to do A LOT of all over paint jobs outside and didn't have a problem as long as you take the necessary precautions, ie. dust, moisture, etc.

 

Get a TP Tools Paint turbine, spend the money on the better guns. 1.8 tip for the primer and 1.4 for the paint. I used 5 star hotrod primer, 1 to 1 1/4 with ascetone. Dries fast and nice, easy to wet sand with 400.

I used single stage Limco from BASF. Its an acrylic enamel. Simple to mix, 8 to 4 to 1. Or in other words 8 parts paint, to 4 parts reducer, to 1 part hardener. Gallon of this is about $55, Reducer I think is about $35 hardender was expensive at I think $35 or $40 and throw in a dash of fish eye reducer.

I used the slowest reducer for the turbine. It kinda heats the paint so you dont want it to dry fast. Remember, take time between coats. 5 mins for the first 5 or 6 for the second. I was never good at the one heavy coat.

You can then wet sand and buff it in about 4 weeks.

Clear coat takes more work, your base has to be perfect.

My first paint job is my 32 ute I am working on, search 32 roadster ute.

Your base has to be the best.

Of course having the body ready is the whole deal.

You cant fix a body with paint, but if you lay good coats down, you can hide a few things.

 

I learned about this method of applying paint on MOPARTS (these guys say rustoleum which is what I used) with a high density foam roller that involves thinning the paint to milk like consistency.

Anyway you roll on these super thin coats, let them dry, and wet sand in between. This really works great in a driveway, or in a dirty garage because it doesn't kick up dust / dirt / hair etc. The rest of the traditional paint techniques apply. When you have enough coverage you wet sand incrementally, cut polish and buff. I spent less that $100 bucks (including the purchase of a random orbital) about 4 days of work (including tear down and putting it back together) and my car looks a lot better that anyone I have ever known who painted their car themselves, let alone in a driveway. Do a test on a spare fender or something that you don't care about first to get your technique tight and then have at it. I really enjoyed doing it, and saved a ton of cash which allowed me to redo the interior.

Here is the post with more info than you will ever need!
http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3492965&Main=2655425#Post3492965

Post up a pic after you're done. Good Luck.

 

try "hot rod flatz" for paint . they are in san diego , ca. flat or shiny hiny .

http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/ksflatz.aspx

...... steve

 

I use Limco acrylic enamel on everything, it's really good stuff for the price. If you're on a super tight budget I would certainly recommend it.

If you're not real experienced at spraying, just make sure you have several coats and good coverage, and plan on doing a lot of color sanding and buffing. If your bodywork is good and you have enough paint on the car, you can cut orange peel and sags out of the paint and buff it with good results.

 

Not trying to turn this into another tractor grills thread but I've had surprisingly good driveway paint job results with tractor enamel from Rural King or TSC with a cheap gun. Unfortunately your color choices are limited.

 

Here's a spray can job for ya. pigpen

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=318405&highlight=pigpen

 

Total garbage units. I bought one, and the only use it has in a paint booth is blowing out any dust. Although it is good for blowing out dust, thats a damn expensive duster.

 

This guy has the right idea. On the cheap in a driveway this is the way to go...or spend thousands of dollars on equipment....or take it to a paint shop that already spent thousands of dollars on equipment.

Like they said, no matter how you apply the paint it's all in the prep!

 

the first thing you need when painting in the driveway is very understanding neighbors. a hard surface is a must. the car/body must be a roller . get everything ready the night before, push it outside at 6:00 AM on a windless and perfect temperature morning....get it done and pushed back inside the garage before the wind comes up and the neighbors/bugs/cops see what you are doing

 

I've sprayed alot of free paint jobs for friends drag cars, or beaters with tractor paint.
You can make any color you want, by mixing the paint.

 

Not trying to be an asshole but that is about as hack as it gets. Whatever you do do not spray in your driveway, the results will look like shit and it is not very safe. If this is your only option then try the roller and rust-oleum method, there is an issue of car craft that explains how this is done. Keep in mind that any method other than spraying a quality paint in a quality environment will not produce show quality results, hell it will not even be close. Also, it will not hold up very long either.

 

Paint it with a brush and give it a good wet sanding and buff.

It was good enough for Model T's.... and I've seen a couple guys do great paint jobs with a brush.

 

For a reasonable price, you can do your car outside with laquer. Go to a store that sells PPG and get your colors. You can get cheaper primers in MasterAutoBody or similar brands. I hear DupliColor brand is selling a full line of laquer as well. Get a cheap gravity gun from Menards and rent a compressor if you don't have one. 70 degrees in the shade and calm is what you want for ideal conditions. Don't worry about neighbors. Laquer dries fast and smells no worse than your Ole Ladies' hair spray. I once painted a MacTool truck on a K Mart parking lot at 2o in the morning because it wouldn't fit in my shop. Turned out nice. Good Luck

 

My dad has painted several of his Model A's in the driveway with phenomenal results. I used a single stage urethane to paint a 40 convertible in my driveway and the results were quite good. It can be done and the results don't have to be crap.

As far as a gun, hard to believe but you can actually get some really nice results with some inexpensive guns. HF sells a standard siphon gun for less than 30 bucks, that sprays really nice. Lesabre59, here on the HAMB, used one to shoot a car several years ago that was absolutely amazing! I am a firm believer that a really good paint job is all in the prep and materials of reasonable quality.

Don't let folks get you down man, you can spray a real nice finish without a booth.

 

bought mine off of ebay for 39.95 a gallon, it is called Hawthorne rayflex paint and sprays out very nice, I put a better clearcoat on it, although it can be sprayed just basecoat. I did it about 4 years ago and the shine is still fantastic. very limited choice of colors though.... Luckily I wanted that shade of purple.

 

I helped my dad paint his service body on his silverado today. It was about -10ish *C outside.. we had the heat on.
It was Nason enamel Toyota Super White mixed with GM Arctic white. There was quite the few runs, dad had a cheap gun, the lid on the gun would leak.. not the best conditions either.

My pickup will need paint.
I read the method above... the roll on way, don't really understand it.
I know you can get roll on primer, FYI.

I've never painted before though. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine. I still have bodywork to do, and sand off some surface rust..

I think I will buy a decent gun and maybe use some roll on primer.
Might roll it all on.
Not looking for nothing fancy..

I would like to put a bit more metalic in my paint, though. Could you make it a bit more 'flakier' and still roll it on?

 

You can get great results. I sprayed one of my cars in the driveway and didnt get anything in it and it turned out perfect. The goofy IROC rims are gone and the stock Rally IIs are back on. This was an original two tone paint car. The Blue has a ton of metalic and pearls. This was my first paint job ever. BC CC PPG paint.
Do it in your driveway. Just pick a calm day. I wouldnt call my paint job Hacked.

 

I think are better with a brush paint job. The commercial vehicle industry in the UK use a paint called Tekaloid. I'm sure there is something similar in the US. See here for more information.

http://www.btinternet.com/~stephen.hull/

 

I disagree on the Paint turbine from TP. The key was getting the better guns. After that it was paint flow and fan size. Zero dust blower. IT worked like advertised once I got the proper components. The only thing it wasnt real great on is Slick sand.

 

well, fourbangerford, here you have it. I am sure that everything is clear now and you have all the info you need, so go out there and paint that sucker. Please take vidos and photos so we can see how it turns out using all that you have learned here.
We were glad to help.

 

If you decide to buy a paint gun, the cheap harbor freight HVLP work just fine. Mine cost $15 on sale 5 years ago, I've painted 5 cars with it, and they look good. Why spend more on the gun when painting outside anyhow?


IT AIN'T THE GUN, IT' THE PERSON RUNNING THE GUN THAT MESSES UP A PAINT JOB.

 

I agree 100%. I painted my Mustang a few years ago in my garage with a Devilbiss FL3 gun. Most people consider it a primer gun, but my tight budget made it a primer/color/clear gun. If you only have 1 gun, you need to clean that sucker like your life depends on it. Nothing worse than blowing a chunk of primer out into your final clear. I'd also recommend giving yourself a fighting chance by choosing a solid color. But I've seen some nice work turned out in driveways and some truly horrible work turned out in nice booths. The key is the human holding the gun.

 

I needed a cheap/quick paint job + needed to do it in my garage so i made a booth out of plastic and bought duplicolor lacuer primer/color/clear from pep boys. prepped the car and the garage bay,colorsanded between coats and turned out pretty good (haven't rubbed it out yet) + it was just a race car not a show car.

Paul

 

I painted my dragster with Duplicolours premixed paint for one time painters. I bought it at my local Canadian Tire Store but Dupicolour is available everywhere I believe. Same company we know for the spray bombs. It said, do nothing, just pour in the gun and spray at 15 to 30 pounds. I never painted before but it worked! No runs and looks decent. I should have sealed it with a clear overcoat since i spilled some race fuel on it and it softened that spot however i would use it again and will since it went very well. The spray gun was a basic 37 dollar deal.
Don

 

hot rod flatz....easy to spray and cheap too