DIY: $50 Paint Job

[occupant]

From what I understand from that thread, which has been posted on darn near every car board I'm on, the trick is to use a LOT of paint thinner, put on MANY thin coats of paint, and do LOTS of wet sanding and polishing. I don't see any reason why this couldn't also have a coat or three of clearcoat on top of the many layers of rolled-on-paint.

[brelandt]

What ratio of paint to mineral spirts did you use?

I work at a hardware/lumber yard and can get all of the materials for this project cheap. Not that it isn't already cheap enough!

I have been thinking about doing this for awhile now, but I have a LOT of body work to do first. The front has been hit. The rear has been hit and the passengerside door is crushed in, but still works. Might just replace it with one from a junkyard.

At the moment I haved repainted the front bumper and trying to do the grill. However the aircraft striper did not do a good job at removing the paint off of the grill. Applied and rinsed at least 5 times but it left the paint cracked instead. Got a paint remover disc wheel for my drill but it's so course that it is tearing the plastic up!

I'm using Bulldog and Krylons plastic paint. All from a spray can.

The bumper looks great. But the grill? It's trashed.

[Matt Timion]

Wetsanded with 1000 grit sandpaper:



Buffed:



Polished:



Then we took the car to the carwash. We both began masking the trim, which also needed badly to be repainted. After much masking, we used Trim Paint from Autozone.

The majority of it is done in this picture. I need to get more paint to finish the back bumper and the sunroof.



I'd say that overall it's a pretty good paintjob for such a small amount of money.

Oh yeah, I probably only used a quart of paint too. I think that might mean that I should use more paint next time. I think that might not be a bad idea.

[Matt Timion]

For anyone planning to do the same thing, I recommend that you take the time and mask before doing this paintjob. I thought I wouldnt need to because i wasn't spraying the paint. I still got paint everywhere.

I would also recommend removing the emblems for the same reason. I am going to go to the junkyard tomorrow in hopes of finding new emblems.

[red91sit]

God zooks!!! Paint those windshield wipers lol. Sorry but this is my biggest pet peeves.

anyways. I've found the miracle of roll on paint a long time ago. I'm shocked by how quickly and widely this trend has spread!! It does work very well though. I'm currently painting both my vehicles this way. The civic is 1/2 blue right now. And eventually the lincoln will be Gray, or black with gold flake :-)

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by red91sit

God zooks!!! Paint those windshield wipers lol. Sorry but this is my biggest pet peeves.

Good call. I am planning on doing that this weekend. I am thinking of using some black engine enamel that I have left over from painting my valve cover.

I'm actually considering painting my n600 this way in the summer. Do you have any idea if you can get rustoleum color matched?

[ELF]

Very nice Matt!! Did that rustoleum red match your car that well??

[Peakster]

I wonder if Goo-Gone would work to remove the paint on the headlamps, etc? Either way, it looks AMAZING!

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by ELF

Very nice Matt!! Did that rustoleum red match your car that well??

Eh, it doesn't match too well... but we actually found a few spots of paint that were unaffected by 20 years of weather, and it does match THAT paint fairly well.

Originally Posted by Peakster

I wonder if Goo-Gone would work to remove the paint on the headlamps, etc? Either way, it looks AMAZING!

I hope that goo-gone works, as I'm planning on using it. I will also use a razor blade Between the two, something will work.

[red91sit]

Originally Posted by Matt Timion

Eh, it doesn't match too well... but we actually found a few spots of paint that were unaffected by 20 years of weather, and it does match THAT paint fairly well.



I hope that goo-gone works, as I'm planning on using it. I will also use a razor blade Between the two, something will work.

Just use the thinner you mixed the enamel with (Y), unless it will cloud the plastic?

::EDIT:: HOT diggity! they have glow in the dark paint (under industrial section)

They DO have custom tinting. I'm not sure if they match it to a paint chip or what, but they do it!