Painting Topic!

[Jelly]

Evening everyone!

 

I'm trying to sort my resto budget out, and everything pretty much hinges on how much painting the car will cost..

 

Now my question is this.

 

What gear will I need to buy to do it myself?

 

Compressor, ancilleries, spray gun, paint, primer, anything else? A big mad heater maybe?

 

What spec compressor will I need as an absolute minimum, and how much will it cost me? What is important to a good spraying compressor (ie: is pressure more important than motor power, tank capacity etc)?

 

Which colours are the easiest and hardest to do? How hard would a Garnet/maroon colour be (see my signature for colour)?

 

 

 

Finally, How much do you think it will cost to get it sprayed professionally? I know this is very much a "how long is a piece of string" question, but I'm just looking for ballpark figures. Just an acceptable finish (no runs etc) in Garnet to a budget basically.. I would do all the preparation and the sprayer would only need to add a little prep if it was needed somewhere..

 

Cheers for any help, oh and if you shared your experiences with spraying yours it would be great!

 

[petrolhead]

I was in the same position as you and from memory, the compressor cost £150. Good Paint gun cost £70. Sander, sand paper and ancils £100. Metallic cellulose paint £20 litre (I think that is including premium thinners). Prob need 5-7 litres to do a whole car but my memory is fading.

 

I wanted to do everything myself but only had time to do door shuts, engine bay and boot before a house move. I did 90% of the body work before it went to paint shop. That cost me £1500 cash in hand but I did get 2 other quotes for £1300 and one for £2100.

 

Hopefully this link works:

 

http://ghia4door.spaces.live.com/Photos/?owner=1

 

Silver is supposed to be one of the hardest colours to do, I got reasonable results.

 

hope this helps

 

matt

[Mr Sam]

can spend as much or as little as you want but its all in the preperation.....

 

 

be prepared for alot (and i mean ALOT) of sanding i did 10+ hours of hand sanding on my fiesta, cant rember what the compressor was or what psi i had it on used 1litre of under coat then a litre overcoat, i mixed the overcoat a little too thin so ive got a few nasty runs but it was worth it

 

 

allready had the compressor £20 sparaying accesories kit thing from screwfix we allready had

 

 

then £26 on paint

 

im still chuffed to bits with it

 

ooh and also even if your doing it in an incredibly well ventilated area (i was doing it outside) wear a proper face mask breather system thingy

[Jelly]

Sam if I had a fizza that is exactly how it would look.

 

 

 

Petrolhead; £20 per litre, and I need up to seven litres?!

 

 

 

Surely other people have experiences to share?

[Cookie]

I am not sure what size to reccomend for compressor, but i think i set mine to 75 psi maybe ( can't remember 100% just know where on the pressure guage to set it ) I would say a bigger tank is in preference to a bigger motor as the motor can keep the tank topped up all the time but on a small tank if you use all the air then the paint is gonna come out at different rates

 

As for the cost of paint, obviousley this is all down to cash, you pay £2000 you are geting a bang on top job, you pay £300 your getting a mask up and blow over job.

 

 

One point to make though if you do self prep then when its sprayed it looks awful you have no comeback with the painter, it will be down to you, and if you do the prep and then get the painter to finish it off then you might aswell get them to do it as its the 'finishing off' bits that take the most time to get right and make it or break it so to speak

 

 

If you are gonna go down the spray it yourself route and are not using an oven then get some fast acting or winter hardner, this will make the paint go hard a lot quicker than usual, and make sure you get some panel wipe over the car before the top coat goes on, everything must be otally clean and dust free or you may aswell spray it on a beach

 

I think the local autopaints charges between £10 and £30 a litre for paint depending on what you want, My mate just done his Scooby in my workshop and he went through 3 litres for the outside and engine bay as a guide

 

 

 

Hope that's of some help to ya!

[SAMMYBOY]

I have a 150 litre compressor coming from machine mart, its about £350. Thats the size really that will power most things no probs..Only thing it will struggle with sometimes will be a da sander. Get a decent da, and buy discs from ebay or paint suppliers. I pay through the nose for paint, because the bodyshop i work in uses water based paint.. But now me and Doc have our huge garage, i can go back 2 normal gear, and i get that for about £8-10 a litre, then u got your hardener, thinners, laquer.

It really all is in the prep work. Painters in my work, dont like prepping or masking. They want to just blast the paint on and leave. The paint job on my mk2 in my sig cost me about £100 all in, and never needed polished after painting. 5 coats of lotus elise yellow, with clear laquer thru final coat.. Soon goin to be doin resto work for friends, pity u werent closer......

[pelvins]

if your after a top job , go to a recomended sprayer and get them to do it looking at £2000 /£ 3000 youve got comeback then if anything goes wrong and you should have a quality finish also depends if time is a factor ??

or £ 300 quick blow over with rust returning soon >

if you decide to do it yourself get someone who knows what there doing for advice .

as everone will tell you 90 % is in the prep work .

my mate sprayed my car for free and i helped with all the donkey work ( loads of hours) and i now know how much goes into a decent spray job !! he told me that the paint alone would have cost £3000 !

good luck m8 with yours

[Tom]

its not an easy job at all mate.

 

i spent 6 months on mine. that included front wings doors and a few repair sections.

 

i pretty much bare metalled the whole car . filled and primed the dented bits, acid etched the bare metal (10 quid a can) then 3 coats of primer.

 

the primer isn't that hard to put on as runs don't really matter cos you can sand them down. but it takes absolutely ages to flat back the primer ready for the top coat. putting the final coat on is is only 10% of the respray. if the prep is crap then so will the final finish.

[petrolhead]

I think I reckoned on 5-7 litres including the laquer inc boot and engine bay. If your garnet red is metallic it will prob also need laquer. Metallics are more difficult because they reflect light differently according to how heavy they were put on. If you put it on too thin all the metal flakes lie flat and reflect light in the same way. If you put it on just heavy enough the metal flakes will lie in all sorts of planes and the metallic paint will really glisten in the light.

 

Anyway it is easy to get a patchy finish because of this. What the blokes are saying about prep is spot on. I spent weeks on mine.

 

It ain't cheap, good luck!!!

 

petrolhead matt

[SAMMYBOY]

To be honest, the time i painted the ghia, i went to our place on a Sat mornin at 5 oclock, stripped car to shell....car was all original with no rust anyway, so just used da to flatten old beige colour, and i`d already taken the old brown vinyl roof of. Cut glass out f and rear......Painter came in, we masked car up, wiped with panel wipe all over....Then put in one of the ovens, while painter mixed up the paint.He took about an hour and a bit to paint the whole car, then left.

Car was cooked for an hour, then i brought it out oven, demasked, and started to build back up.

Came back on the Sunday morning early doors, finished buildin up, and took car back home on one of our wagons......

[alladdin]

for compressor you want one thats around 9cfm min. bigger the tank (reciever) the better 50ltr min or couple up an old propane bottle.

2k use 40 psi so pressure not an issue its the volume(qty.) that matters.

£20 draper spray guns will do a job with practice, paint mix makes a big difference with cheapo gun i found.dont buy gig expensive gun as it will want lots of air !!

2 ltr will do a car with hardener no probs 3 coats. under bonnet, jams boot ets cant be more than another ltr ?

with metallics i think you need less as its one to one thinner mix.

you can flat back 2k after about a week. use 2000 wet n dry and then frecla compound for a natural look.

check your local autopaint international stockist.

hope its some help. mike.

[johnboy]

I spent around £250 pounds in paint and materials on my mk2. I borrowed my brothers compressor (13cfm min i think) and a 30 quid air gun. Used a couple of liters of under coat and 6 litres of top coat (celluose) I figured that if you put plenty on you can always cut it back to get the shine. It turned out well and didnt need too much polishing. Like everyone says its all in the preperation. I spend days prepping mine and to be honest there are still one or two blemishes here and there but overall Im very happy with the job.

Remember you can always hire a commpressor for the weekend to keep costs down. At the end of the day if you are not wanting a show winning shine youll be fine!

[Guest Guest]

Sam if I had a fizza that is exactly how it would look.

 

 

 

Petrolhead; £20 per litre, and I need up to seven litres?!

 

 

 

Surely other people have experiences to share?

You get wot you pay for. Either pay a pro £1500 plus,depending on prep, or DIY