You shall have a Fishy

[Joloke]

When the boat comes in

 

[richardthestag]

blow over is not the option imho, will look shit and you will feel like you wasted your money

 

90% of a paint job is prep, laying the paint on is the easy bit

 

I reduced the cost of a paint job significantly by doing all the strip down of bits off the car, trim, interior, glass etc, delivering a rolling shell when it was needed. the chap worked on it in gaps between jobs BUT it had to be out of the way when he wasnt working on it. bit of a faf too'ing and fro'ing 

 

I then built the car back up again after

 

we also agreed a fixed price cash in hand for the work and agreed where he was concerned that the paint might lift and that there was no guarantees.

 

I went back 3 years later and he touched in the bits that had gone odd. 11 years on and I am still chuffed with the result

 

edited to add

 

I paid 2 an an alf bags

 

that covered a shit load of body work too, a posts welding, rear wheel arches, front inner arches, two doors and headlamp panel. reckon the paint cost me about a grand out of that lot

[Jazoli]

If you want a proper job you have to pay the proper price, prep takes a long time and its not just one coat of paint they apply, repainting cars properly has never been cheap.

 

Edit, ^^ as above, posted whilst I was typing.

 

As for DIY and spraying, buy a 50 litre compressor (second hand around £100) and a decent spray gun, then step back when you have finished and realise why a proper paint job costs so much

[alf892]

I've used HVLP and normal de vilbiss type.....I think Id prefer a good HVLP at home.

 

I'd stick with cellulose too.

 

2 pack covers well and finish straight from the gun is quite good but I didn't have an air fed mask and it takes a while to paint something when you have to rush out of the room to take a breath

[steveo3002]

its not cheap but £1000 is a bit like when the garage charges £20 per spark plug when they got em at ecp for £3 each, i guess at the end of the day theyre out to make money and not you a favour , 

[Tickman]

Cellulose is still available, many places will supply you with what you need legally despite what you might get told.

[alf892]

I used to work for a little haulage firm and the boss used to get me to give 'new' stuff a blow over with synthetic.

 

You get a nice finish from the gun but the insect retention time is about 3/4 hours! Its a bugger to do a repair on as well

[MikeR]

I always remember a mates mum brush painting his mini one day with gloss paint .. it look ok as well !!!!!!

[eddyramrod]

Yeah, I did my red Marina by brush and from a distance (no I don't mean from Sweden!) it did look well.  Don't think I'd try it without a garage though, which is Jo's position.  My black Buick had been done with aerosols by a previous owner and that really did look a treat.

[sierraman]

Preparation takes time and thus labour at at least £40 an hour so it can quickly add up. The paint isn't cheap either plus the overheads of running a spraybooth. You will not get a respray of any quality for £500.

[chaseracer]

Trig's Italarina van has come up very well.  That was a DIY job in his garage.

[MorrisItalSLX]

 

Just make sure this doesn’t happen:

 

[MorrisItalSLX]

Dont you just love the fact theres no paint on him LOL!

He was outside doing this:

 

[dollywobbler]

I guess, given the skills car painters need to acquire, they're not awfully keen to put their name to 'not after perfect' jobs. If you don't want perfect, grab some rattle cans and go for it!

[Datsuncog]

Has nobody here ever sprayed a car at home using a hoover before

 

If anyone has, it'll be beko1987...

[Mr A Lawrence]

i once brush painted an old mini in fire engine red brush-on cellolose paint.

 

1988 paint cost me £20ish and the 2in brush was a fiver, 10 quids worth of rattle can primer and the job looked good. 

[wuvvum]

I seem to remember back in the day that Vulgalour got an acceptable finish on the Princess by hand painting it then polishing the living f*ck  out of it.

[Kiltox]

How does standard one cost gloss paint stand up to being on a vehicle?

 

Asking for a friend who also has a battered van, like

[dave j]

I painted my vw camper with rollers and Rustoleum! It looks ok from a distance but it's not very hard wearing. I was doing one panel at a time so wanted something I could do just to get it all the same colour. Been like it for 5 years or so now... I still can't afford a decent respray so it will stay like it for a while yet!

[Guest Hooli]

I seem to remember back in the day that Vulgalour got an acceptable finish on the Princess by hand painting it then polishing the living f*ck  out of it.

 

 

I've seen loads of old bikes done that way & have an excellent finish.

[Guest Hooli]

How does standard one cost gloss paint stand up to being on a vehicle?

 

Asking for a friend who also has a battered van, like

 

I used Glidden trade gloss and a 4" roller to turn a Disco bright orange, It held up better than the original paint to being scraped down trees, banks, cliffs etc.

 

Total prep was mask the rubbers etc & a quick rub down over the whole car with sandpaper. From memory two coats was about 2 1/2 litres. Finish wasn't great but as an offroad toy who cared?

[Captain Furious]

This is why when buying a car I place more emphasis on bodywork than mechanicals.  Spannering I can do myself, bodywork I can't and its fuggin expensive!

[Uncle Jimmy]

Don't underestimate the amount of prep involved; I've never done a full respray but I've done enough to know what a can of worms you can open when you start work on a car of that era. I did a partial paint job on the Fiat I owned, lots of small areas needed to go back to bare metal and then get built up level.

Looking at that Mustang and taking a best case scenario I reckon there's a good weeks worth of prep to do, knocking out that rear fender and any other small knocks, cutting back the current paint and then spraying. You could easily spend two weeks in all, to get a satisfactory finish, realistically that's £2k plus materials and that's a positive appraisal.

Honestly, I'd give it a good wax, concentrate on the mechanicals to get it on the road and then panel by panel over the summer, go around and sort out any rust to stabilise the whole body.

[chaseracer]

How does standard one cost gloss paint stand up to being on a vehicle?

 

Asking for a friend who also has a battered van, like

 

A mate used to 'refresh' his 2CV van in this way every couple of years, using Dulux and a roller.  Looked fine, from 10ft away.  Which is more than good enough...

[tooSavvy]

ToMM© has a nice 'gifferesque' patina...

 

Several dings have been rubbed and sprayed with nonmatching shade of BlooMet.

 

I'm sure the rear 3/4 are fairly pro resprayed, but no wobb I can find.

 

It kinda makes me feel less agitated by the local scum who (seemingly) manage to cut 'belt stud' torville+dean circular scratches all over the doors and flanks... As if giving a biker-girl a good sausage

 

F...F...S... :(

 

 

Ah well...

 

TS

[Captain Furious]

Its one of things you have to either be all in or all out ie go all in on an immaculate paint job or rattle can it on your drive and don't give any fucks.  Its one of the primary reasons I sold my 205 GTi, even if I could have fixed all its mechanical gremlins (I couldn't, because it was being a right twat) it really needed a full respray which, even on a car as small as that, i'd been quoted £2k "m8s r8s" 

 

I just didn't love it that much.

[danthecapriman]

I've paid for a cheap respray before. I would not recommend it at all.

It looked ok for about a year, after that it started to micro blister, react, a few areas even peeled and the whole thing didn't wear well and quickly began to look a right mess. Don't do it! All that will end up happening is you'll pay for a cheap job then in a year or two you'll end up forking out again to both put the old job right and then get new put on again.

 

Personally I've got no problem spending good money on a high end paint job to get a great long lasting finish but I appreciate not everyone is able to do that.

So,

If you simply don't want a top notch finish then I'd strip it down and prep and prime the car myself. Then spend a bit on some quality coach paints (or similar) and good quality brushes. Paint the car then once it's dry and hardened go nuts wet flatting it back until it's smooth and flat then give it a really good polish up.

Loads of people used to do it with really old cars and it always looks the part without being a show winning type finish. Solid colour paint should be even easier.

[HillmanImp]

I took an Imp for a respray in 1996. Not bare metal but they did all the prep, removed all the trim/windows, levelling and filling all the imperfections etc and it cost me £550. Got a couple of cars that I need to paint at the mo but can't justify the amount I need to stump up.

 

Signed up to do the spraying course at Leeds uni a few times but it always got cancelled due to lack of uptake.

 

Have been wanting to give it a crack for some time but life keeps taking over. Prep wise, my plan is to follow the advice of Mick and Keith and paint it black to show up any imperfections, get them all sorted and then paint it the colour I want.

 

Or

 

I will just get a loan and pay some other fecker to do it. After all, the value of my cars is so much now compared to when I bought them the respray can be sort of soaked up by the resale value....if I ever sold them.

[wuvvum]

How does standard one cost gloss paint stand up to being on a vehicle?

 

Asking for a friend who also has a battered van, like

My Volvo had a bottom half paintjob in one coat gloss about 10 years ago.  It was in primer when I bought it and the gloss was slapped on there as a temporary measure to protect it.  It's still there and has stood up pretty well considering.

[chaseracer]

Thinking on its a funny old thing how we spend so much time and money over car paint. We overthink it it really. Because it was painted with solvent paint or waterbased we assume we have to follow suit.

 

A car is made of metal.any metal paint can paint a car but we pay for the good car stuff

 

Yet we paint our doors,gates,garage doors,skirtings and window sills with Dulux!

 

Eitherway it still needs the prep but do we really have to use the fancypants paint?

 

Nope.