earl, maaco, do it yourself auto paint, or both?

I have a 93 Dodge Spirit with170,000 that still runs well. The paint has had a history of peeling off to the primer, since i bought it in 95. The dealer made good on repainting the hood back then, but since then, i've had to spot it with touchup paint and the like. Now i have a big area that's peeled to the grey primer on the roof. Obviously I don't want to sink a lot of money into a paintjob on a car that will only be used for another year or two. My choice is to bring it to earl, maaco , do it myself somehow cheaply (if possible with a top of the line Wagner powerpainter), or do a combination of sanding myself (as some suggest) and taking it to Earl or Maaco. Is it possible to shoot any type of auto enamel with a top of the line electric sprayer. (It sprays thick paint like latex with no problem, as I've painted garage doors with it.) Email replies to snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com and thanks.

Reply to
john agner
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Some years ago, my brother painted my car with a Wagner electric gun. It looked good from across the street if you squinted and it was raining in the dark. In other words, the oranges you buy are smoother. The newer guns out today are a bit better, but I would find an old hood or other car metal or your brother's car and try it out on that first. You may find that the electric gun may be spitting droplets of thinned enamel paint instead of atomizing, that you don't see with latex. You could also sneak out at night and paint your neighbour's car for him, just to get the practice of moving the gun around. He'll be very pleased especially if it's a Volvo :).

Pete

Reply to
pete selby

My brother once painted his old Ford Econoline with enamel with a brush. It actually didn't look all that bad. I also knew a guy in college who painted his car with spray cans. Took a couple cases. I think my brother's brush job looked better...

Reply to
Z.Z.

I've been successful painting small areas with paint cans. But I tried to do a hood with paint cans and it just drys too fast to allow you to work your way across and down and get back to the top before it's too dry to blend the next pattern in. It was still an improvement over what it was (all chalked and peeled) but hardly a good looking job.

Reply to
AZGuy

Just theory here, but my guess is that with the right kind of paint and very high quality brush one could get a result that could be wet sanded and polished to look pretty good.

Much like a proper touch up procedure but on a large scale.

Reply to
Brent P

Might be hard to do with metallic paint...

Reply to
AZGuy

I've heard that boats are sometimes painted with neoprene rollers, someone suggested to me once that that might be a way to go for a cheap paint job.

You can always print out your favorite poetry, lay it over the top of the car and polyurethane it down :)

Reply to
David Knaack

Exactly, I did the same with an old Vega. The secret is to never wash the car again and eventually it all blends in.

Reply to
MaxAluminum

I thought I was the only one who did this. Found a large paint store and purchased Spectra Tone commercial enamel paint for metal that they recommended. Bought the best brush I could find. (3" I think) Rented a paint sprayer from the paint store the first time, but years later used a brush to repaint. Recently used the same brush again, with the same original gallon of paint, thinned somewhat and thoroughly mixed. This time I used Buffalo Milke wipe on car wax after about one week to improve the gloss. Kind of an amazing result considering the methods. Clear coat is available only in spray, so the wipe on wax was my cheap alternative. This was for a 1977 Toyota pickup truck, so appearance wasn't critical, but it came out looking quite good. Started as touch up over a rusted area and wound up painting all. Only took less than two hours. If you were more careful with prep, you might get even better results. Actually painting over metal is surprisingly easy because the paint flows very well over the smooth surface. You need a gentle smooth even touch and I'm sure some general painting experience helps. I used Rustoleum silver over Rustoleum rusty metal primer on the steel wheels. The old paint on the body was so oxidized, no primer was required to obtain good adhesion. If the primer on your car is too smooth you should lightly sand the surface first. What sort of amazed me was how well the edges could be "cut in" with precision and without masking by slowly and very carefully watching the paint at the last bristles. A good quality paint job can cost $3,000 or more. While this one wasn't high quality, the appearance is vastly improved and the out of pocket cost with materials on hand was zero.

Reply to
Daniel M. Dreifus

Why not do this:

Fully or mostly prep the car yourself. You sand, fix whatever, remove as much or little trim as you care to.

Then take it to your paint shop and let them do the actual shooting.

Later you can color sand.

I do this w/ several of my cars and work w/ a shop that shoots PPG. Because I minimalize the prep for them and they dont' color sand etc - their price reflects it - in fact I know what PPG charges so I know their prices are rediculously cheap for just shooting it.

The result is for $600-$800 (PPG Deltron isn't cheap) I have a paint job I can compare to anything at 1500 easily or maybe as much as 2k or

3k.
Reply to
foobar

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