Hey guys, sad story, but yesterday i crashed my 1993 mazda 323 right up the bakc of a toyota rav4 when my foot slipped off the danm pedal. I was only doing about 20k/hr but the front end is significantly damaged since i ran into such a large car (it was one of the big rav4's not the tiny ones)
the bumper is gone, bonnet crumpled heaps cause of the spare wheel on the toyota, and the side guards are bent.
Thankfully the only internals that were injured were the radiator and the air cooler, the engine started up fine immediately after the accident.
I'm giong to get a nose-cut for about $1000aus, and probably get the guards panelbeat back into shape. Obviously i need a new bonnet.
My question is this: i really dont want to pay 1000+ to get it painted. the car is pearl marone metallic or whatever u want to call it. I wish to paint it myself. I know that i probably wont get it perfect, but i simply cant afford to get it painted professionally and its really not worth it considering the car is only worth 6 grand. So how should i go about painting the bonnet and bumper myself? i know people out there have painted bumpers etc that they picked up from the wreckers, so i'd really appreciate it if someone out there helped me in my time of need.
Find another one...they are made to walk away from the crash but aren't made to put back together. It will never be the same and you will always know it's not the same....
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On 3 Dec 2003 02:42:46 -0800, west_side snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Dan/meaderer) wrote:
Get some very fine wet/dry sandpaper. If you rub your finger across the sandpaper, it should almost feel like there is nothing there. Wet one of the car parts with water (just like you were going to wash it) and wet your sandpaper. Sand the body part just enough to remove the glossy shine. You don't have to take it down to bare metal. Wash and wipe the part dry. The paint that is left should look dull with no shine. Metallic paint is very hard to apply evenly because the metallic particles are heavier. Since these particles are heavier, they will "run" before the normal paint will. For this reason, I would suggest you paint your car parts individually while they are off the car. (I'm assuming you're painting only the damaged part and not the whole car) That way you can lay the parts flat and have less chance of metallic runs in your paint. Buy, borrow, or rent a good paint gun. Don't try to paint large areas with a spray can. Find yourself an indoor area that is as dust free as possible. That means mopping the floor and wiping down the walls with a wet rag. Make sure you have good lighting for your work area with no shadows. Mix your paint according to the directions. When you fill the paint gun, pour the paint through a strainer and then into the paint gun. The strainer looks like a paper funnel with very fine mesh in the bottom. Get yourself a mask to wear that is designed to filter paint fumes. Wear a hat and if any of your hair sticks out under the hat either wet your hair with water or apply some type (use a lot) of hair creme. If you don't, you're hair will end up matching your car from the overspray that floats in the air. Make sure your compressed air supply has a water filter on the line and NO air tool oiler. Don't use a hose that has been used to power air tools. If there is any chance at all the hose was exposed to air tool oil, buy a new air hose. You should also have a pressure regulator on the line. Set your air pressure about 55 or 60 pounds. You can experiment a little to see what pressure works best for you. Get an old body part to practice on. Don't start with your good parts until you have your gun adjusted properly. Make sure the gun is set up as a siphon feed before you apply air pressure. The gun should have two adjusting knobs on the back. One sets the width of the spray and the other sets the amount of paint that comes out of the gun. The front of the gun should have two things sticking out on each side like horns. These determine which way your spray width will be - either vertical or horizontal. Play with the adjustments until you get a reasonably wide spray pattern, and one that is heavy enough to put down a wet coat of paint. You don't want to have it set too light so that all you get is a lot of dry overspray, and you don't want it so wet that you get "runs". Once you have the gun set and your ready to paint, make one pass around the edges of your part before you start on the larger flat area. If you don't hit the edges first, you'll end up putting more paint on the edge of the flat area to try to cover the side edge which can give you a "run". When you start to paint, start at the farthermost point from you and work back and forth (left to right and right to left) and back toward yourself. Hold the paint gun out from the edge of the part and pull the trigger as you start across the part at a steady pace that puts down an even wet coat of paint. When you get to the other side of your stroke release the trigger after you have moved beyond the edge. Starting from the side you just stopped on, come back across the part using the same series of actions. Make sure your return stroke slightly over laps the first pass. If you have good lighting you should be able to figure out the correct overlap so that the painted piece has an even shine with no overspray in a few passes. (That's what your practice piece was for) Keep your paint thinner and a rag handy. If you get a "run", wet a corner of your rag and wipe the heaviest part of the "run" off your part. Then wet your finger in the thinner and smooth over the area. (That's the way I do it, but you can use a small brush if you want) If you want to give it a second coat, wait until it is very tacky, but not totally dry. When you are finished, rinse out your paint gun can until it is totally clean and spray some paint thinner through the gun. Remove the nozzle head (the thing with the "horns") and thoroughly clean those parts in paint thinner. I didn't say anything about putting a primer coat. Since you're doing an amateur job anyway, it would only make more work for you with very little benefit. Good luck. John
How could the ride be any different though? Nothing was damaged in the engine (except the radiator), the suspension wasn't touched, the only damage is the bumper, bonnet and some panels
Maybe only in my head...that would make it different enough that I wouldn't want to keep it. When I buckled up my 91 323 my insurance agent said he just totaled them because he didn't like dealing with the resulting headache's ...nothing seemed to fit quite right and even if it drove ok there would be electrical problems etc.....Made me a happy camper that he saw it that way.
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