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Is it possible to spray paint your car and have it look decent?

L

Lucky

Lifer
Assuming you have a garage that you have cleaned and mopped, and hung a plastic membrane around the car to lower chances of dust...is this possible? Or is it bound to look ghetto spray painted?
 
Using an air compressor and auto paint on top of a nice coat of primer, and then top it off with clear coat (multiple layers of base/clearcoat) and you're set.
 
if you know what your doing... would could probably do a halfway decient job.

what kind of spray paint are we talking about here... rustolum or dupicolor car paint (or the like)

there really isn't all that much to it.
1) sand the car down
2) a few nice coats of primer, sand, another coat and anohter sanding
3) a few good coats of color, sand, one more coat of color, wet sand that
4) a few heavy coats of clear coat, let dry for 24+ hrs, wet sand, then rubbing compound, then polish, then wax
 
"what kind of spray paint are we talking about here"


I dunno, whatever's best. I'd even go the maaco route but the closest is like 70 miles away, and for 4 days and $400, I thought I might be able to do better. This is on a POS that I'm hoping will last another 12-18 months (1992 honda civic, 140K miles).
 
maaco sucks, but it'd be alright for 2 years. actually my last car got a maaco paint job after about 4 years and it was still ok 7 years later. needed a clay bar tho.
 
Want to be uber cool?
I had a friend that had very little money so he just carpeted his car with some indoor outdoor carpet, looked good for about 3 years.

Bleep
 
I would think that the spray from a can of paint would not do very well. I know a guy who painted his car with a brush tho, so it is all in what you want to do. BTW the brush job looked terrible, but he was satisfied.
 
If you're talking about paint out of a rattle can, it's going to look like sh!t. If you're talking about spraying it with professional automotive paint tools, well, yeah that will look good if you know what you're doing.
 
With the advent of clear coat, its actually do-able now-a-days because the clear coat is what gives you the luster and uniformity in your finish. The final color coat need only be wet sanded as mentioned to blend together and remove any spray lines, overspray, and surface imperfections. Get it reasonably 'smooth' and uniform in color (hue), the clear coat will take care of the rest.

That said, its not going to look like a professional Dupont Spray-Bake Paint Booth finish, but you can achieve reasonable results.

I would practice on something first, like a few pieces of sheet metal. Go to an autoparts store and look for any bump-and-paint books with good tips on paint touch-up and restoration using DupliColor spray paint for body and door panels. You can pretty much apply the same concepts to much larger areas (like whole cars), but it ain't fun or easy.
 
Originally posted by: thedarkwolf
I did the front of my van and it looks okay. Now that I have a compressor I may redo it at some point.

here you go
Click to expand...
did you do all the methods for sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, clearcoating, sanding..... that were described in this thread?

I rearended someone in my Firebird and want a cheap way to make it look better than crap. Repair shop wanted $900. The car (once fixed) only Blue Books for ~$1400, so needless to say, I'm not paying the $900.
 
HEHE I used to have a shop teacher in high school that painted his car with a sponge.

It came out with some texture but it did not look too bad.

 
With enough effort, and about 50 cans of paint and clear coat, you can do it.

Sand the car smooth with 600 grit sand paper.
Primer coat.
Wet sand primer to remove orange peel.
Primer coat again if you sanded through the first primer coat.
Repeat.
Color coat. For solid color, a light coat is recommended. For metallics, heavier coat will be necessary.
Wet sand to remove orange peel.
Repeat 3 times.
Do not wetsand final coat if metallic. IF solid color, wetsand with 2000grit.
Polishing compound to remove sanding marks. Clean car with denatured alcohol.
Clear coat.
wetsand between coats.
repeat 3 times.
Final clearcoat, do not westsand. Only polishing compound.
Then use a good auto polish.
Wax.

This will rock, but still won't be as durable as an oven cured paint job. But it sure will look nice for a coupla years.
 
Originally posted by: Lucky
"what kind of spray paint are we talking about here"


I dunno, whatever's best. I'd even go the maaco route but the closest is like 70 miles away, and for 4 days and $400, I thought I might be able to do better. This is on a POS that I'm hoping will last another 12-18 months (1992 honda civic, 140K miles).
Click to expand...

Who cares about it's paint job if its only purpose is to last another year or two?

BTW, if it doesen't last at LEAST another year, the car was majorly beat on at some point in its life.
 
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