Shoptalkforums.com

Just thought this might be interesting for someone.


Original paint configuration (well, how I bought it)


Used spray primer in some places after sanding out rust.


Bad attempts at sanding and stuff. Sanding discs are DANGEROUS with fiberglass, use higher than 100 grit or you'll take it off quick! Also...really not worth it because it takes forever and you go through a ton of discs. Sanding blocks (foamy things) worked well to get the loose paint off, and you can wash them off and reuse for a while.


Trying out the primer/paint gun.


We tarped up the garage (there was lots of stuff in there still, but only the car within the plastic tarps, which cost us probably under $20 total, and under $30 including tape and twine to keep it up), borrowed a friend's painting gun, and used an Ace brand primer. Lovely color, no?


Not a huge amount of room, but it worked. We did probably two coats of primer.


After a couple coats of paint! Probably 2 or 3, I forget actually. Laid down pretty well, no drips. Used a paint from a tractor supply store, and hardener, which was well worth the $7 or so. Should be noted that the underside of the fenders and the wheel wells were cleaned thoroughly and then painted black with Ace-brand spray can of Rust Stop. It looks pretty awesome, I think.


fusername after an afternoon of painting...he only wore the suit for the last coat!


More coats will be needed eventually, after sanding and such, but I only used half a gallon, so it's totally doable, and we rolled up the tarps to use again!

Cheap paintjobs, hooray! Also, thank goodness for friends.

Let us know how it holds up.. I'm sure this will be helpful for some of our pals.

Did you do any color sanding after or between coats?

Nice Job
Might want to put down a tarp on the drive way next time saves on clean up.

rte592 wrote:Nice Job
Might want to put down a tarp on the drive way next time saves on clean up.

haha yeah, our driveway is red/orange/green (my friend is painting his bus) now. my mom wants to buy black paint or something to fix it when we're all done with t he painting.

color sanding? well, we're sanding after this paintjob, and there will be another paintjob eventually, to go over all the smoothed out paint. we're sanding through to primer in some places, getting rid of bumps and whatnot, but that probably won't be till next summer.

some of the paint has chipped off...where i've dinged the fenders on something while moving them around the yard, and where the door hit something. kind of a bummer, but still cheaper/better than getting it done professionally, i think.

When your done clean the drive way with a gritty hand cleaner (est orange from checker auto) and scrub with a broom.
Wash it off with water.

I don't get the entire unfinished/primer craze, the calico cat look of pre paint does nothing for me, much prefer the orange look. Now being a baja, when are you going to cover it in mud?

sideshow wrote:I don't get the entire unfinished/primer craze, the calico cat look of pre paint does nothing for me, much prefer the orange look. Now being a baja, when are you going to cover it in mud?

hahaha as soon as suspension stuff is worked out? er...and real (as in, not two point) seatbelts would be good too. not sure the shocks i have (which are stock equiv, i think) would cut it. definitely wanna do it though. i need to learn how to drive my car first however

oh and skidplate! so there's some stuff to do. he's only been running for about a month and a half!

don't you know you need a temperature controlled paint booth for the paint to dry properly?!? you're never gonna get the paint too look right or dry prolperly. geeze what people will do to save a couple bucks

I think I must have layed 7-9 layers of paint on that thing, about 30-90 minutes apart spread thru an entire day. The reason for this was that I was unsure how to adjust the gun properly, and I don't think I ever got it right, so it lay real light coats w/ minimal coverage. This allowed me to never worry about runs, and my method was to work from one side of the car to the other, doing a complete coat, then a second w/o break. then come back in an hour and do it again. Had I had the gun dialed in, I figure only 4 such runs would have been necessary. Paint lay down pretty smooth, dried quick, esp considering it was RAINING the day we painted... Considering the conditions, I am quite impressed with how it turned out. basically the only thing we had going for us was 75 degree temps, everything else flew in the face of proper painting procedure.
considering the amount of work and money that went into this, and the final result, I would do it again in a heart beat. And by that I mean that is how I will paint my car next spring! I am curious how much the paint will fade in a year or 3, but at 35 a gallon, and half a gal does a car, who cares?
just thought I would flesh out the details a bit.

Hell yea is what I say!! With the cost of half gallon of base coat/clear coat upwards of $100 (and maybe a lot more) and the cost of professional painting in the thousands of dollars, you guys did great.

Many will learn from this. Appreciate the pics and explanation.

doc

There are industrial encapsulants that come in colors that can help for this stuff...

unfortunately you're limited to farm type colors.


Thanks a ton for followign through.

Tim

Great job !!! I did my 60 bug pretty much the same technique and it came out great as well. Who needs a " drying booth " ! It's not a show car, just a daily driver.