# Paint job..



## HellFire (Nov 11, 2003)

Well, it's finally happening, im preping the car for a paint job. Getting rid of the car's lines, side molding in doors, ect.

I was going to just have my new bumper and mirrors sprayed but my car is in need of one anyway. My good ol' trusty infinity style grill came flying off on the highway and scratched the crap out of my hood even more so.. 

Now I know, why not buff out the scratches and oxidation; but these are not baby scratches, they go pretty deep..

Maaco? or not? hehe buy the paint and have them spray? spray myself (have a semi in my pants... err i mean semi prof sprayer i bought ages ago)

And what color primer is best suited for vivid teal? I will do all the prep work to avoid the heavy costs... and am sticking with the same paint for the sake of underhood/doorjambs costs

Any suggestions on paint or prep to start would be awesome. =)
thanks much...


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

doing the prep is a good idea, also tape everything off and remove EVERYTHING! i just bought a b13 se-r with a macco job in porsche red (great color!) but i will list the things they did and you can avvoid these problems;
1. when sanding they hit the window trim and chiped a good bit of the plastic.
2. when sanding they hit the sides od the side mirror and scratched the plastic ( they are black not color matched)
3. over sprayed onto the door handles (again not color matched)
4. got their red hands on the headliner
5. over spray ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL in the engine bay, there is red dust everywhere and looks bad, i just need to reallt scrub it down)
6. orang peel (let them do one coat and let you wet sand it, then do another coat)
7. i think thats it.........many have had much better sucess with them. it all depends on the specific shop, if you walk in and they are none-chalant about things and not professional, walk out. painting is a big deal to me and i try to do the best i can with rattle can (i can never get the hang of clear coat though  ) and you never want someone to start a job and act like its nothing.


----------



## HellFire (Nov 11, 2003)

Thanks for the input. I'll be taking pics of the progress once it unfolds. 

I have 4 different primers: Green, black, red and grey. Which should I roll in with? 

also, how would I avoid that over spray in the engine bay? Did they spray in the engine, or did your seals around the hood let some in?



1.6pete said:


> doing the prep is a good idea, also tape everything off and remove EVERYTHING! i just bought a b13 se-r with a macco job in porsche red (great color!) but i will list the things they did and you can avvoid these problems;
> 1. when sanding they hit the window trim and chiped a good bit of the plastic.
> 2. when sanding they hit the sides od the side mirror and scratched the plastic ( they are black not color matched)
> 3. over sprayed onto the door handles (again not color matched)
> ...


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

primer question;
1. red <no, wont work right
2. green <no, hard to see where you have hit with the color coat
3. black <im not sure if useing black will darken the acual color of the teal of not
4. grey <your best bet, the light color will lighten the base color coat and also alow you to see where your color coat is to thin, and it wont clash like the red will

it got into the engine because i am 100% positive they did not tape off underneath, get the car up on jack stand and use alot of news paper and masking tape to seal off the engine bay. once done on the bottom do it on the top, pop your hood and lay plastic or paper over the engine then tape around the endges where the fender meets the body under the hood lip. and dont forget behind the grill, also along the fire wall. take off any mudflaps (i removed mine 2 days ago to hit with trim paint and in was normal dull aztec red underneath!) 

PREP WORK IS THE KEY TO A GOOD PAINT JOB, any monkey can spray paint on.


----------



## HellFire (Nov 11, 2003)

sounds good... the green one was mad expensive anyway. 

Any specific primer I should look at?

also, the patroleum jelly trick should help with the trim/door handles if any spray happens to bleed thru. 

Did u have a lot of body work that needed to be done?

also, before i was going to head over for paint I was going to pop off everything, mirrors, headlamps, tail lamps, ect.. 

About the engine, i can cover from underneath. would I be able to drive there with the engine covered from up top? (trying no to cause any flames) hehe


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

i would advise covering it there, shouldnt take but 20 minutes if you can it all taped together in the correct shape, all you need to do it tape around the edges. as for trim pieces youl take off, if its black, pick some of this up from your local autozone and paint it. i didnt have the car painted by macco, the person i bought it from did. these are just things i noticed about the job they did.


----------



## 200sxCaNaDiaN (Jun 10, 2004)

Hellfire.

There is nothing wrong with maaco. Ive had 3 cars painted by them. Just ask around for the best maaco in your area and do the following.

1. Be a man, prep the car yourself. Sand it, wet sand it.
2. When you take it to the shop, take your headlights+tail lights out, and then put em in your trunk. They cant overspray then onto em.
3. Take of your window trim. ITs always a good time to restore the trim since its easy to put on+take off. And you can restore it with the duplicolor black trim paint.

Anyhow, Maaco has done a great job. I buy my own paint, and everything too. They use Shermin Williams Ultra 4000 paint. Not bad, but i prefer PPG or Dupont.

Anyhow, do that stuff, your car will come out great. Dont ever let them sand it or anything. Also, if you do it yourself, it costs less for the job. Annnnnd finally wash your car before bringing it over sanded.


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

200sxCaNaDiaN said:


> Anyhow, do that stuff, your car will come out great. Dont ever let them sand it or anything.


seriously, if you listen to anything it should be this.

they hit parts of the window trim with the rotary sander and took plastic off, its a 91 and i dont care about the body much (as long as it dosent rust and it stays together im happy) i bought the car for the engine only, the cool red paint was a plus. but between what i and "canada" said you should come out of there with one hell of a job for nearly 1/2 the cost.

have i told you PREP WORK IS THE KEY! lol.

fyi, before you spray anything with that duplicolor paint, spray/practice on scrap first. it took me alittle while to get used to it because its more of a dye than paint really, but once you get it it's GREAT stuff. my sun dryed grey mud flaps are now a brilliant satin black along with my grill.


----------



## ASsman (Mar 23, 2005)

Hmmmm, getting mine painted in the future. What happens in the engine bay? I'm changing my car from teal to ashtray something ( I forget the name). Wondering because I'm gonna have a kick ass colored car, and when I pop the trunk you're gonna see the ugly teal (I think it's ulgy, a lot of people on here love it). Plan on swapping the engine out, but it all takes money, and money takes time.


----------



## Chris90FB240sx (Feb 25, 2005)

well if you dont want any of that old color to show your going to have to strip your car down to nothing. The engine bay will have to be stripper along with interior and trunk so you can paint it all the same color.


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

or you could go at it old school. get the door jams painted the grey anthracite color then with your trunk either get it color matched or do what im doing to my trunk. buy undercoating, tape off what you dont want coated, and just go at it. i got sound eliminating under coating and it has blocked out some exhaust and its nice. also it looks good......im just going to get rid of the finish carpet.

tip; first coat get really close and make it thick, all coats after that get about 1.5 feet away so it gives that great wrinkle finish like in a truck bed.

when you swap the engine paint the engine bay black.


----------



## Chris90FB240sx (Feb 25, 2005)

> tip; first coat get really close and make it thick, all coats after that get about 1.5 feet away so it gives that great wrinkle finish like in a truck bed.


Wouldnt that cause dripping on the first coat and orange peel on the others? Just asking... I plan to learn to paint this summer so i can paint my car after I get new metal welded in the floor pans and dents taken out.


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

Chris90FB240sx said:


> Wouldnt that cause dripping on the first coat and orange peel on the others? Just asking... I plan to learn to paint this summer so i can paint my car after I get new metal welded in the floor pans and dents taken out.


for paint yea, im talking about how to use the undercoating in your trunk.


----------



## Chris90FB240sx (Feb 25, 2005)

oo lol Im a :loser: LMAO


----------



## HLBulldog (Mar 12, 2003)

I say if take that semi out of your pants and let's see if you know how to use it... or do what 1.6pete said and prep it yourself before macco, it should cut down on a large portion of the cost.

P.S. How's the sound deadening in that undercoating? Comparable to dynamat? Where did you get it? Looking to do something like that to my trunk cause the carpet is crap.


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

not even close to dynamat or anything like that.

i dont have a system.....hell i dont even have a radio lol. my exhaust rattles and gets kinda loud if i open her up :thumbup: but this helps alittle. but its only sound supresser so i doubt it would be good for a system, for that you was foil backed matting that will reverberate sound not deaden it.


----------



## ASsman (Mar 23, 2005)

1.6pete said:


> or you could go at it old school. get the door jams painted the grey anthracite color then with your trunk either get it color matched or do what im doing to my trunk. buy undercoating, tape off what you dont want coated, and just go at it. i got sound eliminating under coating and it has blocked out some exhaust and its nice. also it looks good......im just going to get rid of the finish carpet.
> 
> tip; first coat get really close and make it thick, all coats after that get about 1.5 feet away so it gives that great wrinkle finish like in a truck bed.
> 
> when you swap the engine paint the engine bay black.


Hmm, yeh. I can paint the trunk and engine bay black... I just hope it doesn't make it seem like the car was originally black... I'll wait until I get the engine out and decide then. In the meantime I'll practice on this POS Mercury.


----------



## HellFire (Nov 11, 2003)

Update:

I started sanding the car down and sprayed some primer. I used duplicolor sandable primer. Is that a goodie, or should I use a better one??

Also, im torn between painting my car in the original vivid teal, or going for black or blue. Black would be easier to work with being I can leave interior pieces flat black, and them just spray the exterior in black and go for a nice stealth look. =)

Watchya think?


----------



## Zac (Mar 10, 2004)

The Vasaline trick works as I have used it while spraying when time was a factor. I have never gotten a lot of paint on the areas covered though and cleanup is messy. Blue painters tape always works, doesnt leave adhesive and is cheap...I've used that too with great results as well.


----------



## I'm tired of my usernamee (Feb 16, 2004)

if you are going for a good or even decent paintjob I would not use primer in a can as the paint may not adhese to the primer correctly. its not high quality IMO. I would stick with Dupont Variprime acid primer, or Sherwin Williams epoxy primer. Also I have to ask. Are you shooting your car with a gun or with rattle paint??? And yes I would use 3M blue painters tape to mask of trim and elsewhere as it removes easily or you could use trimline tape if you need to go around corners or do sharp edges. Try to get some painters masking paper as paint can soak though newspaper and just ruin the whole point of taping off. If you havent gotten a gun yet I would recommend getting a regular gravity feed as its easier for beginners and in general applies paint better. If you have any more questions about painting just shoot me a PM.


----------

