Paint, D.I.Y. or pay someone?

DeeVeeEight

DeeVeeEight

Fast Pedalphile
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
2,284
Location
Southern New Jersey, USA
My paint resto job is going along slowly. I am getting to the point where I will need to prime & paint it soon. I have read up on the epoxy based primer and to be honest with you, the application of the primer alone seems a bit daunting with it's dry and recoat times. I do not own a suitable air compressor or paint gun and my home is strictly residential. On top of it all one of my neighbors directly next door is handicapped and I am concerned about any kind of chemical smell affecting his breathing.
On the other hand, finding a shop that is willing to paint my car properly without taking me to the cleaners is another challenge. What to do?
 
DeeVeeEight said:
My paint resto job is going along slowly. I am getting to the point where I will need to prime & paint it soon. I have read up on the epoxy based primer and to be honest with you, the application of the primer alone seems a bit daunting with it's dry and recoat times. I do not own a suitable air compressor or paint gun and my home is strictly residential. On top of it all one of my neighbors directly next door is handicapped and I am concerned about any kind of chemical smell affecting his breathing.
On the other hand, finding a shop that is willing to paint my car properly without taking me to the cleaners is another challenge. What to do?
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You can legally burn I think it is a gallon a day into the air. But kinda goes from state to state on regulations. Just build a nice plastic paint both with some sort of filtering device and have at it. Some places you can rent a booth or place a ad locally in search of a out of work painter or one that does side work.

I did that when I had my 82 trans am repainted, found a painter who was able to do side work at a ford dealership he worked at total repaint was 1600 if memory serves me right and that included all materials and some body work, color sanding and buffing. Came out really nice this was it maybe a week after it was all put back together.

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With a HVLP gun you will not have overspray when shooting primer, that stuff goes on so nice at the low pressure and a 2.0mm tip.... it's very tempting to not even wear a mask (which would be a mistake)...

You could do the primer work at home and then either rent a booth for the base/clear or find somebody to shoot it for you... if the primer is done corectly and if you mask everything I'd even consider Maaco.... if all they have to do is to paint then they're ok.... when it comes to cleaning and masking they really suck....
 
MYBAD79 said:
With a HVLP gun you will not have overspray when shooting primer, that stuff goes on so nice at the low pressure and a 2.0mm tip.... it's very tempting to not even wear a mask (which would be a mistake)...

You could do the primer work at home and then either rent a booth for the base/clear or find somebody to shoot it for you... if the primer is done corectly and if you mask everything I'd even consider Maaco.... if all they have to do is to paint then they're ok.... when it comes to cleaning and masking they really suck....
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I have an old campbell hausfield hvlp set up that I used for spraying latex paint, I have no idea about the tip size. Are you saying I could get away with using that?
 
I'm not addressing anyone in paticular.

No matter whether you do it or a "pro" does it and charges you up to 15,000. It won't be perfect. Many try but nobody ever gets there. Captain i can't change the laws of physics.

Will Maaco shoot really hard to work with stuff like House of Kolor kandy systems?
 
turtlevette said:
I'm not addressing anyone in paticular.

No matter whether you do it or a "pro" does it and charges you up to 15,000. It won't be perfect. Many try but nobody ever gets there. Captain i can't change the laws of physics.

Will Maaco shoot really hard to work with stuff like House of Kolor kandy systems?
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I dunno Jim, my '72 here with the Ditzler Radiance paint on it when I bought it....was about 10 years old, and it looked GRAND.....

time and shit did it in, especially here in Florida street driven....damn shame...wish I had left alone, really....

:bomb:
 
DeeVeeEight said:
I have an old campbell hausfield hvlp set up that I used for spraying latex paint, I have no idea about the tip size. Are you saying I could get away with using that?
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That's the stuff they sell at HomeDepot ??? If it's a HVLP gun then yes, you can most likley use it, however there's a lot of air required so you need like a 60 gal compressor that delivers sufficient volume of air....
 
turtlevette said:
I'm not addressing anyone in paticular.

No matter whether you do it or a "pro" does it and charges you up to 15,000. It won't be perfect. Many try but nobody ever gets there. Captain i can't change the laws of physics.

Will Maaco shoot really hard to work with stuff like House of Kolor kandy systems?
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if you pay $15K you expect perfect..... if you do it for 2K you are proud of what you're accomplished no matter what..... if you pay 5K for a crappy job you're pissed.....

pick one of the the above :D
 
Looks like I am shooting for the 2K job.... D.I.Y.

And yes, it is an old Home Depot C.H. H.V.L.P. rig.... sort of like a glorified reverse vacuum cleaner with a spray gun attached. :smash:
 
We did a garage paint job, 1st and foremost, ask lots and lots of questions.

I did the stripping and the bodywork, sealer, primer, sealer. Was all set to paint in the am and called a fellow vet owner and asked his son to check out my work before i started since he does this for a living.

Went with paying him to shoot the color, good idea.
Rent the air comp, borrow a good gun, find somebody that knows the trade and pay or barter for his service.
Take your time, mistakes are a part of learning. Enjoy
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Flares are Eckers L88
Mags are American Vector Racing Wheel, about 34 years old.
I think they are 8" in ft. and 10" in back, i could be wrong, its been a long time.
Tires are P255/60 front P275/60 rear
No spacers, have lots of room,, not sure what offset the mags are
 
these seem to be 2" so called "mudflap design" flares, the L88 are 4" wide, these are 2" wider than stock.
one of the local guys here in FL runs 325-50-15 under these 2" flares.
 
canman said:
Flares are Eckers L88
Mags are American Vector Racing Wheel, about 34 years old.
I think they are 8" in ft. and 10" in back, i could be wrong, its been a long time.
Tires are P255/60 front P275/60 rear
No spacers, have lots of room,, not sure what offset the mags are
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I like the wheels too. I put a set of Vectors on mine, but only 8" in the rear. You can't get the Vectors any more. They did another run of them about 2 or 3 years ago then they discontinued them again.
 
canman said:
We did a garage paint job, 1st and foremost, ask lots and lots of questions.

I did the stripping and the bodywork, sealer, primer, sealer. Was all set to paint in the am and called a fellow vet owner and asked his son to check out my work before i started since he does this for a living.

Went with paying him to shoot the color, good idea.
Rent the air comp, borrow a good gun, find somebody that knows the trade and pay or barter for his service.
Take your time, mistakes are a part of learning. Enjoy
015-2.jpg

115.jpg
Click to expand...

There is a Pennco-Tech school nearby, they are one of those automotive training schools. One of my daughter's friends is a student there and may be able to get my 'Vette in to their paint shop.
 
I painted my 68 thirty years ago in lacquer and with lacquer, and in my opinion you don't need a paint booth for a street quality paint job. Lacquer dries very quickly so it minimizes airborne contaminants settling in the paint. However, since it is wet breifly, you do need a dust free environment. You can use your garage if you can do a good job getting the dust out. You need to wash the concrete floor before painting because you're going to be dragging air hose around and stirring things up. You need, of course, to get rid of any water in the air, so you have to buy air/water seperators, dryers.
........... and you need a lot of light. I installed extra flourescent lights in the ceiling.

It was a lot of work, as a beginner I kept getting runners, etc. A great thing with lacquer is that its easy to wet sand off a bad paint surface and do it again. I just kept painting, sanding off the mistakes, painting, sanding off the mistakes...etc until I finally got it right. I wasn't getting laydown until I tossed my Sears paint gun and got a Binks. Probably used about 50 gallons of paint!!! :nuts:

I need to paint my car again. I think owning a pint of lacquer is a capital crime in California. Not sure. Anyone knows if a privater person can still paint lacquer in Ca?
 
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