CraZ-28

I was qouted everything from $200 to $450 to paint my harwood hood. So as the title states, "i'll paint the freakin' thing myself. To be honest I was a little worried about messing up but I think it turned out pretty good. If you are thinking about painting something on your car, do it yourself and save a few hundred bucks. Here is what the hood looked like before painting.

CraZ-28

This is what it looked like after painting.

CraZ-28

Installed

CraZ-28

Last one

92TRANSAMWS6

I know how ya feel. When the body shop fixed the fornt of my TA after my accident, I asked if they could paint the spoiler since it is faded a bit. They said it would cost about $300. Needless to say my spoiler is still faded.

Thirtybird

hey, how about posting how you did it to boot? I ask, cause it looks tight.

Also, do you have the nasty Harwood gap? The top-down view shows a major shadow on the front...

88txiroc

Well, how about helping me with mine? There is even a paint booth here on base that you can use! Let me know how much, I want to do this before the gathering next month.

If you still have my number, give me a call. If not, shoot me an email or PM.

Later

Jim Berry

88aziroc, I didn't know that DM had a paint booth on base? I would have taken mine to a buddy's house last weekend in Marana, prepped it and painted it there at DM. I hope KELLY field still has thiers up and running!

There is so much ash from the fires here in SD that we can't do anything right now. The base is almost shut down. Auto Hobby isn't open and the USMC base at Miramar is closed due to fires also.

88txiroc

Yep, DM has a nice down-draft type (IIRC) booth at the auto hobby shop. Pretty cheap to use, too.

Were you here last week? If you were and didn't PM or email me, I am going to have to get upset. I will be leaving Tucson January 12th, to head back to San Antonio. Let me know if you will be around here before then.

CraZ-28

hey, how about posting how you did it to boot?

Basically all I did was remove the hood and wash it down with rubbing alcohol. From there it was wet sanded with 320 grit paper to remove any oxidation and smooth it out. From there it was painted with 2 cans of primer. After that the primer was wetsanded with 400 grit and then 600 grit. Then it was rubbed down with a tack clothe. After that we hit the hood with 3 coats of paint. 1 was just to get some spray on it, 2 was painting from the front to the back and the 3rd was was from side to side. This way we would have a good coverage of paint.

Now the paint is nothing specatular, it is just an enamel and it's just to get me by for a few years but it does look pretty good. Next time I do it, it will be with clear coats and getting the whole car really really shiney.

Also, do you have the nasty Harwood gap?

Yeah, I have a little gap but it's not as bad as it looks. Looking at the picture it looks like it is huge but it's not really bad at all.

Tom, sure. I'll give ya a hand. The painting part is not so bad. It's the prep work that is the time killer. Just give me a ring and I'll help ya prep the hood. Now getting the correct color may be difficult but it can be done. Just let me know.

Eric

Bandit5

You guys need to find some better paint shops. I had an entire rear bumper fixed and repainted for $180 a couple months ago. He also fixed my car after being hit for a couple less than what the insurance gave me, so I made money out of the deal. You guys sould shop around and try to get a connection with a good body gy or soemthing, you will save a ton of money on these kinds of things.

Thirtybird

Cool, thanks for that! You mock up a spray booth or anything like that?

CraZ-28

Nope. I did the primer and sanding all outside. It was a calm Sunday morning about 80 degrees and low humidity. No wind to be seen for another 6 hours. When it came to painting it with the enamel, all we did was close the garage door, paint, and walk away. We had a fan in the ceiling that help remove the fumes so we didn't have to worry about that. The hole process took 35 minutes. 5 minutes to paint, 30 minutes to dry so we could move it outside. From there it sat in the sun for 3 to 4 hours. That was it.

All together it cost me $51.00 to paint it. I already had a gun so that wasn't in the price, along with the primer. Hell, with the paint I had left I could have painted 2 more hoods.

LT1guy

iTrader: (1)

The price for painting a hood is going to vary widely, depending on what type of paint they're using and how much prep its going to get. Considering the cost of good automotive primers, paint, and clearcoat alone, it could easily cost you $200 or more just in materials (don't forget hardeners, reducer, etc). No fiberglass hood is perfectly straight out of the mold (though some colors hide more than others), and they all need lots of prep. If you block the hood several times, to get all the ripples out, or want to pay someone to do the same, you'd likely be looking at $400+. You can do this yourself and save $$$...its not difficult, just very time consuming. I spent over 40 hrs on Redraif's hood BEFORE it was painted, filling the seams on the underside, making sure the edges were perfect, and filling minor scratches and pinholes. That kind of work you about can't pay someone else to do.