80schild

iTrader: (5)

Any opinions on these paints? They're available in factory colors, but I wonder of they're cheapo? I am seriously thinking of trying to paint my GTA myself. I really hate to spend $2500 for a paint job when I only paid $1600 for the whole car.

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/auto_paint.asp

Also, I was looking at my new Eastwood catalog and noticed the "Concours" gun that runs on a regular compressor. Any opinions on this would be appreciated too.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...rID=565&KICKER

NatesZ/28

Nothing wrong with those paints. But, factoring in hazardous shipping and the fact that no one I know can vouch for their coverage; Id buy a factory color for some car, ANY car in Basecoat Clearcoat if you plan on keeping the car; OR in a catalyzed Acrylic Enamel or Urethane. AVOID 'Singlestage' paints that have the clearcoat mixed in. Unless you've painted a few cars, simply because theres not a lot of margin to sand and buff out mistakes.

I think Napa's Acrylic Enamel is 40 bucks a gallon (more for red). You can buy an enamel safe clearcoat from SPI for around 100 a gallon as well. Make sure you use a sealer or epoxy primer before you put on the new paint.

Nate

80schild

iTrader: (5)

Yeah I definately want base/clear, not that single stage stuff that Maaco uses. I do notice that the "ready to mix" stuff on that website is acrylic, but the more expensive kind that needs to be mixed is urethane. I assume the urethane must be better?

We do have a PPG store here in my town, so I might be better off just going in there and buying my stuff. I know I want the original 74U 'Flame Red Metallic' which I've heard is expensive anyways.

Aviator857

I've gotten flack for my maaco paint job but it lasted 8.5 years before I had any issues with it, parked outside. The issue I have is the hood pealed exactly where the factory paint did, they also painted over my emblems instead of removing them. The thing to remember with Maaco is they only do what you tell them otherwise they just tape off and spray.

Maaco now has base/clear in factory colors.

After repainting my wheel wells black and cleaning up the overspray I buffed the paint and very few people that saw it the first 5 years would of guessed it was a cheap ($750) paint job unless they were an expert in paint. I have the single stage enamel on it.

Now that its time to paint again though it is an issue that I need to sand off all the Maaco paint to get the old emblems under it off.

Now each Maaco is a franchise so check out their work.

the below picture was from 2004 and it was painted in 1999.

Would I do the single stage again, no; but I'm serously thinking about having the same Maaco paint it with base clear. The thing I learned is to go around the car with the guy at the shop with a sharpe and mark everything that you want fixed/done.

80schild

iTrader: (5)

Stuff like that drives me nuts. lol


One reason I want to paint mine myself is because I want it painted with the hatch removed. The "trench" around the hatch looks bad too, especially around the hinges. I'm starting to see a little surface rust developing, so I want that done right.

Another thing is I'm going to replace the hood and both front fenders because a tree limb fell across the car last year. The underside of the hood and the inside lip of the fenders will also need painting, so I'd like those painted off of the car. I don't want to open the hood and see a different color. I also ordered the fiberglass spoiler from Hawks, so it'll need to be painted off the car too.





Apparently the front clip has already been replaced before, as you can see bright red under the flame red. It will need to be sanded REALLY good.

Aviator857

Atleast the car is nice and straight for the most part. I didn't notice the emblem issue until about year 7 you can see a faint outline so it took that long for the paint to srink enough that I noticed it.

Many Maaco's will spray the paint you provide. If you are doing one color many places would probably paint it disassembled . Metalic can be tricky disassembled because its easy to get the flakes laying in the wrong direction and its noticable that the panels were painted apart.

NatesZ/28

disassembling the car is what will lead to a stellar paint job; and all of your plastics should have an 'adhesion promoter' as a primer coat. These come in aresol cans (Bulldog is my favorite as this has some thickness to it) Duplicolor makes one that works as well but is VERY thin. If youre not going to sand all the paint off, wetsand it with 600grit and try yo feather out all the chips. If it was me, Id sand all the paint off because theres a second layer under there and who knows maybe even more. Having that much mil thickness on plastic would make me nervous

80schild

iTrader: (5)

Okay, the Concours gun I'm looking at comes with two nozzles, a 1.2mm and a 1.8mm. I know the 1.8 is for primer and the 1.2 is for the base, but could I also use the 1.2 for the clear, or do I need a 1.4 for the clear? The 3rd nozzle adds $50.

NatesZ/28

1.2 is fine for base/clear. If youre used to a bigger horse (Like a Sata) or a conventional siphon feed gun, that Concours gun is going to be slow as hell. This isnt a bad thing. I happen to paint slow anyway, so I dont like a paint-hose. Thats probably TECHNICALLY a LVLP gun (Low Volume Low Pressure) to work at 4psi. The digital gauge is a nifty but un necessary touch. I dont know much about teflon coated cups, but I dont like the bigger cups (700+ML) because they make the gun too top heavy for me.

All in all, youre not going to find a gun you CANT paint with, just practice on some scrap with some left over paint (check body shops and Napa - they'll sell odds and ends).

Make sure you get a water trap for your compressor and use a hose thats never had light machine oil in it (if your hose is contaminated this will drive you to drinking really quick)

Nate

sccavette

If you are not wanting to spend a lot of money on the paint job and still want it to look decent I would (just my 2 cents) finding a Napa store that sells Martin Senior paints and buy their base clear paint. You will have around 300-350 in everything you need. I would alos suggest going to a Harbour Freight and buy one of their gravity feed guns, they are around 40 bucks.

Shoot the color, put 3 or 4 good coats of clear on the car and wet sand and buff. The car will look good and you should have less than 500 total in the paint job. This is what we did with the 1K TA we bought and it came out great. Here is a couple pics.

80schild

iTrader: (5)

Slow would be fine with me, if it went too fast I'd be likely to end up with runs. This will actually be my first experience using one of these guns, so I'm going to get some old scrap fenders to practice on. Better yet, my neighbor has an old junk Sunbird that has been in his backyard for years, so I may see if I can pull it over here and practice on it.

That gun seems to get good ratings, even from the guy with the mull*t.

^^Are we not allowed to say that word on here?

80schild

iTrader: (5)

sccavette, your paint looks good. The reason I was looking at the Concours gun is because my compressor is rated at 4.5cfm @ 40psi, and all of the other guns I have seen require at least 7.5cfm @ 40psi. I guess I could always borrow a bigger compressor, but I was really trying to use mine.

NatesZ/28

I saw that Kevin Titz reviewed it...on the eastwood site; but he doesnt endorse junk. Hes the one that pointed me to the Astro paint guns (http://www.spraygunworld.com/products/Astro/index.htm) One note, SGW waits till they get a full order of a product before they ship your order. Ive gotten stuff in 3 days and stuff in 2mos. Just an FYI.

My dad painted his 55 chevy with the old Harbor Freight 'purple' HVLP gun (43430 model) SERIOUS airhog, but if you got a feel for it, its actually quite nice. I bought a Sharpe T1 from a pawnshop for 40 bucks and a rebuild kit for 40 bucks. I also bought a Sharpe Platinum from eGay (awesome gun - Snap-Ons Excalibur series sold for $540 in 2004. Graco bought Sharpe and killed the line). You can paint with anything, just make sure you have a regulator at the gun with a filter and that you have a water trap at the compressor and 'full flow' air fittings. I'll post a write up on how to dial in a spray gun later today.

80schild

iTrader: (5)

I went ahead and bid on the Concours gun at Eastwoods ebay site, it's $159 there versus $199 in their catalog, the digital regulator isn't included though.

NatesZ/28

Nice! www.smartshoppersinc.com used to have good deals on primer and tape/paper and regulators