Art & Inspiration Cheap Paint Job. You can do it.

I know this has maybe been beaten to death here, but lots of people can't spend $2K on materials or $10K for a complete paint job. I just finished up, on an off topic vehicle (so I won't post any photos) a VERY inexpensive paint job that turned out remarkably well. I have finished up a pretty extensive repair to our son's '65 Ford Ranch Wagon, and used Kirker paints. This stuff is, in the color I used, "Wimbledon White", less than $80 for a gallon of sprayable material in single stage urethane. It's only sold in three quart, unreduced, form, so I had roughly half a gallon of unreduced paint left over.
I used about a quart of that, a little bit of "Arctic Blast Pearl" from Kirker left over from our DeSoto wagon, and a quart of "Magic" implement paint from Tractor supply in Massey Fergeson Red for the other color. (It's two tone, red and pearl white) To the tractor supply enamel I used the corresponding catalyst and their reducer.
The results were, even to me, astonishing. I like Kirker paints, and have used them on several projects, so I was expecting that to be acceptable, but the Tractor Supply stuff, with the catalyst, laid down like glass, and gives a finish that for this project, is certainly worth the $50 I spent for the material.
I use a $100 HF gun, and whileI have a decent 5 HP compressor, a good water separator and regulator, I think a yard sale small compressor and cheap regulator could get a person set up do a pretty good result for less than $500 worth of equipment.
I like to paint, it's a skill I think all "car guys" should have. It certainly can be done at home, even in the driveway under a temporary shelter, with satisfying results.
I will share a photo of the wagon, which I repaired some minor collision damage, painted the left side from the character line down, blending the paint over the front wheel, with the Kirker paint. Including the gallon of 2K primer, reducers, color (with 2/3 left over) materials for the job was less than $300.
(Edit: Whoops! Forgot the photos of the wagon)
(Edit) I'm talking here about a professional looking job, one that you can be proud of, not just mopping on whatever free stuff you can find in the returned house paint section at Lowes...

 

If all jobs required the very best (highest priced) materials, I would have never painted anything. I share your like of Kirker and similar brands. Coverage isn't quite as good as the 'high priced spread', but the price differential more than makes up for the extra coat that may be needed. Personally, no difference in appearance or longevity has apparent.

I do have a very good gun, but reserve it for clear or single stage mostly. Everything else gets shot with a HF or similar.

 

nice job...and thanks for giving us the materials that you used as well as price....I don't look forward to painting and I am afraid to skimp on materials ... even though it would be nice to have something to blame if it doesn't come out great. My last paint job (a couple of weeks ago) was done outside...cotton wood was flying and bugs My wife with much steadier hands did as good of a job as anyone pulling out debris but.....it's still there. All said it was the best paint job I'd ever done, instead of a fifty foot finish it was a 15 foot finish

 

I finger paint

 

I have had good results with the Kirker brand, but the only local source I know of closed. Prices were pretty reasonable. I still have some left that I'll use for smaller projects "someday", but wish they would find another store to sell their products.

As for the Tractor Supply paints, I have used them to paint frames. Haven't tried them on any actual body panels though.

 

I used to paint a car allover for $400 when I was a teenager, and put $250 of that in my pocket. Now it's ridiculous how much I spend on materials each month. But you're telling the truth when you say there are alternatives to high dollar paint work.

 

I have painted every one of my cars but one myself and I found out early on that preparation is the main ingredient in a paint job. It accounts for 90% of the outcome in my opinion.

 

I've painted a few cars myself, and also done all the prep work and had someone who knows what he's doing spray the color, in a booth, on a few more. There is a huge difference in the final result when a skilled painter does it. Maybe you have that skill. I don't, I've tried.

 

My local TS doesn’t carry the Magic line anymore, seem to recall the last I looked all they carried was a water based paint. Maybe a state/county thing.
But I did a frame with the Magic several years back, I even surprised myself at how well it came out. Sure wish they still carried it.

 

I do the same as Squirrel. Do all the prep myself and have a professional painter do the actual spraying in a booth. There are a lot of painters out there who would be happy to make some extra cash under the table to spray your paint on your car over a weekend. Hell the guy I used even uses the same paint I was using. He also used the booth at the body shop where he worked. Just did it over the weekend. Rolled it in the booth Friday night after they closed and then rolled it out all sprayed Sunday afternoon.

 

How great your home done paint looks an how long it last.has much more to do with a combo of [ How good you prep it ],then the cost of the finish paint. How smooth it is sprayed on matters too. As for how long it last/that's a lot to do with parked in a garage or nice car port. Even high $ paint gets eat up by sun,some light colors just take a little longer.
I paint my own cars most of the time. I had two done,after I did prep,at "Johnny an Mack By The RR Track"<was the biggest* paint n body shop in Miami Fla. for many years.
Back in the late 40s/50/60s,the low $ job by them @ $19.95,was only a pick of 3 colors Black,Blue and Green. They really did a good job spraying,no run,smooth. Plus another $10 for other colors ,like red,yellow an so on. There body work,if needed was good too.

 

To be fair, I would't use them on anything I REALLY cared about, or that was going to be outside all the time. The UV protection is poor, although the catalyst seems to help keep them from chalking and fading. The "little" off topic project was a scooter that was given to us. Also to be fair, I COULD have bought 3 quarts of red from them for another $30 over the Tractor Supply stuff, but I don't need or want all that extra paint around to have to dispose of. I get the Kirker paints (and the rest of my supplies) from "Auto Body Tool Mart". They're great. And I don't have to drive into town for stuff, although you'll need to count shipping time, usually only two days, and anticipate what you'll need.

 

I took a similar approach on my Ol' Furd F100. I didn't want a paint job so good that I would be afraid to drive it. Let's face it. Driven cars get scratched chipped or otherwise marred.
I used Summit's Urethane in a couple of their stock colors, and an El Cheapo HF paint gun. Right in my garage, a panel at a time. I have about $600 in materials....all in. Primer, reducer, filler....everything. I chose solid colors that would be easy to touch up, and easy on the eyes.
The casual observers say it looks awesome. I know it's far from perfect. I know where all the flaws are. But it's a solid "5 Footer."
The show winners.....awesome, incredible, fantastic, and any other complimentary word a guy can think of. I tip my hat to all you guys!
But would the owner haul a load of fertilizer from the nursery in the back? Nope!
I built mine to use and to look decent. Not perfect....just decent.
So people would say "I can't do that." My response is no one was born knowing how. I sure wasn't. I learned just by getting in and doing it. Doesn't come out acceptable first time? That's OK.
Just sand it off and do it again. Yeah, it's work. But you don't learn from not doing.

 

Just about every place I have lived there are a few really decent painters who shoot paint as a side job at your place if you have the car all ready for them to shoot and buy the products that they tell you to buy. The Town I live has several shops that rebuild wrecks for used car lots and at lest two of them have painters who can hold their own with just about anyone.

On the other hand and back to flynbrian48's original theme, the boat tail roadster I am attempting to build is all scrounged, donated and salvaged parts with very little of it outside of the frame and wheels actually purchased with real money. It gets either Tractor Supply or Farm equipment dealer paint. Probably painted with a 10 buck on sale HF throw away gun.

 

I'm handy enough with a paint gun that I used to be "that guy" than painted cars on the side. Practice makes (nearly) perfect. Now, I paint maybe one car a year, so it's hard to keep up my skills. It's like riding a bicycle. I'm a little wobbly at first, but once I go around the block, I can still do it.

 

Even the cheap HVLP guns do a great job compared to the old Siphon guns like my Binks #7. My old T was painted with PPG Urotech, an Industrial SS for $50/gal. I had more expensive Primer underneath, Omni MP182 blocked to as smooth as a babies butt. HF style $50 gun, painted in my folks garage while they were out of town.

 

If you had a Dodge, your current skills would be more then adequate

Thanks for the tip on the paint .... I need a new brand.
I'm using currently Rustoleum rusty metal primer & same gloss black implement paint from TS.
I have painted a wheelbarrow 5 years ago with the red, I have a metal shed I built 4 years ago I painted white .... the paint is good enough for my DD truck.

I bought my project in 2018, I'm already on my 2nd gallon of black paint.
The problem is I can not get the lid to seal once I open it.
Every time I open the can of paint, I need to skim a 1/2" of solid paint off the top .... I threw away 1/2 a gallon of paint with the first gallon.
Now on 2nd gallon, I tried drilling holes in the gutter for paint to drain back into can to get a better seal.
I tried covering it with plastic then put the lid back on ..... no good. Still have to pull the dried paint off the top to use it.

So I have everything underneath painted, exterior is in primer .... I will not use this paint to spray the top coat with.
I just do not understand the concept of having leftover paint? I will be on my 3rd gallon of cheap paint by the time I spray the exterior

 

Good to know. I think I used Kirker lots of years ago once on something, but can’t remember. I have been painting though for almost 40 years now and sure can’t stomach today’s material costs on most jobs. I have had decent luck recently with materials that I would have previously called junk. Now...when it comes to my Merc, I will likely spend a small fortune on paint. But, I also only plan to do it once and want it nice. Other than that one, cheap paint works just fine for me.

 

I’ve been looking around for paint for my car. Been sorta leaning toward the restoration paint sold by TCP Global. Probably go single stage enamel because that’s all I’ve ever used. Also looking at the Paint for cars stuff, I’ve used it before, but the color selection is limited. I keep switching from Chrysler B5 blue to some shade of gold like is on it now, just can’t make up my mind.

 

Good thread. I’ll keep this in mind when I get around to painting mine

 

My friend uses a plastic sealer thing for food, sucks all the air out, seals it.
Might look into it, not sure how gallons cans work with it, he’s a quart/pint at a time guy who does flipping work on modern cars.

 

An overall not mint car…doesn’t need a mint paint job. Just do it yourself!
I’m willing to bet, most modern (2023), “very affordable”, automotive paint is probably as good as high end paint was back in the 1950’s! Base/clear coat, $500.00 and up, a gallon paint doesn’t belong on a real Hot Rod.
And this doesn’t even get into the “paint job jail problem!

 

I now stand corrected, did a search on my local TSC, and they now carry Magic paint.
Good for me, I’ve a horse trailer to sell soon.

 

The first vehicle I ever painted was my dad's 52 F1 truck back in the 60s. A friend of his gave him some red farm implement enamel and he said I could paint it with that. Man, that truck looked good bright red. Then in a very few months, the sun turned it into a pink truck. Barbie would have loved it.

 

Ha, you guys! So you want cheap eh bunkie? In my day of flying dino's there was a guy in my town that did the job with a paintbrush-high dollar paintbrush i'll have you know! Never knew what kind of paint he used but i swear, from 5' it looked fantastic. He painted the gassers, a few rails, and on occasion a street car. With today's compounds, buffers, etc. I just bet it could be made to look like a medium spray job done by a pro. (and he could do the whole thing in a morning)

 

Didn’t know Barbie was a fan of patina!

 

Ken is getting on in years

 

In my early days of hot rod building we painted several of my 32 Fords in my single car garage with a fairly good compressor, good regulator and water strainer with a window fan under the door for ventilation. Turned out great. I used to use a body shop in a nearby town where the painter would always walk across the street for a couple shooters to steady his hand and come back and paint with just a ventilated face mask. Over the years I've done several cars in a pair of coveralls and a good face mask. Now that I'm 78 all the years of painting and chassis building have caught up with me. Chronic Bronchitis. I probably should have taken more precautions, but I was invincible. Still would do it all over but I'd be more careful.

 

I've sprayed a lot of primer over the years with good results, I have always been a fan of the non glossy finishes, the only problem was the streaking & fading after a few washings, then I discovered the Kirker SG finish, I really like the low sheen finish and it's easy to work with.



The Kirker paint comes in a varsity of finishes, my pal Dave shot his truck with the Kirker Ultra Glo finish. HRP

 

I am not a painter. I've tried, and proven may times that I am not a painter.

I have painted more cars and trucks with cheap paint then one should probably admit, but my less the perfect paint skills have covered my less then perfect body skills with equal quality. They usually looked OK from 20' away.

The real deal is the cheap farm implement supply paint was usually good for about 4 years. It looked its best for about a year and a half. Then chips appeared easily. Then regardless of how often it was waxed, the fading set in by the end of the 3rd year. By the end of year 4, patina was the word best used to describe it. The good news is that was about the time the crappy body work was really showing up. Another two months of crappy body work, and another $50 paint job, probably from the same gallon, and the process started again. Few vehicles hung around long enough to endure round 3, but by then the body work was looking pretty good. The paint was still the same. looked great from 20' away.

Then the government started helping us survive the paint world, and all the time frames were reduced by a year for the paint survival. As the government kept helping, the time frame kept shortening. I had a truck painted bright orange with a tractor enamel a few years ago. Though not as bright as it was in the beginning, it looks very natural on that style of open wheel truck.

By 2018, I had to look into a better quality of paint. That also meant I really needed to have a painted that could spray the entire vehicle with out runs and low paint spots. I found a gut that would trade his time in the paint booth for my time under the welding helmet, we both were better off. I bought acrylic enamel at his cost, but he bought just enough to paint the car with a dab left over for touch ups. That paint, after sitting outside all but one of those years, and having very inconsistent wax jobs, some of the red part is starting to fade in places the sun has consistently shinned it. I believe the paint finishing costs (we got everything at the same time) was in the $250 range. this car is a driver and has logged around 35K miles since the paint job. There are some chips on the front, and a couple spots my body work is showing.

My current truck was painted by the same guy, it has acrylic urethane sprayed on it. We were both surprised by the amount of shine the truck has. Its only a year after the fact, so its too early to tell how long its going to last. The total paint (at his cost) was $350 this time. Again, he only bough how much it was going to take to cover the truck with 3 coats, and we have a little left for touch ups. This truck is a driver as well and has around 6,000 miles, (including through the winter) on it. There are a few chips.