Technical How Old Were You When You Painted Your First Car?

I was 16 years old, just got my license, and wrecked my dad's 58 Chevy. He told me to fix it since I wrecked it. I found a 58 Chev behind a gas station and bought the front clip off of it. Installed it on my dad's car, but it was the wrong color. Borrowed a spray gun from a neighbor, don't remember what I used for an air compressor. But sprayed it in white lacquer. Rough as a cob, but it was white. He traded it in for a 64 Plymouth ex hi way patrol car 6 months later, but that's another story. How old was everyone else who painted their first car?

 

14.

 

16

 

I painted 3 overalls for other people when I was 14. I think I did some repair work when I was 12 or 13. Painted my high school car when I was 15.

 

15 - 1959 Anglia. Surplus black lacquer from Standard Brands (local SoCal store) $2 a gallon. Yes you see no mention of spray gun. My dad showed me how to thin & brush it smoothly then color sand and hand buff. Lots of hours and a real 20' paint job. He also taught me how to pour babbit bearings on that little Anglia 4 cyl flathead.

 

15, 36 chev, rattle can, deep pits sanded out with a drill and rubber pad, most pits still remained after much gouging with the drill, looked great for about a year....at 50 feet. I've gotten better.

 

16 I painted my model A with a Wards compressor with no air tank, I used black lacquer a good 100-footer

 

Bodywork age 14 and 15 then sprayed it when I was 16.

 

13/14, I started painting my Dad's Midget race car, then my cars at 16 in his driveway. IMO running the gun is easy, some techniques involved, it's the prep, sanding, block sanding and body work, etc. Never worked as a pro but I got pretty good at it. I've never dealt with a high buck pro painter, just normal body shops but I learned very early I could as well or better because I cared, piss poor prep, dirt in paint, runs, fish eyes, over spray, not enough paint, orange peel, etc. etc.

 

Around 21 or 22, when I painted a whole car. Did a few, for friends, but not lot. Best work I ever did, was the small ones; bumper covers, motorcycle tanks and side covers.

 

24… my father-in-laws 1952 Plymouth 4 door! Lacquer gray with a rented compressor and spray gun.

 

Had to be in my junior year. We painted a '63 Galaxie blue & white that was meant for stock car races at 81 Speedway. We did it outside the auto repair shop doors after school. It was sloppy, but fun.

 

16 in auto body at Vo tech. 64 rambler. Was a horrid baby poop/dog barf green color they claimed was a gold green lol

 

Truth be known I was far better at being the buddy who was in the paint booth advising friends who were actually handling the gun.
As far as painting one myself this truck although filthy dirty in the photo is no doubt the best paint job I ever did myself. 53 Chevy 3100 that I painted International Orange for folks who became close friends in 1982.

Far better turn out than the Porsche Indiana Red on my 48 that I painted a couple of months later. Looking back I should have painted my truck non metallic resale red.

 

13 years old my dads 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88. 10 when I started learning body work. And 7 years old when I changed oil by myself the first time.

 

First "Family" car we bought was a 1964 $300 beater, rusted out C pillars and floor full of holes, but mechanically as sweet as a nut. Roadsign pop riveted over the floor, scrunched-up magazine and bondo in the pillars, and some blue paving paint (cheap mis-tint) and a 4" brush. The slogan for the TV commercial for the paint used to say- "You can walk on it in 4 hours!", but I left it overnight before I let anyone walk on it. So if a $15/gallon brush paint job counts, about 19.

 

14, chopped and channeled 34 pickup.

 

I was a late bloomer so to speak, my dad painted his cars and mine also but I did a lot of the bodywork and preparation while he did the spraying. My first all over I was in my later 20’s which was a 66 Falcon and have been painting them ever since.

 

If this counts, I was 8…

 

15- With rattle cans, my 1940 Ford 2 dr sedan I drug out of a cornfield in 1970

19- First paint job using an air compressor, painted my 1965 Barracuda 273 using Ditzler acrylic enamel paint.

 

14. Ended up doing it for a living for 30+ years. Now I hate to paint, any new build will be patina or primer

 

15.
63Impala with Dupont 99L black Acrylic lacquer.

 

16. I painted my high school car with a friend's spray gun and his fathers compressor. Painted the Nova black with single stage paint from NAPA, think it was like $27.00 a gallon. Looked good at 20+ feet, looked like **** up close. I did not care, I was into street racing, great paint did not interest me that much.

 

17, 18 or 19? After some needed rust repair, I did a '70 Cutl*** in a silver/blue acrylic enamel. Had some orange peel but looked pretty good. My father was impressed and told me to sell it, buy something newer, and repeat the process a couple times until I had a fairly new car. I sold it and bought a '63 Impala SS. I obviously didn't listen.

 

16 years old. Four guys with a bucket of bondo and screen decided to paint an ugly 1962 Valiant four door in 1969. Yes it was brush painted.
A good car to learn basics. About as basic as you could get.
Not the one but a close second…..

 

My old man was a exilent painter was helping him tape when I was 6 or 7 was sanding around 10 then bodywork in my teens always helping him paint. Got into the auto repair work right out of high school in 84 as a partsman at napa then on to a bodywork where on my third day I was painting I was in my early 20s a late bloomer had no college training just dad went to school for paintless dent in 94 and still doing it so all together 42 years.

 

17 if rattle cans count, even earlier with my motorcycles. late 20's with a paint gun.

 

This thread brought back some fond memories that I had not thought about for quite a while, so
thank you for that!

First time I pulled the trigger of a paint gun, I was 17. Dad took me down to the GMC dealership he worked at on a Sunday while it was closed & we shot the deck lid for my 73 Nova with an old Craftsman gun that he had used 20 years earlier to paint his hot rods. Ironically even though I have painted probably 200+ cars over the years....That was the only time I ever painted in a legit paint booth! Funny that it was for painting Power Units (trucks) & was huge, so it looked kind of funny my little deck lid sitting in the middle on a stand. A month later Dad & a painter friend who worked in the bodyshop there painted the whole car for me in that booth.

Did my 1st overall paint job at the age of 20 (1971 Olds 98 in black enamel) It was all downhill from there.

@guthriesmith Is that a Binks #7 Jeff?

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

Too funny and I think I have honestly only painted in a booth once or so as well. I painted my Chevelle that I still have in a booth at a Ford dealership in 92. Otherwise, just open shop with plastic over everything that I didn't want overspray on even when I did it sort of full time.

And, yes, that is a Binks #7. Pretty sure my dad still has it. That was when he was painting vette's somewhat fulltime out of our garage. I'm sure that whatever paint was in the gun was something he was shooting on a real car.

 

My first gun was a Binks model 7.

I was hard pressed to ever convert to HVLP, But John Kosmoski (sp?) of HOK, told me to squat or get off the pot, because HVLP was the wave of the future.

That was back when the NSRA still held th Nats in OKC occasionally.

Lacquer was king before I switched to single stage.