I'm losing my mind over painting my '54, can't rely on any 1

Both guys who were supposedly painting my car are flaking out big time, my car's ready for painting.
I'm really thinking about doing it myself, I've had with this shit.
What would you do?
I've got the room to build a makeshift booth out of PVC and visquine. I've got guns, I've had plenty of experience painting cars, but not using modern 2 part urethanes (I'm using Nason products.)
Is there anybody in Florida who'll rent me a booth for a few days?

I'm at the end of my tether dudes.

 

Bring it up here..... Ill do it for ya. heck ill even come down there...JAMIE

 

Nads,
Just read the instructions and paint the bugger bro.
If you build a spray booth keep it, I'll come down in the spring and we'll blow paint on the wife's hooptie.

Ya really can't depend on folks, I never have quit understood it but it seems that painters and stitchers are just real independent.
No offense to you guys that do that, just an observation.

 

After paying 6 grand to have my Riv painted, having it bubble & flake within a year, and then having the guy who painted it (who came very well recommended by the way) say "tough shit", I'll never trust another paint & body guy again in my life, ever.

Fuck me once - shame one you, fuck me twice - shame on me.

Paint it yourself. Trust no one.

 

welcome to my life. most days i feel as if my money is no good. Any time i have tried to pay to have a job done it never happens. i was talking about that today with 00MACK he said my life is like im poor. I want to pay people but they wont do the job. It's the same as a poor person wanting something but no money for it.


now back to your delema. I have painted may cars at home in a 2 car garage. a booth does not make any real diffrence in painting a car. The #1 thing to a good paint job is the prep and how clean the car and area you are painting in is.

1 power wash the car top to bottom (wheel wells , motor , floorpan , jambs and any where there can be dirt) blow the car dry after your done washing it to get any other dirt trapped behind and in hidden spots.

2 clean the area you are going to paint in sweep then wash the place down any surface should be cleaned and dust free. wipe your air hose down with a rag and laquer thinner. drain water out of compressor. cover any thing you dont want over spray on.

3 wet down paint area and all around to keep any dust down pull the car into where your going to paint and dont touch any part of the to be painted areas

4 tape up the car with good masking paper

5 clean car with wax and grease remover

6 wipe the car with a new tack rag

7 read paint can and mix paint

8 start painting car and take your time


it may be worth it to buy a cheap paint suit and a hood. alot of the dirt in a paint job comes off of you.

this is my 50 caddy painted at home in my 2 car garage. It came out better then 90% of the cars i have painted when i worked in a body shop due to the prep of the area i was painting in

 

Nads,
Paint that sucker yourself man.
Sure it's kinda scary shooting it after you did all that body work..
I'm in the same boat right now.
I have been going back and forth on if i should paint my 53 myself, or have it painted.
I decided i'm shooting it myself at a friends shop.

I've never used the products your using, but have had damn good luck in shooting base/clear urathane's.

Unreliable body men, coupled with high cost's are the two reasons i decided i better learn how to do this shit.

Good luck man!

Tony.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Unreliable body men, coupled with high cost's are the two reasons i decided i better learn how to do this shit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because of what happened with the paint on my Riv, after it was wrecked I gave up on trying to build another "nice" old daily driver & bought a new car. At 36 I have never owned a new car in my life & thought I never would. Taking it in the rear entrance for that kind of money can have a profound effect on one's perspective.

And I have no aptitude for painting. I can't even rattle can something without it looking like a 3rd grader did it.

 

I tried to build a spray booth out of pvc and clear visquene. The damn thing blew down the night before I was going to spray the car. I eneded up using 1" metal tubing that I bought as seconds it has worked much better. As far as the paint get the product info sheet and follow it closely. I'm no painter, but I been tought quite a lot by an awsome painter. Follow the instructions is one of the things he stressed the most to me.

Will Vaughan

 

Slag Kustom, beauriful job, I'm inspired.
The problem is I don't even have a garage. all I've got is a low ceilinged car port. I have a huge driveway, I've got access to a large garage, but I want to do the car at home. The car's driveable but I have no windshield or lights on it.
i'm thinking I can do the job myself. My wife's an excellent painter too, she's done it professionally for years.
I'm going to give it a shot, but if I fuck up, it's several hundred dollars worth of paint down the toilet.
I'll keep y'all updated with the progress.

 

Step into the 90's man.
BC\CC is easy.
Your gun is probably outdated. Buy a harbor freight HVLP. Material is money.
A man with your vocabulary should have no problems.

 

We can rent a paint booth around here, that's how I painted the marshmallow, have you looked in the yella pages?

 

how big is the car port all you need is 3 feet around the car. staple up some plastic with a fan taped in one side and a house hold heater/ac filter in the other.

when i fist started working in body shops at the age of 15 the first thing an old timer tought me was you cant fuck any thing up doing body work or paint that cant be fixed. since you know how to spray just read the instruction really good and go for it.

 

sounds pretty simple Nads,

buy the Harbor Freight HVLP (unless you're already equiped),

set up the rental booth

and have the old lady squirt the color.

good luck man,

I've been dying for update pictures.

we started prepping for paint about the same time

and I'm nowhere near ready for paint

Paul

 

Nads.
just do it yer self!
everyone is right Body men are mostly all a-holes (and thats coming from a bodyman)
you can call me and I will hold your hand (via the phone) through the whole process if that'll help ya.
do it base coat / clear coat you can shoot lacquer over base coat from what i remember and you can fix anything that happend to lacquer. and base coat dries just as fast if not faster If you need help , its just a phone call 516-409-9551
FRITZ

 

The painting is not a problem but take care of your lungs. I'm losing too many friends.

 

Glad to see some things are the same worldwide..... I wonder if its from breathing too many fumes.
DIY is the way to go, with a bit of time and care you will get just about as good as some unreliable fool was gonna to charge you a whack of cash for, besides you will be happier with your job then theirs and you can get some resolution from blaming yourself for any fuck ups

 

Speaking from experience, put on one extra coat of clear. Gives you a little more material to work with when color sanding out screw ups and later buffing out parking lot scratches. I painted a pickup last winter and the paint had some orange peel and also had a fair amount of dust. I just sprayed it in the shop/no booth. I color sanded it and it looks better than if I hired the job done.

Also, to help out limiting the dust/lint finding its way into the paint, wash things down well before you shoot it.

It ain't brain surgery.

Neal

 

Yep, I have painted a T bucket with great success and I painted my motorcycle parts too.

I use the blue carpet drying fans to keep the area free of clouds of paint. I tape a home AC filter to each side and blow the fumes out of my home made booth.

All with my $50 harbor freight hvlp gun.

 

Nads--shoot it! Even I have painted a car and it turned out pretty good. I did it under a carport with heavy plastic taped up as walls. Just as everyone said, wash everything down good. It's florida-plan on a bug or two and have tweezers handy. Ask alot of questions when you buy the paint. The car I painted was my sisters daily, so I rushed the prep and the clear flaked around the wipers, so be sure and take your time. I agree on the clear--lay it on good. Make sure all your gaps are good-- I HATE seing a ride with gorgeous paint all chipped up on the edges.

Anyone have a diagram for what each knob does on the harbor freight HVLP gun?

 

Go for it Nads Buddy!
DONT WORRY ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK YOU CANT DO - THINK WHAT YOU CAN DO !!!! After reading your posts of things You have done
Believe Me You will do it and it will look COOOOOOOL-FEDER

 

Just relax and take your time. If you fuck up, you'll just have to fix it. Your not going to Fuck up the whole car, so you'll just have to repaint the spots you fucked up. No big deal.....
All the best painters fuck up all the time........

It's all part of the game, covering up your fuck ups.

 

[ QUOTE ]
how big is the car port all you need is 3 feet around the car. staple up some plastic with a fan taped in one side and a house hold heater/ac filter in the other.

[/ QUOTE ]

Careful you don't draw explosive paint fumes through an electric motor! It would be safer to push fresh air into the booth than suck it out. The HVAC filter is a good idea.

 

i work on stuff in my 2 small bay shop and it's easy. there are a few things that have been said that i will agree on or expand on. first safety. buy a good repirator. the modern paints with fuck you like you wouldn't believe. get yourself a shoot suit. not only will this help keep you paint clean alot of the chemicals in these paints are absorbed through the skin. i usually wear long sleeves and a shoot suit. you can make a makeshift booth as described but i would rent an explosion proof fan from the rental place. it doesn't matter how good or bad of a job your doing if you blow up. it can happen quick. if you don't have an hvlp gun get one. they save money on materials it's not hype. also keeps overspray/dryspray down in a tight area. set it up with a filter on one end and a filter in front of the fan thats pulling or your blowing bad shit into the environment. i think you'll do great with the Nason. for the price i really don't think it can be beat. hell i think it's good stuff. you can lay selectclear on heavy and have no troubles. here's another one to consider. you say your worried about the new experience. why not trim the car out as your learning experience. get your body prep 99% done. mix up a little of your paint and do the door jambs,window frames. trunk, under hood, and stuff to get familiar with the product. here's a good trick i learned early on in my years of painting cars. if it's going to be driven do yourself a favor. spray all the door jambs, trunk etc with a nice coupla coats of 3M rocker panel spray. it does give it a bit of an orange peel look but if you get the fine grain version you will not even notice in these areas. it'll end alot of the scuffs and scratches and dings that happen with time. they use it on modern cars for a reason. i found out what it can do my second year of autobody in highschool in alabama. we were putting my '60 vw back together after painting. we blew that thing as apart as it could get for paint. well in hanging the doors i dropped a 1 in wrench from the top hinge to the door seal. oops. well good thing i had listened to my teacher a done his rocker panel spray trick. between that and the Imron there wasn't even a nick where the wrench hit. back to the subject. Nason is very reasonably priced. maybe buy a quart of a bad mix from your paint supplier and practice. most of those guys can be really cool and will help out as much as they can. if you really want to you can rent the booth at most shops on a weekend day. price will depend on how nice a booth it is. for really nice jobs back in the day. i would rent the booth at the local ford dealer on sunday. they had the best booth around and allowed me to use their airsupplied shootsuits and all. swanky. i could get such a clean job outta there i rarely had to ultrafine and buff. now i knew the guy that ran the paint shop and it still cost me 150 day in the late 80s early 90s sooooo. give it shot. you'll do fine. if there's anything else i can help with give a yell. do it...ken....

 

Hey Nads, fly me out from so-cal, I need a vacation and have always wanted to make your aquaintance. If not get yourself a harbor freight gun and make sure the neighbor kids aren't playing tag in a cloud of fumes!

 

Nads - draglinks has a nice shop - send him out of town and shoot it there
The main thing is wet the floor, if you have a roof/ carport you rent these poles called "Zip Walls" for $4 each/day from Sunbelt Rentals and they work great! I just used some doing a hurricane damage repair in a $350K house. Figure one per 6-8 feet and one on the corners.

I painted a truck in the 80's and royally fucked it up (laquer thinner on a tack cloth-go figure ), but a few hours of sanding and reshooting it was beautiful.

Grinders fix bad welds and sand paper fixes bad paint

 

About this Harbor Freight HVLP gun, how much cfm at what pressure does it need?
I have a 5hp 25 gallon compressor, I don't think it will be enough.
You guys have really inspired me.
Like I said before I painted my '57 Chevy in my parent's garage and it came out really gorgeous. But that was with lacquer, something even a kid could use.
Oh yeah, I found out that lacquer's been outlawed in Orange County where I live, although you can still get it in Seminole County.

BTW, the one dude that paints trucks for Freightliner did call me back last night. There's still hope.

 

Nads Ill be there to help you just say it mang!!

 

Nads - Here is a pic of a Jeep that I had shot with a $49.95 gun from Scotty's (remember them), used Omni base coat/clear coat over gray polyester primer. That garage has open trusses and used 2 box fans for air escape.

 

hey nads as long as you dont put the basecoat on to heavy,(it crinkles) you should have no problems. just put an extra coat of clear than no matter what happens you can sand and buff, your gonna have to do that no matter were you spray it..

 

Harpoon offering it up for a air ticket and some FLA vacation time? JUMP ON THIS!
Harpoon, I've said it before, I want you to do my car. We have got to get together and talk. Seriously, I'll send you to FLA on vacation for painting my car. Call me and we'll arrange it.
949-293-5223