Painting your own car cheap

[Smooth]

About a year and a half ago I found a guide for how to paint your car for cheap online. If you search Google for "$100 paint job" it should come up.

The guide consisted of sanding the car and then using foam brushes to apply coats of 50% Rustoleum 50% paint thinner. I painted my 1991 Volvo that was blue (the entire top had faded to almost white) and had apparently been parked under a tree that was dripping sap on it which led to various spots of the paint job that had been corroded. The result was 500 times better than my car had originally looked and I know I could have done better, but it was my first time painting a car and I was strapped for time.

I was wondering if anyone else has tried this and if they had before and after pictures. I have pictures that I would post, but their at home 1,000 miles away.

 

[Guy]

That is excellent! That sounds like something I could really get into. It sure sounds like you got your money's worth. Would you take it on again?

 

[Hotrod25]

No, I have never tried it and I'm not sure I would. I would be afraid of causing damage to the car (especially sanding it). I will leave this part of the detailing work to a shop.

 

[Smooth]

I would definitely do it again on my old car. If you search around on Google there are some really impressive paint jobs that people have done with this method.
This is the guide that I used when I did it: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Poor-Mans-Paint-Job-or...-How-to-paint-your-c/ , but there are many guides if you just look around.

 

[Max]

Good on you. I think it is quite a nervy thing you did to repaint your own car. I would love to experiment and learn this. Thanks for the great link.

 

[MaximumSpeed]

Looks like a lot of work. This would be great for someone with more time than money, though. I'm not sure I'm willing to put in that much effort, honestly.

 

[joeNmass]

Me personally I would never pain an automobile with any type of brush. I have painted quite a few cars in my time (auto body was my major at a vocational high school way back when) and painting with a brush will only look great if you are prepared to put in a lot of sweat and hard work to get it to look really nice. The good thing is if you go this route is that you will get a good work out on building arm muscle.:clap2:
Originally (early model T's and many others) before the spray gun they used to paint cars by brush but that was a painstaking method. You would have some couple of guys painting the cars by brush (any color as long as it was black) then after the paint cured they would sand it smooth by hand then it went on to another step where a few other guys would then hand polish the paint to a high luster shine. It looked great but the amount of work needed was tremendous. Good thing labor was cheap back then.
Go to harbor freight pick up a cheap spray gun for about $30 and an air compressor (make sure it will supply enough air for the spray gun you buy). It will look a lot better and take a lot less time to see the final results.

Paint is what is expensive, and don't forget the clear coat (for most cars) and if you are painting rubber or plastic (i.e bumpers) you have to add a polyurethane additive to the paint so it can flex and not crack.

 

[vroombaby]

I can barely keep the patience needed to paint a room in my house, I could never paint an auto. Imagine it now, lines are all over the place, paint is running down my leg and somehow the one thing that gets ruined by paint being on it (and not being able to get the paint off), yea I did that.