How to paint your car at home...quick tutorial.

[mitmaks]

So my brother told a guy I do bodywork/paint and he asked me to do work on his car. I agreed and after ~3 months of working on it on and off I finally got it done. Lots of work had to be done, bumper cover was torn, both fenders, hood, both doors and 1/4 panel were damaged.




Got it all in primer finally and onto the paint.


Finally painted. Real nice color Cypress Green Pearl, very expensive too



Haven't done any buffing/polishing pictures but Ive done polishing on the whole car.

[kulluminati777]

that looks gorgeous

but i would not try this at home lol....at least until i finish school

[Daninski]

What system did you use? Base coat clear coat,,water base base coat,,,? You didn't show it but it's a given you 'prepsol'd the car prior to paint. Just askin so we get the whole story. Finally, can we all come by and borrow your garage?

[wytbishop]

How do you keep the dust down in such a small space without a downdraft?

[MrMazda92]

That came out VERY nice!!

That is definitely a different color than the Subaru "Cypress green pearl", but it looks just as good!
Being darker, it'd probably help to avoid police attention.

[mitmaks]

How do you keep the dust down in such a small space without a downdraft?

You just have to sweep real good, put plastic in walls/ceiling (helps a lot), water down the floor night before and a bit before paint, you don't want puddles but wet to where it keeps dust locked down. There were a few dust particles all over it. I wet sanded whole car (except panels that I didn't paint - roof/trunk/rear bumper cover)
You do get dust even with down draft but of course not as much. You want to be clean as well, don't wear a raggedy sweater when painting, wear a clean shoot suit designed for painting. Just before painting you want to use tack rag.

[mitmaks]

What system did you use? Base coat clear coat,,water base base coat,,,? You didn't show it but it's a given you 'prepsol'd the car prior to paint. Just askin so we get the whole story. Finally, can we all come by and borrow your garage?

Yes its base/clear. I don't want to use anything else. I painted a boat for a guy once with single stage metallic and it was pita to keep it wet and not run it, have even metallic without mottling.
Not sure what prepsol is but yes I did prep entire car, scuffed it with gray pad and scuffing compound made specifically for this. Cleaned it with wax and grease remover and tacked it just before shooting it.

[mitmaks]

I'd love to make DIY videos and post on youtube but with full-time job and various projects at home I just don;t have time for that. However if anyone has any questions I'll be happy to answer them. And yes-there is more than one way to cook a chicken so if your grandpa, dad, uncle did it one way-great. I do it my way and customer likes it, that's all that matters, besides satisfaction knowing that you can make some $$ doing what you love.