Can I paint my own car in my Garage? and do a great job? is there a good instructional video available? or am I nuts?

 

My Grandfather painted a number of cars in his garage. He simply hung tarps in front of and on the sides of the car then put a fan on the ground facing the ceiling in front of the car. He used a cheap compressor bolted on top of an old LP tank to pressurize the gun and got the job done. The paint always looked good with a little rubbing but he never shot base/clear and he never shot black. He also never shot a corvette

So I guess all I can tell you is that it's possible. Personally, I wouldn't try it as fixing a bad paint job can cost more than paying for a professional one from the get-go.

My $.02.

 

Legally, probably not. But yes, you can paint your own car. Are you thinking base coat/clear coat? Practice first.....you'll be amazed when you start applying the clear coat, it comes to life!

 

of course you can. I've painted about a dozen dune buggies and beetles in various garages.

start by painting other things... refridgerators, toilet seats, metal coolers etc...

(hey.. it's how Ed Roth started)

 

Yes you can. Positive pressure, filter incoming air. Wrap space with clear plastic. LOTS of light, preferable florescent. SATA paint gun. I had over 200 hours of prep and 4 hours to seal, base and clear. This is the first car I have painted in over 30 years. In the old days it was much harder to do. Watch you local regs. You can smell the solvents a long way. Wear proper respirator. Use good paint that is compatible from body work to top coat. Local paint dealer will help you. I'll try and find some booth pics for you. Used an old attic fan for positive air. The finish looked so dang good I have yet to wet sand. Yes there is a couple of dust specs in there but less than most professional shops. Note on costs: I like doing everything myself, so cost was not an issue. I spent $600 on a new gun, already had huge air supply with dryer, over $1000 in primer - clear. If you figure a shop guy charged at $45/hour, you can quickly see why a great paint job cost a few $. Tons of info online of how to do this.

There is something to be said for one who does their own work.

 

Go for it--every good painter had to start somewhere!

 

Your not nuts, you can do it. I did mine in my garage, I took every thing out of one side of the garage, pressure washed everywhere and made a booth out of clear plastic. I painted a three stage paint a base, a pearl and clear.











Go for it, the satisfaction of doing it yourself is the best.

 

I had never painted before and just finished painting my '80 with great results. IMHO gr8vette gave you sound advice. I would suggest educating yourself first. There are a lot of potential pitfalls!!! But, this isn't rocket science either. It really gets down to a lot of hard work and meticulous attention to details.

I would strongly suggest spending your first $$s here http://www.paintucation.com/. I got the "Paint Your Own Car" DVD and it was worth every cent. It's 70 minutes and very thorough. You will need to watch it several times to wrap your mind around it all. Not great movie making mind you but you will get a very good idea as to what to expect, potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. I bought it through Eastwood http://www.eastwoodco.com/ a company that has tons of useful stuff for the painter that I would suggest becoming familiar with as well.

As gr8vette suggested, find a local paint shop to help you along. If you watch the video first you will at least be able to communicate with them and they are more likely to help you if you seem to have some idea what you are talking about.

I was incredibly lucky in that the shop we dealt with had a customer service rep that was a huge help. A self-described "Vettehead", he even loaned us his $800 guns to use on the base and clear coats and shot most of the clear coat himself! So the moral of the story is to be friendly and ask a lot of questions. You'll be glad you did.

 

guy in my local club painted his 71 convertible...fist time he painted anything...looks like a 10K paint job...biggest things is take your time.

 

If you are willing to take your time and do the proper prep work you can do it. I done my car in my garage with filtered air thru the entry door and possitive pressure. I also opened the large door for the air to exit the garage and I painted during the day.

Read up on it and don't get in a hurry.I never thought I would get thru sanding and taking stuff apart and then putting it back together only to do it all over again. I spent over 2 yrs. doing body work on my car, but it was far from every evening or weekend.

 

I painted the yellow Blazer in my sig. pic ----I went for a single stage paint it and drive it ---no clear coat no color sanding ---just squirt and go ---its not perfect but way better than the old baby poop yellow factory color.

I have paint for the Vette, will practice some with a new gun and then give it a shot

worst case I flub it and have to sand and respray

 

I did. It's a lot of work and takes a lot of time but you can do an excellent job painting in your garage. Oh yeah, and one thing. Prep work.

 

We even had one fellow on here who painted his car with rustoleum and a roller. It did not turn out bad, but I would recommend following the advice you have gotten so far. If your young and adventurous and pay attention to detail, it should work out. Great car painters are not born to the job, they had to learn it as well. If your an older guy like me you would probably want someone else to do it. Unless you got a lot of time on your hands.

 

Ourshark... That is the most beautiful white paint job I have ever seen in my life. It stands out in the picture with that pearl like I could not believe. it is the first time I have ever thought of painting Baby any other color other than RED/...... I wonder if I could put a little red pearl in the red???

ant the gold one... also beautiful... want thoes fender louvers.. think they help with nose lift at 130
+?, and the yellow.. another great joB!

I have the money to have it done, but... every time I pay someone to do a job it seems i pay them 5 times what there worth and end up fixing it right myself... I have done my own engine rebuilds, rear-end rebuilds, suspension, brake system, Dash and the list goes on... so, I have a 400$ binks gun, a great air compressor.. and some time this summer off... so I was thinking... maybe??

o...THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!... I may do it!?!?!??!!!!:-)

 

I wonder if I could put a little red pearl in the red??

Go to an automotive paint store, they will mix up what you want. Do a test strip, to make sure the color is what you want.
Go for it, keep us up to date on your progress.

 

http://www.repairnation.com

 

Thanks for the recommendation.

Anyone else wanting a look at it I just bought it here for about $10.00 + post and it includes a bonus dvd as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....fvi%3D1&_rdc=1

 

I did my mustang in the garage and it came out very very nice.........no buffing or polishing and no clear coat. its a pain to get things set up , but the end result was well worth it. i used a squirrel cage blower taped in the plastic on one end of the plastic booth and air conditioner filters taped in the other end for ventalation. i also used the halogen lights from home depot,the tall ones ,one on each side and a couple of the smaller ones to drag around with me as i painted

 

Anyone know of or have any Corvette specific videos (as in how to paint a vette!!)?

Even more wishfull thinking, C3 specific?

 

While I used Citristip some folks on this thread have had good luck with a heat gun and scrapers with razor blades http://forums.corvetteforum.com/pain...uch-paint.html.

It wouldn't cost much to try this approach as well. Who knows, it might work better than the chemical approach. Probably worth a try. If you do try this approach let us know how it compares.