I love my car, but had a fender bender. I bought new parts (bumper cover, fender, hood, grille, and grille trim) but need to paint most of them. My boyfriend has the equipment to paint, but has never painted a car before. He has been painting industrially for almost 30 years. He is interested in doing this for me and we think it would be better to paint the whole car since so much would be looking "newer."

Any tips? I'm not sure how much trim should be removed and what would be better off masked. The car is a 1995 Protege DX, white with black trim, and we will go with white paint again.

I expect to hear many "don't paint the car yourself" replies, which is fine, but I would prefer to hear about the possible pitfalls rather than a simple stern warning. I only paid $1200 for the car four years ago and it looks pretty bad as it is. It's drivable and legal as it is, but it's really rough on the eyes!

Thanks a bunch!

 

i will be the first to tell you that it is not hard to paint your car yourself. the main thing is just to take your time and do it one layer at a time. i do all of my own paint, so this isn't that big of a deal to me.

first and foremost, the prep is a huge deal. if the first layers don't come out right, the rest of them won't. the trim pieces that need to stay and the trim pieces that need to be removed is a fairly easy thing to decide. if they can be removed, they need to be. i recommend that he sands the paint down then masks it off in one day. the next day, resand it (not as much as before) and clean it up. then check the mask job before you start to paint. lay a couple of coats of primer and let them cure over night. check for low spots and sand them level at that point. then, you are ready to build coats of paint. the way that i recommend doing that is to spray two thin coats of primer back to back, and let them cure for about 30 minutes. do not sand anything. start to spray color in thin coats. there is no use in spraying a couple of thick coats and getting it done quick. all that is going to happen is the paint will run and it won't cure properly to be able to adhere. thin coats here is the key. if he does industrial paint, he will understand this next statement; don't stop on door panels. spray past the edges of door panels and overlap them with each step. if you stop on the edges of door panels, you will end up building paint up on the edges of those doors and there will be a lot of paint sags.

with color, you should put on about 3-5 thin coats, let the paint cure for about an hour and put on one more to top off the final coat. after the final coat is applied, you have two options; let the paint cure for a week so that you can sand the color for the clear coat, or let the final coat cure for a couple of hours and lay a couple of thin coats of clear. with the first option, the paint will last a lot longer and the clear will not peel for a long time. the second option could cause the clear to peel after a while. if you can stand to do without the car for a week, that is the best way to do it. the clear needs to be kind of thin unless he plans to sand a little off and buff it out. like i said, the prep is the most important thing.

 

I have a silver 2003 mazda protege and would like to repaint the front bumper. It had a small crack near the top that I guess I will need to bondo. How do I do this and what will I need.

Also, what will I need to paint, where do I get the stuff for a good price (matching paint, paint gun, etc.) and do I need to mix the paint?

Thanks!