hi all! i had planned on getting my saph cossie resprayed this year as the guy who owned it previously had decided it was a good idea to paint it citrine yellow! badly!!!! now i have had the car nearly 4 years and pretty much sorted it to how i want it bar the colour. luckily the engine bay is still moonstone blue so no need to remove the engine.now due to money issues (being a mechanic dosent pay that well) i have decided i wanna paint the car myself as cant afford the £2000 to £3000 quotes i have been given. i have a fairly decent size garage at home albeit with no electric but going to borrow my mates powerfull generator. i have always wanted to paint a whole car but only ever painted small items like door mirrors etc with aerosol cans albeit to a good finish! i will be starting a thread with step by step pictures of my progress. only thing i need is step my step advice lol! if anyone can help with advice it will be greatly appreciated! ill take some photos of the car how it stands now with dents etc and go from there. cheeRS gary

 

basiclly the most important thing ya need to do is all the prep work and make sure everthing is degreased and dry, obviously in a garage ya cant bake it but as long as its not cold in there ya should be fine, how was ya planning to spray it i.e all at once or in panels

 

Hi if you are going to go back to moonstone blue like mine is dont do it youreself get someone who can paint to come to you as the colour will be very hard as it will need lacquering after the base coat cheers.

 

cool cheeRS guys. was thinking of removing all doors,boot and bonnet and painting car first in one go then do all the doors etc after. i dont know anyone who is any good at painting. well i do the people at the bodyshops wanting 2 to 3 grand lol. was thinking obviously sanding the whole body down but with what grade sandpaper to start with? then grey primer applied, how many coats? also then i assume fine wet and dry to primer then add paint. obvioulsy using pre paint wipes before each paint. is lacqer that hard to apply?

 

hi mate im local to you and have seen the car around. i have got a white sapphire cossy. really if your asking what grade of sand paper and primers to use then i think you might be in a bit deep to start off with. Have you tried LS designs in Sandford/Upton? they are quite reasonable. A friend of mine has his own workshop in New Milton and is one of the best painters i know, maybe if you help him do the prep work he might do a reasonable deal for you. let me know if your interested and i can ask.

 

hello mate thanks for your reply.never really got too involved in bodywork so may be a bit advanced for me lol! being a mechanic/mot tester by day i never really got involved in a lot of bodywork unfortunately as they tended to go elsewhere for body repairs. yeah i would be well up for that mate if he wants me to help with prep etc. i could strip whatever he wanted off the car and then borrow the recovery truck from work to get it down to his place and give him a hand prepping etc. i live in highcliffe so he would only be 5 minutes away from me i expect

 

if you could ask what sort of money i would need to set aside for the job would be great too. thanks mate. also if he wanted to look at the car its in my garage at home in highcliffe though not driveable on the road at the moment

 

Right in short, althou painting the car then the panels after should be ok, you can have problems with the paint matching even using the same batch which can be caused by pressure diffferences at the gun, distance u spray at, speed, temperature etc etc!!! Alot of places do like to paint the shuts first then soft edge the doors and paint the whole car with the panels on to get a good match!! Althou obviously u can do it either way.

Never used the pre paint wipes either, its best to use a proper degreaser and then tack rag to get any particles off prior to painting!! Dont forget if you use a waterbased basecoat u have to use a waterbased degreser, and when u have mixed the paint/lacquer make sure u have filtered the paint thru a strainer at least 400micron or 125micron.

Prep wise u gonna do it dry or wet?! Guessing wet?! If the bodywork is ok and u want to do it wet flat 600 wet and dry is ok or 800 as your going to prime it first, 2 coats should be sufficient to cover, 3 if your worried about breaking thru. Then to finish 800 wetflat will be ok, just make sure you dont leave any scratches etc and take ur time, and a grey primer is best as it will take less basecoat to cover with moonstone blue

Application wise once clean and degreased just make sure u have a good gun to use, devilbiss is my personal fav, and if ur using waterbased 1-2coats should be ok with a drop coat, or solvent 2-3 with a drop but all depends how well it covers etc and what the manufacturer reccomends!! If using a high solids lacquer then a grip coat and full coat is enough, if you put it on light thou then add another, with medium solids 2-3coats should do it!!

Spraying wise u need a big compressor thou mate as u need a good constant 2-2.5bar of pressure and ideally an pre filter to stop any water etc getting thru to the paint from the airline!

Goes without saying, you need the garage to be at a good temperature, ideally most manufaturers recomend 21degress but basically not freezing cold!! needs to be wind free and if the floor has dust etc would pay to wet the floor first before spraying to keep the dust down!
Then the main thing is to make sure the paint has dried between each coat, and its applied the same.

Just bear in mind thou and not trying to put u off but, pretty much most garages will charge u even more to fix fuck ups from DIY paintjobs as they would have to strip off what u have done if its bad enough!!!

But if u feel like doing it mate, go for it!!

 

thanks so much for your advice mate. would love to have a go myself but really dont wanna fook it up. what sort of money would i be looking for to drive in and out job? cant see the point of stripping it myself if someone else does it as i keep getting told they need all the panels fitted so they can get gaps right etc cant see me saving much money just taking lights off. though like dorset lee said i would love to help with the strip down and prep to save money