Re-spraying / painting the mk1 myself?

How hard will it be for me to get a good respray on my car?  Also what will i have to do to get it done properly?

Cheers

alex

I know this the answer you didn't want but , Pay someone if it all goes pear shaped after hours and hours of prep work they have to get it right not sure im brave enough to have a go myself but best of luck if you do

have you ever sprayed before.
i dont mean using a rattle can i mean using an air feed hvlp gun.
if you haven't i wouldn't attempt a car until you've done some other work.
it's not as easy as it looks. and a whole car is even harder.

N'ah go for it, its a piece of p*ss. Will take u ages though to do a proper job (took me 3 1/2 months but I was on crutches and did inside and out). Although I used a compressor I ended up having to do parts such as the bay and footwells with cans and they turned out really nice (better off having some for when u scratch parts you've just painted). I'd never done any painting before apart from the odd scratch which looked pap!

 I used a 50/80/120 grit sanding block (time consuming but u dont get a few scratches like using an eleccy sander), and flatted back the paint where it was good, took it back to metal for rougher areas. Then I wet n dried it between coats (600 & 1200 grit),and its come up a treat (not taken any finished pics though, no camera).

 One thing i'll say is - make sure EVERYTHING is spotless before u paint, saves so much time afterwards, all the bits of trim, scratches, the works. For paint/laquer/sanding equip etc my car stands me at about ?3-350 all in, bargain!

Before




After (well during actually)






Bay where I used a can (they aren't very good for larger areas cans as they dont have a continuous set spray force, meaning u get some patches, wet an dry sorts these eventually + you'll end up waving a can miles away from the body to get a better finish)


 I say go for it!

Go for it mate. Im thinking of doing one of mine in enamal with a roller so anythings possable as long as you take the time to do it properly.
As most people will tell you its 90% prep work 10%paint

depends what your going for,if your just wantin a quick hit that looks like a quick hit then attempt it your self. As said though a paintjob is mainly down to the prep as the finish is only as good as the panels its going on.

Plus NO paintshop likes going back over someones attempt and depending how bad youve made it if your unfortunate then the bodyshop bill can work out even more expensive than just giving them it in the first place.

In saying that if you can give the paintshop the car as a rolling shell with all bumpers and trim off and your willing to build it back up you'll save money that way

But if youve never even prepped a car id be prepared for a bit of a culture shock. It is immensely time consuming prepping a shell by hand

I think im going to go do it myself, the question now is what colour shall i have?

welsh-mk1 said

I think im going to go do it myself, the question now is what colour shall i have?

Midnight purple 8)

welsh-mk1 said

I think im going to go do it myself, the question now is what colour shall i have?

 Good good, u cant really mess a paint job up unless u choose to, you'll just go over it again and again until its right. You'll soon pick up a technique to do it right though, plus you'll constantly think how much you're saving  

 As mentioned its all about prepping, i'd suggest concentrating on a small area first, maybe the bay or inside the car, you'll pick up on what to do and what not to do without messing large areas up! As for colour - Candy Apple Red?

 **Also get very good lighting as u can see the quality of the job better **

actually no you wont,you'll have the satisfaction of eventualy sayin yes i painted it myself but unless youve been in the business of painting cars do not expect a comparable result straight of the bat. As for candy apple red or midnight purple,one is a candy(huge huge work)the other is a pearl(just huge work)but both are ery labour intensive. Sayin that spraying is a cheap easy exercise is like saying that writing a best seller is the same as doing a build thread. Prep may be 90-95% off a finish but the last percentile is a skilled touch and that includes the laying on of paint as well as the finishing off ie the wet flatting and colour sanding that entails a propoer job.

Proper paint jobs are not really an amateurs playground unless you are a gifted amateur with a bit history in the art. You get what you pay for may be an over used addage but it is an accurate term  8)

I won't just jump straight into doing the car i'll go down the local yard and get a variety of panels to try it on first then do the car.

RE- Golf Coupe - yeah, poor choice of words by me, just wanted to give him encouragement. I'll give a better answer from a spraying newby's perspective.

 I have a pro sprayer mate (30+yrs) who was telling me that i'd never be able to achieve a proper finish as ive never done it before (effin hate pessimism). Although, (ever the pefectionist), the roof is the only major part ive laq'd, (i'm doing most of it yet again and currently filling all the holes and respraying it - I cant stop!), he agreed that the paint job i'd done was top quality where finished.

 There were plenty of times when tiny scratches or bits of fluff cropped up that i'd missed, as well as paint dribble, tiny bubbles etc, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing it/blending it several times as I was learning and saving, (in labour anyhow), at the same time. As mentioned im currently filling/smoothing all the holes, the first few needed re-doing, but after that I knew how to do them first time. Im sure a pearl or candy is a lot harder to do, but i'll definately be having a go in a year or two and won't let it out until its damn near perfect.

 There are many things to look into, air comp cfm's, paint types etc, but plenty of info on the net and youtube. Any newby should be aware of how labour intensive it is but if you can spare the time and are comitted, then you can achieve a top quality finish (in metallic anyhow - and dont underestimate the importance of using wet n dry between coats with metallic!) To give u an idea of time, ive spent about 300-400hours on the paint/prep so far but reckon i'd have done as much in half the time if I were fully mobile.

 Massive job to do, read into it, but i'll wholeheartidly support any newby who's thinking of doing it, you'll soon pick up on what to do and what not to, doubt i'd use a pro ever again!

Totally agree with the above. I'm just about finished my first ever spray job on the cabby and it looks quality. Thing to think about as mentioned is your time. It's took me bloody ages. Be prepared to go back and do areas/panels again that don't come out right the first time.

With reference to wet and drying between coats of paint I was always told to put your colour coat on giving about 15 minutes between coats then clean the gun and get the laquar on while the colour is still tacky. I've never flattened while putting the colour on unless i've got some crap in the paint in which case i get rid of it with some 1200 then go over agian with the colour.

I'd like to hear some more thoughts on the point above.

Many Thanks

Craig

Yeah, wet flat in between primer and base coat. But only leave paint to dry for 10-15 mins in between base coat and clearcoat AKA lacquer. Some solid paints need clearcoat, some don't (check with the paint manufacturer on how to use etc).

Hmmm how much would it cost to get a full respray roughly then?  As the hours don't sound too pleasing to me.

welsh-mk1 said

Hmmm how much would it cost to get a full respray roughly then?  As the hours don't sound too pleasing to me.

Paintwork is one of those things where ya get what ya pay for. 10 Years ago 500 quid would get you a very presentable job but with people buying newer and newer cars since then, a bodyshops main money comes in from smart repairs and local repairs. This combined with the time required to do a full car means that most bodyshops turn there noses up at full resprays and if ya can find someone that'll do it they'll charge a premium. Expect to pay 1500-2000 for a good quality re-spray.

The other thing to ask yourself is who do you trust to paint your pride and joy. This was the reason I decided to do mine myself. After all, I knew if there was any part of the paint job I wasn't happy with, I could just rub it back and do it again, no matter how small the defect.

paul_c said

Yeah, wet flat in between primer and base coat. But only leave paint to dry for 10-15 mins in between base coat and clearcoat AKA lacquer. Some solid paints need clearcoat, some don't (check with the paint manufacturer on how to use etc).

 Are you only supposed to use it on the primer and base coats? I used a 1200 grit between 2 base coats of Silver before adding the top & clear. It seemed to lighten and smooth the paint and make it look like the Merc colour rather than a deep Silver/tinfoil-esque colour. Came up much nicer when I did it like that  :y:

How did you get on mate?

I decided to remove my rear bumper as it was probably the worse part of the car, i  changed the green house into a spray booth and purchased a LVLP spray gun, it takes some getting use to but my god what a finish, i  purchased some 2k white alpine hardener and thinners.

I will attempt to do the rest of the car whilst its on the drive in the summer, cant wait.
Alternatively if some one has a booth i can borrow in west midlands let me know Ha Ha

Hi Guys i thought i would add a picture of my rear bumper in alpine white, not a great picture i know ' I'm really impressed its high gloss 2k alpine white.

if anyone needs anything spraying let me know guys

hey mate,

I have removed my clipper kit (alpine white) as i was planning on getting it touched up and re-sprayed.
There are only really minor scratches, except one quite big "scuff" on the rear bumper.
I was wondering how the best way is to remove these? Did you have any similar marks on your kit?

Did you get a full re-spray?
My current paintwork is generally good, bar a few stone chips, so dont really want to spend the money and get a full re-spray