Doing a Full respray myself.

Its taken some time but if i'm going to get my hands on a mk1, i want to do it right. And doing it right means giving the car a full respray in the colour i want. However, there is no chance in hell that i will be able to afford the several thousand pounds it will need for me to get someone to do it for me. So i thought i might come on here and seek some advice on the processes involved in respraying a car. Im a complete novice when it comes to this stuff so i thought i might get enlightened on here.
If i can get myself access to a nice lockup with some space and electricity i would really like to make a go of it as i said i wont be able to pay someone to do it. so here are my questions:

- what sort of equipment would i need and costs to rent?
- are there any good online tutorials or a link to a forum members project that details the process
- would it be better to each panel individually? as in doors, tail gate, bonnet etc take everything back to the shell and rebuild the car from scratch

Any general advice would be great.

If im honest mate i wouldnt do it yourself.

By the sounds of it you have no experiance in spraying a car.

Im sure the equipment would cost quite a bit then you got to buy all the paint ect.

You would have to take into account it will proberly look awefull untill you got the hang of it so thats extra money on more paint.

You aint got an oven which in my opinion you HAVE to have.

You will then either end up with a car which will look like its been sprayed by a novice (which aint good) or you will end up paying someone to rectify your work.

Personally i would just save your pennies and pay someone to do it for you.

your right i have no experience. I had contemplated offering my services at a coach builders to give me some of there time advice and maybe in the end access to some equipment and a baking oven.

Are there any members that have embarked on respraying cars themselves?

I sprayed an old Jag once for a banger rally - used some paint called rustoleum thinned with white spirit and one of those Wolf compressors that you get for £100 from the back pages of the Sunday papers. There is a mega thread about it on one of the veedub forums - mostly people spraying old camper vans or painting them with foam rollers and getting reasonable results.
Some pics of it here - luckily my mate Farmer Dave let me use a workshop for a few days!

Photo Storage | Photobucket

Total job cost about £50 but bear in mind we only paid £100 for the car

I'd agree with bignorm though - if you want it to look mint up close then pay a professional!

for 50 quid...that looks pretty great tbh. Although tbh i think id want a bit more of a quality finish.

worth getting a professional to paint it.  But you could save some money doing some of the work like taking bumpers off, lights, etc.  Worth talking to bodyshop to decide how far yor / they want to go.

http://www.vwcaddy.com/showthread.php?t=44856

hi mate this is my old caddy i did with rustoleum and a roller,for £50 it was good,obviously not as good as a 3 grand job. but then again i had a sweet looking caddy and £2950 in the bank  8)
si

how long does the paint last for before looking really weathered?

I know asking how much a repsray is going to cost is very subjective. However if i was to strip the whole thing myself and present a garage with a shell. What are we talking then? roughly.

only had the caddy for a few months after i painted,i did it late spring so the paint gets baked well in the summer months.
it depends really what you want for your car,my mk1 is hoodride/ratty look so a £50 paint job would be fine but on the other hand it would be laughed off the show circuit,if thats where i wanted to go with her
si

Apart from a bonnet or two with aerosols i have no experience but will be attempting a full diy spray job sometime because no way can i afford to pay some one, Not after a show quality job just want it all one colour,see in practical classics magazine someone suggesting a  high volume, low pressure spray gun for around £100 as being suitable.

If you have a spare hour or two then the thread is here:

http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=234403

I think if you polish it up properly after painting it will last. As above HVLP sprayers were recommended by quite a few that didn't try rollers.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for but for a first effort mine turned out way better than I would have ever expected  

Thats for that link. Very interesting Read. The metallic blue beetle looks very nice. So it can be done. i think with some practice on some metal scraps or an unseen section of a car i could build my confidence up and hone the technique to do it. It sure as hell beats several thousand pounds in a garage.

When you say it saves several thousands of pounds what exactly needs doing to the car?

If its just a respray then its not going to be thousands.

Resprays can start from as little as £800+

The paint on the car is completely faded. the red is pretty much pink in places. Its patchy all over bits are better than others.  But number one. i dont like the colour. i want a gold/brown/biege colour.

Does it need any other work doing other than the paint because its not that expensive for just a respray.

I would also reccomend visiting a few bodyshops and having a chat with them.

I intend to DIY respray my Mk1 Polo when I finish the body work. There's loads of information here:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/spray-painting.htm

If you build up a good few of layers of paint you will have plenty to cut back and polish up to a good finish. You will save quite a bit of cash if you DIY but you will need lots of time and patience to do it justice.

I wouldn't do it all yourself, not as a novice. My Dad and I have painted a few cars ourselves and they never quite turn out perfect. If you want to save money and have a go, you've got two options - strip the car and flat all the paint off yourself, get it all painted professionally then reassemble it yourself, or secondly, you could strip it, flat it, prep, prime and paint the underside, inside, engine bay, inner wings etc yourself before letting the bodyshop do the outside.

I've just had my beetle done by a local bodyshop - I saved more money by having the car back after priming to flat off myself, and did the inside metalwork with colour matched rattle cans. It's not show quality, but it looks pretty good from a foot or so, and perfectly acceptable for £400 plus the 5 litres of paint.

Neil

I painted my white gti myself as no garage was interested as insurance work takes up their time :dontknow:  I have painted wings doors etc before in celliouse but i used 2pack for my car, Its all in the prep dude, If ye get that spot on then yer half way there, There is no or very little help on net without paying for it and TBH its no easy, I did 4 coats on my car all roughly 30mins apart wi fast activator 1 light coat 1 slightly heavier coat 1 heavy coat and then another heavy coat so i could cut back the paint with 1500 wet n dry and machine polish it, still looks good 2yrs on, But all the paint is wasted if your preperation aint good,Another thing is if you are using a metallic colour its base coat then clear coat which i imagine is deffo not for the novice,Mine is solid colour so no laquer involved, You will be roughly 30quid per litre or more for paint i bought 4 litres and have some left, Then you need actuator,thinners,tac rags,degreaser,mixing sticks mixing cups etc there is so much to take in you should buy some rattle cans from halfrauds and have a bash on some panels

Meant to add am a joiner and have no connection to the motor trade :redfaced: