need a cheap, but decent paint job

I need to do a paint job. My paint is cracked, worn, faded, etc... The whole deal. Can anyone recommend a good paint to use for painting? I'm on a somewhat tight budget, I'm gonna do it myself, and it doesn't need to be that great. Just hoping for something with at least a tiny bit of shine. Hopefully you can help. The cheaper the better.

Like spray paint or like real car paint?

Like spray paint or like real car paint?

LOL!!!:rofl:

I'm not trying to be a smartass, but he did say "the cheaper the better" and I have honestly seen some pretty decent paintjobs before from a spraypaint can.

lol i was thinking cheap like buying the paint and a paintgun, going into the garage and getting to work, but when you said spray paint i couldnt help but think of this guy in some coveralls takin a can of spray to his car. when it dries all you see is color warp and drips.lol

true story.. my cousin got nabbed by the NYS DEC for using a paint gun in his driveway b/c of his nosey neighbors..

true story.. my cousin got nabbed by the NYS DEC for using a paint gun in his driveway b/c of his nosey neighbors..


that sucks, i didnt even know they could do that. wtf

Last year's change to smurf blue...
200 bucks total.

It was rolled on boat paint (which self levels if put on thin!). Light sanding when done then polish. It held up great since then. But took me alot of man hours to complete. IF you are on a tight budget I recommend it.

Half of my cost was spent on the polisher (I got a nice one) 50 on paint, the rest on paper, drop cloths and brushes.

It's been through a PA winter and when washed it still shines.

I'm changing it to a darker blue this summer. I bought the paint for 40 bucks total. I had to buy a new pack of rollers for like 5 bucks.

It's pretty cheap and comes out great. I've done my car and a 240sx with it now.

Thread on it is here somewhere.

If you don't have the time however you can always do maaco. But you get what you pay for!!! My job looks way way way better then a cheap maaco job when done but I have about 100 hours into stripping, sanding, painting, sanding, polishing, waxing. Buy a case of beer and friends come to help for free!

Go ahead and laugh now. I've gotten to the point that I don't care. No one has ever made fun of the quality since I finished polishing and waxing (other then for the color), until they found out it was boat paint.

I've seen some excellent spray can jobs actually. But I'd say 98% of them look like crap because people don't take their time to prep and do the job right.

I remember that thread, I'm going to find it. What brand of paint did you use? I might give that a try....

brightside boat paint. It worked well ~25 bucks a can. some poeple used rustoleum. I did on a test panel and it worked fine. It took about a month to harden though. The brightside was hard over night. very durable too. Unless you are a real cheapskate spend the extra cash and go for brightside. It's naturally glossy so if you can't get around to final sanding and polishing right away when you are done it still looks pretty decent.

This is the still going 2nd parts ot the moparts thread.
http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2655425&page=0&fpart=14&vc=1

that sucks, i didnt even know they could do that. wtf

apparently there is an environmental/health issue, he wasnt arrested although he could of been for not agreeing to stop.. lol

yes it's illegal to spray outside. But not to vent to the outside from a spary booth. You also have to wear a respirator indoors. I think the idea is that most of the crap in the air will settle in that room then. We had a neighbor that got a fine once for spraying right outside. He built a lean-to with tarps sprayed and they had no problem with it.

EDIT: It's not illegal to spray inside without a respirator, you would just be really dumb to do it without one... And would be sneezing/coughing the color of your car for a few days after..

Last year's change to smurf blue...
200 bucks total.

It was rolled on boat paint (which self levels if put on thin!). Light sanding when done then polish. It held up great since then. But took me alot of man hours to complete. IF you are on a tight budget I recommend it.

Half of my cost was spent on the polisher (I got a nice one) 50 on paint, the rest on paper, drop cloths and brushes.

It's been through a PA winter and when washed it still shines.

I'm changing it to a darker blue this summer. I bought the paint for 40 bucks total. I had to buy a new pack of rollers for like 5 bucks.

It's pretty cheap and comes out great. I've done my car and a 240sx with it now.

Thread on it is here somewhere.

If you don't have the time however you can always do maaco. But you get what you pay for!!! My job looks way way way better then a cheap maaco job when done but I have about 100 hours into stripping, sanding, painting, sanding, polishing, waxing. Buy a case of beer and friends come to help for free!

Go ahead and laugh now. I've gotten to the point that I don't care. No one has ever made fun of the quality since I finished polishing and waxing (other then for the color), until they found out it was boat paint.

I've seen some excellent spray can jobs actually. But I'd say 98% of them look like crap because people don't take their time to prep and do the job right.

Show us a few pics of your cae please

I poked around and I have none online at the moment. I'll post some up later tonight. I'll see if I have any of the 240sx sitting around too.

If you check that moparts thread there are a ton of pics in there. Unfortunately none with a brightside blue.

Rawr there was 240 pictures here but he doesn't want the ones with his girl up in them. I'll ask him to get more.

www.novaslp.net/car/ The first few are the spoiler done in rustoleum royal blue. I then show the car in it's original red with some bondo work. Then it goes to brightside. Keep in mind the car isn't sanded yet in any of these.

www.novaslp.net/car/ The first few are the spoiler done in rustoleum royal blue. I then show the car in it's original red with some bondo work. Then it goes to brightside. Keep in mind the car isn't sanded yet in any of these.
I had forgotten how great it turned out until I went through all your pictures again here...

wow that looks sharp excellent work

I think my friends 240 actually looks way better then mine did solely on color choice. Black is crazy reflective even before sanding.

The new blue I picked is much darker. It's called saphire blue. I did my mirrors in it and I think the car will look awesome like that. possibly thinking about spraying my stock wheels black because that would look hot on a dark blue car.

Lots and Lots of man hours though.. But it's a good project when you are bored. I can change the color every year if I had the time and 40 bucks laying around.

I had alot of people I know who have now done it to jeeps they were building for mudding because it's so cheap and durable.

Plus if it gets chipped or nicked I brush over that part 3 times. then sand flat and you can't tell work was done. I had a ding so I bondo'ed and re rolled that part of the door. It took me 2 hours total time and cost me nothing because I had paint laying around. You can't do that with a real bc/cc paint job.

Buy a case of beer and friends come to help for free!


That's not fair, I live in PA and didn't get invited. :p

That's not fair, I live in PA and didn't get invited. :p

I'm painting it darker blue this summer and I promise free beer if you want to help. :p

My ex came to sand the car last summer (awesome ex haha) she ended up hurting her foot so it's a big joke to her parents that she can't paint a car this summer.

www.novaslp.net/car/ (http://www.novaslp.net/car/) The first few are the spoiler done in rustoleum royal blue. I then show the car in it's original red with some bondo work. Then it goes to brightside. Keep in mind the car isn't sanded yet in any of these.

Any chance you could host those images somewhere else? It's not showing up there and I'd like to see it :D

I put some back up here... www.novaslp.net/pics/car/ It's the ones that are like img_04**

Wow! that looks magnificent! Teach me!! haha... I sort of want to paint mine black, a lot of dings and dents, and need to replace a fender (previous owner must have been in an accident :() That is seriously magnificent though.. I'm in shock just looking at those pictures...

Thanks much. If you read through that link above to the moparts forum everything is explained there in great detail. It spans 2 threads the first 50 pages the second is up to 80 or 90. You need to have patience thats it. My friend did his 240sx in black it looks good. get your body work squared away and spray primer it or something. When thats done then look into sanding the body and rolling the paint. It's labor intensive but looks good.

Indeed it does! Hmmm I may be able to talk my parents into letting me do it too! haha they always complain about how much insurance is costing me... if i have it sitting in my garage while im working on it they wont :P

But I suppose before I do it i should get all the body parts I want to put on it first? I know this is a little offtopic from the post but is it possible to put a 96+ trunk on my 95? I have the ugly wiper and if I was going to repaint, I'd want to get rid of it and get that squared away right away.

All the 2g hatches are the same. And we have the edit button for a reason bud. :)

Sorry heh, I used to be a Forum Troll, still dont like that button :P...

Is there anywhere i could look online for a lid? or just talk to the local junkyards?

www.car-part.com should get you going.

Otherwise try ebay or an online classified.

yeah id say it's doable in 8 days if you did the following. This assumes you already have all body work to where you want it. Remember cover your garage floor with the brown painters paper!

sunday: wash car, clean garage, leave car outside to dry.
monday: disassemble car (3-4 hours) sand whole car and all parts to be painted (5 hours?), wash car and all parts to get sanding dust off (1 hour)
tuesday: pull car in garage, tape up car windows and anywhere you don't want paint. (1 hour), roll first base coat on entire car and all parts (1.5 hours)
wednesday: roll second coat after it's dry (1.5 hours)
thursday: car out of garage, sand out peel (not through paint!), wash car to remove sanding dust.
thursday night: after car is dry roll 3rd coat.
friday: retape car: if you had good coverage after second coat then just goto saturday's stuff, if not roll your 4th and final coat. (may need 3rd can of paint to do a final coat)
saturday: sand that baby smooth all over wetsanded going from 1000->2000 grit (5 hours). Wash (1 hour), have a beer (assuming you are over 21), reassemble car, rewash any finger prints off crap)
sunday: spend the day polishing! Yes the whole day. A good 8 hours with the orbital then when it's shiney wax it up!

So it's work intensive but go for it. Definately get all your parts you want to put on the car first no need to do the work twice. If you do it right it can look excellent. The spyder because I never finish sanded it is about a 10ft job. Any closer and you can see peel all over. MY friends after polishing and sanding is about .5ft job. You are straining your eye to tell it was rolled or repainted. We spent the time on his. It was worth it. It cost him 80 in paint, 30 in sand paper, drop clothes and sponges. I owned a polisher but that runs about 100 for a good one and everyone should own one anyway it will get more use then just here! +20 bucks for beer/soda

Did you cover up ALL of the orginal color with yours? Like under the hood etc..? I would really like to do this, I'm poor so it fits me haha.. Any way to get like a carbonfiber lookalike vinyl for my hood? if so that would probably be pretty much amazing.. if that were possible i could probably do everything i want to this summer if i dont make advanced payments :D

I don't think the vinyl would hold up on the hood. The hood takes alot of beating from the sun, rocks/gravel, rain, and the heat from the engine. I think vinyl would end up looking like shit once you got it on. Just stick with what you got. :2cents: Rolling paint in the engine bay, door/hatch jams would be hard as hell because of all the curves, plus it would be a bitch to sand all of that down...and you'd have to pull off the doors, hatch, hood, and everything out of the engine bay. Not worth it IMO unless it's a $25k show car.

I think my friends 240 actually looks way better then mine did solely on color choice. Black is crazy reflective even before sanding.

The new blue I picked is much darker. It's called saphire blue. I did my mirrors in it and I think the car will look awesome like that. possibly thinking about spraying my stock wheels black because that would look hot on a dark blue car.

Lots and Lots of man hours though.. But it's a good project when you are bored. I can change the color every year if I had the time and 40 bucks laying around.

I had alot of people I know who have now done it to jeeps they were building for mudding because it's so cheap and durable.

Plus if it gets chipped or nicked I brush over that part 3 times. then sand flat and you can't tell work was done. I had a ding so I bondo'ed and re rolled that part of the door. It took me 2 hours total time and cost me nothing because I had paint laying around. You can't do that with a real bc/cc paint job.

any chance we could see the black car? :D I'm thinking about black because I got some black headlight housings to match now, and i think if i were to get a CF hood down the road it would look the best with the black.

I'll try and get pics from him to put up. The last batch he wouldn't let me because his girlfriend was in them. Meh she's good looking :)

Anyhow I def wouldn't do vinyl on the hood it would shrink and look like crap. I did my door jams. I took off the doors for that, I also did the trunk and the underside of it (but my trunk isn't huge!)

I did semi under the hood as in down the cracks so essentially the entire from fender outside is done... You can't see the red and I'm the only one that pops the hood. I still take it to local meets and show it and I don't really care that it's red...

I know for certain colors there is matching spray high temp rustoleum.. Some people sprayed out door jams and stuff with that and then used the matching brightside paint. But I think that was only for red. Black should match though if it's gloss... You could do the parts of the engine you could get to then but it's still going to be a big pain.

I'll try and get pics from him to put up. The last batch he wouldn't let me because his girlfriend was in them. Meh she's good looking :)

Anyhow I def wouldn't do vinyl on the hood it would shrink and look like crap. I did my door jams. I took off the doors for that, I also did the trunk and the underside of it (but my trunk isn't huge!)

I did semi under the hood as in down the cracks so essentially the entire from fender outside is done... You can't see the red and I'm the only one that pops the hood. I still take it to local meets and show it and I don't really care that it's red...

I know for certain colors there is matching spray high temp rustoleum.. Some people sprayed out door jams and stuff with that and then used the matching brightside paint. But I think that was only for red. Black should match though if it's gloss... You could do the parts of the engine you could get to then but it's still going to be a big pain.

Ask him if you can go in paint or something and cover up his girlfriend :P

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2655425&page=0&fpart=70&vc=1

pictures of black on a trunk and spoiler on this page half way down. It looks great. Very very very shiny. It's almost mirror like.

Wow...

I showed my dad... Heres his response:

"You're a FUCKING IDIOT! You and your goofy ideas."

Thats directed at me of course.

Cost so far: 70 bucks
Time: 35 hours (so far)
Color: Sapphire Blue
Brand: Interlux Brightside TopCoat

1st Coat:
http://novaslp.net/pics/painting/car1.JPG

2nd Coat:
http://novaslp.net/pics/painting/card2-1.JPG

4th Coat:
http://novaslp.net/pics/painting/img_0900small.JPG

Needs 2 more coats plus wetsanding to get rid of peel/roller marks that are left. Then polish this coming weekend. Looks much better then the smurfish color it was before...