Painting Myself

[samantha6890]

So I really want to paint my car. Various scratches from backing into those unseen fences and leaning on her while I was wearing jeans and scratching the hell out of her and all the dings from rocks and such make me really want to paint. But I don't want to do touch ups since I want to change the color of my car.

Is it possible to do a paint job myself? I've helped my bro paint the inside of his car, (like the parts that are not shown when all the doors are shut, I have no idea what they are called.), and that came out ok. He had money to get it professionally done but I don't. If this a no way in hell you should never ever paint your car yourself kind of idea let me know and I guess I can save up money for 6 months. If it's not, could you let me know what kinds of things I will need to do this properly and where I can get them. Any tips would be helpful as well!!

Thank you!

[into_despair]

I havn't painted my car myself, but a while back i did get a friend of mine who does body painting to do a door and a fender panel, it turned out pretty good. A few things though, if you can, get the professional paint and clear coat, a little expensive, not sure exactly how much it was, but the color was somewhere around $80 a pint i think, but for a good look its definitely worth it. Might try looking online and seeing what ya can find for that. Of course you'll need to buy/rent a spray gun for that. Make sure you know how to mix the paint right, don't quote me, but i think the stuff had to be mixed with paint thinner. Not too sure, but I got the stuff from an auto repair place, and they told me everything I had to do for it, and it was a few years and 2 cars ago, so hell if I remember. And the other thing is do it somewhere as free of wind, dust, and dirt as you can, otherwise you'll get a finish that has little specks of stuff in it. Use multiple light coats, if you get too much paint on there at one time, it'll tend to run, and that looks like shit. Everything else is kinda a no brainer, take as many of the parts you don't want painted off as you can, and tape & cover everything else. A respirator might be a good idea too, it can't be to good breathing that shit in. Good luck with the repaint