Noobie painting thread

[twack]

Ive had to paint a few repairs from time to time, and i painted a buddies wagon with the rustoleum method (but i shot it through a gun). I got a HF paint gun sitting around somewhere. So I like this thread, im always interested to see home garage paint jobs.

[Kevin 1G Drummer]

Dang, a 1.8 tip is freaking huge! I've only ever used a tip that big for spraying poly primer (basically sprayable body filler).

[JET]

Project got postponed 2 weeks due to my back going out Friday night. Damn car accident is still kicking my ass 2 years later...

[Goat Blower]

I painted my Eclipse about 10 years ago mostly by myself, but with my Dad's help, who's been a hobbyist for a few years before that. I did it all in a weekend and am pretty happy with the results, but it's starting to show it's age now that I've been daily driving it every summer. I'd like to do the roof and front again, as well as some things on my Tahoe. It's not that hard, like others said, it's a lot of prep work and some practice with settings on the gun. You can color sand and buff out mistakes like runs and light fish eye.

[JET]

And so the project has begun! And like most rust work, I have found quite a bit more than I thought there was. While taking off the body molding I found quite a bit more rust, then I found some under the doors in the back of the rocker panel and took the running board off to find more.

It is odd that all of the rust is on the right side, there is none on the left side. The stuff under the plastic is going to be remove as much as possible and POR 15 put over it.

The bubbles weren't too bad under it, I did find a little body filler though. Looks like a minor front right accident. Overall project is going well and I hope to get most of the sanding done tonight and start filling tomorrow and get some primer on it.

[JET]

Well I didn't update this thread very good and didn't take enough pics to do what I intended to do. This pic is with the front end sanded and filled. Most of it is masked off too and I have the plastic up that I used for my makeshift paint booth.

I ended up finding WAY more rust than I expected. There was quite a bit forming under the running board on the pass side too that I had no idea about. I got all of the rust out there and the rear 1/4 behind the wheel was pretty bad where the exhaust comes out. I got rid of everything I could, but it is going to return there at some point because there were a few small holes on the very bottom. It must be a common problems because they sell that small piece as replacement sheetmetal.

My back also had issues doing the work (lost 2 weeks+) and the place putting my snow tires on cracked a wheel so I scrambled to fix that since we were already down a vehicle. Anyway, she is all painted now and I can say that I was way too meticulous about it. I am a perfectionist and should have went quicker.

Tips for anyone else:
Clean the gun really good every time! It is easy to do and the very first time I didn't get it cleaned out right away as I ran in to some issues.
Make sure you have a good paint respirator. Mine was great, 3M one from Home Depot for organic paints.
I would recommend getting a paint and primer gun if you are going to do this. The primer is a bitch to clean out.
You need LOTS of light. I got some sweet LED trouble lights at Lowes for $20 each and they are bright as hell.
Keep your eye on the damn hose! My work space was a bit tighter than I thought it would be and brushed the hose against the paint twice. Pissed me off! It sanded out easy enough, but still a pain.
I would really recommend doing a test panel. I was planning on it and I didn't. My 3rd coat I put on I was drastically better then the 1st. By the end I was doing pretty damn good.
Ventilation is key! Especially when clear coating. By the time my 3rd coat of clear was going on I couldn't hardly see the freaking truck. It is only 5-10 min between coats of clear and I put 3 on. I got a few runs from that, none on the 1st 2 coats or the base coats.

Another before pic of the front:



Paint booth and front sanded/glazed



Paint gun setup - HF gun, HF regulator, inline filter and smaller flexible hose.

[JET]

So the truck turned out awesome except for the couple of runs I got on the last coat. The Harbor Freight gun was great and I don't think you could have asked for more from a gun. Check out the finished product below. This is freshly dried clear coat, no sanding or buffing yet.

Pic of the hood (right side is reflection of the plastic for the paint booth)




Another




Rear 1/4 was repainted, rear door is stock paint. Reflection of the ladder is split between them. Wife wanted to know how to make the stock paint look as good as the new stuff!

[Goat Blower]

Looks great! A little tip I learned though is to blend paint into the next panel instead of stopping at a door edge, it's almost impossible to get a perfect match and that helps, especially with a lot of metallic like that. Time to get out and do my projects!

[JET]

I didn't want to have to paint the doors, so I didn't want to blend. It looks really good though. This paint is a little different variant, but really close. New paint has a slight greenish tint to the flake, but not noticeable unless you are really looking for it. I am really happy with it, another project where the timeline was totally F'd up from my bad back though. It is slowly getting better, but it sucks in the meantime!

[carltalon]

Looks good. Im glad the paint gun worked well for you. I have the same one but haven't really used it much yet. You'll have to buff the rest of the truck now.

[Goat Blower]

Yeah, this inspires me to get out and work on my crap. Great to see DIY stuff like this, getting paint work done is too expensive, or they do a shitty job.

[Halon]

Awesome job man !

[turbotalon1g]

That's terrible and you can tell it's that horrible gun.

[Alpha D]

This is very inspiring! Totally gonna try my luck come summer.....i got a cheap freight gun...for small stuff painted a set of wheels....and for as terrible of a painter i am i was suprised how nice they looked! Little trial and error im settimg the gun up...but hey all that matters is the end product Good Job!

[Mark Leasure]

Wow! Nice work, very impressed. You did an awesome job.

[JET]

Thanks guys! It definitely was more work than I was expecting, LOTS of sanding. I have some more sanding to do, then buff and wax and reassemble. It should look like a new truck!

[turbotalon1g]

Want to do some wheels? 17"

[Grappler]

Looks nice! Makes me want to start prepping the hood on the FC :P

[turbotalon1g]

^you have an RX7?

[Grappler]

That I do