How to paint your car in 5 easy steps

[kam]

The same will happen again dude, you need to do something with your arches, like this:

[gsracer]

yea that would of been good, too late now lol




as if it never happened.







Right out of the gun, devilbiss plus best gun ive ever owned.

[PNgo12]

kinda random but.. you look a lot like jamie kennedy in that pic of yourself a couple pages back :P

[Nick_04K]

Do you have any link to the 3m kit you used? I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet!

[Maximamike]

Originally Posted by Nick_04K

Do you have any link to the 3m kit you used? I can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet!

3M changed the name of the system a few months back that he may used. This is the current system that is available at any authorized body shop supplier. If you have any issues getting it, I can help you out with that. 3M? Perfect-It? Paint Finishing System - A fast and effective way to produce a swirl-free automotive finish US 3M

[BoxerJackJohnson]

S14 lookin Sweet

[240sxluver4life]

Man, your paint looks flawless! Mad props for actually completing your car unlike 50% of 240 owners who give up and sell it as a project. You happen to know what kinda power ypur putting down?

[redline240sx]

Wow, thats all I can say about this thread. I am on the verge on taking my car to the body shop, but after seeing this I think i might reconsider and paint the car myself!!! This thread is definetly a huge modivation to those who are stumble on painting their car themselves. Amazingggg body work man!!

[gsracer]

its actually pretty easy once you do it. Like i said, prior to this i had zero paint and body experience outside rattle canning a few things.

Just use quality materials, a decent gun and most importantly take your time, just the bodywork ( non paint portion ) took me 3 months the first time ( weekends mostly) because i knew if you dont get that part right you can lay the most beautiful paint in the world but it will still look like crap.

After the experience i could knock out a whole car with no major damage in a couple of weekends, hell when i redid the quarter panel it took basiclly 6 hrs.

[93nismo]

its beautiful.. i hope mine comes out this good if/when i get around to restoring my s13. although if i get this 240z im going for that's going to get all of my attention. it looks amazing man. i just finished my training for collision and refinishing and that looks better then the cars that came out of our shop by far.

[INeedNewTires]

why are you using panelbond AND rivets? and why are you using so many rivets?

that thing would stay on with 5 rivets total and if you ever blow another tire it wont explode but instead would crack into 2 or 3 pieces that could easily be glassed back together...

i'm just thinking, saving time and money for no difference in the look of it, i understand the panel bond may keep the top fender from looking wavy but that wont happen if you dont put a rivet in EVERY SINGLE recess that the fender comes dimpled with. Also the panelbond wont let you bow them out or change them if you change wheel/tire/ride height settings...

just giving others something to think about if they are going to tackle a job like this, more than one way to skin a cat nom sayin?

[gsracer]

Yea i get what your saying.

I have mine bowed out quite a bit and without every single rivet there where gaps of like 1/4 to 3/8s all over the place and even then there where still gaps so thats what the panel bond is for, i rivet down all the gaps with a shit ton of rivets and panel bond, after the panel bond is dried remove the extra rivets leaving only the ones that are "supposed" to be there. So the panel is panel bonded already bowed out aka in tension i guess.

After the panel bond the rivets are just there for looks, another thing personally i like the car to look really nice, so having the quarters on good and tight makes blocking them to a glass like surface really easy, when they are loose they tend to get wavy.

I know i know, im retarded for wanting a nice drift car, but thats the reason why im currently building a whole different car for drifting and just sliding this one till i wreck it or finish the other one, prefereably the latter of course!!

[Toms2jz]

props to you, please post more pics of your s14.

[BoostSlideWayz]

Shit my engine bay paint job sucks.. i have an hvlp spray gun ... kustom kolors or what ever primer. and the primer is really rough when it dries and even with the color and clear it still feels like rough paint and its just shitty for me lol.. i think im just not ment to paint.

[ZilviaKid]

i didnt see this mentioned anywhere, and since its bumped ill chime in with a simple tip that saves time down the road.

before spraying paint or primer or whatever, SOAK the floor of whatever room your painting in. The dust will settle on it and wont blow around, thus ruining your paint. it take a couple minutes and pays off quickly.

[BoostSlideWayz]

Originally Posted by ZilviaKid

i didnt see this mentioned anywhere, and since its bumped ill chime in with a simple tip that saves time down the road.

before spraying paint or primer or whatever, SOAK the floor of whatever room your painting in. The dust will settle on it and wont blow around, thus ruining your paint. it take a couple minutes and pays off quickly.

ohh i guess my disadvantage is living in the mountains and having an open dirt drive way lol

[ZilviaKid]

could still help, it just prevents dust and shit from blowing up off the ground. doesnt matter what the location is.

[mr.t0fu]

hey man i'm just curious. are those skirts the origins that you got or are they different now? I can't really tell from the pic on the last page. sick car btw.

[Options13]

i couldn't find the 3m "the perfect finish" kit anywhere? do they still make it, or did they change the name or something?

and also when you guys say you "block" the roof at 320, do you mean you just put sand paper on a block then sand away?

sorry im noob to this stuff, and about to paint my car! oh gawd!

[godrifttoday]

^ are u about to paint? Or wet sand? If u about to paint I personally like going up 600 but with water base 800 ... And yes put sand paper on a block and do x patterns for best results... If u just finish painting ... It all depends how much orange peel u got some start as low as 1000 grit and up..

[Om1kron]

Originally Posted by Options13

i couldn't find the 3m "the perfect finish" kit anywhere? do they still make it, or did they change the name or something?

3m sucks, get the presta buffing kit, will come with a fitting for a buffer so you can snap on the treatment pads. It's enough to do 3-4 paint jobs with and my paint looks wet as shit.

I only have 2 coats of black and 2 coats of clear.



not to thread jack or anything. But that's what I buffed my car with.

[highwhey_14]

Originally Posted by Om1kron

3m sucks, get the presta buffing kit, will come with a fitting for a buffer so you can snap on the treatment pads. It's enough to do 3-4 paint jobs with and my paint looks wet as shit.

I only have 2 coats of black and 2 coats of clear.



not to thread jack or anything. But that's what I buffed my car with.

sick paint job, marin nelson does good photos. he's a local.

i've always had one question for painters/bodyshops, how do you fix broken hardware, bent clips, damaged junk? fenders on my s13 are missing bolts and the part where it connects to the bumper is bent. thinking of doing my own bodywork and having someone spray it but the fenders sag and are horribly fitted. do you just hammer them straight?

[highwhey_14]

Originally Posted by Om1kron

3m sucks, get the presta buffing kit, will come with a fitting for a buffer so you can snap on the treatment pads. It's enough to do 3-4 paint jobs with and my paint looks wet as shit.

I only have 2 coats of black and 2 coats of clear.



not to thread jack or anything. But that's what I buffed my car with.

also what brand of paint did you use?

[godrifttoday]

^ his paint was ok nothing like wow... But that's just me... No offense ... By the way how did u hear about that meet that u were able to put your car inside ... Because that thing was huge

[hellion240sx]

Originally Posted by Om1kron

nice

Originally Posted by highwhey_14

also what brand of paint did you use?

this

Originally Posted by godrifttoday

^ his paint was ok nothing like wow... But that's just me... No offense ... By the way how did u hear about that meet that u were able to put your car inside ... Because that thing was huge

I think it looks wow. Show me something better

[godrifttoday]

Well I saw it I'n person... That's y. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice looking car

[CrimsonRockett]

Originally Posted by hellion240sx

I think it looks wow. Show me something better

That's the downside to shopping around for body work/paint. When you look at pictures of cars online, it doesn't show the fine details.

Gotta agree with godrifttoday though, it's a good paint job for Wayne having done it himself (well, body work then having his brother shoot it), but it could have definitely used more hours during prep. I noticed a lot of things when I saw it in person as well. It's his daily driver though. I personally wouldn't put in a shit ton of hours on a daily driver knowing some fucktard will probably ding it in a parking lot.

The owner of this Subby tried painting the car himself with his dad (and failed pretty miserably). They asked APF to re-shoot it without priming the entire car.

This is how it came in:



How it left:



We personally weren't happy with some of the areas on the car (minor waves/imperfections), but the owner wanted it as cheap as possible. Can't expect a paint job to be perfect when you don't even want the car primed.

The paint job done on the "Ruined Z" would easily cost upwards of $6-8k considering the ridiculous amount of work that was put into it.





Wish I had pictures of the S14 that was done at APF while I worked there. That one came out even better.

I'm still stuck trying to decide whether I want to drop off the car with one of two shops I have in mind or just painting it myself (with the help of the former owner of Angry Panda Fab).

I have major trust issues when it comes to shops. Having seen so much bullshit work first hand, I know what things to look out for. A lot of shops take the easy way out when it comes to prep (cheap products, skipping steps, etc). I really don't care if it takes me an entire year to paint my car (hell, it's been parked for two years already anyway). As long as it's done properly, that's all that really matters.

[gsracer]

Didnt read all of the posts but in response to someone who asked me.

You use the grit to get the desired surface. I used 180 on the sheet metal because i had no damage and as little as 80 on the fiberglass to get it straight. The way this works is you use as heavy grit as possible to get the surface flat, then you remove the sanding scratches with the finer stuff before painting. The heavy grit knocks down the surface fast and you get it really flat. Now obviously if your starting with a perfect panel then you use less grit.

And yes blocking means sanding block.

BTW was doing cool stuff and banged up the car again.





1/4 panel was pushed about 2 inches in....







But bodywork has already begun







Taddddaaaaaaaa

obviously the tail light doesnt sit right because it is broken in a few pieces but i taped it back together just for aligntment purposes.

[godrifttoday]

I also painted my car... It looks nice to most ... I still have to wet sand it... But to those who work I'n the field or know what to look. That's why I said his car was ok... Crimsonrockett saw my car too... So it's !! But I would say they are very few cars with near perfect paint jobs

[MR.RMSCHIKO]

damn jerry sorry about the car , i saw it happen and i was like nooooo! lol hope it gets fixed soon