Ghetto Car Paint, Better than Maco Options

[celicaboy04]

Hows it going all. Been bored so I thought I would make a post of my progress. Back in December I made the mistake of letting my live-in (<-first mistake! lol) girlfriend take my car to dance practice and she got it into a wreck

A ford ranger smashed into the right fender and destroyed the fender and tore a gaping hole into the doors skin.

I could not afford a body shop to do repairs so I undertook the task myself. I purchased some z3 fenders and a scrap yard door from east coast. I began to look at my paint job and the clear coat was fading, there were scratches all over, and to top it off in Februrary I went to a party and some punk **** kid kicked a dent in the passenger side of the car.

So starting at the end of February, I made a ghetto make shift shop outside my grandmas place (I live in an apt and cant do it here) and began stripping my car apart, sanding, and doing the body work.

I have never done ANY of this before and just PLUNGED head first into it.

I started painting the actual color of my car and heres the result so far:

I still have to color sand and polish it, then clear coat it, then all I have left is the bumpers and sideskirts which wont take nearly as long (maybe a week to do the rest)

Is it the best paint job? No. Am I happy? Yes. Like I said it is the very first attempt Ive ever made at bodywork and I went full out. It is a Jet Black paint from house of kolor, the pictures dont really do it justice its NICE I like it a lot. When I complete the entire car Ill post some pics.

I did this for all the poor college guys out there that cant afford body shops and arent body work pros!

This post has been edited by celicaboy04: Apr 22, 2005 - 1:51 AM

[celicaboy04]

Why arent the image links working?

[Blakout16]

www.photobucket.com will be your friend
whats ur aim? i wanna see em! lol

This post has been edited by Blakout16: Apr 22, 2005 - 1:46 AM

[celicaboy04]

[Blakout16]

the body doesnt look straight

[Hanyo]

the body doesnt look straight
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how can you tell?

[celicaboy04]

The body is straight, its just the reflection of the flash in the paint and the stuff in the background.

This post has been edited by celicaboy04: Apr 23, 2005 - 12:52 AM

[vangSTa_celica]

That looks like my green.

[Blakout16]

oh okayy... i didnt take into account the background and such but i dunno

[95gtschick]

yeah something looks a little off balance...

[Junior]

are you using the 5th clear turn signals?

[soltrain]

SWEET! Lets hear it for poor college students! Mad props for doin all that with no experience, takes balls. What are you using to spray the paint?

[celicaboston1983]

I dont think its looks bad i kind of like it . should see what I did to my car with a spray can hahahah.

[celicaboy04]

Im using a finishline 3 by devilbiss and house of kolor jet black. Currently wet sanding and buffing so ill post more pics when I do that and clear it and paint the kit and all that.

And for the turn signals Ill be using the ones from pro car parts.

[dustin15brown]

Good job man, keep us posted

[97sccelica]

took it all the way down to the metal

thats a pain in the ass. i did it to my 260z, it took forever.

[ArizonaRed]

why does your car look like its gunmetal? I think the black looks silverish.

[pxcr440]

what did you strip the car with cause it looks like you used a grinder judging from the patern in the metal , and if you did i hope you useded lots of surfacer ,, props for doing it yourself

[CelicaSTX02]

its not bad, not better than maaco though.......There are some maaco shops that does really really good work. My friend works at one and his paintjobs are awesome for a good price. Good work though, how much is it costing you so far to do everything yourself???

[Blakout16]

i still think they're is something wrong with it... i just dont like the way its looking :-/ i mean great paint job and all but the surface just looks odd.

[celicaboy04]

I used a DA to strip it, and the scratches werent deep at all, just from rubbing on metal the sand paper sort of darkened it.

As for the color, it doesnt look black in the pics because of the lighting and I took the pics during the day and the roof is a semi transparent green color :S.

The surface might look weird and uneven to you blakout because there is orange peel in the paint so its not very shiny right now.

Because of it being a makeshift booth, it made the car prone to orange peel and other unwanted matter.

That is why I am polishing it, it gets out orange peel and stuff that settles in the paint after you spray.

So far between cost of tools and material it is about $1500. About $2000 LESS than the CHEAPEST quote from an autobody shop.

[dustin15brown]

awesome... can't wait to c it finished

[Bigmeanbulldog55]

So far between cost of tools and material it is about $1500.  About $2000 LESS than the CHEAPEST quote from an autobody shop.

[right][snapback]278181[/snapback][/right]

Times like these I feel really lucky to have a dad who owns a paint shop. Dad says I could repaint my celica for around $500 this summer. Good job on the do-it-yourself deal. Never get lazy on any part of the preparation, painting, or finish. It will aways pay off in the end.