How do I paint a car?

Question

I want to give my Volkswagen a good paint job, but I'm fairly inexperienced but of an artistic nature. How do I go about applying the paint and priming it, and what tools am I going to need? I am removing large portions of the original body that have been ruined by collision and rust damage, so I will likely use them for practice. Are there any brands of paint that are especially effective, and how much will this likely cost? Will I need an air compressor, and if so, is it possible to rent one? Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.

Answer 1

A profesional paint job will take lots of work,good spray gun, the compressor will have to have a water trap and filter on the air line. Also need a paint booth. To do a fair job but not professional. sand the car with 220 grit sand paper to dull the paint. Mask the crome and windows wipe the vehicle down with a tack rag. spray a primer sealer to coat the whole body to be painted. Next wet sand with 200 grit paper then wash the car and let dry. Then use another tack rag and go over the entire surface of the car. best paint to use is Dupont Base coat Clear coat. Next spray the base coat on first, if the spray gun is a hvlp use 7 lbs of air pressure.spray from aprox. 10 inches away and cover evenly and in one direction. Let paint get tacky or until almost dry then spray the clear coat paint. There is also a hardner adative to mix with the clear coat. There is realy a lot more to painting a vehecle than this. It can be done even out side in the back yard  if your carful . Before you start paiting wet the ground well so you wont get too much dust flying. There is also other types of paints that are less expensive best to go to a auto paint store and ask for more info. Go for it this is how you learn. Also go to the library and look for books on how to paint an auto.    Good luck

Answer 2

That's a lot of questions, why not get it professionally painted? You can paint your car for 100 bucks but it takes time and a lot of work.  You need to first sand your car to get rid of paint and rust all the way to the metal and then prim it and wet sand to get it smooth and put 2 coats and then i would do 3 coats high gloss on top.  You can do all this manually and with spray paint but it won't come out as glossy as if you would do it with a professional gun and what not.

I'm not sure if you can rent one, I most likely am doing this to my car but my friend's dad has everything I need so I'm just borrowing it from him, you could always ask a shop maybe just help them around a bit and they'd help you paint your car :) At least that's what someone told me to do.

As for brands, you get what you pay for :P I'm not too sure because I haven't done my car yet I'll be doing it in a few days and I'm getting custom paint mixed for me.  I used SEM paint inside my car as I've read another user used it and recommended it, I like it for my interior.  I'm pretty sure they make autobody paint too?