I would imagine they are concerned about products used and your application thereof. I would talk to the shop directly about your plans and see what they are comfortable with.

 

Right on Chad. I don't plan on getting it painted until this winter or next spring. I am just in the scheming stage right now.

 

You have to be very careful with this buisness,lots of ''shadetree's''that say''we do show ca
rs''.Shop around some more,find a guy who takes some pride in his work,ask questions,and by all means ,look at some cars he's fixed!Sound like alot of efort,sure it is,the kind that pays off in the end.I'd say you might come nearer to the end result you'd like ,with a price your comfortable with,by doing so.JMO,good luck too you,BO

 

For sure. Once I get the engine started in a few weeks I will be devising my plan for painting it at the end of the year. I will definitely want to see cars that have been painted by the shop I am going to use. I will probably also call my machinist in OKC and ask him if he knows any good body/paint shops. He does alot of "classic" and "race" engines and probably knows of a few reputable shops.

 

I wasn't referring to the de-trimming. I would do all that myself, but I would let the paint shop do the blocking & sanding so that they can be responsible for the outcome of the finished product.

 

Oh ok. Like I said, I wouldn't want to pay for a paint job that has orange peel all over it.

 

Every paint job has a texture or "orange peel" to it. Obviously you don't want excessive amounts, but the wetsanding and buffing takes care of that. I've seen some guys do some pretty nasty looking paint jobs and then do a ton of wetsanding and buff it out looking really nice.

 

100%
I just found that out on the paint job on my car. Took it back twice to get it right. 2000 wetsand, followed by 2 stage rubbing compound and polish. Mirror smooth afterwards.

BTW, I've also heard that Base/clear takes at least 30 days to cure, so you could end up with "shrinkage" that needs to be polished out up to a month later. Yikes, no wonder they never give the car back right away.

 

If it's prepped properly, there will be no where for the material to "shrink" to. The old true lacquer paints and the early enamels would shrink continually because they dried uncatylized. That's why you see them eventually separating and cracking up. With urethanes, once the solvent is out it does not shrink. So you could cover say 320 grit scratches with a really wet spray, but since about 50% of what you are spraying on there is solvent, once that dries out you are left with 50% of what you originally layed down. May not be enough left to keep those 320 grit scratches covered up. If you sanded with 600, it will cover, even if you don't apply enough material, because the paint is made to cover 600(or 400, depending on the material). It is true that the curing process can take that long. I've been taught that it can be up to 2 months to completely cure. I've done the wetsanding & buffing anywhere from 6 hours after the paint was sprayed to 3 or 4 months after with good results. I prefer to wait a week or so to reduce the likelihood of burning the soft paint with the buffer. Sometimes bodyshops(I've been guilty of it a time or two)will pull the "curing" card when they are either behind schedule, or when they just want a break from the more difficult job, allowing them to get some of the easier jobs knocked out.

 

Thanks. That's a perfect example though, does that look like it would take a $40-50k job to re-redo?

As for curing paint, can't that be done in a very short period of time (hours) in an oven spray booth?

 

Seems like there is alot to painting a car. I never thought of having to wetsand the paint after spraying it. I wish I had the opportunity to learn auto body. That is one of the few skills I am lacking when it comes to cars.

 

It speeds dry time more than curing time. Paint goes on wet, then it "flashes" this is when the the majority of the solvent comes out, then it goes to "hand slick", this is when you can lightly run your finger across the surface without moving or imprinting the material. Then it goes to "dry to touch" or "tack/dust free", this one is pretty self explanatory. Then last is "to buff", again pretty self explanatory. Most paints need to be somewhere between flashed and hand slick to apply additional coats, some are "wet on wet" or no waiting between coats. Force drying is heating the booth to speed the evacuation of solvents from the paint and to get the curing process started. Urethane paints like heat and moisture to cure. The chemical reaction of the resins and hardener can continue still for up to a month or two, depending on the temperature, humidity, etc. Heating the paint and then cooling it rapidly(usually by running cool water over it) is the fastest way to get the paint dry enough to buff. Of course it has to be dry enough to be able to put water on it first. With the high humidity and temps in the 90s down here in the southeast, paint actually cures faster than it would in a place like Phoenix where the temp may be well over 100. There's a lot more to it than you would think. The biggest mistake most do it yourselfers make when they attempt to do a paint job, is not knowing which solvents and catalysts to use for the environment it's being sprayed in. You end up with a paint job that won't flow out because it's drying too fast, or runs because it won't dry fast enough. We have 6 different solvents for our clear, each with an intended temperature range of about 10-15 degrees. Usually keep 3 on hand depending on the season.
Paint is a science as much as it is a skill.

 

Hey guys,the paint industry really moves fast,it unfortunatly leaves some behind.The better shops will cost more,basicly because the cost of the material to do it right,costs more.It also takes more time to do it right.I guess because its my trade,I'm a little surprised by how much misconseption there is about paint jobs.
I say again,do your homework,i'd hate to see anyone pay thousands for mediocure job.If it's a reputable shop,they'll have no problem providing proof.The thing i've seen over and over is some people dont know a good paint job from a bad one.Reason being,shiny,new paint usally looks good at first.A great paint job is like building a house,if the foundation isn't any good...you get the point.Really,I'd rather see a guy do his own painting and be proud of the result as to pay some ''shishter''and get ripped off.All of that being said,30,000 is out of the question.Sorry to get on the ''soapbox''.As you can tell,it pisses me off when someone screws up a perfectly good automobile.Good luck,god bless,BO

 

mn71w-30's son painted his car in his garage it looks very nice to me did the stripes and all . nice talent to have

 

I'm in high school and get the priveledge of taking auto body for free. Learn to paint, pull dents, straighten frames, all sorts of stuff. Anyhow, if I buy the paint, etc, and paint it using their brand new guns in their fancy paint booth, I'm looking at $600-$700 total for a full size car. Or, for one quarter panel and one door, about $200. But, I'd pay the same amount to paint just one quarter panel, due to the paint size I'd have to buy. I say that, because after pulling a dent on my car, I need to paint that one quarter panel.

Locally, the average cost of a good paint job is about $3,000 and a locally owned private shop, not a big name low quality place.

--Ryan

 

You can always do what I'm planning: How to videos, experimentation, spray and pray. I'll be happy with it for the financial investment I'm making, plus I get to learn something new! I've got two extra front fenders that I'm going to practice on. Body work first though, which should be entertaining.

 

Well if you dont care about how it looks talk to your tech schools and have them fix it. When i was in tech school there were people who payed for us to fix there cars. alot keeper then takin it to a body shop takes longer cause kids are only in the shop a few hours a day. Bad thing is resuts could vary cause when i was in school there also was people that didnt know anything about anything and didnt care how it turned out. If you knew someone one the inside you could make sure people that new what they were doing worked on it.

 

Yup, I'm with you on that one. I just ordered a sample kit of POR15 to fix some of the rocker panel rust on my wifes Saturn (RR door sill). If it turns out like I hope, I may get more experiemental with my 98.

Where's the pride gone? I've seen exactly what you're talking about out on the streets. Seems like some body shops expect you to be happy with crap, and take top dollar to let that happen. I took my Sonata in to 2 shops to get a quote for getting the front bumper cover redone from all the lower snow scrapes and stuff.
The first shop came highly recommended and allegedly only charges 1/3 of what a body shop would. Their quote? 600 bucks to sand and paint on the car. Time? 2 days. Even took me for a tour of "in progress" spot repairs being done in their shop. The shop was clean, but the work was questionable. "Ready to paint" for a door ding apparently means they sanded down to metal and primed. They were going to paint over the primer and it was done. Only problem? the ding was still there and easy to see.

Body Shop (again recommended for top quality work) for the same repair? 1100.00 Same job, same type of work only now they have to "blend" the cover back into the hood and fenders? I don't think so. It's just a bumper cover that needs paint on the lower areas.

So I came to my conclusion. Next year in Feb I'm retired. I'll be taking the cover off the car and doing the prep work myself. Then I'll take it down to the local tech school to have it painted. Cost of paint is all it's going to cost. (about 90 bucks).

The rest of the car looks amazing for a 2007. There's one small scrape on the lower drivers rear bumper that's almost invisible unless you're within 2 feet. And the rear bumper is - you guessed it - plastic. So it's not going to rust until I get around to it.

Good luck with your projects guys! I'm looking forward to mine.