Disclaimer: The following are provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself. nor the original writer, nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!
I was bored 2 weeks ago and thought I'd try some DIY painting with some advise from the nice people here on the forum. It actually turned out way better than I thought as it was my first time painting large car parts.
It all started with a trip to Autobarn. The paint guy at the Auburn shop was very friendly and gave me some great advice.
Here's the shopping list:
- sandpaper - wet&dry 600, 800, 1200, 1500 (just one of each was enough)
- 5 large plastic painting cover sheets ($1.50 each from Bunnings)
- small tin of wax and grease remover
- 2 x large cans of K&H grey plastic primer
- 7 small cans of milano red
- 2 large cans of powercolor clear top coat
This was just enough to do the lip, skirts, light covers and side strips. Although maybe one more can of red would've been better.
This is my car as it stood before:
(Saturday morning) Now find all the bolts and screws that hold your OEM side mouldings and lip on. I'm sure you guys are smart enough to find them all. The only trick which I didn't know before was that the side mouldings are removed by sliding it towards the front after undoing all the screws. I initially tried forcing it off and just accidently found out. It was just lucky that nothing broke.
Then I used a bucket of water with some washing detergent to wash it all with a dishwashing scrubber. Sanded it with 600, 800 and 1200 grit sandpaper. I started with the 600 to quickly smooth out the dimply plastic moulding and some scratches as much as I could.
As my garage was pretty small and my wife would kill me for getting paint all over the place I decided to set it all up in the backyard. And just used an old work bench to hold things up. I wrapped that in the plastic sheets as well.
In the afternoon after drying in the sun, I then wiped all the bits with the wax and grease remover with just an old but clean towel. Then sprayed all of it with the plastic primer. 3 coats were applied with about 10 minutes between coats. It was a really nice day without any wind and I was quite surprised that it all went very well so far without any hairs or leaves blowing onto them. I could have painted the red as well that afternoon but I had a wedding reception to go to that night. Here they are drying over night.
Sunday morning I got up at 7 all excited about painting. I got sanding the primed pieces with 1200 then 1500 grit with water. When they felt really smooth to the touch, I again wiped them clean with the was and grease remover. Got 3 coats of red on without any problems with about 15 minutes in between coats. The 3rd coat was put on a lot heavier which gave it a nice gloss. It really didn't take long at all to do the red. I found that the powerColor spray cans were much better then the K&H especially for the color and top coat. It was much more glossier and smooth as later I had to use K&H color and top coat for the light covers and it wasn't as good .
After the red, I had church. It was a good few hours to let the red dry itself.
then 3 coats of powercolor clear coat was put on. Again the last coat was quite heavy and ended up really nice. It was as good as the paint on the car.
As you can see here, it was really smooth and glossy.
I did leave the parts for 2 days to dry inside my house. On the can of top coat, it says that it will take 3-5 days for the paint to harden. So I thought better safe than sorry. So here it is putting it all back onto the car.
I thought it turned out pretty good so far. I might wait another week until I give it a good wash, buff and wax.
Yesterday (saturday) afternoon, another trip to Autobarn to get more paint. I had to get the paint mixed in a K&H large can as I've bought all the milano red in the neigbourhood already. With another can or plastic primer and K&H top clear coat. I only started at about 4pm. Took off the driving light covers, sanded them with 1200 and then 1500 wet and dry. NEVER PREP THEM WITH WAX AND GREASE REMOVER!! - it melts them as it's solvent based! I kinda melted a bit of it and it became soft. I had to sand it back until it was hard again. I'd suggest cleaning it with metho I think or something that's not a solvent. So anyway .. I continued to prime them with the plastic primer. Again giving it 3 coats.
I got masking the side strips at about 9pm that night. I found some Tamiya model making masking tape from when I was younger and just taped it all around. I guess the 3M blue masking tape from bunnings would do fine too. Then sanded it all with 1200 wet&dry and cleaned it with metho spirit.
Taped drawing paper all around and sprayed the plastic primer. I did the spraying outside on the street at night with a torch on one hand and the spray can in the other. 3 coats applied then wet sanded with 1200 then 1500 sandpaper.
Sunday morning, I rolled the car out and painted the red. Painted the covers in between coats as well. 3 coats of red on the strips and cover. As mentioned before, I found that even with 3 coats the K&H custom mixed red wasn't close to glossy even with a heavy coat. But it was still very smooth and the color still matched really well.
Then of course 3 coats of clear top coat. I do highly recommend powercolor clear coat instead of the K&H. I couldn't wait to pull all that masking off! so after an hour, I went ahead and took it all off. It looked perfect. It might need a little touch up in one or two spots that was ripped off with the masking tape but it looked pretty good. I let the light covers dry for about 2 hours and it was already dry enough to handle and put onto the car.
Just a note ... just do it slowly and be patient. The first 2 coats are quite light just enough to cover it with color. As I did rush one of the light covers and sprayed it too heavily and started to run. I did that with the clear on it as well and started to bubble and I had to wipe it off and start again. So patience is the key to a good finish.
ALL DONE!
After a week and a bit from painting the side mouldings, I have found that the paint on it is surprisingly tough. I actually tried scratching it right at the bottom where you can't see with my finger nail and it's become really hard. So I'm very happy with the quality of the paint from a paint can
Hope you guys enjoyed the write up as much as I enjoyed doing it as I haven't seen a EG DIY done before.
Thanks to those guys who gave me advice on the process of DIY painting
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