I paint houses, factories, and commercial properties for a living, my Riviera will be my first attempt at painting a car. I am pretty familiar with cup guns HVLP's and air compressors so i dont think i will have any trouble in that area. What i have no knowledge in is automotive paints. The owner of the company i work for has an account with a Sherwin Williams automotive paint store, we buy our cup guns from them, by the way they suck, but since the boss only wants to spend $20 a gun you get what you pay for. Now i am sure that my boss would allow me to use his discount with this store to purchase the paint for my car, he buys alot of other things from their other stores so he gets a pretty decent discount. My question is if their paint is any good? How much paint should i buy to paint this whale that now fills my garage from end to end? I am afraid that if i dont get enough and have to go back and get more that it will not match perfectly, this happens alot in my occupation. Im not interested in matching the orginal paint of the car or anything so i dont need a custom color, but sometimes it seems that paint stores cant even match their own colors from day to day.
Best bet is to do all the prep work if you can. Removing all trim, weatherstrip, bumpers, rust, old paint etc. Take it to a shop and have them sand, prime, paint. Today paints are very complex, require a gravity scale, viscosity meter, temperature sensitive chemicals and special respirators and booths. If your body is ready for paint, the paint will run $300-500 depending on color including catalysts, fish eye remover etc. Of course you can do it yourself but don't expect good results. There is a lot of wet sanding, buffing, polishing that occurs after painting. My best friend owns a body shop and he is constantly being educated on the paints due to changing chemistry!
I bought 1 gallon of color to paint my 68 wildcat. It was my 2nd attempt at a car and I was really happy with my results. One gallon was just enough to leave me some touch up paint later. I will say this however... My arms are now twice as big as they used to be since I wet sanded for about a month after the paint job just to get it perfect. It cost me about $550 for all the paint, what with primer, color, clear coat, hardener, bla, bla, bla... Good luck!
I am not an expert at it, but have done some body work. What shape the body is in really will define whether you need to try it or not. If it is very solid and straight, I say go for it on your own. If it needs several areas straightened, rusty panel repair or you find 5 gallons of bondo hidden below, I say save your cash and let someone else do it. There are so many paints out there. Since this is your first spray job, I think you will need a paint easily water sanded. Water sanding will remove some of the blemishes that you are bound to have. I prefer base/clear paints. 3 good layers of clear on top allows for a good sanding to try and slick it down. These paints are expensive. You could learn with a cheap enamel and see how it goes. They are outdated, but still look pretty good if maintained. A solid color in enamel can be water sanded to make it slick, but metallics don't sand well. Take time on the body! Learn as you do it. The spraying is a small part of a good job. Good luck.
At the risk of angering the professional paint and body guys on here I will give you my opinion. Ask lots of questions from guys who have done it, watch how things are done as far as body work, prep work, mixing, spraying etc. Buy a couple books/video's on the subject. Talk to the people at the paint store a lot...most of them will be very helpful. Look at renting a paint booth. Take time when you do the body work...when you think you have it nice and straight, walk away from it for a couple days then go back. You will find more places to work on it again I guarantee it. As far as paint goes, you can buy cheap(er) paints that work well or you can spend tons of money for stuff like House of Kolor. The economy lines of base/clear like PPG's Omni line or Dupont's Nason are considerably cheaper than their main lines. Yes they generally do not cover as well (read...more paint material) but you can do it for a lot less than paying someone. It all depends on what YOU want. If you want a flawless paintjob for a "show car" have a pro do it. If you want something that looks nice and are not afraid to drive and don't have the dough...consider doing it yourself. I painted my last car myself with PPG Omni for around $300 and I painted it with the el cheapo Harbor Freight HVLP gravity fed gun which cost me $45 on sale. Bill
I work for a auto body/custom paint shop that uses Sherwin-Williams auto paints.It works just fine and they do have an economical line of clear coats.
