Thread: Easiest, cheapest paint...

Tweet

OK, I am going to make an effort to shoot my own car at home. I figure how bad could it be. If it is crappy enough, I will just sand it down and re-prime.

What is the easiest to use (and cheapest) paint for home use?

I am just going to shoot the car plain white, nothing fancy. I figure I have nothing to lose.

Really, none of it is cheap. By the time you buy the reducer, strainers, laquer thinner for cleanup,dewaxers, etc, it really starts to add up.

Someone like HOTRODPAINT will be a better source, but my guess is that a straight enamel would be the cheapest. White is also one of the better colors to shoot, as it tends to hide alot of flaws, and is initially one of the cheaper colors to buy.

Everytime I go to the paint store, they have a table there of paints that are reduced in price, because they mixed it and for some reason the shade is a little off, or someone didn't pick it up. You can save some money that way at times.

The secret to a nice job is preparation. The actual shooting is kind of anti-climatic, and takes the least amount of time. It is the sanding, priming, masking, etc that takes the time. Even to get an Earl Scheib quality job (is that an oxy-moron..........Earl Scheib/quality job? ) takes time and money.

Don

Don's pretty much on the money. I would advise using a hardener in the paint. Might cost an extra $50-100. If you get a run or dirt, you can sand it smooth and polish it back up.....and it will last longer, too. Without a hardener, you start painting again!

OK, so what kind of place would I look for in the phone book to go and buy that stuff? Do regular paint places like Sherwin Williams carry auto paint?

Maybe I would be better off finishing off my prep here, removing all of the trim, etc, and taking it down to Earl Scheib. I imagine it would be pretty cheap there since they can buy in bulk. Especially if i use a really basic color like white.

This really bites, if I could just land one cash client, I could take car of my paint and pay off some bills too!

As a tidbit of info, Earl uses a "different" paint that you and I can buy at the paint store.....and it aint a higher quality! They buy a formulation specific for them to keep cost down.

Look up automotive paint in the yellow pages... there are zillions of stores in the Phoenix area.

Originally Posted by robot

As a tidbit of info, Earl uses a "different" paint that you and I can buy at the paint store.....and it aint a higher quality! They buy a formulation specific for them to keep cost down.

Look up automotive paint in the yellow pages... there are zillions of stores in the Phoenix area.

Amen. One time we had our marina truck painted by Earl. Let's just say he won't be winning any awards. It had runs, bugs, dirt, and the paint could be scraped off with your fingernail. They pay their painters by the job, like $ 20.00 I hear, so that should tell you something. Oh, they also painted a good portion of our windows, no extra charge.


Don

Would a kit like this one be a good thing to start out with:

http://www.paintforcars.com/kits_arcticwhite.html

I dont know how different prices are out there but i just spent 300 bucks for one gallon of paint , and that was the cheapest i could get, granted it was red which ive been told is the most pricy paint, 70 bucks for primer,about 50-60 bucks for mixing cups and stuff

White is not expensive, as paint goes. Like Hodroddaddy says, reds are on the high end. That is because all of the good pigments come from third world and communist countries. I've paid over $400 a gallon for some. If you don't spend the $$$ up front, it will soon change from "gloss red" to "flat pink"!

What you need more than a "kit" is to go to an automotive paint store, and buy quality products that will work together. It's a good bet if you stick with the same manufacturer, and ask for a "tech sheet" for each product. Those will tell you about what reducers, temperatures, and drying times work best. They should be able to help with that, but if they can't, you can go to the company's web site and download the product sheets.

As far as cost, you might ask why 75 percent of shops buy quality paint? Do you really think it is because they don't want to keep most of their money? It is because they want to do a job that a customer will be happy with, or they will soon be out of business.

Yeah the first color i picked was 475 bucks

Shrug....please listen to what Hotrodpaint is saying....
*use primer and paint from the same manufacturer
*buy quality stuff
*get the tech data sheets and follow the directions

Going the cheap route will be worse than no paint job at all since a crappy job will require more work in the future to correct.

Like heart surgery, dont buy on price alone!

You know that is easy to say when you have the luxury of money.
When it takes you six months just to save up 300 bucks, you cant be as picky.

If you look at the pics of my car now you will see that all that work has been done at home for less than $100.00

I straightened the body, doing mostly old fashioned hammer and dolly work, then finished up with a bit of bondo and spot putty. Then I did a good full body sanding, and them primed it with spray cans. I primed it black instead of gray because the paint was .50 cheaper per can. Then I went over the whole car with steel wool to give it a smooth look.

I did all of the prep myself and paid a guy 200 bucks to spray my 87 F-150 black, and it looked fine.

I am not going for a shw car here. This is just my daily driver. With the amount of punishment a car takes in Phoenix I do not want to put a lot in to it anyway.

My Taurus is only two years old, and already has an impressive collection of chips from road debris. Not to mention the fact I am on my third windshield (thank goodness I have 100% window coverage on my insurance)

If I spent 2 or 3 grand on paint, which would involve me saving up cash for several years, and possibly selling off body parts to science, and then I ended up behind a gravel truck, which happens weekly out here, I would just have to kill myself.

Maybe I would feel differently if I could find full time work, but that wont happen unless I move to India and change my name to Apu.

The name of this thread is cheap paint, not "I have 5 grand to drop on paint"

I have had plenty of 200-300 dollar paint jobs from places like One Day, and Earl Schieb, and they looked fine to me.

Let's face it if I had a couple of grand to blow, do you think I would bother trying to do it myself? I would just go to a shop like Arizona Street Rods and let them do it.

I mean look at my car, it is not like it is a 69 GTO Judge worth 50 or 60 thousand dollars.

At best my car is worth maybe 5 grand. Why would I want to spend 3 grand on a car that was only worth 5? That would just be silly.

I agree with Denny W. 100% ,I think if you want a number paint job. listen
to the guys on this form, if you want cheap talk to Earl Scheib,(I have had plenty of 200-300 dollar paint jobs from places like One Day, and Earl Schieb, and they looked fine to me )

The name of this thread is cheap paint, not "I have 5 grand to drop on paint"

Let's face it if I had a couple of grand to blow, do you think I would bother trying to do it myself? I would just go to a shop like Arizona Street Rods and let them do it.

At best my car is worth maybe 5 grand. Why would I want to spend 3 grand on a car that was only worth 5? That would just be silly.[/QUOTE]



Without calling my paint store, I would estimate you should be able to buy quality materials, prime, paint it white acrylic enamel, with a hardener, and pay for your sandpaper and tape, for about $500, and it will last for 10-20 years, if you take your time, and do each step right.

You can even lightly sand and buff it, at very little extra expense, and make it look like a $3-5,000 job. What you have saved is all of the labor it takes to make them look nice.

The misconception is when people think they can paint the whole car for $100-$200, and think it will look as good, or or last as long.

The most important part of painting is the PREP. I think that was mentionted above. People think paint will cover bad body work. Well it will but the bad body work just got SHINNY. I don't know if you have any farm stores around you. John Deer has what I'd call good paint and a lot of colors its made by Val Spar primer $30. hardner $30. thinner $15. Paint is priced by color. I know there Blitz Black is $27. a gal. It looks like hot rod primer but its hard as nails and has a sheen to it not glossy.