Doing some paint work myself?

[Gamefreak501]

Hi everyone,

My cars paint work on the drivers side (door, rear wing) has taken a turn for the worse - I'm starting to see rust spots.

Anyway, I am thinking of doing these parts myself, and then getting the whole car resprayed professionally, along with replacing any rusty panels at the same time.

So here is what I am thinking:

1) Take off the door, rear wing.
2) Rub down the paint to the bare metal, using emery sand paper
3) Two coats of primer - to smooth everything out
4) Two very thin coats of paint, and then using a clear lacquer to give it some shine.

But is it really a good idea to do this bit myself, or should I just save up to have a professional do the whole car? I just want to stop the rust in it's tracks at the moment. I know its the type of job that can go really bad a patchy if done by an unprofessional.

 

[LeperousDust]

If you do it properly with the right tools in the right conditions it can look excellent, but its probably better to seal off the rust now and save up to get it resprayed properly.

If your going to do it yourself have you got the proper tools and environment?

 

[Spanker]

It starts with what colour the motor is?

 

[Avalon]

That's a fair bit of work and unless you have a reasonably clean spray area to prevent dust contamination etc. Also don't think about a job that size with an aerosol, you need a decent spray gun and compressor, aerosol's are great for small area's such as mirrors and rubbing strips but not for any kind of large job. Bottom line if you have access to the kit and don't mind the risk of it not being perfect then have a go, worst case is it looks bad and seals the rust at least for the short term. Just remember to allow time for the paint to dry betweern each coat and the car to be off the road accordingly.

Credit to you for wanting to have a go though!

 

[Gamefreak501]

Hi everyone,

Cheers for the help and advice.

I don't have access to any specialist tools but I could probably hire some, the car itself is Brooklands Green, I may have trouble finding an exact match for that mind!

I was also planning to do the respray on the property my rented garage will be on - our house doesn't have a driveway or a big garage (just for the one car) but I am not sure what the consequences of using that area might be!

Starting to wonder whether I have bitten off more than I can chew now!

 

[triggerthat]

Do you have any pictures of the area that needs doing? What car do you have?

 

[Avalon]

If you are spraying anything you need to be in a sheltered area (such as a garage) at the very least. Anything less and no matter how well you spray the end result will be crap as it will end up with dust/crap getting blown onto your wet paint and that's going to stick. I've seen some iffy scratch repair places trying to do larger area repairs to paint in a tent but the results were poor at best.

 

[Gamefreak501]

Hi everyone,

The area that needs doing is this area here:

There are about 7 rust spots on the door skin at the moment. The rear wing you can also see a little of has about two or more.

 

[Jonny69]

From my own experience with blowing in panels on old cars you will end up with one very shiny door and the rest of the car looking dull. Under street lamps it will stick out like a sore thumb!

Your best bet is to get the whole car blown over. Fix the door, give the whole car a rub over with 400-grit and get someone to lay down a coat of primer and a couple of coats of colour. You won't regret that and it'll look much better. The alternative is to find another good door to put on there - that'll be a hell of a lot less effort than fixing the original one if the rust has gone all the way through.

What car is it out of interest? Spitfire, Stag?

 

[Spanker]

Any chance of a close up on that door? The present finish looks very bad unless it is water droplets etc, but it doesn't look like it. TBH you will be struggling to paint that door with aerosole.