whitethunder46

How hard is it? I'm thinking of re-painting my front bumper and the replacement fender myself. I have an air compressor and could buy an spray gun (a good one) for about $50. Buy the primer, paint and clear for around $100???? I figured it can't be too hard to paint something if you have the proper tools. I think I'm gonna do this, should work out decently I hope, plus I should save about $300 from a body shop.

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2001 Mustang GT - Saleen Replica - SOLD

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MattJ

you dont have the correct tools to match your paint and i guarentee it wont match if you do it yourself. Put it this way, if it was that easy where you could go out and buy the stuff, there wouldnt be a need for professional painters.

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2001 Mustang GT Premium - Mineral Grey

Jack The Ripper

Its a piece of cake. Just grab some duplicolor, and slap it on.

lol....

for added effect you can to it in stucco

Slither

I painted a race car that a friend and I built a few years ago and I have painted a lot of smaller things.

Make sure you don't do it on a day with a lot of humidity. If you have a storage shed or something I would suggest doing it in there. Wherever you paint it make sure you sweep a lot of the dirt and dust out and wait a while for the little bit that is left to settle. If you have a small area like a shed find some old sheets and hang them up on each wall. Spray the sheets down with water as well as the floor to keep particles down. If you have a big garage to spray atleast spray the floor with water.

Clean the surface really well and just take your time spraying with even strokes. White should be pretty simple since you have no pearl or anything in it. Just keep building the coats up until you are satisfied. Some people will do a coat and let it dry and wet sand it, do another coat and so on. Wet sand the final product and then get some compount and a high speed buffer and shine her up.

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Slither

Ok so I just noticed you need to buy a spray gun...and you said a good one. A good gun will run you around $300. Scratch what I just said and pay to get it painted.

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stanger00

pay some one to paint and fix your car

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wnracing

I've done the same thing slither mentioned, only they were my car's. It's really not all that Difficult, but Matt's right if you have no experience let someone else do it matching your paint (even white) won't be easy.. Just let someone else do it.. You've got a check for it....

GREG@SN95

you can buy a decent gun from home depot for around 100 bucks...

I bought a nice one on sale last christmas...

Just make sure its gravity fed

whitethunder46

Thats what I was looking at.

I still dont get why it would be that difficult.

And If I did have a shop paint it. I was just gonna give them the bumper and fender and then install them at my house...

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GREG@SN95

its not... ya just need to get the hang of it...

like welding...

practice on small stuff... maybe look at a cool book... paint stuff you dont care about... mail boxes or maybe even your neighbors kids...

the hard part is paintng something with large surface area...

It needs to be away from the elements... but it has to be ventalated

whitethunder46

Welll I've been looking into it. At the least I would like to prep it for paint. I can buy an OEM fender already primed for around $140 so I should technically be able to just shoot it with paint and then clear it. The bumper I'll need to sand down or use chemicals, prime it, paint it, and clear it. I don't think it'll be difficult. I've always been coordinated very well and have very steady hands, and so forth.

My biggest and only concern is making the paint match. Of course I'll use the OEM paint codes and such, will just get from Ford.

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2001 Mustang GT - Saleen Replica - SOLD

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wnracing

You have to take into effect that the paint on your car has faded, even if it is very slight! You have to match that EXACTLY or it will be a huge eyesore, we're not saying that you couldn't do the paint yourself, but we think you need some experience..

It would be like Jack taking a paintbrush to his car before he practiced at all and just start sprayin on it...

Let the paint shop paint them and then you can put them on..

Slither

Yep even if you get the same paint code age will have faded the paint. The paint shop will have the little thing they stick on your paint that will spit out the code they need to use.

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GREG@SN95

so what?

take your car to the paint shop... ask them to get the paint code... buy the paint... and paint it yourself...

If it makes ya feel any better...

When I get my car project back in gear... You bet yer ass I'm gonna paint the hood and bumper my self... I ain't gonna waste my $$$ for someone else to do something that I can do...

try it...

If ya screw up... try to fix it it... and if you screw up again... then take it to tha paint guy to get it fixed...

If ya never try yall never know what you can do...

look at chris... he puts down some sweat ass flames... and that is hard... painting your car won't be any where near that difficult...

its a good learning experience... don't let anyone try to talk ya out of it... especially the paint guy... he just wants yer dough...

Slither

I wasn't saying it in a negative way Greg. I was trying to give advice if he paints it and just uses the code on the inside of the door it will turn out different. The machine will spit the new code out that shows the aged paint code so it will match perfect.

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wnracing

Yeah I mean, it's not to say that he couldn't do it... It's just not quite as easy as it looks, there's alot of technique needed to get a good smooth coat of paint not to mention all of the chemical treatments, wetsanding, and clear coat...

If you want to try it, I say more power to you! BUT if I was you, I'd go find an old POS (in a junkyard or something) and yank the door off of it and try to get the wrist/ arm movements down.. It will take alot of practice to get a good smooth/ flat surface...

***You will also need to turn your garage into a dust free environment, this mean's building some kind of enclosure. When we painted our race cars, we would build a wood frame, with a cutout for a nice sized box fan for an exhaust system and cover the wodden frame with clear plastic sheeting..

Just prepare yourself, it could be a bit more of a challenge then you expect, but it can definitely be done. Just remember, most of the final product is based on the amount of prep work done to begin with...

Good luck with whatever you decide!

This is one of the cars we did a long time ago (was still in prep stages) You can kind of see the enclosure I was talking about in the background.



And this was the finished product.


Yes, it is a little car it's the first division that I raced in from 12-15yrs old. MMRA Sanctioned, Jr. Late Model, or "Mini Cup" as it is most widely known.

whitethunder46

Well I am going to just go to this smaller body shop and see what they'll charge me just to paint my bumper and fender. I'm gonna prep everything myself so all they'll have to do is shoot primer and paint.

Like I've said above, I've found and OEM fender that's already primed in black for around $140. Being primed in black, would that cause a problem?

Also, what's the best way to strip the paint on my Saleen URETHANE bumper. Chemical? Sand? Wire wheel??

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GREG@SN95

just sand it down...