pukka

As a DIY you can definitely save money since its your TIME being spent on the uninstall, prep work, paint spray, and reinstall. Not much time needed if you are talking about a hood, fender, bumper, etc. But to do an entire car properly you pretty much have to disassemble all of the body parts and accessories and paint each piece separately - which jacks up the labor costs. Places like MAACO don't do this, thus the $999 special.

As for materials: Paint gun, sanding equipment, primer, filler, and paint is all you need to start. The trick is finding a location where the paint can cure properly. Most body shops use paint booths (Apparently the MAACO one had mosquitoes in it). I know several people that have done paintwork on their own cars as a beginner and got good results.

txag_530i

LOL- written on the butcher paper- "Do you know where my penis?"

Nice write-up. I don't know if you are supposed to use galvanized bolts on an aluminum block. You might get some corrosion, so I'd keep an eye on it.

machtschnell

Great write up with a few good ideas.

AchtungE60

OP saw your link to this post on another post. I like the paper idea. Man are you a talker! LOL I can get a lot of your personality and character jut from this post. Nothing wrong with being a worrier and going through preventative maintenance but you'll be spending money and wasting time on things that do not need them. JMO.


As far as paint goes...if i painted my whole car myself and did clearcoat I'd spend about $200 in materials at most...so cheap and paint definitely go together. If I were to do it myself and count my time and pay myself $40 an hour altogethe from start to finish looking at about 10 hours from start to finish because I'm a picky perfectionist which includes prep wetsanding, filling/feathering dents, taking out lights and trim and taping off...also sweeping up shop and so forth...it would probably be about $600.
I spent about $50 to paint my whole front end...Hood and fenders...I blended half of fenders and half of hood and clear-coated everything. If you ever get to painting (which I am sure one day you will) take your environmentals into consideration. For instance there are no bugs at peak of day and clearcoat will take at least 1.5 hours to setup so it will not be tacky. So for example sun sets at 5pm and it takes 1.5 hours to tack them you want to have it tack before 4pm so it must be finished by 2:30pm....and if it takes you a 1 hour to tape, drape plastic, run the tack rag, spray, clean and re-spray the re-clean (using two separate guns is ideal) you have to start probably by 1:00pm. Let me know if you get into this and have questions. Or anyone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 525iEnjoy

For the berry stains wash your car with a ph neutral soap and add some vinegar to it to make the soap acidic that should help. You and your car may smell like a salad for a short time but .Then rinse, Then after that use a claybar and some soapy solution rinse, then wash car again with normal car wash soap. good job on the overhaul

man this post ! LOL

EV4530

AchtungE60

This post always cracks me up. (the paper!)