groho

Low point last week, really discouraged. Checking on prep and paint after two+ yrs of hard work and what I'm being told is ridiculous, $10K...for what? gold plating? The car is gutted, no rust, panels are aligned, no windows and interior, and you want what?!!! the damn car is barely worth $10K when completed. I'm really discouraged right now, and wonder if this is even worth it. I'm looking for single stage urethane and light body work (<1/16" skim coat) I'd be willing to do the prep and paint myself but my compressor is only 6CFM (110V). I don't have 220V available without major electrical subpanel work. What are my options, need some motivation here, please. I'd even be willing to apply the high build and sanding..... suggestions?

120mm

A good paint job is labor. You can screw up paint 100 times and still come out ahead if you are willing to sink some labor into it.

http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.p...b3cee2b9e8834f

I don't advocate the materials they use, but the techniques apply to any materials you care to use.

Also, I would recommend looking into turbine HVLP, if you're limited to 110 volt.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Campbell-...4#.UdSi7RZU3G4

Just remember to reduce it correctly, (paint needs to be much thinner than conventional paint) do some test panels, be patient, and be prepared to do a lot of sanding.

Do you have a vo-tech high school/college with an auto body program nearby? Maybe you can donate the paint job to them for training, or maybe take a course yourself (where you use their facilities to practice what you learn in class.)

Just some ideas.

67mustang302

Welcome to the world of painting cars. The good paints of yesteryear with lead etc were great, cheap and worked really well. They're now also illegal. So the current paints that are environmentally legal that are worth half a **** are more expensive, but more importantly are VERY sensitive to what they're applied to. You have to have exceptionally good prep to get a decent paint job these days.

Even $5k barely gets you a half assed paint job these days.

rmodel65

buy an 80gal 2 stage compressor and a sata jet spray gun and do it yourself...

Boogie's_AutoRama

What kind of paint and body shop did you go to?
$10,000.00???
Either he thinks you want a show-winning job or it sounds like he was pricing you out the door.
And why do you want single stage urethane? ...I don't even think our paint supplier still caries that.

I own a body shop and we get our share of folks wanting their classics painted. I usually try and talk to them and see what use they have in mind for the car.
If they are talking about entering showcar in competitions I hit them up with a pretty steep estimate. Lotta labor involved in getting something really super slick.
$10G worth better have a whole lotta slickness to it.

If all they want is a daily/weekend driver they can be proud of, I go a lot easier on them.

We just did a '78 fiat spider for a guy, just a second car for the wife to scoot around town in.
He had it all gutted, mouldings off, just the taillights and windshield left in it. Minimal body work to do.
About a 20 hr job, charged him $1500 + materials.

Shop around, get more estimates.

Before:



After:

dodgestang

I wish more shops understood that. It took me a while stuck between 10-20k paint job estimates and Maaca specials with nothing in the middle. Then I found someone, went to Wyotech for painting, just starting out, into mustangs, and looking to do more that just bumper resprays at insurance shops.

$1500 for materials
$2000 for labor
We found some metal that needed to replaced and subbed it out since he doesn't weld so I had $1600 in unplanned expense
I took it 'mostly' apart myself and he took the front and rear valances off for a better job since it was a color change. We pulled the doors together and then away it went.

He did all the prep work basically in my garage and then we towed it to where he works that allows side jobs on the weekends. Dropped it off 10am Saturday morning (yesterday) and picked it up 10am today (Sunday...the next day). He pulled a 24 hour/all nighter on it and it looks awesome.

Lesson here...perseverance for the OP, you will find a decent enough place.

Before


Prep









Paint




Back home and ready for me to put it back together

groho

I already know I won't be entering any car shows, and it'll be a driver. Plan on autoxing and drag strip time, but no car shows. I found one guy, $6-7K. As we spoke, we agreed on all the problem areas on these mustangs and we seemed to come to a very workable understanding. I need to keep looking, cuz this is on the high side of my price range.

Coupe

Where are you located? I dont think anyone can recommend a shop for you without knowing where you are.

I painted mine myself, its my first paint job. I had a giant air compressor so that was a big help, spend the $1500 on a GOOD 80 gallon compressor.

I purchased an Iwata Super Nova gun, (arguably the best gun going) only to learn that my harbor freight gun with the brass ***** would have done a fine job on both the base and the clear.

Basecoat/clearcoat is easy to use, go that route!
Go over to autobody 101 forums and the forums over at SPI and start reading.

All paint is not expensive, red costs more from any manufacturer. Look at Matrix or Metalux pricing. A gallon will paint the entire car and the jambs etc.. SPI universial clear works good and is not insane on price.

Once you learn to wetsand out the crap that WILL get in the clear you will own that process forever and start looking for another project.


Good luck.