The $50 paint job Mustang Style (56k warning)
10-13-2007, 07:12 PM
#1
5th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Okla.
Posts: 2,060
The $50 paint job Mustang Style (56k warning)
This is my version of the $50 paint job on a 90 LX 5.0 Hatch. This is a very long, very detailed filled thread with a ton of pics. I choose to go with a dark green color as I don’t normally see this year mustang painted that color.
I'll start by saying this isn’t complete yet. I am waiting on my hood to come in, and I have a ton of work to do in the engine bay still.. going to tape off and put it back to completely white except for a thin strip around the top. The goal with this was to keep this project as cheap as possible.
The car amounts to $750 bucks pulled out of a field somewhat working, a pair of free fenders and a free bumper I got from a buddy to go with it that were in horrible condition, and a freshly cracked windshield.. I made no attemept to fix dents other than a few I was able to pop out. I cant bondo for crap. Ive done all the motor work to get it running good on my own in the garage after work and have no intention of a shop doing anything more than an alignment to it… so this cheap DIY method really appealed to me.
Well, you have probably seen this done a few other places… I got my inspiration from a few places: corvair and of course the mopar forums thread
Anyways, I started with a big long list of parts to get. I needed more than the rest of these guys as I needed sanding blocks instead of pads, rollers, paint, mineral spirits, sand paper, foam brushes, some small artist brushes, tape, etc. For the paint/mineral spirits its right around $40. If you add in all the extra's I bought it came to nearly 70 dollars. I also bought enough stuff for a friend to help, like doubling up on rollers and on blocks.
Here are the before pics of the car:
I took an extra step of putting primer on the car. I don’t think this step really matters. I did it to make the car a single color while waiting to decide what I wanted to do with it. It saved a couple of coats on the roll on painting by giving better coverage from the beginning though… it balances out in between the time to do the primer job and the extra coats required for coverage.
It’s a simple process to get started. Make sure you cover your rims/tires unless you want paint on them. Use a high density foam roller (usually cabinet/door type). The reason for the foam roller is for smooth application and there is no nap with it where a cloth roller will leave droppings on your paint, and anything is very noticeable on this paint job.
A huge trick involved in this process is the technique you use to roll the paint on. Make sure you keep it as smooth as possible. You have to thin the paint out to achieve this, as at full thickness you will get higher and lower spots, not to mention it takes a LONG time to dry.
Mineral spirits works great, and its easy to tell. I did some tests on one of the crappy hoods I have. To thick and you roll out for ever to get smooth. To thin and it will act like water and just run down the side of the car like you splashed it. It’s a pretty wide area in between the two, so its easy to hit a good medium spot. I used a bucket to mix it in.
After you apply the paint and let it dry, you need to wet sand it. Wet sanding is the most important part of this whole process.. I used a block and after the first coat went with 400 grit wet/dry sand paper. This is after the first wet sand:
After each wet sand I washed the car off and used a chamois cloth to dry it. You want to try and avoid water streaking down the car in between coats. It’s a good idea to let the car sit and dry completely so you get no dripps before applying the next coat.
This is the second coat.. You can see the area where the tail lights were how much different to coverage is from there to the primered areas. I didn’t really work to hard at covering that or the headlights area since they were going to be covered with lights.. but gives you an idea. For the second wet sand I stepped it up to 800 grit sand paper as well.
The third coat I went up to 1000 grit sand paper for the wet sand. You can see the coat of paint, followed by the wet sanding and washing it off here. I also decided that since the trim was horrible I was going to go ahead and just paint it also. I had planned to not worry about it, then paint it black again after this process was done since it was so sun faded and nasty.. but after a suggestion from a friend said to hell with it and decided to green it as well.
after the wet sand then wash:
Coat 4 and 5 I saw no real difference in coverage, etc, so here are the pics from after the fifth coat. I stepped it up to 1500 grit sand paper after the 4th coat, and then did the 5th coat. After the 5th coat was applied, I did not wet sand.. I want to use 2000+ grit sand paper to do the wet sand on it, but could not find any in town.. I want it to be very lowly abrasive.
You can see just a little more texture than you would if I had gotten to wet sand in the final pics. I did use a polisher and polishing compound followed by waxing it. You can see a little wax in some of the pics that I missed a bit. It’s a very smooth to the touch surface and is highly glossy in person. Its not as mirror/reflective as I had hopped but that may be due to the color I choose. The white on the corvair above turned out much more reflective, and I would assume that it would be the same on this car if I had gone with that color.
Over all, I am REALLY happy with how it turned out for the price. Like I said, it still needs one final wet sand, and then to be either waxed or polished/waxed again. It’s a hard enamel paint, and we did some tests on the hood.. we used Transmission, Oil, Gas, Brake, and power steering fluid on the old hood to see if it would remove the paint if lightly rubbed with it, and it did not. We hit the painted spots with a hammer to see if the paint would flake off and it did not, and we put a scratch in it, buffed it, repainted it, and checked to see if it would cover.. and it does. Its very easy to fix a scratch /knick in the paint and it seems very tough and flexible.
What I am not happy with on this job is the fact that I decided to
I'll start by saying this isn’t complete yet. I am waiting on my hood to come in, and I have a ton of work to do in the engine bay still.. going to tape off and put it back to completely white except for a thin strip around the top. The goal with this was to keep this project as cheap as possible.
The car amounts to $750 bucks pulled out of a field somewhat working, a pair of free fenders and a free bumper I got from a buddy to go with it that were in horrible condition, and a freshly cracked windshield.. I made no attemept to fix dents other than a few I was able to pop out. I cant bondo for crap. Ive done all the motor work to get it running good on my own in the garage after work and have no intention of a shop doing anything more than an alignment to it… so this cheap DIY method really appealed to me.
Well, you have probably seen this done a few other places… I got my inspiration from a few places: corvair and of course the mopar forums thread
Anyways, I started with a big long list of parts to get. I needed more than the rest of these guys as I needed sanding blocks instead of pads, rollers, paint, mineral spirits, sand paper, foam brushes, some small artist brushes, tape, etc. For the paint/mineral spirits its right around $40. If you add in all the extra's I bought it came to nearly 70 dollars. I also bought enough stuff for a friend to help, like doubling up on rollers and on blocks.
Here are the before pics of the car:
I took an extra step of putting primer on the car. I don’t think this step really matters. I did it to make the car a single color while waiting to decide what I wanted to do with it. It saved a couple of coats on the roll on painting by giving better coverage from the beginning though… it balances out in between the time to do the primer job and the extra coats required for coverage.
It’s a simple process to get started. Make sure you cover your rims/tires unless you want paint on them. Use a high density foam roller (usually cabinet/door type). The reason for the foam roller is for smooth application and there is no nap with it where a cloth roller will leave droppings on your paint, and anything is very noticeable on this paint job.
A huge trick involved in this process is the technique you use to roll the paint on. Make sure you keep it as smooth as possible. You have to thin the paint out to achieve this, as at full thickness you will get higher and lower spots, not to mention it takes a LONG time to dry.
Mineral spirits works great, and its easy to tell. I did some tests on one of the crappy hoods I have. To thick and you roll out for ever to get smooth. To thin and it will act like water and just run down the side of the car like you splashed it. It’s a pretty wide area in between the two, so its easy to hit a good medium spot. I used a bucket to mix it in.
After you apply the paint and let it dry, you need to wet sand it. Wet sanding is the most important part of this whole process.. I used a block and after the first coat went with 400 grit wet/dry sand paper. This is after the first wet sand:
After each wet sand I washed the car off and used a chamois cloth to dry it. You want to try and avoid water streaking down the car in between coats. It’s a good idea to let the car sit and dry completely so you get no dripps before applying the next coat.
This is the second coat.. You can see the area where the tail lights were how much different to coverage is from there to the primered areas. I didn’t really work to hard at covering that or the headlights area since they were going to be covered with lights.. but gives you an idea. For the second wet sand I stepped it up to 800 grit sand paper as well.
The third coat I went up to 1000 grit sand paper for the wet sand. You can see the coat of paint, followed by the wet sanding and washing it off here. I also decided that since the trim was horrible I was going to go ahead and just paint it also. I had planned to not worry about it, then paint it black again after this process was done since it was so sun faded and nasty.. but after a suggestion from a friend said to hell with it and decided to green it as well.
after the wet sand then wash:
Coat 4 and 5 I saw no real difference in coverage, etc, so here are the pics from after the fifth coat. I stepped it up to 1500 grit sand paper after the 4th coat, and then did the 5th coat. After the 5th coat was applied, I did not wet sand.. I want to use 2000+ grit sand paper to do the wet sand on it, but could not find any in town.. I want it to be very lowly abrasive.
You can see just a little more texture than you would if I had gotten to wet sand in the final pics. I did use a polisher and polishing compound followed by waxing it. You can see a little wax in some of the pics that I missed a bit. It’s a very smooth to the touch surface and is highly glossy in person. Its not as mirror/reflective as I had hopped but that may be due to the color I choose. The white on the corvair above turned out much more reflective, and I would assume that it would be the same on this car if I had gone with that color.
Over all, I am REALLY happy with how it turned out for the price. Like I said, it still needs one final wet sand, and then to be either waxed or polished/waxed again. It’s a hard enamel paint, and we did some tests on the hood.. we used Transmission, Oil, Gas, Brake, and power steering fluid on the old hood to see if it would remove the paint if lightly rubbed with it, and it did not. We hit the painted spots with a hammer to see if the paint would flake off and it did not, and we put a scratch in it, buffed it, repainted it, and checked to see if it would cover.. and it does. Its very easy to fix a scratch /knick in the paint and it seems very tough and flexible.
What I am not happy with on this job is the fact that I decided to
10-13-2007, 10:10 PM
#5
D.R. THE PATHETIC DORK
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 30,863
RE: The $50 paint job Mustang Style (56k warning)
hmmm..interesting color......sort of reminds me of rustoleum green at the hardware store......not bad for an outside do it yourself paint job.......like ya' said it isn't the paint that'll make you go fast!!
10-13-2007, 10:26 PM
#7
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Howard City, MI
Posts: 5,956
RE: The $50 paint job Mustang Style (56k warning)
Looks really good, good job. The only thing I will comment on is your choice is painting the window trim, door handlesand the mirrors...those should stay black.
10-14-2007, 10:14 AM
#8
5th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Okla.
Posts: 2,060
RE: The $50 paint job Mustang Style (56k warning)
ORIGINAL: 5.0stanger
Looks really good, good job. The only thing I will comment on is your choice is painting the window trim, door handlesand the mirrors...those should stay black.
Looks really good, good job. The only thing I will comment on is your choice is painting the window trim, door handlesand the mirrors...those should stay black.
The only reason I painted the mirrors/trim is because of the condition they were in. The mirrors had big chunks of paint missing and the trim was sun faded as hell. I may end up painting them back to black, I havent fully decided yet.
thanks guys
