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THE REAL SCOOP ON PAINTING YOUR CAR

The reason I learned how to paint a car is because I owned a rare collector car that would have cost me $3000-$4000  minimum to have the body work and paint done- and it needed it. AND, I could not afford this.

So, I contacted one of my friends, perhaps the best expert on fiberglass repair and body painting anywhere, Mr. Vic Cooper in Denver. He regularly repairs and repaints the most expensive, the most exotic passenger and race cars, from Lotuses to Lambos to hot rods. He taught me how to do this over a long period of time. Since I am a writer and film maker (and he and other experts I knew are not), I translated everything I learned from him into a form that people could easily learn from right off the web. I further received regular advice from automotive painting veterans like Jim Lyons, people who are the best anywhere at what they do.

I spent months learning what works, and what doesn't work- and when I was done I had done my first car, my white Lotus that you see on the book cover. It turned out perfectly. And the method I used can be applied to any vehicle, fancy or plain, big or small, boat or car, truck, bike, or motorcycle.

There are tons of BAD books and DVDs that look good on the surface, but in practical use were complicated and had stuff in there that was unnecessary. I wanted to make material available that WORKED as advertised, and was not overly complicated or poorly written. Learning how to paint your car should be easy- and it IS.

You may find yourself in a similar position looking at painting your vehicle- but without having done this previously, or have done it making many mistakes and not having things turn out so good. You may not know anyone who knows how to do this, or has the time to show you.

I will show you, because it is my business teaching people- and I've been a teacher for 35 years. You can now enjoy and learn how to paint a car from someone with over 3 decades experience communicating effectively.

If you decide it is best to learn how to paint your car yourself, you will need a spray gun, a compressor, the paint,  some miscellaneous small tools, sandpaper, and a certain amount of patience. You can do it in a car port, garage, paint booth, or even in your driveway- you decide what is best for you.

You can borrow or rent the gun and compressor and save money that way, and pay about $100 for the paint and sandpaper, and if you read the instructions you can come up with a decent paint job on most cars. You will also need odds and ends which you may or may not have, light solvents, gloves, an air respirator, and other small items necessary for painting.

Or, you can spend about $250 on the gun and compressor, own it permanently and do lots of things with it for the rest of your life- like paintyour house, air clean stuff, run other tools with it, etc.

If you have a special car a collector car,  plan on spending a lot of time sanding and re-sanding, and fine sanding, and polishing, and correcting your mistakes, and doing body work.

If you don't have an extra $3000 sitting around, this may be your only choice- AND you can do it, and come up with an absolutely gorgeous job. I will show you how, and my methods come from THE BEST EXPERTS possible.

If you just have an old car and would rather do it yourself than spend $300 or $400 at the budget shops for a mediocre job that they will do, you can do it quickly and end up with a finish as good if not better than such shops, and spend a minimum amount of time doing it- although you will still need the materials and equipment you don't already own, and a place to do it.

You can get the Easy How To Paint Your Car download or DVD (it is dirt cheap), or just read through the basics on this page  and get a good idea of what you will need to do.

Okay....you decide. No bull here. The best painting adventure to you!

THE HEART of PAINTING

Anyone can learn how to paint your car and then actually paint a car. The bodywork and dent repairs and swinging of hammers all require a little more expertise and patience, but painting  is fun... and easy. 

Here are the most basic things you need to know:  How To Paint Your Car Expert Tips

1. Before doing anything else, wash the car with soap and water. This removes road salts and bird droppings and other water soluble things that you don't see. It's pleasant to eat from a clean plate at dinner, but critically important to have a clean surface to paint.

2. Use a wax/grease remover with PAPER TOWELS (which are not a fire hazard when you throw them in the trash ... cloth is a fire hazard ... use paper towels!!!). Commercial removers are wonderful. You can also use liquid charcoal starter or house paint type mineral spirits ... these all work to remove crayon marks from things the kiddies decorated too ... because they are wax and grease removers ... crayons are wax. 

3. Now it's okay to sand something if you need to make it dull. NOTICE THAT SANDING IS STEP #3 AFTER YOU REMOVED THE WAX AND GREASE- otherwise, you  will drive wax and grease into the surface. 

4. Ground the frame of the vehicle. Find the chassis frame under the car or truck and attach any size wire to the frame and the other end to something grounded (or "earthed" if you're British,) so the static electricity can get around those pesky rubber tires on the car. The static makes the dust jump up off the floor into the paint job. Dust is quite lazy, so it would rather stay on the floor than jump up if you just get rid of the static. (Please note, my Lotus is a fiberglass bodied car, and skipped this step on this car- didn't seem to matter)

5. Make certain it is bone dry where you are going to paint. Helpful old souls will tell you to wet the floor down to keep the dust down ... say "Thank you for that idea," and then, whatever you do, DO NOT WET THE FLOOR IN THE PAINTING AREA. All urethane is moisture-cure material. Any humidity, fog, steam, cloud, water vapor, passing from the floor into the sky as it evaporates will pass through the spray mist from your spray gun. At the end of the spray gun, as you pull the trigger, the temperature of the paint drops many degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius, as you wish ... this cures some of the paint before it ever hits the car!!! "Gee, I got a lot of dirt in my finish ... duh. " No, actually, you PUT A LOT OF "DIRT" IN THE FINISH. DRY! DRY! DRY! Always paint in a dry place. 

5A. PUT UP PLASTIC WINDSCREEN if you are outside in a car port. Yes, you can actually paint outside. You could paint in your driveway , but you might have little mites and flies in your paint (although you could sand and remove these to a certain extent). I actually painted in my car port open on one side. Take a little extra time and put up that plastic sheet to keep out that little bit of wind.

5B. TAKE YOUR TIME MASKING the parts of the car you don't want to paint . This is a relatively unexciting portion of this job-- but its the difference between a crummy MAACO paint job, and a really fine looking precision job. Remember, spray will go EVERYWHERE you don't cover.

5C. USE PREMIUM BODY PUTTY. Okay, we shall assume you've had some good advice about the body work. Other than this, use the best urethane 2 part epoxy catalyzed body putty you can buy for patching . It is a million times easier to sand, doesn't shrink, and is much harder than the cheapo Bondo or other stuff out there (good lord DON'T USE BONDO- it SUCKS!!) , and dries almost instantly. You will have to go to a specialty auto paint shop for this. I used RAGE GOLD at about $30+ a gallon. It was worth it. Try: http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/products/show_product.cfm?product=29779&cat=37  if you can't find it locally.