You can do a decent job without learning, just need a very clean environment and lots of time. Preparation is 50 percent of the job. Sanding, degreasing, polishing and most importantly one decent paint system (2k, nitro, alkyd resin,...) will already give you a decent result.
I’ve done a ton of things in my career as a general contractor. Most every single thing in construction.
Auto painting is the only thing I gave up on and said frick this. You need a lot of experience and the correct tools to get a great result. It’s not worth it.
>great result.
If this is important to you pay someone. If the rest of the paint is shit then diy. Very hard to lay down paint evenly on you first go. Hard for me even after four cars.
>get a great result
Yes.
But if you just want your rusted steelies to be somewhat okay looking and matte you can do that without a lot of effort. You just sand a little, clean a little, wipe a little, use some notebook sides to avoid spraying the tires, and just paint a few layers against a base coat.
If it's a standard gloss colour I'd paint it myself. If it's metallic or God forbid pearl, it's 3x the effort.
Don't do it unless you make yourself a little clean room from drop sheets and tape.
painting isn't that hard. hardest part is spraying the clear coat and being patient enough to prep everything. be sure to get your gun spraying right on a piece of cardboard before you spray the car at all. also, when you spray clear, it's a hell of a lot stickier than paint. the paint will tend to even out and self-level, getting rid of any orange peel or textures. the clear is a lot gummier since it doesn't get reduced as much/at all, so the little globs stick around more and develop texture. only way I found to get around this was to spray the clear on extra heavy. basically the way it looks when it's wet is the way it will look when it's dry, so it's more worthwhile to go heavy enough to get the occasional drip and then sand/polish out the drip as opposed to having to sand/polish out all the orange peel on everything. also, wet the floor before you spray and keep your doors closed for a few weeks to keep the bugs out
Just paint it with spray cans, wet sand with 800 then hit it with 2k clear in a can and wet sand with 1200, 1500 and then polish with finish polish and a buff.
You can get totally adequate quality 2K primer and paint in rattle cans now, in any color code you want. Good auto paint shops will mix'em while you wait.
Press a button at the bottom of the can, and voila, the hardener container is punctured inside the can and the hardener mixes with the paint. If you're careful when spraying it, you can get surprisingly good results. I used 2K cans on a panel on my current car, and can't tell the difference from factory paint (silver metallic so not too difficult to match).
I've painted whole cars with a huge compressor/air dehumidifier/hose/gun setup before, and before you're through buying all that stuff it would have been cheaper to pay someone to paint that hardtop.
2K rattle cans on the other hand, make this a $100 job including masking tape, primer, paint and clear coat.
Just be prepared to spend a whole weekend sanding and prepping, and only about 5 minutes total spraying time.
Spray a small piece of sheet metal with the same number of coats that you're spraying on the hardtop - while you're doing the hardtop.
This way you can touch the sheet metal after a few minutes and feel when the paint has flashed off. It turns a bit sticky (like masking tape, and once it does you can spray the next layer right away (wet-in-wet).
OR, wait until each layer is FULLY cured and sand between layers like the other anon said. That works too.
Personally I like to do wet-in-wet since it's faster, and you get a superb chemical bond through all the layers, but it does require a flawles prep job.
PS! If you see imperfections after shooting the primer, abandon the wet-in-wet process and wait until the primer has cured so you can sand it/fix it/shoot primer again.
The 2K can solution I mentioned above has worked very well for me, but YMMV. Good luck.
>Step 1: sand the paint thoroughly >Step 2: mask off the area not to be painted >Step 3: Apply paint as desired, allow drying time. >Step 4: Reflect on your choices in life >Step 5: Examine your genitalia to determine gender. >Step 6: Drive to jogger neighborhood >Step 7: Abandon homosexual car with keys in ignition >Step 8: Purchase a truck
You can do a decent job without learning, just need a very clean environment and lots of time. Preparation is 50 percent of the job. Sanding, degreasing, polishing and most importantly one decent paint system (2k, nitro, alkyd resin,...) will already give you a decent result.
this, you can do decent job if you have patience also if you dont need perfect paintjob
>prep is 50% of the job
More like prep and post work is 99% of the job, 1% is actually painting.
Pay someone.
I’ve done a ton of things in my career as a general contractor. Most every single thing in construction.
Auto painting is the only thing I gave up on and said frick this. You need a lot of experience and the correct tools to get a great result. It’s not worth it.
>great result.
If this is important to you pay someone. If the rest of the paint is shit then diy. Very hard to lay down paint evenly on you first go. Hard for me even after four cars.
>get a great result
Yes.
But if you just want your rusted steelies to be somewhat okay looking and matte you can do that without a lot of effort. You just sand a little, clean a little, wipe a little, use some notebook sides to avoid spraying the tires, and just paint a few layers against a base coat.
But perfect mirror finished metallic? Frick that.
It's a fairly small piece and you have good access to it, from all sides. I'd do it and I fricking HATE painting.
Same, just try it. Worst case you pay someone anyway
If it's a standard gloss colour I'd paint it myself. If it's metallic or God forbid pearl, it's 3x the effort.
Don't do it unless you make yourself a little clean room from drop sheets and tape.
painting isn't that hard. hardest part is spraying the clear coat and being patient enough to prep everything. be sure to get your gun spraying right on a piece of cardboard before you spray the car at all. also, when you spray clear, it's a hell of a lot stickier than paint. the paint will tend to even out and self-level, getting rid of any orange peel or textures. the clear is a lot gummier since it doesn't get reduced as much/at all, so the little globs stick around more and develop texture. only way I found to get around this was to spray the clear on extra heavy. basically the way it looks when it's wet is the way it will look when it's dry, so it's more worthwhile to go heavy enough to get the occasional drip and then sand/polish out the drip as opposed to having to sand/polish out all the orange peel on everything. also, wet the floor before you spray and keep your doors closed for a few weeks to keep the bugs out
>wet the floor before you spray and keep your doors closed for a few weeks to keep the bugs out
This is great advice
>miata
Just put it on and slap some anime stickers on it, no one will be able to tell the difference between you and other miata drivers.
There's always the option for both. I've never done it myself but I hear some places let you take in a prepped piece for some deep discounts.
Just paint it with spray cans, wet sand with 800 then hit it with 2k clear in a can and wet sand with 1200, 1500 and then polish with finish polish and a buff.
It will cost you frick all.
it probably wasnt worth being taken apart in the first place
I just can't believe he pulled that thing out of the dump to begin with
Those hunks of pseudo fiberglass are worth about 2-3 thousand
Miata's hardtop are not hard to paint. There are no sharp angle or weird ass hole. Great way to start auto painting
Vinyl wrap that shit. You can trick everyone into thinking you have carbon fiber money, or even better CHROME OR GOLD
You can get totally adequate quality 2K primer and paint in rattle cans now, in any color code you want. Good auto paint shops will mix'em while you wait.
Press a button at the bottom of the can, and voila, the hardener container is punctured inside the can and the hardener mixes with the paint. If you're careful when spraying it, you can get surprisingly good results. I used 2K cans on a panel on my current car, and can't tell the difference from factory paint (silver metallic so not too difficult to match).
I've painted whole cars with a huge compressor/air dehumidifier/hose/gun setup before, and before you're through buying all that stuff it would have been cheaper to pay someone to paint that hardtop.
2K rattle cans on the other hand, make this a $100 job including masking tape, primer, paint and clear coat.
Just be prepared to spend a whole weekend sanding and prepping, and only about 5 minutes total spraying time.
Spray a small piece of sheet metal with the same number of coats that you're spraying on the hardtop - while you're doing the hardtop.
This way you can touch the sheet metal after a few minutes and feel when the paint has flashed off. It turns a bit sticky (like masking tape, and once it does you can spray the next layer right away (wet-in-wet).
OR, wait until each layer is FULLY cured and sand between layers like the other anon said. That works too.
Personally I like to do wet-in-wet since it's faster, and you get a superb chemical bond through all the layers, but it does require a flawles prep job.
PS! If you see imperfections after shooting the primer, abandon the wet-in-wet process and wait until the primer has cured so you can sand it/fix it/shoot primer again.
The 2K can solution I mentioned above has worked very well for me, but YMMV. Good luck.
Not auto painting, but same rules apply,
>Step 1: sand the paint thoroughly
>Step 2: mask off the area not to be painted
>Step 3: Apply paint as desired, allow drying time.
>Step 4: Reflect on your choices in life
>Step 5: Examine your genitalia to determine gender.
>Step 6: Drive to jogger neighborhood
>Step 7: Abandon homosexual car with keys in ignition
>Step 8: Purchase a truck
I ended up paying someone. Turned out really good. $450 otd