? For the bodywork gurus

[JMan689]

If i went ahead and bought the necessary equipment (compressor, gun, etc.) for painting how hard is it to get a professional finish?

 

[symon_say]

If i went ahead and bought the necessary equipment (compressor, gun, etc.) for painting how hard is it to get a professional finish?

Depends on what are you painting, the real work is made on the preparation.

 

[flamingX]

Put it this way, There is a reason why there is a 6 year appreniceship for body work and painting.

It's not as easy as those guys on the shows on Speed Network Saturday mornings make it look. Hell, most of there ways, a real Bodyman would never use. With practice and the right researce you can become a decent "backyard" Bodyman, but start on a friend's Derby car or a winter beater or something, don't expect to get a professional job the first time out (or the first dozen times) until you learn the proper way to do things.

It's taken me almost 20 years to get to where I am now, restoreing trophy winning classics on the side, one of which, I beleive is in the Chrysler Museum in Detroit (a '69 Roadrunner) and I am still learning.

 

[JMan689]

Depends on what are you painting, the real work is made on the preparation.

It'd be my 93 Lightning, desperately trying to save money on making it look nice. (more i save on getting it looking nice means more to dump into the X)

Put it this way, There is a reason why there is a 6 year appreniceship for body work and painting.

It's not as easy as those guys on the shows on Speed Network Saturday mornings make it look. Hell, most of there ways, a real Bodyman would never use. With practice and the right researce you can become a decent "backyard" Bodyman, but start on a friend's Derby car or a winter beater or something, don't expect to get a professional job the first time out (or the first dozen times) until you learn the proper way to do things.

It's taken me almost 20 years to get to where I am now, restoreing trophy winning classics on the side, one of which, I beleive is in the Chrysler Museum in Detroit (a '69 Roadrunner) and I am still learning.

Well its just that i DID rattle can my X and it turned out decent, if i had a sprayer it would have gone better. It isn't like i'll be painting it something special like pearlescent, candy or flake i just want it back to the original color. I wouldn't be doing ANY body work - that part it will be in a shop for, i just wanted to know how hard it would be to paint it.

 

[section525]

I've tried painting twice. Both times turned out horrible.

The first time was painting the hatch on my Explorer. I went to a professional Auto Paint store, got advice from them. Primer, Paint, Clear, mixed, used the paint gun, correct PSI, everything. It came out horrible. I mean bad.

Second time was painting the bumper trim on my Super Duty. I went to the same paint place, got the correct factory color blue. This time I went with a color-and-clear-in-one deal. Same thing. It came out like complete poo.

But I'm a helluva rattle can painter. : It sucks because I really want to learn how to do a decent job. But I just have a handicap or something.

Maybe we can get Kris G. to do a beginners write-up or something.

 

[MONMIX]

If i went ahead and bought the necessary equipment (compressor, gun, etc.) for painting how hard is it to get a professional finish?

very, very hard.

Even if you have a good day, things will be less than ideal. Like having a heated enclosed down draft paint booth that filters and purifies the air. A quality gun is very expensive. You will want to make sure your compressor has a decent dryer. You will want to make sure your compressor can keep up with the air pressure demands of a paint gun being used in an all over paint job.
Then there is proper preping techneques, proper masking techneques. After all that painting is more than just spray on and walk away.

I am not saying you cant or shouldnt attempt it. I am saying is think things all the way through and realise your limitiations.

 

[flamingX]

Maybe we can get Kris G. to do a beginners write-up or something.

you can try that, but the way you have to feather the trigger, proper flow and travel can really only be pyshicly demonstated with an expreinced painter watching you to tell and show what you may be doing wrong. Very few people can pick that up by reading about it.

Go for it though, don't know till you try. I have seen a couple of people that are naturals.

 

[mshuler009]

Follow my thread on Quality Paint Cheap.....I'm doing a how-to writeup on a color change to a 98 XLT


I'm 18 yrs old and this is the first time I've held a gun. I'm doing everything as cheap as possible, but without sacraficing quality.....


HERE's the link