How much skill needed to repaint your own vehicle?

If you have no experience then chances are you will not do a very good job, especially if you don't have the right place to do the work. A paint booth must be clean, clean, clean... and have proper ventillation...

Then you need a decent gun, regulator, ect..

If you want to do some body work yourself I say go for it, nothing wrong there... but if you are going to have a shop do the paint they might as well do the primer too.. you won't be saving yourself anything..

Sandblasting CAN screw up your panels. You sandblast to vigorously and you end up warping them. Honestly unless the vehicle has paint / rust issues, just a color change is better off done by thoroughly sanding the stock paint, then shooting some primer, sanding that, then shooting your base and clear.

I've seen a harbor freight gun lay down a good paintjob, but the guy working it was pretty good. I would find a buddy with a decent gun you can borrow. My first paintjob was with a $100 HVLP gun, and since then I upgraded to an Iwata LPH400, and I don't know if my skills are better or the gun is, but it lays down much better clearcoat.

But, to answer the original question, yes you can paint a car. My first paintjob was with no experience when I was 17. It turned out a little orange-peely, but wetsanding and buffing fixes any issues like that. As long as you're not afraid to do some sanding on the clear afterwards it should turn out good.

Keys to success:

Prepping the surface, clean and fully sanded, especially in little body lines and cracks

Prepping the vehicle, remove the bumpers, trim, headlights/ tail lights, the less you have to mask right up to the paint,the better/less chance for chipping later.

Lighting, make sure you have lots of light at all angles when you spray clear, otherwise you won't see dry spots and such

Clean, vent the area, don't spray at night (bugs), do everything to can to get rid of dust, wet down the floor when you shoot as well.

Practice, dial in your gun on some paper or cardboard so you know exactly how it's gonna spray before you actually shoot on the panels.

You should never sand blast any body panel on a car, period. If you dont know what to do then i suggest not even trying. You will have runs, orange peel and tons of other ****. If you dont have any experience then i know you dont have a spray booth which means you will have some particles in the paint and no experience painting means you dont know how to wet sand and buff. You can easily burn the clear, buff through the clear or wetsand through to clear if you dont know what you are doing.

its all about the prepping....if the vehicle isnt prepped right, i dont care how good of a painter you are, it still wont look good once it is painted.

its all about the prepping....if the vehicle isnt prepped right, i dont care how good of a painter you are, it still wont look good once it is painted.

Click to expand...

This is the 100% correct.

And if you want it to look really good color sanding and buffing takes 40+ hours for a proper job.

If you are even remotely anal don't even think about painting your own vehicle. Let a pro do it right the first time and be done with it.

If you are even remotely anal don't even think about painting your own vehicle. Let a pro do it right the first time and be done with it.

Click to expand...

This is exactly what it comes down to.

You can do a good paintjob your first time, but there's probably going to be dust.. or runs, or something that isn't perfect, and if you know that it will drive you nuts, don't do it.

If you just want a pretty decent color change, aren't super anal, and have a lot of free time, give it a shot.

dont do it, have a professional do it, i paint cars everyday for a living and get so many garbage ass cars that people try to save money by doing there own body work then priming it with aresol cans, then you get the people that actually painted it and it came out like ass, just give it to the professional and let him do his thing.

if you dont got the money to get it painted then forget about it, otherwise your not going to like the outcome if you do it yourself.

Awesome advice here - I had a terrible job done since no prep work was done!

If you are even remotely anal don't even think about painting your own vehicle. Let a pro do it right the first time and be done with it.

Click to expand...

Perfect advice.

If you really want to do it buy good tools and practice on some panels before you actually do the vehicle. As others have stated its the prep work that is most important. If you have body work that needs to be done I recommend getting some guide coat to spray or smear on your primer and block the area a few times to make sure its right. This was my first paintjob: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2677023

Just finished this today:

That looks great. That after buffing?

you can always rattle can it for cheap

That looks great. That after buffing?

Click to expand...

Color sand and buff. I have a SATAjet 3000 RP which makes clear flow like glass. Didn't really take much sanding at all. Excellent clear gun.