Halfbaked420

I have an 86 GXL in blue, the paint is getting pretty bad and i was thinking about having it painted. Would it be possible to do all the prep work myself to lower the cost? What all is involved with this, I don't have any experience, but I think if I put time and dedication into it, I can do it.

13bpower

Painting is something you get better at with practice. You would have get ALL the rust off. That means sanding the rusty parts really deep. Any dings you would need to bondo. All the paint would need to be at least 'scuffed up' alittle bit. Then you would put on a primer coat. Next would be sealent, and then the final coat. If you have never done any of this I would strongly advise to have at least some help when doing it. It is very tedeous. I do touch up stuff and aftermarket stuff on my car, but if it came to painting the whole car I would only go to the point of preping and have a have a shop primer, seal, and spray it.

Halfbaked420

I don't want to paint it myself, just prep work to cut costs a little bit, I'm only 16 and don't have much money. I was wondering how long it would take basically, I really want to do a bare metal respray, but am worried about how long my car will be out of commission if I decided to do the prep work myself, sanding and that, dents and dings I would have taken care of at the body shop.

SilverT2

It's fairly basic. You remove most of the trim. Use a DA sander to remove the top coat and primer. Start with 200 grit and work to 1200. Work in a cross hatch pattern. Usually shops charge by hour, and you can get them to almost down to nothing when doing work yourself. The most important thing you can do, is get a consistant smooth surface before your guide coat/prime coat is sprayed. And make shure you specifiy howmany coats of base/clear you want on your car. Finally a good way to finish up the car after the clear has been shot on the car is to color sand. www.goodspeedmotoring.com has a good wright up on color sanding. Also make shure you get multiple quotes from different shops with your work inculded. This gives you some advatage when bargining with a shop.

Bambam7

It depends on the condition of the paint.
Is it just peeling and faded or is it rusty??
Big rust spots and such I would leanve to the shop- otherwise they WILL just come back in a year or so...
Beleive me, I got a rush paint job on my car (previous owner) and the rust started coming through in less than a year.
This is why I now have ground fx!

Dings and such, sure, bondo and sand them. Just do what you can, you don't want to cut corners on the paint job- it's something that done badly, really stands out. (Same with being done well!)

banzaitoyota

Most shops won't touch a car that has had prep work performed on it by someone else. It has to do with the compatability of the various components of the paint system. Especially spray bomb primer. The shop is not going to want to give you a warrenty on work they did not perform. What about the sand scratches that show through. I hope you are starting to get the picture.

The biggest way to save money is to remove all the trim items so they don't have to R&R them. Wash the car with dawn 3 or 4 times, wash it with polyglycoat cracker.
Then let the shop do its thing

SilverT2

Most sand scratches can be sanded out with 1200. Thats on top of the clear coat. I may be wrong on that one.