It turned out ok, I can definitely see where I could have done better body work, but all in all I think it turned out pretty good for a first project. Some orange peeling and some runs way down low, but its quite an improvement over how I acquired it 2 months ago. The biggest challenge of the project is that this car has been wrecked at least twice that I could tell. As a result panel allignment is a real challenge. There is quite a bit less body filler on the car now, there was a ton under the rear windows when I got the car, since it had been wrinkled from a collision. I was able to hammer and dolly 90% of it out and use minimal filler in those areas. The same with the rear wheel wells. The passenger rear door was all full of body filler, it convexed out, now it is much flatter and in better allignment with the body lines. All in all, it was a huge project for my limited skills. The biggest lesson learned is about sanding and priming. More patience is needed in those areas. Here is a link to pics of the progress and the mostly finished progress. Nevermind the junk lol. [img=http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4582/frontofpaintedmavdside.th.jpg] [img=http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5909/rearofpaintedmav.th.jpg]
I painted it with a Chicago Pneumatic gravity feed gun, and a cheep detail gun to half azz around the door jambs. The paint was from www.paintforcars.com and was $183 all together for the color and clear. I haven't applied the clear yet, I am waiting for the paint to cure just a bit more before painting the black on the lowers of the car. All together I probably have $500 total into the paint job, thats filler, sand paper, a sander/polisher, sanding blocks, masking and tape and primer. The primer I just rattle canned on, and I will never do that again on a whole car. I will just buy the primer by the gallon next time. It would work out cheaper that way and I would have gotten a much better paint job.
It's a TEN FOOTER...! It looks great from your pics... which are about 10 feet. Is that burnt orange? Nice colour. I'm doing the same thing with mine... practicing as I go with my newly acquired hammer/dolly/sand/paint and RE-DO skills - but in the long run it's extremely satisfying to learn to do it on your own, at your own pace. Patience is much easier when you're doing your own thing on your own time, not in someone elses shop while they clock-watch. Hope mine turns out as good as yours... if not, I'll just re-sand and re-do it again! WHisky
What do you mean by "its a ten footer"? Are the pics too big, too small? I am still fairly new to the pic game. I hope that yours turns out better than mine. Up close mine doesn't look as good. I figured out the air pressure and gun settings towards the end of the job lol.
... I guess that was a bit vague... but sincerely it was a compliment... a "ten footer" means a bodywork/paint job looks really good from 10 feet away. Most street cars, daily driven, factory paint jobs are "10 footers". In fact, I've heard some BRAND NEW CARS have 10 footer paint jobs. On the other hand, a concourse/show car/$10,000 paint job has people examine the car from more like 10 inches away. No flaws whatsoever. Also, cannot be driven anywhere but car shows. Mine will be too hopefully... it's *FUN* (ie. Frustrating Unnerving Nuisance) trying to figure out how an air compressor/paint gun works (my paint gun has 3 valves but the printed-in-china instruction sheet only shows 2). Slight breeze or smelly solvent has every insect within a mile sniffing out the wet paint. The reason I painted my wheels first was to work with drips and orange peel on a flat surface before I get dollops of insect-laden paint rolling down the side of my car in a dusty breeze. One thing I learned - thin the paint until it's like water (gun doesn't plug up and it doesn't dry in mid-air before hitting the car). If you own a compressor and are doing it at home - take yer time and do several light coats rather than saturate the whole thing on one go. If you are *NOT* going to clear coat the car... you can just sand down the orange peel before it hardens too much and spray again since the colour is new and - hoping temp/moisture/mixture isn't far off - the paint will still match the same.
Ah!... saw the other post... well, at least you seem to have bought good quality paint & tools... I've read articles where DIY bodywork/paint amateurs (like us!) leave the bondo/paint to cure for a month, make sure it's solid and smooth, maybe do more work until they're satisfied with the results, and THEN do the clear coat. If your compressor has good volume, get a random orbit air sander (low speed) and some wool and fine sponge buffing pads - once the car is really smooth and shiny, then do the clear. I got my sander for $10 and as long as you keep the counterweight away from your knuckles (O-O-U-U-C-C-H-H-!!) it really cleans and smooths the finish. If you got bugs and dust on the paint - like mine - a clay bar or 1000 or 2000 grit sandpaper can smooth them out.
I'd love to see more pics. I've been looking at paintforcarsdotcom for a long time now and from the looks of things I'm on the right track.
i like the orange... i got cans of ...pumpkin orange...from wally world and did my '77. sprayed, sanded and buffed... ...Frank...
Thanks for all the input whisky. I get it now, the "its a ten footer" comment lol. Thats exactly how it turned out too. I will work on getting more pics up. You know, some of the orange peeling was by design though. I know, why would I want to do that. Well it was to cover some of the sanding marks on the lower sections that I found. The biggest battle that I had though was covering the bad primer job that I did. If you do the job yourself and you use orange, buy black primer, it covers the best with orange. Grey primer wants to bleed back through. But you will get a darker paint job that way, with the black.
Body work is very time consuming, but it sounds like you did it the right way! looks very nice, and if you paint it again you should not have to do the same body work again.
Make sure you clear that before the sun gets to it !! I learned that lesson the hard way on one of my other cars...lol