Painting in my garage

[SnakeBoostE85]

I've seen and heard nowadays with the right equipment, that you can actually do a pretty nice job painting parts in your own garage. I just don't know what I need. My car for the most part is in really nice shape, but the front end needs to be repainted, especially the bumper cover. I figured I could probably pull the bumper cover, hood, and fenders and make a nice project out of it. Maybe practice on some junk parts and plastics first. I already have a compressor and tons of mechanical tools, but just never got into painting, but would really like to. I've seen smaller shops wet their floors to keep the dust down while painting small parts without using a full paint booth.

Does anyone know what type of spray gun I need, where do I get the proper paint mixed, clear coat etc...?

anything else I need or recommend would be helpful. Figured I would post this amongst the terminator crowd first and see if I get any good information before I go forum wide and get all the jack ass comments.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

you can also use some plastic drop cloth taped to ceilings and floors with a fan and vent so youve got a positive pressure area to keep dust out. Theres a few writeups on it out there on the interwebs

 

[Goose17]

You can absolutely “DIY” this. I haven’t painted a whole car, but I’ve painted many parts and doo-dads. Painting is definitely an art form that requires practice to get good results. I learned a lot through the years and have painted some parts a few times as my skillset has improved. Some advice I’ll pass along:

Prep! Make sure the surface is clean and smooth. Get all greases and dust off with cleaning and then using pre-paint wipes.

For painting plastic that has not been painted previously, use adhesion promoter.

High fill primer + sanding is a good way to smooth the surface that has minor imperfections.

I usually lay down a couple coats of base color with wet sanding after each. I then typically lay down a few layers of clear wet sanding after each as well. After the last round of wet sanding, you’ll need to polish the surface to a high gloss using decreasing grit correction compounds. The end result will be like a mirror.

This is a radiator cover I painted a couple times on my GT500. I did it with rattle can paint from automotivetouchup.com. If you go the rattle can route, make sure to use the clear coat that requires a respirator. The regular stuff is much too soft and looks like crap after awhile. I used the other clear the first time and then the good stuff the last time I painted it.

 

[Revvv]

You will need a gravity fed gun for the best results. You should be able to go to a local automotive paint shop such as Finishmaster and get your paint, primer, adhesion promoter, flex agent, etc. There is a lot involved when it comes to painting plastics that most people forget.

Please, use a respirator. I carry around a steroid inhaler because growing up I was an idiot and thought I was invincible. My lungs laugh at me today.

I am likely going to give up the fight with the shop that damaged my rear bumper cover and find a way to repaint it myself.

Sweep your garage very well. Get a roll of plastic and tack it to every wall, and cover everything that you want to remain paint free. Overspray is sneaky. It can get into just about anything.

If you have a window in your garage, place a box fan in it and seal around the edges. Also tape an AC return filter, and a charcoal filter to the fan.

Now open an exterior door and place a filter in an opening there. This will keep a good bit of overspray evacuated so you can see what you are doing.

Good lighting is also key.

Make sure to sweep the floor. Then wet the floor and squeegee the water out. You can wet the floor again to keep any dust particles down.

I have done this on several occassions when the shop was full and I needed to spray small parts.

Prep is the key.

Sent from a non multiquoting device at svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[Denver_SVT]

You will need a gravity fed gun for the best results. You should be able to go to a local automotive paint shop such as Finishmaster and get your paint, primer, adhesion promoter, flex agent, etc. There is a lot involved when it comes to painting plastics that most people forget.

Please, use a respirator. I carry around a steroid inhaler because growing up I was an idiot and thought I was invincible. My lungs laugh at me today.

I am likely going to give up the fight with the shop that damaged my rear bumper cover and find a way to repaint it myself.

Sweep your garage very well. Get a roll of plastic and tack it to every wall, and cover everything that you want to remain paint free. Overspray is sneaky. It can get into just about anything.

If you have a window in your garage, place a box fan in it and seal around the edges. Also tape an AC return filter, and a charcoal filter to the fan.

Now open an exterior door and place a filter in an opening there. This will keep a good bit of overspray evacuated so you can see what you are doing.

Good lighting is also key.

Make sure to sweep the floor. Then wet the floor and squeegee the water out. You can wet the floor again to keep any dust particles down.

I have done this on several occassions when the shop was full and I needed to spray small parts.

Prep is the key.

Sent from a non multiquoting device at svtperformance.com mobile app

Thats a good info. I hope one day i'll start painting some small parts to learn and see the outcome of it.

Sent from my Samsung S7

 

[52merc]

Try not to use any spray lubricants or rust breakers with silicone in them. As careful at cleaning the surface as you can be, silicone will still be there somewhere and cause fisheyes. I found that out the hard way after painting my son's fox body in the garage.

Oh yeah, prep, prep some more, then clean, and clean again. And yes, wear a proper respirator. Like REVV, my lungs were bad before, but got worse even though I used a respirator. I really try to avoid too much painting now because of my lungs.

The car was on a rotisserie when I sprayed it. That is the cat's *** when you are doing the entire car, like I did.