I am painting mine myself. Starting with the front bumper cover, then I'll move to the rear bumper cover. I buy my paint from Imatch and it is dupont and they sell a killer 2 part clear coat. I got real good a rattle can painting with my mustang and the dakota I used to have, The guy that bought my mustang said he could not tell it was rattle canned.

 

Just a word of warning to the DIY guys about primer, sitting in my garage is a 93 z28 that was converted to a 2000 SS clone. Whoever did the convertion spent some real time/money getting it done. I believe it was two owners ago. The rich kid that bought it as his first car screwed it up. I am going to have to paint it. I notice some wrinkels in the paint on the front nose that has no other damage.

When my friend was over for some other reason I asked him to take a look at it. He instantly said "they used the wrong primer". For him it was not a guess he was 100% sure. He said they took the time to level the car but they sanded thru the base factory primer. For this car the base primer is very expensive because it needs to handle Fiberglass, Plastic and the rubber like bumpers. For him to fix it and guarantee it he would have to stip the nose and bring it back from base primer.

The moral to the long story is "Don't sand thru the factory base primer" if you have to then Don't skimp on the primer! Just go to a auto paint suppy store and tell them what you are working on. They can hook you up with quart of the right pimer, Also anytime you expose metal to the air use a etching prime. A paint job can not be stronger then the base primer.

If anyone reading wants to lean about painting cars there are many "How to" DVDs out there. Check out SmartFlix, the Web's Biggest How-To DVD Rental Store . They have a whole section on body work.

I used to paint motorcyles with rattle cans of Laquer. You can do a nice job but it is very time consuming because you need to level after every coat. The cost of getting the paint to lay level is not as much as you think. When I switched to using a a detail gun the cost of materials went up about $25/bike but I went from days to hours to get a nice looking job. You could set two bikes next to each other and you could not pick out which was done what way.

 

Good info^

 

So if what I'm hearing you guys saying is if not I'm willing to spend $5k for a paint job done by "professionals", I should not expect professional quality...

 

And I will do it myself...and only have me to blame...I'm good with that. : )

 

No, not necessarily. A few years back, I had one of my old Vettes repainted at my local Maaco. I heard good things about them, and first went in to check them out. They had 3 Vettes there at the time, finishing up a black C4 with the final color sand and buff. The car looked awesome, so I went with them. I got the top of the line base/clear job, and waited to see the results before I decided if I wanted to fork out another $500 for them to do the sand/buff. The car turned out looking so good right after the paint job, I left it at that. With some prep work needed from the old bad paint, the job ended up costing me under $1,800. I'm sure not all Maaco's are as good, but then neither are all independent shops. Wherever you go, ask around, and check out some of their finished products first.
This was mine:

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that Gorn's advice paid off. I went to the Cruiser Night at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA tonight and started talking with a guy that owned a sweet 66 Mustang. He knows a few guys that do custom restoration work. One of them does "perfection" (his word) and typically charges $10K for his paint jobs and has a year wait. I told him I was looking for somethink less expensive and he told me about another guy he knows that does a really nice job for $3-4K. Sounds more like it!

Anyway. Thanks again for the advice!

 

Did you have a chance to ask Belichick what the heck happened? And when are they gonna give some snaps to Mallett? Brady isn't looking so Brady-esque any more and Mallett is a heck of a QB. Also, Mallet isn't afraid to run 3 yards when it's 3rd and 3. He isn't worried about his face or hair.