Looking to do it myself. Never painted a car before and ive herd its fairly straight forward. I do have some questions however, so if anyone could lead me to a "how to" posts or other in depth toutorials that include starting sand papper grit, to ending sandpapper grit and grits in between, deciding factors on primer colors and base coats and how to chose them. Would be great

Also if you have any cheap solutions to fixing small dents and filling cracks let me know

Thanks

 

Good luck! I don't have any links. I have read several articles on the internel regarding painting and the more I read, the more confused I become. I painted an old tractor and did the prep work. I was using a $50 paint gun and $25 gallon paint from Tractor Supply with hardener. It was a fun project but enough painting for me to know I needed much better quality spary gun and paint to even consider doing a vehicle. Hey, you have to start somewhere but I must say, painting is an art that can't be mastered over night and these days, be careful of who sees you spraying if you are not in a paint booth because they will call the EPA on you.

 

i plan on doing it in a garage inside of a tarp like cubicle with emeded fans pointing outwards haha. And i have an old cheepy paint gun but was planning on investing in a better one and getting some good paint. My goal is to spend less money than i would have to spend taking it to a paint shop. Maybe just doing the sanding and body work myself than taking it to the shop is the best bet.

 

Painting a car is easy. Painting a car that will not make a car guy laugh so hard he hurts himself is a lot of detailed work. It is not in any way, shape or form "straight forward" Every car is a little different may require a different approch. Is it the original paint? If not do you know what is was painted with? If not it will need stripped or sealed. I can over come a cheap paint gun, I can even over come some dirt due to no spray booth, it makes the process longer and requires more paint but what no painter can over come is bad prep work.

Kevin has made some decent videos, I would suggest body basics and Paint your car for starters

http://smartflix.com/store/video/17/Paintucation-Series

 

I build custom cars and trucks.. It has taken me 15 years to get to a level of saying that I'm comfortable with being good... its is def not straight forward and not cheap..all the books out there are not very helpful.. they leave out very important steps and and don't tell you all of the thing that you need to learn from experience..
you need some many variouse grits off dry paper, wet paper, tapes, papers, cleaners, then reducers, and then the stuff for your paint.. what about your body work.. are you just painting on existing material? Hit mit up.. I'll try to help you out the best i can, but its tricky to paint.. its more about prep and tech.. than it is just doin it.. sorry hope i didn't up set you.. just letting you know ahead of time.