Color Your Own

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: The days of painting your car in your driveway or garage are not dead, but one foot is in the grave. You can still go to a local automotive paint supply store and pick up everything you’ll need to do a quality job, but it’ll cost you at least $500, and that’s only if you use the inexpensive materials. Today’s custom paint jobs with wild colors and base coat/clear coat systems can run as high as $4,000 in material costs alone. You can also forget about using lacquer, which has traditionally been the paint of choice for the do-it-yourselfer due to it’s easy workability, fast drying time, and high gloss when finished properly. Lacquer paints have been outlawed in most states and will probably be prohibited nationwide by the close of the millenium. In light of these changes, let’s take a look at what’s available in automotive paint and what it’ll take to get a quality, long-lasting paint job.

Proper Prep Is Still Half The Job

It used to be that you could straighten a few panels, fill in some dings with Bondo, sand and prime the car yourself, and then take it to your local paint shop to have a pro spray on a few coats of paint. Today, painting is a more involved process, requiring the painter to prep and apply the paint in steps, using materials which, if not combined properly, could lead to disastrous results. Basically, the best way to save a few bucks on your next paint job is to help your painter by first removing as much of the trim and exterior parts as you can. After you’ve arrived at the paint shop, offer to mask off the parts that can’t be removed, like turn signals and window glass. These labor-intensive steps will be welcomed by most paint shops. The professional painters we spoke with don’t recommend trying to sand or prime any parts yourself. Spray can primers are not compatible with the paints that the pro’s use and must be removed before painting. Also, most inexperienced sanders will sand too heavily, creating waves in the surface that the painter will have to build back up with primer.

Choosing The Right Materials

We visited Auto Color Specialists in Westminster, California, where Craig Koback gave us the lowdown on the materials and costs involved when purchasing your own paint supplies. One interesting point Craig mentioned is that any other color you choose will be cheaper than red. Today’s most affordable paint materials are single-stage colors that don’t require application of a clear coat. You just spray on a few coats of single-stage color, then color-sand, buff, and you’re done. This is the most affordable paint job you can do at home, and likely what you’d get from an inexpensive same-day paint shop.

Following the single-stage paints up the price ladder are two-stage base coat/clear coat materials. These are most commonly used by the OEMs on new vehicles today. In base coat/clear coat, the base coat also serves as the color coat with a flat finish, while the clear is used to protect the color and give it gloss. On the top of the paint ladder is the three-stage or tri-coat system, which uses a basecoat, midcoat, and clear topcoat. The base remains a flat-color coat with the second stage a tinted transparent designed to add depth or alter the appearance of the finished job. Additives such as pearl are sprayed on in the midcoat. The clear is applied again to form a gloss and finish coat.

A good example of a tri-coat system would be any pearl white paint job. The white is the basecoat, the clear with pearl additives is applied next, then a final clear is sprayed on to seal and protect the surface and give it a gloss. Candy colors are usually applied as a tri-coat system as well. The candy additives are sprayed in the midcoat after being mixed with a color transparency that matches the base coat. The most dramatic application of this multi-coat technology is new paints that change hues with your viewing angle. These are generically referred to as Kameleon Kolors, which is the House of Kolor trade name for its product. These Kameleon Kolors are applied as a semi-transparent midcoat after a dark basecoat has been sprayed and before a clear topcoat. Kameleon Kolors are some of the most expensive paints, costing roughly $450 a quart, and requiring approximately three quarts to cover one car.

Additional Expenses

If you’re lucky enough to have a car with only the factory paint job, you’d be wise to merely sand and prep the body for application of a new finish. Most factory paints provide a great surface for new paint adhesion. The primer will adhere to the factory paint better than it will to bare metal. Some exceptions to this would be older cars that were factory-painted with lacquer, like some early Corvettes.

Lacquer paint never actually dries, and its solvents continuously evaporate. That’s why lacquer needs to be color-sanded and buffed every couple of years to maintain its shine. You should not apply any of today’s synthetic paints over a lacquer finish. If you have a lacquer paint job that’s in need of new finish, it’s best to completely strip the old lacquer paint. Another reason to strip is if you have a car that has had several coats of non-factory paint applied. A mil-thickness gauge from a company like Zorelco (800/321-4243) can be helpful in measuring how much paint is on the body. Most factory paint jobs will be around six mils thick. One mil is roughly equal to 0.001 inch. If your paint measures more than 12 mils, you should consider stripping or sanding it down to bare metal before painting.

So there’s the first additional expense: paint stripper and sandpaper. Strippers can get expensive, and most are hazardous to humans and the environment and require that certain precautions be taken when using them. You need to apply them in a well ventilated area—outdoors is best—and keep the residue from washing down the drain when you’re done. Other musts include wearing gloves, a respirator, protective clothing, and eye protection.

Sanding is something everyone thinks they can do themself, but that’s not always the case. If you’re going to sand the body yourself, be sure to use a quality grease/wax remover on the surface first. Otherwise, you’ll be sanding any wax or grease remaining on the surface right into the paint’s pores, and that won’t come out even if you use chemical removers. Also, thoroughly wash the car before you begin to sand. Most enthusiasts believe that sanding removes everything, but, if you don’t wash the car first, you can sand minute dirt particles right into the paint. Scratching or pitting will occur, but you won’t even see it until you apply the new paint.

Another thing worth mentioning is that professional painters hate silicon tire and trim dressings because masking tape won’t stick to anything treated with it, and the silicon produces ugly fisheye blemishes in the paint. Clean your interior door panels and tires with an oil-free non-abrasive solvent before painting, then reapply all the dressing you like after the paint is applied.

Hard Equipment Needed

It’s now illegal in some states, including California, for high-volume paint shops to apply automotive paints using the older, high-pressure siphon-style spray guns. The law now requires high-volume low-pressure (HVLP) guns. These guns use gravity to feed the paint into the nozzle, and they’re low pressure, which places more paint on the surface and less in the air.

Most of today’s paints require some sort of catalyst or reducer to be added that allows them to be sprayed and stick to the surface. The government regulates the application of these catalysts due to the high amount of VOCs present in them. It’s these VOCs that pose immediate health risks. The HVLP guns introduce much lower amounts into the atmosphere, making the air we breathe a little safer.

Unfortunately, HVLP guns are not cheap. The small guns designed for interior and trim work start at around $270, and the fullsize guns start about $450. These guns will require a clean, dry air source from a high-quality compressor. Tack on the cost of an air filter/water separator, hose, paint strainer, and mixing cups, and you could spend over $1,000 if you don’t already have a compressor. You can apply today’s paints using the old-fashion siphon guns and get satisfactory results, but be sure to safeguard yourself and anybody else who may be nearby.

Finish Work

A quality paint job is not complete until it’s been color-sanded and buffed several times. Color-sanding is relatively inexpensive, but certainly time consuming and tedious. Sand too much and you’ll need to repaint. The final buffing should be done using the proper chemicals and equipment designed to do the job. A high-speed grinder equipped with a buffing pad should not be used to buff the paint. Instead, a variable-speed heavy-duty polisher combined with different style pads for different stages of buffing should be used. Use a very slow speed to keep the polish on the pad and not burn through the paint. The polishing compounds and buffing pads needed will cost you $50 to $100. A variable-speed polisher will run about $200. It’s usually cheaper to pay a professional to color-sand your vehicle if you don’t already have the equipment.

A final coat of protective wax can be applied after the paint has been color-sanded, buffed, and cured for several days. Follow the recommendations given on the materials you buy regarding time intervals between coats and finish work. You may want to use what you’ve learned here to communicate better with the paint shop and get the best job for your money from a pro instead.