anybody want to paint a saab?

I think it was Dirty Harry that said that a man's got to know his limitations... well, I reached mine. I can wrench with the best of them.. but I absolutely dispise bodywork.. dispite that, I have gotten the body of my NG900 into a presentable shape and primered it.. I just finished wetsanding.. and I have two things to note:

I suck at painting. The primer in many spots was quite rough and needed a lot of sanding to get smooth. I fear to think of what the top and clear coats are going to look like

I hate sanding.

I am about this far >< to waiting till after the new year, taking the car and paint to maaco, and telling them to call me when it is done.

There has to be a better alternative to Maaco!! Don't we have some talented people in Jersey that can help this lost soul?

Paint your car for $100

Find yourself a good CASH body shop.

I paid my dad's friend who runs a professional body shop $1700 to bodywork my truck (1996 Dodge Ram), and that money got me:

New front fenders (inner and out)

New rockers (inner and outer)

New cab corners (extended cab)

Fixed several holes in the floor

Fixed door bottoms and tailgate bottom

Remove all emblems and trim

Fill holes in roof from visor and CB antenna

Install new windshield (I sourced)

Install new bed (I sourced, already painted the right color)

Full base/clear respray of truck (aside from bed).

Looks like brand new. I asked him what worked for HIS schedule, and I ended up taking my truck in about 4 months after I got my estimate.

not a big help David... I already have all the parts.. compressor, gun, paint.. I just lack the know how

Have you looked at Duplicolor's "Paint Shop" Finishing System? Basically it's a quart of paint premixed with reducer and all you do is stir, strain and spray. I've seen a couple cars painted with this stuff and yeah, it's not prefect, but it looks good. a quart runs about $20-$25 each.

Linky here : Duplicolor "Paint Shop"

You have to like sanding to get a decent paint job.

EastCoastMojo wrote: You have to like sanding to get a decent paint job.

I too would suffer here. My furniture refinishing also reflects this area too.

ddavidv wrote: Paint your car for $100

I finally got tired of the primer on the Golf (my "cash body shop" does primer, but not topcoats), bought a few cans of Duplicolor (not the stuff hotrodlarry mentioned, I wish I'd seen that link last month), and painted her up. I wish I'd rolled it instead. The weather was a little cold, and even though there's no runs, it's orange peeled like a mother berkeleyer. From 20ft it looks OK (at least that corner is black again), but you can tell how embarassed I am at the job because I haven't uploaded pix to the Readers' Ride space yet. I see lots of sanding in my future..

It's all about the prep. Painting either way ain't that hard.

Getting a decent 5-10 foot paint job at home isn't particularly difficult. If you want it to look really good though, then you need professional help.

Maaco is good at painting, but pre-prep is something else again.

I'm NOT suggesting anyone do this.....

But a friend of mine at work has a dark green SAAB. She commented that she likes my white Miata because it's so easy to keep looking decent (even if I don't wash it for weeks). Since she likes her car, I suggested that she just get it painted white.

She has a family member that does those stick on advertisments on vans and busses. He covered her entire SAAB with white vinyl! It actually doesn't look too bad and is supposed to come off easily. Kind of a funny "solution".....he did it for free as sort of an experiment.

I guess my biggest problem is.. I am no longer in love with this car. so any "labour of love" is sort of wasted on it.

In that case, sell it as-is. If you do a crappy job, you won't recover a dime of your costs, not to mention labor. Its a lot easier to hide bad bodywork in primer vs topcoat, and you would not imagine the sort of idiots that will buy a primered car for top dollar if they think "it just needs a paint job, all the body work is done!"

Even a smart man such as myself would rather buy a car in primer than buy one with a halfassed paint job that I would have to remove to get it looking decent.

Just rattle can it flat black. I would buy a rattle-bombed flat black Saab, i think it would look awesome.

mad_machine wrote: not a big help David... I already have all the parts.. compressor, gun, paint.. I just lack the know how

Do you have a place to shoot it?
All things considered I'd prefer to do it at my place (where I've got a compressor and guns) but things are in too much disarray with the Wartburg in a bunch of pieces.

If you aren't in a hurry we could hit it this summer once I'm done with the Wartburg.

I'm no pro, but I've sprayed quite a few cars, I doubt you'll get away with zero sanding but we might get close.

Whatever you do, don't paint when it's cold. Prep is fine in the winter when you hit it with some primer after you're done, but no real honest-to-goodness painting until it warms up a bit.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Whatever you do, don't paint when it's cold. Prep is fine in the winter when you hit it with some primer after you're done, but no real honest-to-goodness painting until it warms up a bit.

One more reason I'd rather do it at my place...heat. I've painted plenty of cars in the winter, but heat does help.

I have a garage with heat too... though I need to shut it off when spraying to avoid the inevitably explosion that occures when you introduce paint mist with an open flame.

I WILL finish the car. I am now using at a practice for repainting my Ti.. once it is presentable, I will simply drive it all winter until the Ti is done and I have an SPG in my hands

mad_machine wrote: I have a garage with heat too... though I need to shut it off when spraying to avoid the inevitably explosion that occures when you introduce paint mist with an open flame.

Doh, yeah, I should have mentioned, I bring my garage up to temp, shut everything down, and then spray :)