$50 paint job in progress - Final Update

[Juffa]

Given that you have the dodgy white paint I would suggest that you need to strip her. You need a good base to start with, otherwise the new paint will be affected as the base white paint peels.....

I'm not a body work/paint expert.....this is just my opinion based on the dodgy factory white paint that I have seen.

J

[SuperMazdaKart]

get rid of that AE86 sticker, your meant to be one of us

[Ajay]

are you going to do the engine bay or anything eventually?.. or just leave it white

(this might sound like a dumb question.. but my mate got his car sprayed metallic purple from RED.. for $1000 i was like wow so cheap.. then he opened the doors and popped the bonnet.. a nice shade of red to go with that purple)..

atleast with a white car it wouldnt look as bad!

[Fatty]

yeah i've been tossing this idea around too. i was trying to find a local source for brightside a few months ago, but no luck. can you share where you got it please? and you are thinning it with that tin of enamel thinner in the pic.. again what brand and where from??

i LOVE the colour too! but don't worry, i already have another colour in mind...

[AB7]

Good on ya for giving it a go.
Make sure you don't spill it onto that Merc

[PUR157]

Or have a little prang with the little bike...

I do like to think that the AE86 and NA MX5 are very close in philosophy
Though once my brother in law tsaid my MX5 was a relative \"fat boy\" (compared to his old 86) for being a shade under 1tonne...

Yes yes... I'm aware that sprinters were lighter...

[bruce]

Is there a website for the Brightside paint, or an official distributor?
I told my friend who owns a panel shop and wants to try it on bumper repairs.

[Benny]

I can't see why you can't paint a car with a brush or a roller.

Many, many years ago, a friend's father had an old Holden FB ute which had seen better days.
It was due for rego, but with the way the car looked, after many years of dragging around builders' materials etc., there was no way the inspector would have passed it, so he decided he'd re-paint it to look more presentable.
He asked us to sand the bodywork down with sandpaper and water, which we did, and then I was horrified to see him come out with a can of Dulux full gloss house paint in one hand, and a 1\" brush in the other.

Well, a few coats later, it looked absolutely brilliant!
I guess that with his brush painting experience he knew what to do, but I was just amazed at how good it looked in its new, shiny, dark grey paint job. And not a brushstroke on it anywhere.

Needless to say, he took it for a rego check, the inspector took one look at it and said what a nice old ute is was, looked at the tyres, tested the lights, and passed it straight away without noticing the rusty front sub frame, poor brakes etc.

That ute looked good for another couple of years too, until it got stolen and burned out.

So don't be afraid to paint your car with a brush or a roller, as it can work really well, and without as much preparation as spraying, and a lot less mess.

[fattima]

Looks good, the blue works well with the black bonnet. It is good to see you having a go at this method of painting, I have only seen it done once and they hadn't thinned the paint properly so it looked crap.

Not sure about sanding - I'm too rough and often remove more than I need to so I may even just go straight to the polishing.

Try getting a sanding pad (3M make them and any good auto paint store will have them) it is a flexible backing pad. It will spread your sanding pressure out evenly, use lots of soapy water and very fine paper say 2000 followed by 3000. It will take ages if you go straight to polishing.

[Okibi]

If I had a black bonnet i'd be tempted to do the area around the windscreen black too to match the bonnet/softtop.

Looking great though, fantastic thread. Thanks.

[Garry]

Why didn't you remove the side indicators and the aerial mount? They are easy to get off and I would have thought it would have been easier to paint if they weren't there and you wouldn't have to go to the trouble of taping them up.

[fattima]

A black guide coat is good when sanding down primer/spray putty, not so sure on a top coat. The pads I mentioned are just a soft flexible rubber that you put your paper over they do a nice job of evening out pressure. I find if using just your fingers it is easy to rub in one area and get highs and lows.

[AB7]

I painted my whole house with roller before...but never thought of doing it on a car

Im amazed how well it turned out.

[fastfreddygassit]

A trick I heard is to spray(can) paint freckles of black onto the panel and you know the panel would be sanded smooth if you can remove the freckles altogether.

The black guide coat is usually used when blocking back so you can find high/low spots and fill accordingly.

good stuff with the paint job btw.
You have put in a lot of work. Pity you didn't have access to a spray guns and a booth, as you have done all the hard prep work.

How durable is the paint job when compared with an oven baked 2k job?

[green_comet]

It came up pretty good.. I think it will look alot better when you have done final sanding+polishing..

Well done..