Anyone here ever done their own painting?

[I Vtec, do you?]

I mean aside from fixing rock chips. I wasn't sure where to put this, so here it goes.

I bought a new spoiler for my car. One place quoted me at $120 or so to paint and install it, now they want $350 just to paint it. So far, this is the cheapest quote I've gotten, some ranging all the way up to $500 for it.

Obviously, I'm not going to pay that. I was thinking like $150 for paint, $50 for install. Apparently that was way off.

I'm thinking about just painting it myself. I figure if it doesn't work out, I can then get it painted and there will be no problem. I'd like to try my hand at it first, though, just to see if I can. My plan was to buy a bottle of matched spray paint from paintscratch.com, along with clearcoat spray and the rubbing compound to make it smooth. In theory, this should provide me with a professional look. However, looking at my previous painting experience, the rubbing compound has never smoothed out the finish like an OEM paintjob. Maybe the paintscratch stuff will be different? I'm not sure.

Anyways, anyone have some advice on how to approach this? I don't want it to turn out like crap, so I might have to concede and pay the outrageous amount for it.

[kenchan]

probably will turn out the same as the previous work you did. you have to put on
a nice rich coat of clear at the very end to achieve that level of shine when you
run the compound. i mean rich as in saturated to the point it might even drip.

considering you're using a CAN with COMPRESSED AIR that VARIES IN PRESSURE as you
let the product out over a LARGE piece, i can almost guarantee you that it will turn out
like you did it. no offsense, but there is a reason why the pro's use airbrush...even
so the work vary person to person. you should have it done professionally and get it over
with.

if it's a small lip or small sills or something it'll turn out acceptable.

[07mugencivic]

i seen pics bear on this site ....painted the truck...

[I Vtec, do you?]

Originally Posted by kenchan

probably will turn out the same as the previous work you did. you have to put on
a nice rich coat of clear at the very end to achieve that level of shine when you
run the compound. i mean rich as in saturated to the point it might even drip.

considering you're using a CAN with COMPRESSED AIR that VARIES IN PRESSURE as you
let the product out over a LARGE piece, i can almost guarantee you that it will turn out
like you did it. no offsense, but there is a reason why the pro's use airbrush...even
so the work vary person to person. you should have it done professionally and get it over
with.

if it's a small lip or small sills or something it'll turn out acceptable.

I'd rather see if I can do it first. And I doubt it'll turn out like the time before. I rushed into it without seeing what others actually do and relied on myself to do work that I obviously don't know how to do. It's ok, though, I have a plan now

[kenchan]

^^ yah, i think it's worth a try. at least it's fun and can learn from it.

it's pretty easy to paint smaller pieces but a big piece that gets mounted high
eye-level, it gets challenging.

[sdblurjdmsquad]

i when i painted my enigine bay i used a airbrush machine to paint it came out good.. i would show you but i sold the car..
and weve done a few bumbers as well...
i wouldnt say i was a pro but the work did come out good

[SoCal07Si]

I've painted a car b4, not to mention tons of parts. But I dont have any equipment of my own.

ur better off just paying it dude. color matching for the paint newbie is always a bad idea.

[peter_x]

I'm thinking you could buy a compressor and spray gun for less than those quotes. Used, that is. I got a 5hp campbell-hausfeld on eBay. I can't remember what I paid but it was way less than 350. Maybe 30 bucks for a spray gun. I think you need a moisture trap too. That's it asides from the paint.

[I Vtec, do you?]

Originally Posted by SoCal07Si

I've painted a car b4, not to mention tons of parts. But I dont have any equipment of my own.

ur better off just paying it dude. color matching for the paint newbie is always a bad idea.

Color matching? I'm going to buy the paint color matched to my car. None of the painting quotes were including blending my trunk to match it..

[firmhonda]

If I were you I would just hit up one of the guys working in the shop and tell him that you'd give him $100 to paint the spoiler for you. There's a guy that works at a local allstate body shop that makes most of his money that way.

If you insist on trying it yourself, there's no way that I would consider doing it unless you had a paint gun, gravity fed. That way you know that you have a steady pressure and can apply an even coat.

[I Vtec, do you?]

The problem is I don't have any shops like that around here that I can just approach the painter and offer them that. Plus, if it turned out crappy like a Maaco job, I'd be screwed. I'll juts try it myself and see what happens lol. The only tough part for me was figuring out how to get the top coat to shine, but Rasky has helped me with that.