New Zealand Datsun Club

I am wanting to re-paint my car as the paint on it is pretty screwed up to say the least and im just wondering about a few things..
Is it heaps cheaper to paint yourself or to have it done by a pro?
Is it very hard to paint it yourself? e.g what will i need?
Is primeing a must or can a simple sand and respray be sufficiant?
How long does the process take?
Cost of clear coat?
Heard strange myths of being able to use either vaseline or wood varnish as clear coats, any truth behind these?

Cheers guys

I painted my car with no experience at all and ill just tell you what i found other then giving advice:

It will be considerably cheaper doing it yourself i think..I had a quote from a place in chch that said to redo mine it would cost $2500 and that was for just straightening out the body and giving it a respray. I approximate i spent about $1000 getting all the primer and paint and sandpapper etc that i used to do mine.

If you do your research it shouldnt be too hard to do it but you will notice a difference with the end result... My problem was not enough research and i ended up with metal warps and not a great end result ( I mean it doesnt look too bad but nothing like what the pros can do).

To get it the job done i used:
Orbital sander
Lots of sand paper
Lots of Bog
Primer
Paint

From what I know i believe giving the car a primer is essential as it will help prevent rust alittle and it also helps the paint "stick"
My entire process took 2 years but it is possible to do it in a few days depending on the condition of your car. Ideally the paints should be given around 24 hours to cure i think.
Some paints such as gloss paints do not require a clear coat as the clear is already in the paint but if not you can get 4litres for about $50 i think...and 4 litres should be enough clear for the car...i think i have a whole can if your wanting to buy some

Dont know anything about those myths .

Hope that has helped abit but yeah as i say thats just what i did and someone on here with more knowledge might be able to clarify some more and help out abit better.

Best of luck

i painted my car in a day with some ok panelbeating on some small dents. primer is a must as far as i know to allow paint to stick.

my paint and clearcoat cost me about $300 plus extra for sand paper, big, primer etc.

just try one something and see how you go, its not too hard, just takes alot of time and patience

I'm currently learning what pain staking and time consuming process prepping a car for paint and making it straight. I bought a 1600 with a mate in the hope of putting a quick coat of paint on.

Unfortunately the paint on mine is cracked, which means just doing a light sand isn't going to cut it, I've had to paint strip all front panels, roof, door jam, pretty much the whole car.

If you have a car that only has faded paint, then it would be a pretty quick job to run a wizzer over it (orbital sander), bog up any small dents and sand back to smooth, then primer, then I think a wet rub (haven't got to this stage yet), then paint, then clear.

Only advice I'll give is, if you want to get the car straight and looking good, it's going to take alot of man hours, so be prepared to put aside some weekends.

$2500 sounds like a good price to me if they do a decent job on the bodywork.

Ive just finished doing a quick respray on one of my cars...
Took me roughly 4 saturdays (not all in a row lol)

I did:
1 - sand with 180 or 240 grit (cant remember now)
2 - sand with wet 1000 grit
3 - clean and spray on primer
4 - sand primer with wet 1000 grit
5 - clean and spray topcoat
4 - sand final topcoat with wet + soapy 1200 grit
5 - clean


Im not by any means saying this is the right way, but this is a home job lol and it came out pretty good considering its my first go... just a bit more practice with tehnique (have since talked to more people) and itll be better haha

As far as cost goes, i used the arcrylic laquer (sp?) and thinners from repco. had i been paying full retail it would have cost me about $150, using about 2 litres of each primer and topcoat, and 4 of thinners (i used a 50/50 mix) and sandpaper etc. Only downfall is that they only have white, black, and matt black. So youll have to look somwhere else for other colours haha
As i say thats just what i did, and i reckon i did a good enoguh job for a beginner. Ill definitely do some things differently next time for a better finish.

If anyone more knowledgable would like to correct anything ive said please do so, as well as helping Matt i wanna learn more as well, because i want a better finish on my sunny when i do that soon, and ill be playing with more expensive paint