Glad to see you onboard and posting. Welcome.


I completely understand your dilema, I couldn't justify laying out $ 10- $ 20,000 for a paint job either, although I too have an appreciation of why it costs that much for a super pro job. I simply don't have that kind of money to be throwing around.

I guess the bottom line is, how good of a job do you want? It sounds like your skill level is about like mine.......you've sprayed some things, and know the basics, so you are probably capable of turning out a decent quality job. Plus, if you choose the right paint, you can correct any mistakes later on by buffing the heck out of it.

I've mentioned this before, but at a body shop where I worked, the detail girl made the paint jobs look good, because she would sand and buff them to remove dirt and messups. We had a very good downdraft booth, but even that didn't keep all the stuff out of the wet paint. I painted my Kids VW once, and everything came out nice except for one fender, it had runs and dirt. As a last ditch effort, I wet sanded it and buffed it, and it turned out better than the rest of the car.

Brings up another point, color. Some colors are just tougher than others to paint. I find translucent colors like gold and yellow tough to get evenly sprayed.

What about doing all the prep work and having a local painter or shop do the final paint for you? I have done that in the past, and tipped the guy generously when it was over because it made the job better and easier . Some shops will allow their painters to earn extra money by using their booth like on a Saturday, when they are closed. I had my Jeep painted that way, and paid the shop $ 100 for using their booth that day.

Problem with doing it at home is it makes a heck of a mess, and significant others tend to frown of the fumes and overspray. (Don't ask me about letting the clothes dryer run while you are spraying stuff........purple nurses uniforms are not cool it seems )

Good luck,

Don