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I got a question. You guys say get it ready or prep it first hand. What exactly is that . my car has its oem paint still.

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Prep just means to prepare the surface to a level where the paint will be able to look its best AND stick to the body properly.

For example.. if your car just has old OEM paint on it... let's just say its faded badly... you would sand down the entire surface with a 220 grit in order to remove any surfactants that might repel or react badly with the paint ( bugs, wax, road tar, spilled soft drinks, bird poop etc ). Once you have sanded the body down you then would wipe the entire body down with mineral spirits and a clean rag ( again to remove the surfactants - which now would include the paint dust from the sanding ). At this stage your body would be 'PREPared' for application of the first lay of paint. If the condition of your body surface is quite good you might be able to have done the initial sanding by using a 400 grit and wet sanding the body. BUT... if your body is great and only suffers from faded OEM paint.. then I would consider going the route of the $399 paint job at MAACO or Earl Schrives..

Now... if you body has simply faded paint AND chips or minor dents ( door bangs from parking lots etc ).. then you will want to prepare those chips or dents to achieve a smooth surface upon which to later lay your paint job. So the Bondo type bodywork and body sanding would be the PREP you need to do. The cost of all the bodywork to prepare a car for painting are what drive the cost up at the professional paint shops.

Now if your body has rust holes, plus dents, plus road chips... then you will need to remedy all those body problems in order to have a smooth body to paint on.

Just remember that if you put lipstick on a pig... it is still just a pig. So the end paint job will only be as good as the preparation (PREP) of the body that you put your paint on to

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