I think the points have to converge somewhere Marq. On yours, they look like if they do converge, they do so up in the air above the truck somewhere.

I prefer the original direction but that's just me..

GUESS WHAT GUYS!

my neighbor saw my car and liked the paint job...He said he need his car painted (he painted it before himself)and it looks decent but its been like 10yrs already (kinda fading) he wants me to paint his car... it looks like a hot rod to me...he knows its rustoleum too. so my question is how much should i charge him?

One: you'll do the job and charge him time and material.

Or....tell him for $50 you'll share with him the secret of how to paint his vehicle for only $50. That way you carry on the brotherhood AND get your investment back.

Yes, I'm using the Wagner HVLP Control Spray.

I'll try to get some pictures tonight, if I can find my camera. I have some I took with a cameraphone, but you can't really tell what's going on.

In comparison to the roller method, I'd say it's easier and faster to do, but it's also easier to screw up. If it's a windy day, plan on wasting a lot of paint. I used about a half-cup of paint for a roller coat, but twice that for a spray coat.

Remember to get a lot of mineral spirits/paint thinner, because you'll need to use some to clean the gun between coats. I bought two quarts, I'll need another before I'm done.

As for wetsanding between coats, I'm planning to wetsand every two coats. The amount of wetsanding you do depends on how much orange peel you're getting. If you've got a cleaner environment than me (most likely) you could probably get away with wetsanding every three coats. Assuming you're getting six coats, I'd go 320 prep, 3 coats, 1500 (or 1000 depending on peel), 3 coats, 2000, then polish.

I have horrible orange peel because of flying dust/leaves/bugs/pollen, so I'm doing 2 coats, 800, 2 coats, 1000, 2 coats, 1500, 2000, polish.

For reference, I'm painting a '90 Toyota Celica.

Are you going to spend the same amount of time on his as you did on your own?
Tell him time plus materials and inform how long a process this is.
If you gave yourself 5 bucks an hour on yours how much would you owe your self?
Unless he is into wet sanding MMMMMM ?????

Good ideas Marq. With as much time as I've spent on mine (granted I've changed colors) I have thought about what I would charge to do it.

#1 is that the paint job (or any other paint job) will look like crap on a car where the body is bad or the prep is bad. So would *I* want to sweat over a car, trying to do a good job on the paint, when the surface isn't prepped right, when dings or dents or waves are apparent. I wouldn't.. then again I wouldn't work at Maaco either.

But if the guy wants it painted, and he's your neighbor who you're friendly with, I can't see setting up all these contingencies about # of coats, who'll do the sanding, etc. That could dissolve or weaken a friendly relationship I think.

If it were me and if the body were in good shape where I would feel good about the result, I would charge a fair price for all the labor (including wetsanding), which would probably be around $4-500.

I'm guessing a typical car takes a total of 20 hours either painting or wetsanding, before any polishing or waxing is done.

It certainly loses the "budget" aspect if you pay someone to do it. The savings comes from doing the hard work yourself (and being able to touch up or fix things yourself in the future). At the price you'd have to pay someone to do it, I would look closely at a budget auto paint place in the area.

factor in how much time u spent on ur car...it should go a lil faster with his cuz its ur second time doing it andu know wat to do and wat to look out for. estimate ur time...i would ask for a good 200-300 maybe more.

That's the problem when you try to charge even a minimal amount for your labor... the job would end up costing REASONABLY anywhere from $200 to $500 for your time.

Once you break past the $300 mark you might as well send the neighbor off to MAACO and try to catch one of their $399 specials.

The problem with doing 'someone elses' car is that the problems it brings are not worth the money. Life is a pain in the butt as is without the goodwill between you and your neighbor being put at risk when he starts expecting paint shop level service before, during and after the service.

I have seen too many penny pinching folks that can become the biggest nuisances to set foot on your doorstep. They figure they paid you 'good money' and you are on the hook to them to keep them satisfied.

Most of us are pretty decent chaps. We don't mind helping out our neighbors and being 'good intentioned'. But often this can become badly soured and in the end the few bucks you charged for your services lead to frustrating situations where you just want to throw the money back in the dudes face and tell him to take a hike.

All you have to do is take a look at all the anti-MAACO web sites and see the comments posted by all the folks who thought they were going to get a 'custom show car quality paint job' for $399.

Those people are angry and the problem is that there is no way you can convince them there are only certain limits of quality you can achieve by choosing the CHEAPEST FRIGGIN PAINT JOB on the MAACO menu

So although it might be tempting to make a few bucks helping out your neighbor, etc. Sometimes in the long run it works out far better to have just said no or to at least reduce your exposure to a situation that could go sour.

On the legal side of things... once you charge money for your 'service' there is a legal expectation of you that does not happen when you do something for free.

Let's take a worst case scenario. You help a dude paint his car. You charge him $100 for your services. Everything is great and the final job was quite satisfactory. But the crafty neighbor changes his mind about the color.. or has an accident in his garage and a ton of brake fluid lands on the paint ruining it...

The dude then tries to get you to give him a freebie repaint. He claims the problem with the paint job is your fault and how you applied it. He fails to tell the truth about the brake fluid etc. You tell the guy to pi$$ off and the next thing you know you are dragged into court with this guy claiming that you destroyed his paint job.

Judges are basically newbs... and in the end they will look at the fact that you charged money for your services and therefor there is a greater level of care etc expected from you than someone who did the neighborly thing and did it for free.

In the end the Judge would probably find you responsible for replacing the guy's 'defective' paint job... and off he goes to MAACO - with you getting the bill.

I hate to sound down on any opportunity to make a few bucks... but I have seen so many situations where things go south and the 'good guy' ends up getting stuck in the long run.

The beauty of sending the cheapskate off to MAACO is that if he turns out to be a pain in the a$$ then his complaints would soon show up on the anti-MAACO boards... and his problems would be with MAACO and not you...

Marq,

I understand your point about the "backward" stripe but I like it that way. I am trying to duplicate a truck I had in high school that had the stripes going this way. I also see that you arent any better at photoshop than I am.

Constructive critism is always welcome. The wife likes the stripes my way and she has the checkbook that says I can build my 429 Super Cobra Jet for the truck. So she wins.....

Problem I'm having now is that I cant find canvas white anywhere in Colorado Springs......

if i had a $1 for every person that approached me to paint their cars i'd be rich

maybe i can start a new business

If I decided to just primer the old coupe with Tremclad grey primer for the time being, should this also be thinned or should I use it directly out of the can, or should it be thinned only a little, the primer would be sanded before finishing bodywork and paint anyway. Is Tremclad primer really a primer or is it just an alkyd based flat rust paint.
I did experiment with a couple of panels, I found the primer when thinned, would run easy and if you cleaned a roller and let it dry it was more difficult to work with., So far Ilike the results of this test on my 48 Chrys, will probably be priming the whole car with Tremclad grey primer, this of course after eve rything is sanded and worked, panel by panel.
Any advice or suggestions welcome..Thanx

Hey a note on the Wagner sprayer.....

I picked up a Remanufactured Wideshot 2000psi at XSCARGO for $29.99 Canadian. Here is the link to check it out.

http://xscargo.com/department.php?dept=Tools

I'm at the stage with my scirocco that I'm going to do another couple coats of paint. I didnt like the way the clear turned out so I'm sanding it down and try this new sprayer out. Might even change colors from Med. Blue to something else. I might go for a Tremclad Tint base custom color at canadian tire.

Cheers

C38- I would thin that the same way you would thin the paint, reason being is that a thick(er) coat of primer probably wont dry as hard and as fast as several thin coats. Same thing with the paint.

For your question on rust pits. I'm sure that there are many diff opinions on this. I used Permatex spray on rust inhibitor\converter over any of the old rusted areas then body filler or glazing putty for the real small pinholes and such.

good luck

Just want to put in a thank you to 69charger for this amazing thread. There are alot of haters around here who think this idea is garbage but ive read from page 1 and its amazing. I came over from 240sxforums.com and have subscribed just to say this. I will be trying this out and spreading this idea to the 240sx community, giving obvious credit where it is deserved. Charger, you should make a website (ill be your webmaaster). Call it something like poboyspaint.com and get some banners, make 5 cents a click and youll be rich by next sunday lol..

I'll have to say this certainly is tempting, but the question that nags away at me while looking at the photographs and reading the testimonials is one asked much further up in the thread. Will the rustoleum be as durable as the tremclad? How many of you have had the rustoleum job on your cars for more than six months?
The method itself is definitely not in question, being time tested from the very beginning (I can do an unbelievable job of wetsanding a old paint that looks chalky, as long as no mechanical damage has occured and the brush/rub/repeat method is as old as paint. Think centuries old chinese lacquer here.)
It's the paint. Really, how many of us have used rustoleum on a variety of metals, just to have it rub off, or peel in six months to a year (With the possible exception of the hammered finish, I've found it to be reasonably durable, though untested in sunlight for long periods)? So this makes me rather skeptical of the operation, as available to those of us south of the Canadian border. Again, I don't doubt at all that an amazingly good shine can be brought forth from even the lowliest of materials. I'm merely wondering if anyone has had one last?
It's not as if there isn't purpose made automotive paint in a comparable price range (and from many other sources). I LOVE a bargain, hell I can't afford not to. My Oldsmobile's engine has been held together with JB and copper pipe for over a year, as one example. While I'm as willing as then next guy to experiment (well, probably more so) the sheer number of people that post while/before attempting this with enthusiasm seems to dwarf those who have had this in real world conditions and they don't seem to be chiming in very much (the deleted posts?).

I would love to paint my car for 50$, I just don't trust rustoleum to hold up to any abuse whatsoever (much like lacquer, which is meant for garage queens and touch ups).

a testimony to the durability of the rustoleum...
i painted a couple of steel shop benches with rustomleum professional about 2 years ago. since then i have dropped, vises on them, steel tool boxes, an assortment of wrenchs and screwdrivers and other tools and not even a scratch. so it holds up well when given the appropriate time to dry. i did put it on full strength and it hasn't peeled yet. there is no reason chemically why the paint when mixed with mineral spirits would react any differently.

now i have a question... probably more of a general paint question, but are any of you doing jambs, as well as trunk and engine bay areas for a complete color change? if so where do you tape off to not get paint transfer from one area to the next.