[Greg Reid]

That's probably what's going to happen. It's also a good idea because only one person besides me has ever looked at the work I did and he spent all of 2 minutes looking it over in the parking lot of the collision shop he owns.

[400 4spd.]

Greg, after all that you have done and have ahead, there is no shame in not painting it yourself.
Trust me on this, painting is easy if you don't care about the results, but nerve-racking if you do. Even then, you have done the hardest part of the job getting it to that booth, because a perfect paint job still looks like crap over bad prep work. Sometimes a middle of the road paint job can be improved with sanding and buffing. However nothing you do to a paint job will make poor prep look better.
Either way, take pride in what you have done, regardless of who pulls the trigger. Good luck, buddy!

[Greg Reid]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate that. It's actually close to the same offer you made several pages ago...except this guy is less than an hour down the road.

[beargfr]

If you have the option of using a paint booth, take it!

That'll make a big difference in how much work is involved afterwards in the color sanding and buffing.

If you're still nervous about doing your own spraying, go to a salvage yard and buy some junk panels - hoolds, fenders, whatever - and spend some time shooting paint on them with the saem setup you'd use on your car (maybe minus the booth). It won't take you long to get a feel for that part of it. Even if you wind up not shooting it yourself, it'll still be a "more informed" decision.

Bear

[paint guy]

Yes, if you can rent the booth, do it. If you can rent a painter to go along with the booth, that might even be better, especially if you are spraying metallic for the first time.

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, I'm satisfied that I'm going to take him up on his offer and probably just let him paint it too.
I'm going to keep my gun though as I do plan to paint one of these cars around here. Probably my VW Bug. I've been driving it with a primered fender and quarter for 3 years. It'll be good practice. My big stumbling block is not having a solid structure like a detached garage that I could have converted to a booth. What I was working with was too narrow and it was getting kinda ridiculous with me trying to modify it for what I wanted to do.

[Ken K]

Ask if you can be in the paint booth when your car is getting painted. Once you see the process it won't be as bad when you decide to paint a car yourself. You will see things in a paint booth that you won't see when the cars is not in a booth. Any mistakes will show up more from the lights in the booth.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Ken K

Ask if you can be in the paint booth when your car is getting painted. Once you see the process it won't be as bad when you decide to paint a car yourself. You will see things in a paint booth that you won't see when the cars is not in a booth. Any mistakes will show up more from the lights in the booth.

Oh, there's no question that I can be there. I can even paint it if I want to. My position right now is that if I've got time to be there when it's turn comes, I will be...but if I get there and it's done, I WON'T be mad. I'll be so glad to get this bodywork done. It's been a long time coming.
Yeah, I've thought about the great difference in lighting too. I have very poor lighting in my garage and when I take it out in the sunlight, it's of course much better but then I'm restricted by where the sun is.

[Ken K]

Sometimes you have to fix a few things with the body work when the car is in the paint booth. I have been in the paint booth with 4 different painters before I ever painted a car. Some of the painters get sloppy and just want the paint on there. They were not painting my car, it was someone elses. Paint booths can also blow a lot of dirt around, someone needs to clean the booth before the cars goes in. You can get a good paint job without a booth but the conditions and weather has to be just right.

[Greg Reid]

Thanks for the info Ken. I know from experience some of the things you just noted.
This guy has been doing this for a long time and I've seen plenty of great paint jobs come out of his booth. The only reason I didn't go to him earlier was that I AM IMPATIENT when it comes to others doing work for me and I know that he is a guy that takes his time.
On the other hand...I'm a guy that will work on something for a year because I didn't want to wait 2 months for someone else to do it. Once I started being honest with myself about that trait, I called my friend up.
I'm just going to put it in his hands and let him do what he does. In fact, I went down and picked his trailer up today. Yeah, he even loaned me the trailer. I'll load it in the morning and drop it off to him.
Then, I'm going to be PATIENT....lol

[Ken K]

I can rent a paint booth for $50. I can get one sprayed for $100. Getting one sprayed is the better deal. You still have the incovenience of getting the car to the booth and masking it off or paying the shop extra to mask it, they only spray it for $100, any pre washing or wipe downs would be up to me. I am doing one in pieces. I think I can get it all matched. If not when it goes together then I will scuff it and bring it over and have the whole car sprayed. I have enough paint for lots of mistakes, it all came from the same batch.

[Greg Reid]

Sounds like a deal. I don't have that but I have this guy and he's totally open to me spraying in his booth if I want to but I'm going to save that for the next one. I've got two more cars that will need paint as soon as I can get to them.
That's part of the reason I'm putting this one in his hands. I've got too many irons in the fire...both car related and home/property related... and it's kind of a relief to know that I can move on to other things while he takes care of this one for me.

[Ken K]

I have enough paint for 3 cars. Only 2 are getting red. I can buy single stage that cost just over $100 for the paint, hardner and reducer. It ends up being 1.5 gallons sprayable. That should be enough to do a car including the jambs. I use the $9.99 HF paint gun. They have coupons in magazines, you can buy up to 5 at a time. They work 3 or 4 times and then not so good. After I use them for top coats, they get used for primer or junk paint.

[Greg Reid]

I dropped the car off today. We ironed out the details and I'm going to learn a lot through this process. Basically, I'll be a part-time employee working on my own car there for the next few weeks.

[400 4spd.]

How's the pay?

[Greg Reid]

I dunno....we'll see when he presents the bill..lol

[steve v]

That reminds me of the sign a buddy had in his shop years ago.

Labor Rate $40.00 per hour.

If you watch $50.00 per hour

If you help $60.00 per hour

If you tried to fix it yourself first & f'ed it up $100.00 per hour

[2cdavis3]

Good luck Greg got to be getting excited to know you're this much closer to paint. Maybe it will be done by the time I get up there.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by steve v

If you tried to fix it yourself first & f'ed it up $100.00 per hour

That's the one I'm worried about.

Originally Posted by 2cdavis3

Good luck Greg got to be getting excited to know you're this much closer to paint. Maybe it will be done by the time I get up there.

Yeah, hopefully it'll be done within the next couple of months at least.

[Ken K]

All the hard work is in the prep. The spraying is the easiest part. Sanding is the grunt work but it has to be done. It a good deal you get to work on your car at a body shop.