<VV> painting your own car

[corvair at mb.sympatico.ca]

Ryan, spray painting isn't "hard", it's just that the quality of the job is pretty proportional to experience. 90% of a good paint job is preparation. Do that 90% perfectly yourself and let the Maaco guy who sprays 10 cars a day spray it for you and you'll get a fine job. It only takes half an hour to paint a car... it takes weeks/months to prep it properly and that's where the expense is.

I took an evening autobody course at a local high school (18, 3 hour hands on sessions) and I used a professional shop under the guidance of a pro bodyman. Took me 60 hours of work to prep my 63 Spyder (including rust repair etc), then in a couple hours sprayed my own primer in their shop, and had the instructor spray the colour and clear for me.

Check my page at http://www.cybrus.net/LHonke/Spyderproject/spydproj.htm there's a pic there that shows all the paint materials used - a couple or three hundred $ worth.

Les