I am looking at potentially respraying most if not all of my Fiero. My 85 SE is getting a bit rough around the edges, particularly on the surfaces facing the sky (roof, trunk, etc).
I have done some automotive painting before, but nothing on the scale of a whole car. I have done individual Fiero body panels, which did turn out fairly well. That said, those were basically just "cover" repair jobs and not meant to be long lasting re-sprays.
I want the job to come out well, but am concerned about being able to do all the proper prep and spraying.
In a way, I am considering it to save a few bucks on paying for a professional paint job. However, thats not my only motivation. I have basically learned everything I know about automotive mechanical and body repair by just doing it, so I like to jump into these sorts of projects even if I occasionally stumble because it helps me learn and pick up new skills.
With my 85, I was thinking of respraying the stock white color above the beltline. The paint is in very good shape below the beltline, and also if I leave it alone below I do not have to mess with the striping (see pic below).
Any tips, advice, or info?
Subject car:
My 88 Formula trunk lid re-spray which was my most recent attempt at automotive paint. It came out fairly well, but did suffer a decent amount of orange peel. I had done the spoiler on that car too, which looked fine for 20 feet but was an obvious barn job up close. I did a fender on an 87 too, metallic cranberry color, which came out nearly perfect.
I don't have much to contribute to your thread overall, but would like to say that your idea of just painting above the beltline is actually not that uncommon. I have owned two Fieros with resprays done of the paint above the beltline, and one was a white bumper pad car (sorry, I don't have any photos handy). One good thing about doing that is especially with the Fiero white you can not only match it up pretty good, but also prep work is incredibly minimal, while usually producing a good job. The biggest issue I've seen with the white used on Fieros is it tends to spider and crack more than the other colors used, so it can take some work getting it all level to prep for spraying, but other than that it's all gravy.
Not sure exactly what you want to do. But the route I'm taking is to plasti-dip my entire car. If you're not confident in prep work it may be a viable option, as well as cheap ( around 390$ w/gloss finish). I know several people that have had this on their car for a few years with no issues. Only the neon colors seems to sun fade much due to the high pigment count. Dipyourcar.com has a lot of useful information, and a lot of YouTube videos on the process as well.
I have painted 5 fieros so far and looking at number 6 soon. The prep work is everything and also is doing panel off paint. I mostly hand sand all panels several times each then shoot base coat\clear coat. It takes time alot of it but if you do it your self you can save money. Basic material costs have been running between 750 to 1000 per car. To help out with orange peal with base clear I shoot it between 20 to 28 lbs of pressure which makes the material flow better. What have you got to loose but time and material cost! Go for it!
------------------ 1984 Indy Pace Car\1988 Formula Custom President of Maryland Fiero Owners Club MFOC NYFOC Member
Not sure exactly what you want to do. But the route I'm taking is to plasti-dip my entire car. If you're not confident in prep work it may be a viable option, as well as cheap ( around 390$ w/gloss finish). I know several people that have had this on their car for a few years with no issues. Only the neon colors seems to sun fade much due to the high pigment count. Dipyourcar.com has a lot of useful information, and a lot of YouTube videos on the process as well.
~James
I'm on month 3 post plastidip, and it's workable and fun, just not permanent.
As long as people know what it really is, it's awesome though.. Super easy.
I did my car a couple years ago, took about two months and $1500, but I had to buy everything, except the air compressor. You sound like you already have an idea how to do it, I didn't. Tore the car apart, sanded the parts down and primered them. Painted them all in a booth I made big enough to get the car in so I didn't have to remove the roof or fastback. I sprayed a lot of clear and sanded down the orange peel, it's smooth. I wish I would have sprayed the edges then put them all back on the car to paint, I have a couple shades of yellow lol. It's held up well by itself, but swapping in an engine and being in the main walkway in my garage have taken it's toll, I'd like to respray it to fix all the scratches and chips from stuff hitting it and now with more experience I think I can achieve a uniform color and mirrorish finish. Just take your time, if you have a run or mess something up, DONT TOUCH IT until it dries, most of the time you just make it worse.
Here's my car about a year after I painted it, don't mind the broken marker light, been like that since I got it just haven't got around to replacing it.
[This message has been edited by 86GTFastback (edited 07-17-2013).]
I am in the process of repainting my car with primer, base, and gloss clear. For base color, I am doing a metallic gold, nice and sparklely...
If you have minute cracks in the paint, you may want to jitterbug or DA the finish completely off, or else they will return or bleed through your new finish.
If you go with a clear coat, orange peel isn't a big thing, just work the base coat over with 1500 wet to get rid of the gloss, and shoot the clear. After the first coat of clear dries over night, go over it with 1500 wet, to buff out the gloss and over spray, and shoot it again with clear. You should end up with a very nice gloss finish. If you have over spray on the top coat of clear, GENTLY buff it with polish.
I have two coats of primer, base and clear on most of the panels I have done so far. The rear deck lid was stripped twice because of problems. But it is now the best looking panel so far!
The only panel I pulled was the rear deck lid so far, but I will be pulling the front deck lid because of all the repairs I need to do to it.
Now for the fun part, I am doing my paint job completely with bug bombs... Good old rustolium and krylon spray paint. My son-in-law and his father have been in the bump and body business for many years, and they are very surprised at the quality of the job. But I have been lucky so far, no bugs have messed up the job, so far.
Take your time, do a good job prepping and masking, and have fun! If something goes wrong, don't get discouraged, go back and learn from your problem. (While priming my rear deck lid, the primer I was using started to act strange, and run, turns out it was flat gray paint someone had mixed in the primer section, and I just grabbed cans with flat gray tops. Now I put on my glasses and read the label on the can to be sure someone didn't mess around at my expense.)
I painted mine. It was fun to do as it's the first time I did a entire car. I'd done the occasional fender and such over the years and ALOT of machinery we made at the machine shop I worked at. So I had some experience painting some rather large multi surfaced objects.
I painted mine. It was fun to do as it's the first time I did a entire car. I'd done the occasional fender and such over the years and ALOT of machinery we made at the machine shop I worked at. So I had some experience painting some rather large multi surfaced objects.
I recommend getting quotes from professionals first, it might be worth it. But more power to the folks who do it themselves. I have done a decklid, rear bumper and nose in red from a can and they turned out great. I'm great with a can, and masking, prepping etc. I just dont want to invest in spray equipment, keep it clean and rarely use it.
[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 07-18-2013).]
I recommend getting quotes from professionals first, it might be worth it. But more power to the folks who do it themselves. I have done a decklid, rear bumper and nose in red from a can and they turned out great. I'm great with a can, and masking, prepping etc. I just dont want to invest in spray equipment, keep it clean and rarely use it.
Thanks! The goal was something like my sig below but when I had the blue and white painted that way it looked to much like a cop car so I changed it. Sadly my arthritis was getting the better of me and I sold it shortly after that picture was taken .
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[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 07-18-2013).]
I recommend getting quotes from professionals first, it might be worth it. But more power to the folks who do it themselves. I have done a decklid, rear bumper and nose in red from a can and they turned out great. I'm great with a can, and masking, prepping etc. I just dont want to invest in spray equipment, keep it clean and rarely use it.
Back when I did it, the quotes varied immensely, with me buying everything and doing the prep work I got a quote for $400 which I was going with until I found out I'd have to bring in the whole car assembled after spraying the door jams and sides of the panels, figured I might as well do it all myself then. Another shop for "atleast" $4500, I told them about the first shop for $400, they responded, but you don't know what they are going to do to it, I said "spray it" and I walked away. Most were around $1000.
It was fun to do, I'd love to do it again and I think I will in the next couple years, only bad part is, you know every single imperfection in the paint and body afterwards. I do mean EVERY imperfection, if you thought you knew them all you will find new ones.
im looking to spray mine i was wondering if any one knew how much paint to buy i will be sanding down my 87 se notch to rid it of its horrible faded gold color. i want to sand it down prime it sand coat it at least 2 times and spray a clear coat on top with at least 2 layers as well. when i paint it i want to remove the panels and do them individually so i have less chances of bugs and dirt getting in the paint
I rolled my car, not perfect, but absolutely bottom dollar if u don't mind the labor. White would hide the flaws well. I spent about $70 total for all materials. I'll post pics when I get home from work.
I'm on month 3 post plastidip, and it's workable and fun, just not permanent.
As long as people know what it really is, it's awesome though.. Super easy.
Yea it is not permanent. Also not very time consuming, and I liked the idea of being able to completely change colors whenever I chose to and still not have a ton invested. Is always fun freaking out friends who thought your car was a different color yesterday :P
I'm planning to roll mine with Rust-oleum in the next couple of months. I'm taking that route for several reasons, but the two most important ones are the low cost and being able to tell people that I painted my car with a roller. The only time I ever sprayed a car was in 1982 and what a lesson that was. I still remember how disappointed I was when I saw that all the prep work I'd done wasn't enough.
One of the best parts of owning a Fiero is the ability to remove most body panels while the car is still driveable. I plan to use that feature a lot when I begin the paint job.
There have been a few roller jobs on the forum, if you sand and buff you cant really tell it wasnt sprayed. I guess as long as you use proper paint resistant to UV rays it should be fine.
For what its worth here's my experience painting my car, perhaps it helps someone on their decision in a DIY paint or not. I rolled my fiero a few years ago, going by tips i've read here and elsewere on the internet (no expert ). Sanded the car lightly, all in all spend quite some time prepping. I used yacht paint thinking it would be more durable and stronger then the rustoleum type paints (cost a good bit more aswell). The car came out pretty good, no one believed the paint was rolled on. It was fun and i learned alot from it. Plus at the time my car had been in an accident and getting parts from the US already took way more then what insurance gave. Now, a few years later its really starting to show however, sun and bird poop really begin to tear into the paint and its nowhere near as pretty as it was back then. I'm still happy i did it and might try a plastidip or a repaint soon or since my Fiero is starting to loose its daily driver function save some money and have it painted. Anyway maybe my paint/work decisions werent the right ones or use it as a heads-up that while great, dont think of it as a permanent solution the way a good proffesional paint job might be.
Edwin
[This message has been edited by Edwin (edited 07-19-2013).]
im looking to spray mine i was wondering if any one knew how much paint to buy i will be sanding down my 87 se notch to rid it of its horrible faded gold color. i want to sand it down prime it sand coat it at least 2 times and spray a clear coat on top with at least 2 layers as well. when i paint it i want to remove the panels and do them individually so i have less chances of bugs and dirt getting in the paint
Roughly a gallon, I'd buy 1.5 gallons to be safe, as I did mine I used probably a little under one and a half, but I had a couple test pieces, you'd use less paint if you sprayed them on the car, individually you have a lot more overspray... and individual really didn't help the bugs or dirt. I had to sand a few flying bugs out of my clear, they seem to like the smell or something, really not sure how they got in the booth.
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Originally posted by masospaghetti: I rolled my car, not perfect, but absolutely bottom dollar if u don't mind the labor. White would hide the flaws well. I spent about $70 total for all materials. I'll post pics when I get home from work.
I'd place this up with rattle cans... I'd just save up and spray it yourself, that way you don't have to tell people "I cheaped out and painted my car with a roller"
If you go with a clear coat, orange peel isn't a big thing, just work the base coat over with 1500 wet to get rid of the gloss, and shoot the clear. After the first coat of clear dries over night, go over it with 1500 wet, to buff out the gloss and over spray, and shoot it again with clear. You should end up with a very nice gloss finish. If you have over spray on the top coat of clear, GENTLY buff it with polish.
The ONLY part of this thats correct is orange peel in clear is not a big thing. NEVER EVER sand the basecoat...ESPECIALLY gold or silver before you clearcoat it. All the sanding marks, even 1500 will show thru the clear as smears and look like crap. Basecoat dries with NO gloss, so you cant sand the gloss off anyway. You can get away with that on solid colors. Most clear urathanes Ive used have a 'window' for recoating. You CANNOT spray a coat of clear, sand it next day and respray more. You have to wait usually at least 48 hours or it will bubble and lift, so you have to start over at the primer. If you have done it before, you were just lucky. Put 2 or 3 coats of clear on right after the basecolor. It dont matter how much orange peel is on it because you can sand it out and buff it back to gloss with rubbing compound in the next day or two. Ive owned my own body shop for 35 years, and painted cars, planes and boats since 1963.
[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 07-21-2013).]
I also did the $50 paint job with Rustoleum. Here's my thoughts on it now. The car at the time was about 5 different shades of faded gold so it looked like crap. I was broke and unemployed so I had lots of time and little money. It was impossible to keep dust and flying debris out of the wet paint so that killed me. It does not hold a shine very well. It is hard to eliminate the roller lines. You have to do multiple coats rolled in different directions. It creates a bunch of work for the next painter if anyone ever wants to re-shoot it with automotive paint. It all has to be sanded completely off.
Would I do it again? No. Would I recommend it? No. Would I understand if you just couldn't stand the looks of your car and did it anyway? Yes.
This is my work. It doesn't look this good anymore.
I have done allot of home paint jobs. I do them on the lawn so dust is minimal.
I have tried the old Dupont, and newer acrylic, and urethane. But, the best for the home painter, hands down is Duplicolor premix/clear. It is a lacquer and it goes on with minimal fuss or mess. The base, being lacquer, requires no sanding other than any dust bits before you clear. The lacquer can be applied with just a mask and no respirator.
Would I do it again? No. Would I recommend it? No. Would I understand if you just couldn't stand the looks of your car and did it anyway? Yes.
I appreciate you posting this. I'm still planning to do it. The whole motivation for my Fiero project was to minimize expense and maximize the DIY part. I know a spray job would yield better results, if done properly, but that's a big if based on my skills and equipment. I've never tried a roller job on a car and I'm intrigued by the challenge. I also like the idea that if I screw something up, it's not a major expense to do it over again.
Just to underscore my point. Lacquer based coatings are the easiest to repair. If you get a chip, the new lacquer dissolves right into the old lacquer.
If you get a sag or run, you can sand it smooth and do a quick clear re-coat.
Just to underscore my point. Lacquer based coatings are the easiest to repair. If you get a chip, the new lacquer dissolves right into the old lacquer.
If you get a sag or run, you can sand it smooth and do a quick clear re-coat.
Hope this helps
Arn
Absolutely all correct. You can put on a coat every day for as long as you want without sanding it again. It will never bubble up underlying coats. You can spot in a repair of any size without a bulls eye showing. You can drive the car 30 minutes after painting it. The only real downsides are colors are extremely limited due to EPA, you cant paint it in the hot sun, it will fog up if you paint on a rainy or humid day. After its done, lacquer is a lot higher maintanence. You have to clean and polish it often to keep it looking good. Urathanes can basicly be left untouched for several years.
I have done allot of home paint jobs. I do them on the lawn so dust is minimal.
I have tried the old Dupont, and newer acrylic, and urethane. But, the best for the home painter, hands down is Duplicolor premix/clear. It is a lacquer and it goes on with minimal fuss or mess. The base, being lacquer, requires no sanding other than any dust bits before you clear. The lacquer can be applied with just a mask and no respirator.
My latest is matte clear over jet black.
I WOULD NOT, I repeat, WOULD NOT recomment ever painting Lacquer paints without some kind of respirator. I spray TONS of lacquer based paint on cabinetry all day long and it is NOT good for your lungs. I honestly never spray ANY sort of paint anymore without a proper respirator. its not like a decent respirator is expensive and even if the finish you are spraying is supposedly not bad for your lungs(I highly doubt it) just the particulate matter you are taking into your lungs can do long term damage. Take it from someone who has had to go thru a lung surgery (not due to smoking or painting) it is NOT FUN!! Lacquer is however some of the easiest paint I ever had to spray, it goes on smooth, dries extremely fast, is resistant to runs and sags unless you really screw up, and it can as you said be easily touched up later on without having to respray the whole damn car. Honestly I never painted a car with it but I have also never had an issue with maintenance on it either....your mileage may and probably will vary...peace
Pete
------------------ "May the grins begin when you turn the key and hear the engine roar over your shoulder" ......Gall57 (slightly modified LOL)
Actually, a simple mask works when you are painting out of doors. I am not talking about painting in a oonfined area. The commercial lacquer in furniture applications has allot of toluene and other fast drying agents that can be harmful. The automotive stuff is old school. But I still prefer to paint outside.
For the car, pull it out on a lawn, overcast sky is best or early in the day.
You dont need a respirator mask with lacquer except in a small closed space. It dries a foot away from what you spray. Another big advantage....overspray sticks to nothing over a foot away...its just dust you can wipe off. Wood and automotive lacquers are different animals. You MUST wear a respirator mask with filters with basecoat clearcoat urathanes. A few paint jobs will kill you without one. I sprayed lacquer for years and years before base/clear came out in the 80s. I NEVER wore any kind of mask till then. Im in 60s now with absolutely no respitory or heart problems at all. Even my doctor says everything is fine for even a 45 year old. I still spray lacquers, including primers, with no mask at all. They feel like theyre suffocating me and in the heat, my face sweats like a pig.
I've been airbrushing and painting since the early 80's and still have fun. Everything is painted on, not decals:
I have seen this build on Central Florida Fieros Forum and it is "very" impressive and the interior paint is just as nice.He does exceptional work and his paint and airbrushing skills are amazing.
Great work IMSA. I will say though, if you enter that car in a show, they want it authentic. Race cars lettering is almost always decals. Ive seen ex or restored racecars lose points because they had painted logos and not decals as originally. When I stopped racing, I started showing my last T-Bird racecar. I beat nicer ones because mine was 100% authentic with everything being a decal. Of course, nowadays almost every race car, even Nascar, is vinyl wrapped over a single painted base color.
I painted mine while taking Classes at the local community collage. Cost me a total of $600 in materials which for some reason were covered in my Pell grant I have imaging this paint scheme since 97 when I got my first Fiero!!!! Its got a few rookie mistakes but Hey, I dont think I paid the labor enough :P Now when it is running and at shows I get to say "I Did It!"
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**************************************** 88 Formula CJB Arrived Finally. #689 of 1252 Time to start Working TONY! There are Two kinds of Fiero's : Notchies and Donors! Click here for My 88 t-Top Build
I NEVER wore any kind of mask till then. Im in 60s now with absolutely no respitory or heart problems at all. Even my doctor says everything is fine for even a 45 year old. I still spray lacquers, including primers, with no mask at all. .
Hehe instead those issues are caused by other Factors I bet! Like Family
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**************************************** 88 Formula CJB Arrived Finally. #689 of 1252 Time to start Working TONY! There are Two kinds of Fiero's : Notchies and Donors! Click here for My 88 t-Top Build
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