Here’s what you need to know to DIY spray paint your car before you hit the road
When you decide to paint the car in do it yourself most likely there are well-founded reasons that push you to roll up your sleeves and try the simplest way: spray cans of car paint. There are just as many reasons why a car touch up with spray cans can be a success or a failure. That is why we have collected the 5 errors more than they commit with DIY car painting with spray cans.
1. DO IT YOURSELF PAINTING THE CAR: HOW MANY SPRAY BOTTLES DO YOU NEED?
The first and most frequent mistake is made in evaluating the convenience of painting a car with spray cans. Self the cost of a repair in the body shop can be uneconomical compared to the value of a used car, you must not be fooled by the price of a spray paint can. The key question to answer is: how many spray cans do you need to paint the car? The evaluation is easy, considering that a can of 400 ml has a yield of about 1-2 square meters. So, if you multiply the number of cans by the necessary passes (based on the coverage) and the products you need (color background + transparent at least) you will get an idea of the starting costs. The greater the area to be painted, the higher the costs, but also the risk of making mistakes. Beyond the mirror cap, the handle or the scratched rim, it’s better to aim for a professional result in the body shop.
2. DO IT YOURSELF PAINTING A CAR: WHAT DO YOU NEED BESIDES THE CYLINDERS?
To the costs alive to DIY paint a carthe costs for the consumables that are generally not available in the garage (specific abrasive papers, spray insulating primer, masking, antistatic, solvent, anti-silicone cloths, etc.). Finally put into account an additional cost: inexperience, which can result in wasted material or work to be redone. Only once you have made an estimate of all the necessary material will you understand if the company can really be worth the expense.
3. WHERE TO PAINT THE CAR
If you are convinced that DIY car retouching is more convenient than a professional job, then take care with extreme care when choosing the right one. place to paint the car. The minimum conditions that cannot be missed are:
– Wear PPEie at least gloves, mask suitable for powders and solvents, goggles;
– Paint in a ventilated but dust-free place and that it does not harm other people or animals. It can help keep them attached to the floor, spray water with a sprayer a few centimeters from the floor;
– Direct light is indispensable for check that there are no imperfections coarse (gnats, lint or anything else that sticks to the paint, dripping, uniformity of coverage, halos, etc.);
– The weather: paint on rainy days or over 30 degrees in the shade it will certainly have negative effects on the paint;
4. DO IT YOURSELF PAINTING THE CAR: PREPARATION AND MASKING
There preparation of the substrate to be painted with spray cans it is essential as any microscopic imperfections will be further emphasized by the spray paint applied. Therefore:
– Do not believe you can fill small scratches with paint (risk of exceeding and causing sagging);
– After sanding with the correct sequence of gradually finer abrasive papers, based on the depth of the damage to be rectified (up to transparent / color base / epoxy base / sheet metal in the presence of oxidation), the surface must be cleaned thoroughly from dust and then degreased with anti silicones;
– Mask with extreme care the areas to be protected, avoiding that the masking tape is hit by spray paint. Otherwise you will end up with very ugly steps that clearly show the sharp difference in tonality. What to avoid instead of trying to blend near the undamaged area.
5. INEVITABLE MISTAKES WITH AUTO SPRAY PAINT AND DIY
A DIY car painting looking bad with spray cans it can be the sum of many small oversights related to the equipment and unsuitable place. Even after purchasing everything you need to paint a car with cans, remember that the result is heavily influenced by air and paint flow, which is artfully manageable by professional body builders. With spray paint cans, on the other hand, the pressure always tends to decrease during use and therefore the paint will be less atomized and less uniform. The risk is frequent when trying to cover large areas, but it is limited by trying not to go all the way to the bottom of the can and to make only small adjustments. It goes without saying that you will also have to carefully follow the instructions in the technical data sheet for application and drying times. It becomes crucial to respect the times as they change between:
– wet-on-wet car painting from the background of color, to the application of the clearcoat, without interruptions, apart from brief pauses;
– car painting with application of the clearcoat on a different day from the application of the color base. In this case it will be necessary to wait for complete drying, lightly opacify with very fine-grained abrasive paper (about 2000) and clean with an antistatic cloth;
DO IT YOURSELF PAINTING A CAR: CONCLUSIONS AND ADVICE
Once all the general assessments have been made, you will be able to understand if buying a used part in better conditions for demolition (when possible) can be a cheaper solution. However, remember that it always is better to drive an efficient and safe carwhich has received essential routine maintenance, but with some signs of age, rather than investing money to make it look beautiful, with brakes, shock absorbers and fruit tires. This is also an evaluation to consider before launching yourself into DIY car painting at all costs. In this article instead we explain how much it costs to paint a car in the body shop.