Yeah but I'll bet you didn't pull everything off the S10 incl. doors, strip to factory primer, fix seams (oh yeah it's metal ), cocoon the interior to keep the dry overspray out of everything, wet sand and buff, etc, etc, etc. Believe me, it's a you truly get what you pay for situation.

You're probably on the right track re: custom bodyshop but I'll bet a good downflow paint booth ain't cheap. []

 

Well. I did take it to almost bare metal. did all the body work(lead filler)needed and completely painted it from selfetching primer, sealer, mid coat, color base, pearl blender and6 coats of clear two of which were tinted. Didn't need to cocoon the interior because it and the glass wereout. wet sand to 1800, buff,seal and wax. Steel cars have seams too, fiberglass is easier to deal with in the area of body panel seams. Hell, if Chevy wasn't worried about mass producing and high production numbers they could have made the corvette without any seams to screw up.

Don't see a need for a high dollar "down draft spray booth". good lights and a couple of your standard 24" barn exhaust fans work just fine with double AC filters on them and the feed vents. You can build a booth better than you need for about 2500 bucks with materials from home dpot or lowes.

It's always been my practice to give the customer more than he pays for. No complaints and lots of repeat buisness that way. It was a friend of mine's grandson.

But I'm no expert. Cheers

 

Then the kid did get one heck of a good deal for all that you did. Just mentioned the booth if you were going to add it to your business. I painted mine in a barn with a concrete floor. We did have lots of lites all around. Just wet the floor down before painting. Only found one speck in the final job. [:@]

As far as seams go, I think the new ones don't have any as I was watching a show where they were pulling fenders, quarter panels, etc off and then bolting back on. I know on ours that usually just filling the crack in the seam is temporary cuz the reason it cracked in the firstplace was because the bonding strip is coming unbonded.

 

Yeah he got a good deal, but I made hime help with the sanding so he would appreciate what it took to do a good job and maybe he would take care of the truck when it was done.

I did a truck in my old barn. Had to run 600 feet of garden hose just to wet down the dirt floor and another 600feet of airline to spray it. Only problem was getting enough seperators in the air line to keep the water out.

I'm looking into a media blaster, just to do all the cars I have. I'm tired of sanding, LOL! Thats the only way to go if you're gonna take it down that far. might as well take it all the way as most factory primers suck anyway, especialy the stuff on older cars. I think if I could find one reasonable it would pay for it self real quick as the closest one around here is about 80 miles away and they use sand so it's kinda rough on the car. I could probably get a lot of work from the many body shops aroud here.

As for the OP's original post. It's my humble opinion that if he is not doing a color change and the paint is still adhered well to the car he won't need to takeit down that far. if he is changing the color he can still leave the original paint and just do a double shot of sealer and mid coat to get a good cover. About 15 mil film so it can be sanded. Clean it good and and apply your top coat. if the Paint is questionable have it blasted with walnut shells or baking soda or hand sand it all off. Cheers

 

okay blueshark...your tempting me. maybe i'll drive done to your place for new paint on my 78. Something like a deep sea blue, or whatever the stock color that year was. let's do it. but if the car breaks down before i get there, the tow truck may need directioins.

 

Bring it on down Dan, We'll get right on it. Bring your check book, LOL If ya break down, just call and I'll come get ya. How much time ya got free?Cheers

 

Hi blueshark and Happy Holidays, You sure have a lot of nice toys in the photo gallery. How do you figure out which one to drive? PG.

 

I put all the keys in my pocket each morning and jump up and down to mix them up and which ever one I pull out I drive. Only problem is my favorite shorts have a hole in the pocket so I get stuck at home a lot. LOL!

Naw, Most are "works in progress" so I only keep two of them insured pluss the '87 so I've got something to drive, remember the newest one(the '87)is 20 years old. LOL!

 

Rick, Can you post some pictures of you car so we can see what the paint job looks like? How are the door jams and rocker panels? Does it still have the original flex bumper covers?, are they all cracked up?, areas around any moldings?and window sills? headlight doors, edges of the hood, etc.? are you changing colors or just keeping it original? Cheers

Marc, Don't get me wrong, Painting cars is not really part of my business, although I'm seriously considering making it one. That and custom body parts. Right now it's just a hobby I'm very fond of doing. The biggest part of mywork is painting and sanding, but most of my experience is with poly-ester and epoxy primers and topcoats on boats and plugs and molds. My experience with automotive paint on Boats, Cars and Planes makes up only about 5% of total gallons of paint I've sprayed. That would only be somewhere around 6.5-7000 gallons of automotive paint, and not every day. Not much considering.... There's guys out there in busy body shops that have sprayed twice that if not more. I'm by no means an expert with painting cars...I just think it's fun and I love doing it. Cheers

 

blueshark- how long does it take? I remember Earl Sheib in by 9 out by 5.