Cheap-o garage painting

[powrguy]

:violin:I have a 1998 T4R, that's my daily driver. 175K miles, and pretty decent shape for a NE Ohio salt-laden winter vehicle.

My rear hatch needs some work, and I wanna paint it myself, as the last time I had a "pro" paint some areas of it, it was worse than MY previous paint efforts (runs, fisheye, etc.)

My question is to anyone who has done body work and re-painting of a door or section, and what would be needed to isolate an area of the garage for 2K painting (black basecoat/clearcoat)? Overspray is my big concern, not so much of un-masked breathing of fumes (I have a high-end mask). I know that a fan+filters would be a must, but any other ideas on how to set up for doing this without a lot of expense would be appreciated. Likewise, what PAINT and CLEARCOAT have you used? Is it possible to use the 2K aerosol cans, like Eastwood has, and how many would be needed to paint the exterior of a rear hatch?


thanks

 

[white_n_slow]

If you wanna get really serious, you can build a paint booth out of PVC pipe and heavy duty plastic sheeting, then ventilate with a box fan or two and a furnace filter. Google it, I'm sure it's all over the interweb.

If you wanna get semi-serious, you can drape plastic dropcloth from the ceiling of your garage and tape it to the floor and tape all the seams. It will move around more and might come down depending on how well you secure it, but much easier and cheaper.

I have personally painted individual panels by just masking around them and taping drop cloth over the surrounding panels and roof/windows (basically, the half of the vehicle you're painting). I'm not a car show judge, but I did not see any over spray anywhere else on the vehicle. This was with rattle cans though.

 

[powrguy]

Garage panel painting

If you wanna get really serious, you can build a paint booth out of PVC pipe and heavy duty plastic sheeting, then ventilate with a box fan or two and a furnace filter. Google it, I'm sure it's all over the interweb.

If you wanna get semi-serious, you can drape plastic dropcloth from the ceiling of your garage and tape it to the floor and tape all the seams. It will move around more and might come down depending on how well you secure it, but much easier and cheaper.

I have personally painted individual panels by just masking around them and taping drop cloth over the surrounding panels and roof/windows (basically, the half of the vehicle you're painting). I'm not a car show judge, but I did not see any over spray anywhere else on the vehicle. This was with rattle cans though.

I've done the "paint-booth-in-the-garage" routine a long time ago, but I am trying to see what other ideas there are out there. I used to use 2x4's, build a frame, and then staple plastic on all 5 sides (includes the top), but tried just wetting the floor. That was done with catalyzed acrylic enamel, prior to basecoat/clearcoat paints and 2K primers and paint). Isocyanate was in the hardener, so that's not something new. Yeah; really nasty stuff, but a good pro-grade mask got you through it, with box fans taped into the walls, and furnace filters to allow the flow-through.

I thought that possibly building a mini-structure, in the same fashion, that didn't have to allow movement around the whole vehicle might be easier. I don't know if it (the rear hatch) could be done decently with the rattle-can 2K products, or how much basecoat, and how much clearcoat, I would need. I have a pretty decent HF HVLP gun, though, and it works pretty good as I've sprayed (outdoors) some patio furniture, etc. with it, and the pattern is pretty good. I don't know if it would be more cost-effective (aka, cheaper) to use the rattle cans, and save on cleanup, or go with a quart of base, and a quart of clear, plus all the reducer and additives needed in a true gun-spray job.


thanks

 

[sawguy]

You're in Colorado? Why not just wait for a semi warm day with not much wind and do it outside? I'm in South Dakota and I spray furniture lacquer in 45 deg. temps outside. Maybe automotive paint is different. IDK

 

[powrguy]

Garage painting

You're in Colorado? Why not just wait for a semi warm day with not much wind and do it outside? I'm in South Dakota and I spray furniture lacquer in 45 deg. temps outside. Maybe automotive paint is different. IDK

I'm in NE Ohio.....if I was in Colorado, I wouldn't have the rust issues like salt-fed Ohio roads in Winter.

 

[97fourby]

I just went through this a couple of months ago. My hood and fender had clear peeling off. I talked to several people and read a lot of different ideas. Most everyone said don't even try it. However, I thought I would take my time and how hard could it be? I did it in my shop. I bought plastic sheeting and I stapled it to the ceiling ( my shop has plywood walls and ceiling) and let it hang down. I masked the 4runner off and prepped as best as I could. I went to Napa and had their paint guy mix the paint. All the paint materials only cost about $150. I used sealer primer, the base and clear. It was simple, I followed his directions and sprayed a new coat every thirty minutes or so. I tacked it between coats. I used a box fan under the garage door opening and closed off the rest of the opening with plastic. I was concerned about trash but I had very little. I wet sanded and buffed it and it turned out better than I imagined. Good Luck

 

[1985taylor1925]

If overspray is your main concern, what about finding someone in your local area with a good setup in their garage? I am a painter, and know several guys that have a decent setup in their garages, and would let me use them to paint my parts. I would be more concerned with temperature than anything else. Do you have a heated garage?

For an area as large as you plan on painting, I would never use spray cans. Especially for the clear coat. The paint isn't a big deal. You just get the color on, and as long as you don't have any runs, pinholes, fisheyes, really bad dry spray, etc, the clear coat will cover everything and make it look nice. But you will never get a nice finish spraying that large of an area with clear coat from a rattle can. Plus, the finish with acrylic enamels from spray cans will not be as durable as auto grade urethane based paint/clear coat. You might save a little money using rattle cans, but at the expense of quality both in appearance and longevity. If your hvlp gun atomizes well enough, I would use that. You'll probably want to spray the clear really thick, and put on three layers to be sure you have plenty of room for final sanding and buffing to get is smooth afterward.

You can get urethane based paint in a rattle can from SEM. Maybe you could save a little money by getting the base coat from them, and then spraying urethane clear with your hvlp gun.

 

[fullspeed]

I am trying to paint now. I am in AL and about to give up, just to cold. This has been an epic fail. If you want to read the details, see below.

Trying to paint over 16, 3/16" holes in the roof that a PO owner made to pop rivet a bike type rack. I can't believe the PO did this with pop rivets, scary, it didn't seem strong. I am using bondo to fill the holes and fill primer.

I did the classic just trying to paint small area where 2 holes are located, and turned into a big area. I made a mistake starting with 220 grit and the area got bigger. Then used mail order basecoat mixed for desert dune in a rattle can. I then used a clearcoat from mail order place also, but it is acrylic trim (not the real clearcoat that needs the harder). But the color seems off, so I sanded off clear coat to resand basecoat to try to blend in color better and then unfortunately sanded into the original primer, so have to paint over much larger area now. It is close to 12" by 10" and only intended about 2" by 1" area. I was experimenting with the basecoat/clearcoat to use on another part of vehicle. I wish I had not even started this now, I am trying to use hair dryer to warm-up metal and help paint dry. For safety I am using the 3M mask with chemical canister. It is amazing, I can't even smell the fumes with that mask on. I love that mask. It doesn't protect the eyes and I wonder if safety glasses are sufficient?

I am going to use touch-up with a small brush for the other holes. I may see if O'Reilly's can get a small bottle for desert dune. I didn't know NAPA could do this, I will keep that in mind, because basecoat/clearcoat is really expensive from a paint store.

 

[98OzarksRunner]

Be careful with isocyanate hardeners. Normal paint respirators won't filter them out. OSHA says to use a forced-air mask taking fresh air from outside. Car painters usually don't but have a lot of airflow in the paint booth. I painted the engine bay on my 65 Mustang a few years back and didn't have good enough ventilation (though I thought I did, but did have a 3M professional painter's respirator). An hour later I had an 'asthma attack' (and I don't have asthma). After that I am VERY careful. I paint outside if I'm using urethane paints with hardeners.

BTW, OSHA says the leading cause of 'occupational induced asthma' (permanent) is isocyanates in spray-on bed liners. My guess is that the guys who do that for a living aren't as careful as car painters when it comes to ventilation.

 

[powrguy]

Cheap-out garage paint

I just went through this a couple of months ago. My hood and fender had clear peeling off. I talked to several people and read a lot of different ideas. Most everyone said don't even try it. However, I thought I would take my time and how hard could it be? I did it in my shop. I bought plastic sheeting and I stapled it to the ceiling ( my shop has plywood walls and ceiling) and let it hang down. I masked the 4runner off and prepped as best as I could. I went to Napa and had their paint guy mix the paint. All the paint materials only cost about $150. I used sealer primer, the base and clear. It was simple, I followed his directions and sprayed a new coat every thirty minutes or so. I tacked it between coats. I used a box fan under the garage door opening and closed off the rest of the opening with plastic. I was concerned about trash but I had very little. I wet sanded and buffed it and it turned out better than I imagined. Good Luck

That looks pretty reasonable as a way to protect the rest of the vehicle, while having room to work. Also, the ventilation sounds like that would help remove the airborne fumes and paint.