I recomend you practice alot of scrap first.
There's alot to the technique, you cant just pick a gun up and expect a factory finnish.

Also you you need a 12-13cfm compressor, with an oil/water trap, a dryer and the gun.

A gun that can spray a decent job might  cost for $500-$1000.

Before all that you need to pull the whole car apart, which means doors off, door cards off, windscreens out, Bars off ect.

Then you need to sand them down, i'd start with p240 ands work my way up to about p800 grit on the orbital.
Then i'd prepsol it all down to remove the wax and grease ect.

After which you'll need to use  a primer, personally i'd use PPG Prima, you can use it as a High fill or surfacer.
Provided there is no repairs you could get away with 2-3 coats of surfacer.
The surfacer will then need to be blocked back, i'd start with p600 and work up to p1200 wet, by hand.

Prepsol again, then get ready for the base coat.
3 coats of base coat, with 15mins between each coat. Use a tac cloth between each coat.
Then Clear coat.
3 coats of clear with 15-20mins between each.
Personaly i like to slam the last coat on nice and fat, this stops the orange peel be very prominant. But this is hard and takes some skill to do without having the paint end up on the floor.

This is an uber general and simple guide.

If you donate the car, you loose it.

Im with Suprauc on this one. It aint easy to do. I done mine almost 3 years ago and took me ages. Perfection is all in the preparation.

My preference is to flow coat the clear to get minimal orange peel and give that flat, deep look.

Trust me, you'll need 4 weeks!

I had the same grand ideas when I was 19.  I had 3 weeks annual leave, and thought "what a great time to do it"

Those 3 weeks taught me a lot!  And I didn't finish it either. I had my (then future father in law) constructively criticising my work, and making me redo things over & over until the prep was spot on.

3.5 weeks of minor rust repairs & then panel prep (I paint stripped the exterior panels to bare metal) and it was finally ready for paint, but I had to go back to work....

The colour only went on during a saturday arvo at the week 4 point.  Only took a few hours..... compared to the prep ..... but it was sooo worth it.

I tried that once.

Ended up painting the dog.

As to saving $5000

Turbo conversion before i paint it, unless i paint my self.

ill see what happens.

Im looking for a painter in Sydney to paint the brumby. Any one recommended.

dude, your car is something you should take pride in, and have to look at every day.. Even though I bag the living f**k out of my Lib, I still look after her and take care of her the same as my commo..

Please..

Pay someone to do it properly, it will look better, and you wont have to struggle.

as the old saying goes "poor man always pays twice" - Meaning : You are gonna do it yourself so its cheap, spend money on all the materials, make a mess of it, then have to pay someone to fix it all up and redo it.

d_generate wrote:

I'll fly soupboy to Perth & put him up for a week if he paints my WRX Hatch. I'll supply paint, car, everything.
On the final coat (acrylic) a mate of my son's just finished his time and on the last coat of clear he hits it with only about 10-15% clear, rekons it's the best way to get a good gloss without much polishing????

LOL think ill just have to drive to Ballina when the time comes for me to get my bonnet and Bumper sprayed up LOL I'm not attempting to spray myself :secret:

hey guys, i own a sandstone beige colour subaru liberty gx 1990 model, and im looking at repainting it, it has a really beaut grey gx interior and 17'' rims. any ideas on what colour, was thinking black or red?

thanks, sounds cool, ill post the pics when i can get my cam computer cable off my mate lol should b on by the weekend i hope

no worries. photoshopping it is the best way to get a really good idea of how it will look.

White FTW!