Daren Stone scribed:>
> First of all, $500 for a good running car is a
> good deal no matter what color it is, and second, you
> shouldn't be concerned about the color, as a Pinto is
> ugly no matter what color !
Ahhh, but if they are "cutters" (from the movie Breaking Away) then it
makes a world of difference to them. They can't afford a real car so
they must get something they can afford, and then the color becomes a
major issue.
Ahhh, but yourself... :-) Y'see, with a $500 car, it doesn't matter
what color it is because for $20 worth of Orchard Supply Hardware's
finest, you can make it any damn color you want and if anything
you'll *increase* its value. :-)
I have, as a matter of fact, painted a car with spray cans. It works
fairly well, particularly for a car that either has little intrinsic
value or that runs a good likelihood of needing touch-ups or repairs
at some later date. And if you're willing to invest some time and
elbow grease in color-sanding the paint job, you can end up with a
product that might surprise you, with gloss and depth and a much
better finish than you'd expect from a sputtering can of De-Rusto.
It's all in technique, BTW. You want to start the spray pattern past
the end of the car that you're going to paint. The idea is to get any
of the crud that's in the nozzle to be forced out before you get it on
the paint -- let it fall on the dropcloth. Start spraying, then
carefully move your hand in a smooth linear motion along the surface
of the car. Start high and work your way down; overspray and mist WILL
settle while painting, and you don't want to mist the air over fresh,
sticky paint or you'll end up with a pebbly texture. And keep the
hand motions smooth and long. Also, work to keep the paint stream
square to the surface of the panel -- don't pivot the spray from your
wrist or shoulder or the ends of the stroke will be from farther away
than the middle and you'll get uneven coverage.
I put a paint job on The Black Car that's better than an Earl Scheib
at a cost of about $15 and a couple of days' work. If I wanted to
color-sand it, I could make the car look good enough to match a
thousand-dollar paint job easily. My main question is durability,
though; as I said, I painted The Black Car myself because I needed
to make a drastic change in its appearance in a short period of time
and without spending any money. Because it's a race car, there's the
risk of needing to do future body work, so it's probably not worth
spending the week (and CERTAINLY not $1000) to make it show-quality.
The Green Car, now...
--Scott "And on THAT car, I can't make it look much worse" Fisher
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