$200 driveway paint job

by dhw3971 Mon May 19, 2014 4:04 pm

After enduring enough "Whazzat? a HEARSE?" jokes I painted my station wagon the original blue color. Due to a limited budget and a less-than-pristine original car I loosely followed a tutorial I found online that taught you how to fake a sun-bleached, weathered and rusted patina. The video showed how to use rollers and brushes to get a lot of texture and pattern on the basecoats, and then by sanding down through the color coat you expose the layers underneath.

I started by sanding down one side of the car (which I learned later was a mistake; I removed too much black AND made a mess of my garage) and then moved on to lightly sanding the remaining black portions of the car. Then, I brushed on RustOleum bare metal primer and built up some good texture. After that, I sprayed on the original color coat (8 ounces at a time) using a disposable Preval sprayer. I actually got some glossy areas but the overall result was spotty, drippy, and orange peel-y but that's what I was going for.

After the blue was down I moved on to sanding down the high spots and attempting to give the car a dull finish overall. I had really good luck on the roof, where I got a nice exposure of the black, gray and blue colors. The rest of the car is still in progress but the nice thing is that I can't screw up a paint job like this! $200 driveway paint job <a href=

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by dhw3971 Mon May 19, 2014 4:13 pm

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Once I get the sanding completed and the finish looking the way I want I'll add more photos...the ones you see here are about 1.5 weeks old. I've done a lot of wet sanding and paint spraying in the meantime.

by driveit Mon May 19, 2014 5:12 pm

Cool. Waiting on more pics.

by chevellelaguna Mon May 19, 2014 5:28 pm

I'm really liking the "look". It's a resourceful alternative, and looks good on the car! Great job, that's probably more work than painting the car a solid color!

by 77mali Mon May 19, 2014 6:59 pm

It takes a lot of work to get that look right. Nice job.

by Brainstain Tue May 20, 2014 6:54 am

After sanding on my wagon I have to ask.. Did you sand the back quarters down before painting either time and find a crazy layer of colors? I sanded mine down and apparently the whole main body was painted a couple different times and I can only guess it was factory. I'll see if I can find a picture.

by ratnfested Tue May 20, 2014 8:58 am

Clear coat it.

by dhw3971 Tue May 20, 2014 11:54 am

Brainstain wrote:After sanding on my wagon I have to ask.. Did you sand the back quarters down before painting either time and find a crazy layer of colors? I sanded mine down and apparently the whole main body was painted a couple different times and I can only guess it was factory. I'll see if I can find a picture.

No surprises like that! All I found was grey primer and red oxide primer...results of paint jobs gone bad yeeeaars ago.

And yes, it has taken a lot of sanding to expose the black and grey. I learned I put too much color on certain places which resulted in having to sand more than had I just given it a dusting with the blue. I have also thought about spraying on a clear satin coat so that everything gets a uniform sheen. At this point, I'm spending all my time sanding down the spots that are too shiny.

by Brainstain Tue May 20, 2014 2:08 pm

I believe it's black on the bottom, yellow, then red oxide, a purple color and then the antique white/old refrigerator color on the outside.

by dhw3971 Fri May 23, 2014 11:14 am

Here are photos taken yesterday. I don't know if I'm getting close to a bad paint job but the overall effect looks good from a distance. I might hit a few places with a buffer but I'm not sure about that yet. I have a feeling I'll never be completely done with this...probably at some point I'll just get tired of sanding and say it's "good enough".

$200 driveway paint job Img_3625