ok, updates... can't spray paint it today because it's way too windy... oh by the way did i mention that i'm doing this in the parking lot of my apartment? yeah... that makes it even harder... I know I might get little bits of dust sticking to the wet paint so i'm just planning on painting just the small portion... the paint was expensive though... $18 for a custom mix paint in a 12oz can. Anyway, I'll try to do it tomorrow. How much does it usually cost to have the whole car painted??? I went to a local autoshop and they quote me for about $4700 for the whole car... (well that was when I wanted to paint my car another color) and they said they need to take the door and everything off to paint the chasis and stuff... Does this price sounds about right? I might as well get another neon if it's this expensive.

 

$4700 is way too much to simply re-paint, no matter what the color. If there was a lot of heavy bodywork/filler involved I could see a few thousand, but not for a simple re-paint. You can usually find other people who have their own professional equipment, sprayers, waterfalls, etc... that will charge between $500-$800... sometimes less even. If you mask everything off yourself and remove all the fixtures (mirrors, headlights, tailights, trim, etc)... you might even find someone to do it decent for $400, or $500-$600 with clearcoat and baking.

 

Ok, another update... I tried spray painting it... and I really regret that I did it... it came out bad... It seems like the paint was a much darker silver than my car was... I'm not sure if it'll fade into the same color in the next few days or would it stay that way... because it looks bad.. Basically I mask a square off... I did thought about ptschafer's suggestion to not mask it and just spray it... but I'm afraid of the different shading so I masked off a 3"x3" square... and boy was that a bad idea... the spray painting was actually for the door but I figured I'll do a test on a scratch bumper first so if all goes wrong I'll take it to a bodyshop to have them paint the whole bumper. So... now it looks like a piece of tape on the bumper which makes it look darker. I'll get a picture tomorrow morning. Anyway, question for ptschafer... did yours came out darker than the factory's paint when you first painted it? Did the color fade lighter? I mean if i don't use any masking I'm afraid that the edges would blend fine but then it'll be a large dark part when view from further. Also, did you get yours from duplicolor? There isn't any PS2 duplicolor spray paint around my local autostore... so i was wondering did you use duplicolor too? I'm kinda suspecting that maybe the paint store didn't mix it close enough. So i wanted to try duplicolor for a change. Sorry about the long post but I'm upset/pissed/worried about my car now... Used to look great even with the scratch but now it looks like a patch from battle scar or something.

 

First, the problem you said you had was because you masked it... not ratting on you for it, I did that the first time and found out the hard way (and the paint I was using was as close of a match as it could be) and it still looked like what you described.

As far as paint - I can't remember the paint code, but yes, I used Duplicolor... the Bright Silver Metallic CC for 2004, the same color as your car. When I re-did mine (without masking) it actually dried and looked like an almost perfect match to the paint that was already on the car. I was actually impressed on how well it matched, you usually don't get a result like that with a rattle-can, but with our color paint it worked.

I suspect that you are right - whoever mixed your paint for you got it wrong. When the Duplicolor dried for me, which didn't take long, it actually had the same light tone and metal sparkle to it that the rest of the car did. In fact, to some extent just the silver Duplicolor looked better matched on the car before I put the clearcoat over it... the only reason I put clearcoat over it was so after I waxed it (a couple weeks later), you could look down the side of the car and see a relatively consistent reflection.

Oh and for a little more detail, it took a few swipes of Duplicolor to cover up my metal and primer underneath (it bled through until I built up enough coats of paint). Also, I had the best results by concentrating my spray to the area I only wanted to paint, but I purposely let the overspray hit the rest of the car (except the windows and trim, I masked them off)... I did this so I could go back later with some fine rubbing compound and blend it all in more, without seeing the effects of the overspray. Caution if you use clearcoat afterwards too, you will have to use it generously and repeat this same process... but I would recommend avoiding the clearcoat unless you feel it's absolutely necessary (it takes just as much work to do if not more than the silver). I will dig up a photo and show you the results on my car.

 

Here's a photo of what I mean... read the captions it's pretty much self-explanatory, but even in the direct sunlight, it shows how well the Duplicolor and clearcoat still blend years later (wow the sunlight REALLY brought out the little dents in the car though).

[IMG]local://upfiles/52694/0BCBAC818ED348A9AA8A92BF1D51E20A.jpg[/IMG]

 

Wow... that's amazing... it looks almost the same... looks blended well! dang... wish mine was like that... So you use duplicolor right? how many coat did you apply? did you sand down the area to be repainted? and since you said not to mask it... then do I just sand a small portion and just spray that area and just let the surround overlap with the factory's clearcoat? and is it very visible that it's still different shade when view up close? or can you barely notice it up close? Thanks man! your paint job looks awesome... I wanted to be able to do something like that... I can spray paint parts... but blending is just something that i'm pretty bad at... can you give me some instructions? like how many mins between coats? and how long before the paint and clear coat... etc... your help would be much much much appreciated!

 

ok well you are gonna have to sand all thay bubbling off first then what i would do is get some blue painters tape and a newspaper and cut a hole in it a little bit bigger than the area you sanded then you need to tape the newspaper on the inside of the hole just outlining where you sanded then you can just tape the outside edges down so the newspaper stays on there nice and tight and you wont have to worry about overspray..... oh btw you are going to need to use a base coat or a primer so that the paint will stick there... i would find out what color your cars' base coat is and use the same... im betting its a grey or white base and you will also need the spray on clear coat and then you will need to either buff the clear coat or wetsand it after two coats of clear that is.... then you should be in bussiness.....

 

Ugh-hem... anyway, yes I used Duplicolor, and it matched almost perfectly. I ended up using the entire 5-ounce can in that area you see between the door and above the wheel well. So total, it was probably about8 to 10coats. The area was completely sanded down beforehand (it had fiberglass and bondo underneath it), and I used just your basic grey body primer. I did not sand anything that already had good paint on it... I let the overspray overlap it, and went back later with rubbing compound and blended the two areas together. I wouldn't wait any more than 10 minutes between coats... I would wait a few hours at least before you apply clearcoat, after your last coat of silver. If you wait more than a few hours, then you will have to wait about half a week to let the silver cure before using clearcoat.

 

Ok, updates guys... I spray painted with duplicolor... and I swear the company (carquest) did a horrible job at color matching because duplicolor matched much better. Here's a few picture... if you look closely you might be able to see the cutoff where i've masked it off... the scratch's not completely off though... so i'll probably redo it again... and I might actually consider repainting the whole bumper too... but for right now... this would do

[IMG]local://upfiles/61470/03EC31DFA5C440D7BA31135F5CF561D3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/61470/05F6608F30B44B279A45CB9F8090ADD4.jpg[/IMG]

 

Here's more

[IMG]local://upfiles/61470/0819E52FAA194D099BF3D1031FDBA7A0.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/61470/AF91699C19F54FABBF6EDB5D70FECA7D.jpg[/IMG]