Civic EG

in looking at repainting my coupe. but im on a budget and was woundering if some one could give me information on the prep work and what i would need to do it

u need a place to paint the car thats dust free and clean. sand the area u want to paint and wipe down with a prep cloth. paint the primer and then wet sand with 800 grit. wipe down and apply as many coats of paint as desired and wait to dry. then apply as many coats of the clearcoat as u desire and wait to dry. if your doing all the painting yourself youll need a paint gun and compressor, the paint color u want, primer, clercoat and activator, sandpaper, and patience. if its your first time practice on something else. good luck.

I'm on the same road as you are but my car is on primer now. What I did was I sanded down the body to the primer(I mean the original primer) by using my orbital sander, be careful when you use one tho 'coz it tends to oversand parts of your car.

Patience is needed too because even if you have an electric sander, you still have to manually do some parts specially corners and whatnot. And for the grit that I used on the orbital sander, I went for 200. I know it's still a bit coarse but it turned out really smooth maybe because I was using an orbital sander. But usually you should use 400-600 grit.

And for the final sanding before paint, as ikon said, wet sand the whole car with 800 grit. I didn't do mine yet but that is what I'm going to.

As for painting the whole car, I'm gonna bring it to a professional here locally who's doing side jobs away from his workplace. He's asking for $1000 for the whole car, any color that I want. I thought it was pretty cheap considering the paint shops here are quoting me roughly $3000 for the color that I want.

I hope all goes well with your paint work, it's fun to prep you car yourself. Just be patient. Remember, most of the work achieved to get a good paint job comes from a good prep work.

yea im working on getting quotes right now.. and thanks for all the help

Sounds about good, and u can paint your car in a BIG + car garage if u want ! i have done it.

Just some tips, get some big plastic and put t on the walls so u don't get dust etc all over, then after body work, get all the walls and floors wet, this way all the sand particles and dirt settles down and doesn't go up with the paint, make sure u have a few fans for ventilation and that's how a garage paint job is done !! ,

after paint wet sand with 1500 grit sand paper, then get Buffing compound { yellow color} buff it, then get polish { polish is baby blue color} then u want to get some SWIRL mark remover use that and your car will be like a mirror !!!

I suggest using a high speed buffer u can pick a non-brand name one up for under 50$ and they work the same.

Oh also u can just prime and then base and clear OR after primer u can get sealer if u have an extra 50-80 to spend.

Good luck and post pictures when your done !

btw if you have rubbed down to the metal make sure you etch prime the metal and then normal prime or the rust will come back easy.

i car my car paint for only $300 like you see below...i wanted something different, because you see so many civics around here where i live so i wanted something youd never see again...i like it and not bad for the price

That scheme makes me want to kick a kitten.


want to be unique? Go with a clean, refined look. Thats not something you see everyday.


But if it floats your boat...

ikon wrote:u need a place to paint the car thats dust free and clean. sand the area u want to paint and wipe down with a prep cloth. paint the primer and then wet sand with 800 grit. wipe down and apply as many coats of paint as desired and wait to dry. then apply as many coats of the clearcoat as u desire and wait to dry. if your doing all the painting yourself youll need a paint gun and compressor, the paint color u want, primer, clercoat and activator, sandpaper, and patience. if its your first time practice on something else. good luck.

I wouldn't use a prep cloth, I'd use wax and grease remover and a nice clean cloth.

Make sure there is no shine where you are going to be applying paint. If you do not, the paint will pop off very quickly.

When you apply the primer, one or two coats is all you need. Depending on the condition already, you will want to then spray a guide coat of a different color on top of the primer and sand it with 400. This will show imperfections.

Once you think you have all of the imperfections done, you may continue.

If you have went to metal in the sanding to get rid of imperfections, spray another layer of primer over it. If not, get the paint ready.

I wouldn't go any finer than 400 for the paint. The only time I do finer than 400 is with a scotch brite.

Use wax and grease remover again. Use a few rags so you don't just keep wiping with a dirty rag. Once you do that, use a tack cloth over the whole thing. Let the weight of the cloth do the work, don't put your own pressure on it rubbing it.

Get the paint ready, and spray away. You do not want to do too many layers because after so many mills of paint you will be fucked. If it's spray paint or a single state, 2-3 coats is fine. If you are using a daily driver with 2-3 layers of color and then 2-3 layers of clear on top of the old paint already, I hope you plan on repainting the car soon.

I'm actually working on painting my hatch right now. It is primed outside and all taped up. I'm doing it with spray paint right now because I do not have the shop items where I'm at now to paint it with PPG paints and do not have a week that I can go without driving it. It'll still look nice, I do believe, for a few months until I can get it taken to the shop though. I'll be putting the color on it tomorrow in the morning. I'll try to get pictures up after. I wished I made a 'DIY' for others, but I was in such a rush to get it started the past two days because I can leave out for another job at any time and didn't have time to shop and take pictures.

It cost about $150 for the supplies/paint to paint the car, but about $100 of that was in tools and supplies that will last a few more cars. I'm pretty sure that my brother will ask me to do his too after he sees mine, so after I ask him for $100-$150 to paint his car too I'll have painted mine for free and still have supplies/tools to do a few more cars.

Oh, and I am a recent graduate for Autobody Repair

elementnblind wrote:i car my car paint for only $300 like you see below...i wanted something different, because you see so many civics around here where i live so i wanted something youd never see again...i like it and not bad for the price

pretty sweet job, I would of went with a straight line tho when you go two tone, either way its good job for the price.