Camry Project Car, all input is greatly appreciated!

[rusty15628]

Hey guys, I am a new user here on Toyotanation and I am a current student at UC Santa Barbara. Since my junior year in high school I have owned a 1995 (Gen 3.5) Camry and I love this car! haha. But it was past down to me from my father who didnt exactly take the best of car of the exterior of the car, so it was become more or less a project car for me. Im fixing up the interior and the exterior but what really needs some work is the paint. It is oxidizing everywhere on the roof and on the hood of the car. Seeing as it is a project car for me, I was wanting to do the prep work and the painting myself. I was wondering what you guys thought of this idea? haha.

What is the best way to go about this?
Im also going to paint it the original color which is a dark green.

I have christmas break going up soon and its about 3 weeks long. Do you think I can complete the prep work and the painting within that time frame?

Also, do you think it would be fine to make my own paint booth in the my gaurage?

Any input you guys have would be great!
Thanks for everything guys

[Zviator]

Welcome to the "can't leave it alone can't u" club.

If u dont have any first hand experience on painting, I seriously recomend u let a local shop handle it. Spay cans work well on plastic or fiberglass trim accessories, but when it come down to metal, u need serious pro equippments.

If u do a search on this section, there might pop up a thread of a guy name johnson who did the paintjob in his garage, total estimated for equippments was some what 2k+ ... I had my car painted for $500 by a friend mechanic, and he charged for materials only ...

For the color choice, I would say it all depends on the interior. If u have dark blue or grey interior, it play well only any other exterior color. If u have tan interior (like mine), I would say better go for some classic outlook such as tan, black dark red or brown. Overall, lighter colors hide flaw better than dark colors.

Meanwhile,

[bigbird]

first if your gonna paint then youll NEED a compressor and paint sprayer. if you use your garage then make sure you have POWERED ventilation system WITH some sort of filteration as part of a plastic enclosure. id advise that you make an enclose workspace inside the garage around teh car, with the fans attached to circulate air to keep out dust.

me and my budy did this with 2 box fans. one drew air in with universal HVAC filter attatched to it and the other pushed it out. also...practice practice practice.

[Zviator]

And the main reason for ventilation is to push all the little paint dust out instead of letting flying around and catch on the wet paint surface, it's not about u not being able to breath, we dont care about u, lol.

[rusty15628]

Hahahaha, thanks a lot. Yeah, Im not in the hurt box for money or anything.......its just I want to do the job myself I guess hahaha. Yeah the pictures will be posted, I took some the other day and I have to find the cord to upload them to my computer. I shall most them when I can. Also, the oxidation is pretty bad on the car so there is nothing I can do but paint the car. Can I have more info on preparing the car for paint? I know that there are several ways to take paint of the car but which one is the most effective and the safest for the car's body. Ive done research, just curious to what you guys think. I think I trust you guys more than a couple of miscellaneous websites hahaha.
So get back at me guys,
Thanks!

[Kep]

It sounds like you want to do a better job than this but I've always been fascinated with this thread. Check out: did the $50 rustoleum paint job

Kep

[Zviator]

Originally Posted by Kep

It sounds like you want to do a better job than this but I've always been fascinated with this thread. Check out: did the $50 rustoleum paint job

Kep

Holy mommy, he used a ROLLER

[bigbird]

well since its oxidizing in some places then i personally would want to sand down to the primer, apply another coat of primer and then apply paint. make sure you sand between each step. id also wait to setup your paint room after you are finished sanding down the car to the primer.

[eddie926]

How bad is the paint? You might be able to do wonders with just a buffer and some high quality polishes.

[bigbird]

if its oxidixing then yeah buffing and ploishing will help but in the end the paint would have to be removed to cure the problem. i have to keep my hood nice and waxed and clean to keep the paint from oxidiziong further but if i let it go it will come back like herpies.

[ECale3]

^ spellink pwns joo bird!

[rusty15628]

No buffing and waxing wont do much when you have about 1/4 of a clear coat on the roof of your car hahaha. How would I go about sanding it down to the primer?
My hood is the same way hahaha. By the way, I found the cord to my camera and I will upload the pictures in a couple of hours.

[rusty15628]

So here are some pictures, my car is really dirty right now because I live pretty close to the beach and we have been having some crazy wind over here. But by the end of this year I want to get the car painted, replace the headlights, get the euro clear bumper lights, and to get the hubcaps to look like new (rims are out of my price range for everything that I want to get done with the car). In the exterior I have alreay started the light conversion for the dash, HVAC unit, and the ac/defrost/flashers (which should be finished today!!!!! So excited hahaha). Another thing that should happen by christmas break is getting GPS installed......Got some work ahead of me, but like I said.......this camry means a lot to me.

[Zviator]

Wow , I've seen this kind of stuff before. It usually happens to people who wash their car with dish washer detergent.

Funny thing is that u will only see it on flat horizontal surface like hood, roof and trunk. My next ride will be convertible, with CF hood and trunk Less area to wash and wax, lol.