Not Ranked
I JUST finished spraying mine. Did ALL the work with a friend (he actually sprayed, as he used to own his own body shop). Here's what we did...
1) sanded down all seams and completely removed ALL traces of gel coat
2) Used 2 gallons of Bondo filler to make the lines and curves as perfect as possible. Of course, we sanded off about 1.95 gallons during the process..."wipe on, sand off" was my mantra!
3) Altogether, we sprayed 12 (yes TWELVE) coats of primer. This was the thick stuff that fills all errors! After every two coats, we rubbed it down again with increasingly fine grit paper each time. We started with 80, then went to 150, 220, 400, 600 and then 800.
4) We actually did all this in a regular garage (now VERY VERY dusty!!) and then moved to a paint shop for the final prep sanding and spraying in a booth we 'borrowed' over a weekend from a friend who owns a body shop. Friday night, we taped the whole thing up (3 hours) sprayed the stripe color (Porsche Wimbledon Green Metallic) and one coat of clear and 'baked' it in the paint booth overnight. Saturday morning we taped up the stripe (90 minutes), and painted 3 coats of Jaguar British Racing Green Metallic, followed by 3 coats of the best clear we could buy. Baked it overnight again, and then on Sunday afternoon, rubbed it down with 1500 and then 2000 grit, followed by 4 hours of buffing!
5) Probably took 200 hours of prep work by two completely anal retentive idiots, but the finish is stunning! I will issue sunglasses during the summer for envious people who want to stare at the car...LOL.
6) The paint we used is supposedly one of the best you can get...Spies Hecker
7) I probably spent $2,000 US on paint supplies, sandpaper, Bondo, primer, 'kitty hair', fiberglass and resin, paint, clearcoat etc. etc., and I gave my buddy $2,000 for helping me and doing the actual spraying, but I spent $4,000 and got a $9,000 paint job. Learned an enormous amount, gained a HUGE amount of satisfaction and had a LOT of fun doing it.
7) Do NOT undertake 'painting it yourself' lightly, particularly if you are anal retentive about quality, but GO FOR IT. The 'bragging rights' alone are worth it!
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