Hi everyone, new to this site. I have a '91 Mazda Miata that I want to paint myself. I've been doing a ton of research and I think I have a pretty good understand of what this project requires, but I wanted to post here first to make sure that I have reasonable expectations, and also so you can help me decide what to buy! Let me introduce you to the car first:


Not bad, right?

Wrong, it's hideous. It's 5 shades of red plus a black quarter panel.

So basically, the car's a bit of a beater and a track car, so I just want to get it looking decent for a reasonable price. Plus, I'm a bored college student with another month off and nothing to do. The body is pretty straight with the exception of a few dozen door dings and one larger dent behind the passenger door that should partially pop out. I don't want to strip it, I just plan on sanding and filling all the dents as necessary over the factory paint, then priming and painting.

I've put together a list of everything I think I'll need to do this job:

So I'm looking at around 800 bucks total. Is this a reasonable number? Is there anything major I've missed on my list? If that cost is going to double by the end, I don't want to take the plunge, but I can live with dropping a grand on the car.

The big points: I can rent a paint booth, should save a lot of hassle. Plan on using TCP Global's Restoration Shop Acrylic Urethane single stage paint, in the factory red. SS is good enough for this car, and cheaper. Primer, I don't know what kind yet but hope to just use one type to save $, will ask advice later. Lots of misc supplies, they add up quick!

To start: I need filler and sandpaper. Apparently Bondo sucks, but I hesitate to spend $60 on a gallon of Rage. Are there any decent cheaper alternatives, like Evercoat's lightweight filler? Do I need a gallon? (this car is tiny, maybe 2-3 dozen door dings and a few slightly larger dents). Sanding: should I get a cheap orbital (electric, I don't have enough air) or do everything by hand with a block? I can figure out what grits to get, but how much? I found onlineindustrialsupply.com selling sheets or discs for about $15/50-pack. I would think 50 sheets of decent quality would be more than enough for this project? How about a 25 pack if I find them?

I'd really like to start this week! I'll need that sandpaper and filler though. Any input on those would be greatly appreciated! Insight on my projected cost would be great too. Thanks guys, this site is a great resource! And sorry for the long post!

Welcome to the forums.

Your plan sounds reasonable. You don't need expensive filler for this job, see if your jobber sells a lower cost product. Even the auto-store "bondo" kits are not horrible for small repairs like that.

5 quarts of single stage should be enough to paint that car twice

Thanks! Well I decided to go ahead and give this a shot. Visited the local shop and picked up some Evercoat Edge Gold 501 and a few other things. I never saw that particular product on the internet but the guy recommended it for a low cost option. So far it's definitely better than standard Bondo, so good enough for me! I got two panels done this afternoon, the body actually isn't that bad. I'll have to order paint pretty soon!

If you have panels on the car that don't require bodywork, you can just use scuffing paste and a red scothbrite to prep them, no need for primer on those panels. Wash the car thoroughly (2 or 3 times) with dawn dish soap before you do anything, when the water doesnt bead up it's clean enough. Wax and Grease remover is OK, but I generally just use a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water or original windex to clean panels for paint.

First wash it with purple power,comet, and a red scotch pad.
Take any of your repair work down to a blocked 180 grit scratch. Prime those and block at least once. Use guide coat for all that sanding. Then water sand entire car with 500. Wash everywhere with strong soap. I use Purple power. Let dry a day. Wrap and paint. I use a strong mixtire of ammonia and water for final wipe down. With ample flash/dry time before tack and spray. A cheap hand held pump up sprayer works awesome for this.

welcome, nice little project, i have always wanted a mx5 (what we call them in australia) with a 13bt!!
anyways, goto your local library, which shouldnt be a hassle if your a uni student, and look up painting, or custom painting, grab a heap of books and look for 1 with heaps of pics and captions, i have 1 called "how to paint your show car" which is a bit over the top, but it will explain things in great detail and tons of pics,
dont get me wrong, this forum and others are absolutely brilliant and the guys are great, but for speedy replies and advice, the book will be there ready for you, and its way easier to actually see wat ppl mean when there are pics handy!!
with the advice from here and also the book you wont go wrong,
but heres wat i would do
take the car to a car wash and wash the absolute crap out of it, use degreaser and just go for it,
take off all bits you dont want painted or scratched from your prep work
wipe it all down with a metho/water mix and then wax and grease remover (remember to not allow this to dry on the car, wipe on and dry off with a clean dry rag!!)
make all dints and dents you can see and pop out the 1s you can, then i would get a good size block (balsa wood is great and cheap) wrap some 320 dry rub around the block and gently go over the whole car till its all scuffed up, this will also show up the dents that are left, (use some cotton gloves when sanding, as you will sand thru your skin!! lol, and it hurts!!)
get some 80g dry paper and scuff up the dents really good in and around them so the filler will have something to bond to.
clean with some w&g remover, let if sit for a while and mix up some filler and fill the dent in and around it by around 50% bigger than size of the dent, try to get it on neat and no thick edges, will make it easier to sand.
block the filler out with 80g till its flat, this will take a few times for beginners, which is no big issue, on the last round of filler, i like to use a skim coat over and past the last lot of filler and the 80g scratches, really pushing it into the scratches (its easier with a fine polyester) and when it sets up, block with 180 and then 240, then prime these areas going out further than the filller.
let it set up and then rub some powdered guide coat over the primer, block with 320 dry till the primer is nice and flat and feathered out with the rest of the paint, dry guide coat the whole car and then wet rub with some 600 to get rid of the 320 scratches, you will see the guide coat in the scratches dissapear, always use a block, a palm sized block is good for wet rubbing.
clean, mask and paint, easy as!!
and post up heaps of pics!!
krem

Thanks for all the replies! Well I spent all week doing the body work and I'm pretty much done with the filler. The body really wasn't bad, except for a basketball sized dent behind the passenger door. Luckily I was able to pop it out most of the way. I had to reshape the body line by hand though, but it came out pretty decent. The trunklid was pretty terrible, it had a luggage rack on it at some point and was wavy as heck. If it turns out poorly I'll just have to get another 'lid.







I need some advice on what primer to get. I just want to use one type if possible. I'm thinking a high build would be a good idea. I only have a few bare metal spots to cover (which I hit with rattle can primer), ecoat here and there, and lots of factory primer exposed. I figured I'd prime the whole car rather than spots, just for uniformity, and to eliminate flaws in the original finish. Is high build the right stuff to use in this situation? Eastwood has some reasonably priced priced kits, any good? Would a gallon kit be enough for this little car? The thick stuff must go quickly.

I'll call up the store tomorrow and see what they have and recommend. Also, I have a Kobalt (Lowes' brand) HVLP with a 1.5 tip. Is that too small for primer? Should I pick up a cheap 2.0 or 2.2 for primer duty?

I am not a pro but 1 gal should be plenty.

Keep us updated. I love to watch these projects.

Also, if you're gonna spray high build I'd get cheapo gun with a bigger tip, but that's just me. I'm just replying because no one else has lol. Maybe an actual painter will reply....

the tamco primer available on this forum is sposed to be great and extreemly well priced, maybe ask chris about this
for a high build a 1.8mm tip is sufficient, a 1.5 would be fine for normal primer duties tho.
pls dont buy the cheapest gun available as the spray pattern for primer is also important, if the spray pattern is off, heavy on one side it can lead to implications later on down the track.
if your primering the whole car, i would shoot a coat or 2 on the repair areas 1st and then the whole lot, just to give the reapir area a little more coverage to help feather out the repair (this might not be the right way, but i have done it for the last 10 yrs or so and its worked well for me).
if your wanting or needing primer to go on thick, really thick, youd be best to use some spray polyester (if legal in your state) as its designed to be put on thick, ppl think they can spray high fill on thick but it leads to problems later on, spray poly is like sprayable bondo, but you will need a big tip, i use a 2.5mm, and once you mix it you only have around 15mins before it starts going hard, BUT, its bloody awesome stuff, great to sand, but you need a sealer or primer over the top before paint!!
my primer gun is a multi task gun, its a workquip, came with 3 tips, 1.4, 1.8 and 2.5 and was cheapish, around $99 aus and has great after sales backup, sprays really well, a mate bought 1 and painted his harley in candy red and it came out real nice!!
by the looks of it, your going well, keep it up
and keep the pics comming
krem

^ Thanks again man. I spent literally all day yesterday staring at this computer and reading about this stuff, I have a little better grasp on primers now though. I don't think I need to go to the extreme of a polyester. I assume that is more for when you have a lot of filler spots you want to make sure are feathered well, or lots of scratches/chips in the old finish? Pretty much all of my chips and scratches were just to primer, so I sanded those areas down the the primer and they seemed to smooth out nicely.

I think just going over everything with a regular 2k urethane primer (would that be a sealer?) would be in line with my goals. I only want to use one product that I can put color over. Plus, being able to run something lower build thru my 1.5 gun would be nice. Any primer should be able to fill 220 scratches, right? The Tamco stuff is as cheap as anything else online, and judging by feedback, is pretty great. I was hoping to prime this weekend, so I'm going to check what I can get locally tomorrow, and ask their advice as well.

And paint... 3.5qt of Sherwin Williams for $250 locally vs. 5qt from TCP Global for $300. If TCP then I need to get the order in ASAP. hmm....