White is difficult because it's hard to match and even the slightest dust nib shows up against the white. Black is difficult because it looks like crap unless polished to a high gloss and, if you do this, the slightest imperfection in the surface dents/scratches/sanding scratches/dust nibs/dry areas/excessive peel/whatever stands out like the proverbial. With black you really have to work hard, from the bodywork stage, to get it looking even half good.

Jay suggested that with age and condition it would have dings all over and I'd agree 100%. Fixing these is not a case of waiting until you're sanding high fill primer - they need to be addressed at the bare metal or epoxy stage, i.e. right at the beginning. Same with any rust.

The other issue is that you're proposing a colour change. That means you have to paint inside doors, door jambs, under bonnet and boot lid and a dozen other places that are all hard to get to, let alone the extra work in removing and refitting all the doors/panels/seals/trims/lights etc. Have you really thought this through? To do a closed door respray in the same colour I'd be looking at 100-120 hours, excluding repairs. To do a colour change you can pretty much triple that. And that's time for me, with many years of experience. For someone new to the trade it might be double that again..... and then you have to factor in the time and cost for reworks - because there will be some.

Do you have somewhere suitable to spray that is clean and properly ventilated? For black you are going to need a decent facility. Have you factored in that cost, or maybe the cost of transporting the vehicle to a booth you can rent?

I'm not trying to talk you out of this; I just want you to go into it with your eyes open. There's a Facebook page that I subscribe to which is entitled "Unfinished Projects - Australia". Literally hundreds of cars on there that people have bought/started and run out of either cash or time or motivation. Most of them lose money when they sell.

Think carefully. If you decide that you're willing to put in the time, effort and expense then I can guarantee there will be lots of people here that will be happy to give you help and guidance along the way.

Good info, a lot to consider for sure.

Paint booth yes, and overall cost isn't really a concern because this just a project car that I'm going to try and do. Like a personal goal of mine, I've always had a weird thing for seeing people accomplish a DIY project and say "Hey, look at me. I didn't know what the hell I was doing and I'm proud of what I accomplished."

It's a 98 Lexus GS400, has 190k miles on it, it gets driven like once a month at most. So I'm in no rush to make anything happen with it, you know? Hopefully I can be done by Summer if I spend weekends on it and time in between since I work from home.

There's a couple of smaller shops here in San Antonio local to me that said they'd rent out their booths on the weekends when it's time to paint, so I'm good with that!

That all being said, you might be right on how difficult black/white would be just in general, do you recommend an easier color?

I have a family member who's pretty mechanically inclined and painted an old VW Beetle into an incredible looking dark purple/blue mix, but he did that like 15+ years ago. So I'm not sure if he's using methods that would make everyone here cringe lol. But I'm definitely excited for the challenge, that's for sure.

I'm almost positive, that no matter the result, it's still going to be far better than what it looks like right now lol.

Colour recommendation? Depends on personal preference. I like mid to dark blues, especially those with interesting metallics or pearls and the classic sky blue. I love reds, especially those classic fire engine and Italian reds but also the Mazda 41V/46V candies (and some of the copies), but they're much harder for a novice. I don't like greens, other than British Racing Green, but some are easy to paint.

Generally when people ask me what colour car to buy I tell them to look at something in the middle. Mid to dark grey metallics, blues, greens and reds.Nice as they are, leave the candies and extreme flake pearls. Blacks get dirty before you finish washing them and whites are boring - commercial vehicles and sales rep cars. Birds also have a tendency to use them for target practice.

If that car was mine what colour would I paint it? I'd stick with the Old Man Beige that it is now. It's a nice car and quite luxurious, smooth and powerful but not really worth all that much especially with over 300,000km on it. I couldn't justify the cost of a colour change, but it's not my car and I don't get to make that decision.

Find a colour you like and go with it. If your heart is set on black then paint it black. My job is just to educate you and I've done that. Now it's up to you.

NFT5 wrote:
Find a colour you like and go with it. If your heart is set on black then paint it black. My job is just to educate you and I've done that. Now it's up to you.

You know what, this car was absolutely gorgeous before it was neglected and the paint died.

Being that I bought that black primer, can I still use that if I were to use the same color? I remember reading somewhere that black primers are only to be used for dark greys/blacks.

But then again, this primer is going on top of the metal, not the 2k primer, so... ? Maybe it'll work?

Because I might just say screw it and paint it the same color now that I really think about it.

Suh Doo wrote:can I still use that if I were to use the same color?

Of course you can. The concept of shading primers is to enable accurate colourmatching, without excessive use of base coat, when doing repairs. If you're doing a complete respray you don't have to match anything. Or you can use a light coloured sealer under the base coat.