New to the forum here. Need a simple answer from the pros, and or anybody.
Can I do it?
To be more specific, can a fella who has never been around automotive painting, order some paint offline and successfully repaint his truck?
I’ve got 2 trucks that need cosmetic attention. An 08 white Chevy that is peeling paint like you would a banana, and a 06 Dodge that from 20 feet away looks great but as you get closer there’s a lot of scratches, scrapes, etc.
Now I’ve been telling myself over and over to just take them down to the body shop and have it done headache free. But besides the fact that I can’t stand paying someone to do what I can, I’ve always wanted to try my hand at automotive painting.
My resources are a 240 volt compressor, Milwaukee sanders, 2 car garage, an older set of Husky HVLPs, YouTube, a willing wife, and I’m 20 years old with a steady hand.

Is it feasible?

Take this with a grain of salt as I am not an expert.

No reason why not to have a go yourself - a lot of resources available these days, but you need to be passionate about wanting to learn so you don't lose interest part way through - it's easy to start stripping paint etc, harder to finish it all.

Whatever you think it will cost….double it.

The main things I would consider:

Are these truck worth much money if you screw it up / can you have them off the road for an extended period of time?

How are you going to safely deal with the isocyanates in the paint (for yourself and your neighbours)?

Do you panel need bodywork as that is another skillset altogether that would need to be learned.

Single phase compressor may struggle to paint a car in one go unless you have a big air tank.

SURE YOU CAN! that's how I started 40 years ago. wow time fly's i have a couple questions, do you know what the CFM of the compressor is (the amount of air it puts out) also is the garage attached to the house?
Jay D.

youre 20 yers old and want to learn how to do this?? hell yes! im justa a hobbiest that hasnt done a full in a few years but had to start somewhere. the MAIN thing i did was learn from the right people HOW to go about it. that includes the people here and another forum, and my sons step dad( who worked 40 years in the skill).something already mentioned:
prep work takes a LOT of time. first vehicle i did,which i prepped, sent off to paint, then colorsanded,buffed, and reassembled, was my sons 96 'stang.
i had about a crapton and a half hours in disassembly and prep for paint. i didnt paint this one because i didnt have the compressor or guns YET. from start to finish i had about 2 craptons and 3/4 hours in it over about 2 months ( son was active duty in afghanistan so i didnt have to rush) but it was dam well worth doing it right the first time. it was in the shop for paint for 2 days(dropped it off friday,went and sanded primer saturday, then bc/cc saturday afternoon/evening)- 2 DAYS for paint yet a LOT of hours getting to that point. a LOT of hours after getting it finished.
for paints/primers, the local jobber had sherwin williams which i wasnt sure about but asked about and didnt hear anything negative. primer, base, and clear were NOT cheap and that was going with a color extremely close to the factory tricoat instead of doing a tri coat. great jobber helped me there.
in all, i had around $2000 in materials but i had a solid straight car to start with.
$2000 might be low. i cant quite remember as that was 12 years ago.

you might want to think of lookin for better quality gun(s). all of the prepwork involved can go to crap when a gun that doesnt lay base and clear good gets used.

20 years old- i read and hear the restoration business is in need of eager young guys getting into the trade.

We all had a "first paint job" at some time in our lives.
I suggest you read the articles in the Info Center that will help you to grasp what you are getting into.
https://www.autobody101.com/content/art ... ould-know/

Thanks for all the response guys! To answer a few of y’all a questions

LittleJerry wrote:
The main things I would consider:

Are these truck worth much money if you screw it up / can you have them off the road for an extended period of time?

How are you going to safely deal with the isocyanates in the paint (for yourself and your neighbours)?

Do you panel need bodywork as that is another skillset altogether that would need to be learned.

Single phase compressor may struggle to paint a car in one go unless you have a big air tank.

I think they both are (my opinion of course). The Dodge is 4wd with the Cummins Diesel engine, and the Chevy is a loaded crew cab z71. And if I do one at time I think spare it.

I live out in the country so neighbors aren’t to big of a concern, my own safety has been in the question.

The Chevy, no, the Dodge would need only minor body to to fill in a few dings.

My compressor is a 60 gallon with a cfm of around 15 if I remember right.

The garage is a few feet from the house, so no it is not attached.

Time? How much time are we talking? If I take a week off work to do it could it be done? Start prepping Sunday, roll out on Sunday?
Seems like I could get it sanded and prepped by Tuesday, and go from there.
I’m probably thinking it’s more simple than it is.

Thanks for the link, I’ll start reading up.

Of course, you can do it, but you must want to do it. Like others have said, everyone started somewhere. It is definitely different now with people freely sharing their years of knowledge as opposed to when I was young and you had to either work in the industry or know someone that did – and hope that they weren’t some spun out meth head!

If saving money on these two trucks is your only motivation, then just pass on it now and don’t waste your time. This is not a cheap hobby with the tools and materials investment required.

A partial list of tools/materials that you will eventually need: Guns, gun cleaner, hose, air compressor, air filtration system, sandpaper from 80 to 1000, sanding blocks/pads, DA, DA sandpaper, primers epoxy, HB, Poly, base coat, clear coat, paper towels, gloves, respirator, tape, paper, paint suit/jacket (helps a lot with dust), loud music, razor blades, mixing cups, mixing sticks, paint strainers (your local jobber will sometimes toss those in)

So many beginners want to use a POS HF purple gun or a Devilbiss Starting Line set with their dad’s little pancake nail gun compressor. While some of these experts can get a good finish using cheap crap guns, get a cheap gun to start with (ANI or Air Gunza etc.), then get a good gun (Devilbiss, Sata, Iwata, Sagola), It makes spraying so much easier – that is coming from personal experience. When you have a good gun save the cheap gun for poly primers. A good gun that is going to be used is cheap compared to the consumables on a project.

If you want to spend the time and money and learn a new hobby, then this is the place. These guys on this forum helped me SO much, I went from total newbie weekender hack rookie to not so newbie weekender hack rookie, but at least my friends are impressed with my little projects. I wish that I had started when I was 20. Good luck!

just spraying that dodge is going to be a big job. the color won't work with you, but I would almost spray the box then cover it and spray the cab. better yet would be to do the box then the top of the cab then the rest of the body. I would worry about color match between the cab and box, it should come out good though. you can change the way that charcoal met. looks just by the way you spray it on.
Jay D.