Ed Hall Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 The paint on my 1988 Eldorado was getting a bit ratty so I decided to give it a quick paint job. This time, I painted it a darker shade of blue called Royal Blue Pearl for something slightly different. I painted it outside right where the picture was taken under a tarp canopy to keep the sun off. It was painted as soon as the outside temperature got to around 75 degrees. I painted 2 coats of base coat (Royal Blue Pearl) and 1 thick coat of clear coat. It took about 1 quart of base coat and 1 quart of clear to cover the car. I used Kirker base coat paint and SPI production clear. Total cost for the materials was around $50. Labor was about 3 days. 1 day for the sanding, 1 day for removing and re-installing trim, rubbers, etc. and 1 day for the painting. This time, I used much higher quality clear so I expect it to stay looking nice for a lot longer. Next on the agenda is installing new seats from an Audi. The original seats have seen better days and the Audi seats are of much better quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lothos Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 looks good! What kind of equipment do you use to paint it? WARNING: I'm a total car newbie, don't be surprised if I ask a stupid question! Just trying to learn. Cheers! 5% discount code at RockAuto.com - click here for your discount! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BodybyFisher Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Very nice Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1 >> 1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/ Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igotaseed Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Nice color! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hall Posted August 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 looks good! What kind of equipment do you use to paint it? I'm using a 3 hp Craftsman air compressor (15 gallon tank) behind a Harbor Freight $50 spray gun (http://www.harborfre...-kit-94572.html). I also have a digital pressure regulator right at the gun so I can monitor and adjust pressure accordingly (http://www.harborfre...ator-68245.html). Having the correct pressure at the spray gun is very important for atomization. I also use a good carbon filter so I don't have to breath any of that stuff. However, the paint and clear coat I use has very little VOC so I get very little smell compared to the old stuff. Also, I used a quarter sheet orbital sander to sand the whole car (http://www.harborfre...nder-95020.html). I sanded with 220 followed by 400. Anyways, as you can see it takes nothing special or expensive to paint a car. It takes mainly patience. Once you start painting your own car, it grows on you and it actually becomes something fun and enjoyable. This is about the 5th car I've done so far. Each time, I get a little better. Very nice Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adallak Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 wow! great job! nice color. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 I like it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Nice Job! I used to love to paint cars but have been scared away by the price of quality paint and equipment. I'd really like to repaint the front bumper or at least do nick repairs on the Diamond White Tri-coat of my 2008 DTS. Do you think the Harbor Freight spray equipment that you used would work for that? Never underestimate the amount of a persons greed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hall Posted August 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 Nice Job! I used to love to paint cars but have been scared away by the price of quality paint and equipment. I'd really like to repaint the front bumper or at least do nick repairs on the Diamond White Tri-coat of my 2008 DTS. Do you think the Harbor Freight spray equipment that you used would work for that? Diamond White Tri-coat should not be that much different from the pearl blue that I sprayed. The biggest issue is tiger striping. There are different tricks to alleviate the issue such as fogging the panel just after laying down the final coat. I got a slight amount of tiger striping on the hood so I used the fog trick and that took care of that issue. Regarding spray guns, the Harbor Freight gun I listed is pretty much identical to a highly respectable Devilbiss Finishline. If you want a better gun, then you would have to spring for an Iwata or Sata which are over $500. Yes, paint can be expensive however, it's possible this diamond pearl white might be identical. http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/kirker-ultra-glo-diamond-pearl-series-acrylic-urethane-enamel-arctic-blast-pearl-ua-81044-p-16262.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adallak Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 I think the paint of Cadilacs is amazing. I rarely see a Cadillac with pilled off paint or discolored exterior. Cannot say the same about Mercedeses. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfangd Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 beautiful. Love the color. Thanks for posting GM FAN FOREVER Nice, clean, luxury= fine automobile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igotaseed Posted August 21, 2012 Report Share Posted August 21, 2012 The job looks great. Have you every made a tutorial video? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterset Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 Did you add a special solution to the paint for the flex bumpers? - I understand that additive is necessary and very expensive. otherwise if the bumper gets compressed, without this additive, the paint will crack and chip off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airmike Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 bumpers are not really made for bumping you know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hall Posted August 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2012 Did you add a special solution to the paint for the flex bumpers? - I understand that additive is necessary and very expensive. otherwise if the bumper gets compressed, without this additive, the paint will crack and chip off. No, I did not add the special solution. The previous paint also did not have the special solution and it held just fine on the bumper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeb Posted September 1, 2012 Report Share Posted September 1, 2012 is this first repaint on top of original paint or 2nd repaint? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hall Posted September 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2012 is this first repaint on top of original paint or 2nd repaint? It's the 2nd repaint. This time, I used much higher quality clear coat so we'll see how long it lasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ted tcb Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Nice job. I realize you can never achieve factory quality as an amateur, but is it pretty close? How tough is it to keep airborne dust out of the paint when you don't have access to a booth? Regardless, looks great in the pics. I've always wanted to attempt this. 1989 FWD Fleetwood, Silver 1995 STS Crimson Pearl on Black leather 1997 STS Diamond White 1999 STS Crimson Pearl 2001 STS Silver 2003 STS, Crimson Pearl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Looks great Ed! -Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Hall Posted September 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 Nice job. I realize you can never achieve factory quality as an amateur, but is it pretty close? How tough is it to keep airborne dust out of the paint when you don't have access to a booth? Regardless, looks great in the pics. I've always wanted to attempt this. Actually, it's not that hard to achieve a nicer paint job than factory. Factory paint jobs tend to have lots of orange peel and the paint is so thin that it doesn't take much time to buff through the paint. This paint job was what I call a quick paint job. I did not bother to pull off all the trim, chrome and bumpers. I just masked it and painted right over the old paint. It looks very good to the untrained eye but an expert could quickly identify that it has been repainted. If you want a top quality paint job, you would strip all the old paint off down to bare metal then prime with epoxy primer. Afterwards, you would do all your body work and prime with 2k primer. You would then block sand it and repeat the process until all the panels are perfectly smooth and straight. Then would come the basecoat paint then finally 6 coats of clear. Afterwards, you would cut and buff the entire car so that the paint is as smooth as glass. So what would it cost for this type of paint job? Between $6k and $20k. There is a lot of labor involved to do this level of work. Believe it or not, the actual painting is the easy part. I've never had issues with airborne dust painting outside. The thing is 80% of the dust is caused by the operator. To minimize dust issues, I do pressure wash the car before I start the project and I also blow off the car very thoroughly before I paint it. The biggest issue painting outside is bugs. I keep a pair of tweezers in my pocket to pull out bugs between each coat. When I painted my Suburban, I must have had to pull out 30 bugs. I also had to repaint the hood because a bee landed on the hood while it was still drying. Here's a photo of the hood right from the gun and the final product. The paint job is much better than factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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