Since I got my TL, I disliked the sun damaged paint and rims that enjoyed one too many quickies with curbs. I thought about having the professional job done on the car, but financially it made no sense due to the age of the car. So as a joke I gave me a budget of $100 to re-do the wheels and re-paint the car.

Here is the costs breakdown:

Wheels:
4xBronze Duplicolor. $6.49*4=$25.96
2x Clear Duplicolor. $6.49*2=$12.98
1x O'Reilly Brakes Cleaner. $0.0. I was given this free, due to mix up with my wheel paint order.

Exterior paint:
1x 1 Gallon Rustoleum Gloss Black. $31.98
1x Mineral Spirits. $13.58.


Total $84.50. Here are the pictures of before. I will post after pictures when it is all done.

 

Nice lookin car already. You have access to a paint booth?

 

 

please dont paint your car with rustoleum

 

The before pictures look awesome. I wouldn't use that rustoleum if I were you, as you will never get an even sheen. Just get a clay bar and take your time claying every single square inch of the paint. You will be shocked at the results a clay bar will give you. It will make your paint look like new. That's what I did to my TL and it just glows.
Without the proper spray equipment and automotive paint, you will make your TL look like a redneck car.

 

ok man, stay calm and step away from the car. then visit the detailing part of the forum. read the posts and ask a few questions. youre better off investing that $100 bucks toward a random orbital polisher and a few clay bars. that will take care of the paint.

as for your rims, google around for rim repair. all you need to do is sand, use some filler material, and then paint and they'll look great. you'll lose that machined face on the rims tho.

but please for the love of god stay away from rustoleum for painting the exterior

 

I think the `as a joke` part is key here

you dont need no stinkin spray booth-
just pour the gallon over the roof and spread it out as needed!!

 

yeah a real comedian i thought this thread was started on 4/1

 

4-1 or 4-20 !!

 

Update. I did two coats the wheels on Saturday, around 15 hours of work total. I wanted to sand the coats today, but it was way too hot to do it.

For those knocking on rustoleum, you need to get your homework done before posting. No paint booth is needed, it is rolled on- no dust. It is extremely durable, and when mixed with mineral spirits paint is self-levels. Three, rustoleum paint job relies heavily on sanding it- not paint. With multiple sand downs and massive 1500-2000 wet sanding of the final sixth coat, followed by buffing. That being said, this job relies on patience and a lot of persistence; and as with most people those two ingredients are missing.

Next weekend I will sand the first two coats, apply two more. By the mid may, it should be complete.

 

that actually look pretty good.

 

You should have kept it silver.

 

Might try a DIY on my 99 TL. The paint sucks already, massive clear coat failure, and its my daily driver.

It will have to look better than what it does now. OR I might go the
$300 maaco route since im not worried about looks.

 

plasti dip the whole car!

 

^have considered that also...

just need to see how it holds up to the weather, as i dont wash the car much anymore because of age/mileage. And need to see how much i would need to cover the whole car

I will go with black since the car is already NHBP. I have the tools to do all the prep work myself so it shouldnt be too costly of a project

 

Silver version has a wing and the new black one doesn't?? Unless I missed something about you removing it? I really hope this is a joke..

 

Wing was taken off for the repaint. There is no point in mounting it back until the car is completely done. Or are you implying I posted a different car ? lol.

 

Are you going to have to change your name now to AZblackTL?
lol
but yea it doesnt look too bad, but it seemed that your car looked clean before.

 

Look nice in pic. I'm painting my front and rear bumper too but failed first time so redoing today and going to wet sand & puff next week. Last time paint was not thick enough for sanding so primer came out. Lesson learned so paint a bit thicker and going to use only 1500-2000 to make sure not over sand. I'm using spray can though

 

I'm assuming those are old pics because the paint looked fine on the silver, and didn't have a tint, the new pics shows he has a significantly darker tint. So I stand with my hypothesis, he probably took those pics when he first got the car.

 

im dyin to do my exterior,who ever did it before i got this car f'uped my car

 

Dude come in and yell SIKE before u have people with brushes as cans of paint at their cars.

 

you basically ruined the car.

 

People do this all the time. Looks terrible because it never looks glossy enough and has the orange peel feel.

 

you should have painted it something close to ABP or FPR.

 

Wrong.

This ^^

 

You huffing rustoleum?

x eleventy billion

 

I reserve judgement until the final product.

 

There is a slight possibility that I was implying that...

I don't... It was a dumb move on his part

 

Sure his way is not very orthodox, but how can you bash on something so quickly when you haven't seen the final product yet?

 

it can be done. but the time required to do it this way is just ridiculous. way too much sanding involved.

 

Final pictures. Overall, I would rate this finished product as a C. Total hours spent on it - 30. Difficulty- moderate to high. If I were to advise anyone who is interested in doing this, I would make sure your patience level is very high. I spent hours sanding it, re-applying the coats and it was very tiring. For $100, it looks OK.

Still needs a complete polishing and some glue removal, but it is nearly complete. Be advised, pictures do make it look better than it is in person. There is a fair amount of orange peel on the paint despite the sanding. The amount of time spent on sanding is very very high. I sanded the car for 3 hours after work every day during the week, and with masking-unmasking it was extremely time consuming. I would say that not having a garage could have affected the paint quality for me, but not a lot.

I had previous experience painting cars, and this was done purely for entertainment. I am donating the car at the end of this tax year, so resale value was not a concern for me. That being said, I would not advise anyone to do this to their daily driver unless you have a garage and about 70-80 hours your can dedicate to paint, sanding, and prep work. However, if you are very tight on cash this option is workable. Car does look decent, I would say that quality is on par with Maaco for about 1/3 of the price. It will not win HIN exterior competition, but it looks OK. I asked on the painting forums regarding the turtule wax buffing of the final coat, the time commitment to the buffing in simply outrageous. On spoiler alone I spent two hours trying to get the top perfect and it still needed work.

Verdict for TLDR: finished product rating is C, beginners stay away, would not recommend to anyone who intends to sell the car or wants a showroom finish, moderate to difficult to do.

 

White residue around the edges of doors and undercarriage is the turtle wax polishing compound. Car was not washed yet.

 

That looks pretty bad, but you seem to be able to admit your mistakes - so I'll let it be.

 

any clear coat?

 

 

I would HIGHLY recommend you use something better than turtle wax polishing compound. That stuff for lack of a better word is shit. Get a good polish compound (you are going to need more than one abrasion level and get a good da orbital polisher and go to town. You shouldnt have ANY orange peel if sanded and polished correctly.

 

Turtle wax is fine for this application. Saying that it is shit, doesn't tell me anything. Show me an independent test source that did some quantitative testing on it compared to other brands and I will consider that opinion.

Irony of this thread is that silver paint job that people say is good, was a spray can job of nearly identical quality to the new black job. As I stated in the first post, top coat was was gone (seen from the roof) and it was discolored all around with numerous scratches and paint dandruf, front bumper was pockmarked and pealing (pay attention to fog light condition and front bumper on silver pictures, picture 2),mirrors alone on the old car were nearly white at the top. From what I got, previous owner resprayed the car after the accident that gave it the salvage title. Silver paint is the most "friendly" to hiding defects, this is common in the car world. Spoiler, hood, roof, a-pillars, doors, bottom molding, front bumper and fenders were all pockmarked, scratched.

New $100 paint job looks identical to the silver one, except there are no scratches, pockmarks, scruffs, or discoloration throughout the car. As I said, it looks OK with Maaco-like quality. Compared to the silver paint job that car had it is an improvement. Same goes for the wheels, look at the wheels on the silver car and amount of damage they had. For $30 in paint, it looks way better.

 

You take the time to paint a car with fucking Rustoleum, but you don't even take any pictures close up for us to actually SEE how bad it came out? Cmon dude...

 

Sorry but you ruined the car you should have done nothing or saved up for a real paint job I can see so many problems with that new "paint job" in the pictures. I don't think you should be questioning fsttyms1 when he can really paint a car the correct way as seen when he molded the audi headlights and fog lights into his car. I used turtle wax once and never again it is cheap crap now I use use better stuff like maguires. I waited till you finished it but it does not look good to me at all