About a year ago some lame-*** hit my car in the middle of the night and drove off, without leaving a note of course (thanks a lot dillweed ). Now I have a nice dent/crease in the front drivers side fender. Some of the paint chipped off and since I never covered it with touch-up paint(tacky) the fender is starting to rust. I have a few run of the mill door dings and such and the paint on my front bumper seems to be super thin since there are tons of rock chips in the paint. I've been toying with the idea of replacing the fender and doing a full car paint job, but every resource I find has different things to say about the level of difficulty when doing a DIY car paint job.

Is there anyone here who has experience with this? Is it really that difficult to do and do well? What equipment, supplies, and paint do you use? Is it worth it?

Thanks in advance.

 

This is about the only thing I don't know how to do. (afraid to do) I wish I could though because I have a huge dent on my trunk from a hit and run also. And my fender has a few nasty imperfections that need to be taken care of.

 

i've actually done a bunch of research because i wanted to do some touch up work on rock chips and i have a dent in my driver's side door from someone kicking it in.

All the stuff I've seen and researched is pretty difficult and not that easy to "blend" your repair work with the rest of the car.

now replacing the bumper and re-painting the whole car maybe be very difficult from what i gather, especially if you want it to look good. it's all about having the right tools for the job and most of these tools aren't cheap. even getting good paint and a good primer is expensive and then again there's lots of sanding between coats to make sure you get a smooth finish. they say it's best to set up a home paint booth (hanging tarps and such around the garage to seal you in to keep dust away).

i guess i'm no help because i haven't done the job myself but what i've researched it just looked beyond my means and abilities.

if you have the coverage you may be able to get your insurance to pay but then there's the deductible and then you wonder if your insurance goes up because you "made a claim".

i hope you find what works best for you. there's a lot of "how to paint your car" videos on youtube and i watched a bunch of them, it really comes down to having the proper tools to make the job easier and look better.

good luck.

 

Ive done just about everything on cars with success normally but bodywork I just cant master.

You really need a real good paint setup, quality equipment and a good work area .

I have had good luck with spoiler painting and other minor fixes with spray paint from automotivetouchup.com on my other cars, but on my 10 year old sterling mist maxima spray bombs cant get the match right. Paint is so much darker from the can. I guess just due to age of my current paint ? or silver is just a tough color.

 

Full on paint is something I wouldn't touch. You need to know what your doing, (ie previous experience), and the proper tools, facility. Otherwise, you might as well take a roller to it.

 

Yeah I have the same color is you Sterling Mist, and yes you won't find a paint that will match perfectly(even buying our paint code from Nissan) its because the sun has faded the paint all of these years. And to make things better Silver is one of the toughest colors to match.

And to the OP, if you wanted it done right to fix your fender the really only good looking fix to your problem is to bring it to a bodyshop. As stated by other people already, body work is something extremely tuff to master and takes years.

 

Yeah, I had no intention of even attempting to "blend" which would be way above me for sure. That's why I was thinking of just repainting the entire car the same color. My max color is Sunlit Sand Metallic (sort of gold) and I talked to someone in an auto paint store that said that golds are a difficult color to match. Another reason I wanted to just paint the whole thing.

Everything I've seen is right in line. It seems that a lot of a good paint job is the amount of prep that's put into it. 90% prep 10% paint. I'd be willing to pay the money for the equipment if I knew I could do a good paint job since it would be quite a bit cheaper than paying someone else to do it, but then there's no guarantee I don't end up with a bunch of paint equipment and craptastic paint job on my car.

Maybe I'll try and find someone I "know" who has paint equipment and do some tests on a junk body part and see if it's even worth attempting.

Thanks for the input!

 

The reason why the paint won't match is because the paint from different companies...like dupont,ppg,sikens all have different formulas.....every paint code from the factory has variants in the code........everyone of them is the same color just with very slight differences......the best way to match the paint is to go to a auto paint supply store and have them match or go to a body shop and have them match it......really aint all that bad......and guys come on now body work ain't all that bad, it just takes practice......but then again I've been around this stuff all of my life and have been doin it for 2 to 3 years now..........just leave the big repairs to the qualified repair technician.....

 

Actually not neccarily, I bought my paint code at Nissan and still doesn't match. And I also went to napa to match my paint and still didn't match perfectly.

 

I do all my own work...but I'm also an I-Car and ASE certified Collision Technician...

The best advice I can give you is that if doing a blend is a problem for you, than I would not even attempt a full on paint job...no offense, I'm just saving you some hassle.

And as far as paint matching...it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to get a perfect butt match from panel to panel...even with tinting the paint to match you still have to worry about how many coats you lay down (especially on metallics and pearls), even how many coats of clear can effect it (clear gives yellowish tint), and even spray gun psi can all effect color match. That is what blending is for...

 

this i such a let down man ive been wanting to touch up the paint on my max for a while. she has several deep scratches throughout (thanks to the madre). been slowly trying to fix everything up on her. im fairly certain its sterling mist. i was hoping i could match the color myself, but have my doubts now. any ideas to would be helpful...ive tried rubbing compound on most of the minor scratches work fairly well, but still needs some love.