Can I just spray paint my car?

[Hring 0]

My little car is a horrible bright gold colour. Can I buy some car spray paint and just spray paint it black? I don’t have the money to get it professionally done and I don’t really have the time to be sanding/priming it. 

Edited February 19 by Hring

[Sam Robbins 0]

If you love your car please don't do it, It will not look good and will be just temporary, I suggest you to save some money for it and after that get it professionally done, I want to share my experience with you, my friend and I bought a used car from Bidexport.com we got a great deal, but we don't like color of it, so we paint it with hand brush and we are very bad in it, so, finally we have to give it to professionals, to do paint job, we wasted our time, so, you don't.

[vivadodgeramfiat 0]

Don't do things that you might gonna regret after. If you spray your car by yourself, it may not look so good since you are not that knowledgeable to do so. You might just save some cash and look for a car painter that is good enough for your budget. Visit Viva Dodge RAM Fiat for more car care tips. We also have new or used cars if you wish to buy a car. Feel free to visit us!

[Xecho 0]

 

A paint job is expensive.  If you change the original color of the car, it's MORE expensive and a lot more difficult because of all the edges around the hood, trunk, wheel wells, doors, etc., etc. 

If you paint the car with 'rattle cans' it will come out striped...  alternating stripes of shiny paint and dull, flat paint.  That's because the paint dries between passes and has no time to 'flow' into a continuous coating.  There's not a lot of paint in a rattle can and there's not enough air in the can to adequately atomize the paint. 

If you must paint it yourself, here's a few tips. 

• The PLACE is important!  Cool, no dirt, no wind, adequate ventilation.
• The Time is worth consideration.  At night, bugs will be attracted!
• The preparation of the surface is a major factor.  Old wax residue needs to be removed with thinner (acetone, etc.).  Bugs and tar needs to be removed.  Rock chips need to be sanded and 'flared' out to about 3" diameter.  Masking tape can't be left on for more than a few hours or it will become part of the car.

• Buy or rent a compressor and a spray gun.  You don't want to run low on air and you don't want to have to stop in the middle of the job to refill the paint.

• Install a condensation trap in the paint line.  Heat build-up from the compressed air will condense water that will be blown out onto the wet paint otherwise.

• I'd recommend enamel rather than lacquer because it's easier to work with.  It has a long flow time (stays wet longer) and it doesn't need to be buffed out afterward.

• Be sure you have a respirator... You DON'T want to breathe in the paint overspray!!!

• You might want to remove little chrome do-dads.  (Silverado EFI, LE, etc.) It's easier to remove them than it is to clean and to mask around them.

If you REALLY don't care about the nice finish, at least go with a compressor and paint gun instead of the rattle cans. Stay out of the sun, wind and bugs!