Any auto body guys on here?
 

I see there's a lot of guys on here that know their way around the mechanics of a boxster, but are there any body guys on here? I love body work and only do the mechanical stuff because I have to. I would so much prefer to paint a car than rebuild a motor. To me, spraying a layer of paint on a vehicle is better than sex. The excitement of dramatically changing a vehicle's appearance in under ten minutes is very exhilarating. Hours, days, weeks or years worth of work comes down to that last pass of the spray gun. If you messed up, got lazy or rushed your work. That's when it will show up. But if you did all your prep work correctly and nothing popped up during spraying, it's :cheers: time.
I started this thread because I have some questions about painting my boxster. It's Arena Red Metallic and I have some body parts I need to paint. I have a hard top, bumper covers and side skirts I need to match. The paint overall is in great condition and might have slight sun fade. The factory base coat paint is water based, correct? Can I paint my parts with urethane paint/clear coat and it will match the shine color of the water base/clear coat? Should I just use the water base/clear like the factory does? I've never sprayed a water base before. Does it flow like urethane single stage or base coat?

I am not much of a paint guy, but there are some good pros that post in the Honda-tech paint and body forum (hidden among the spray can and $50 paint job posts). It may be worth a look if nothing comes up here.

Paint and Body - Honda-Tech

don't use water base , you will not notice the difference in the sheen . i would be way more concerned about the color match.

I am not a body guy but have painted a car. It is a thrill. I really wish I could work metal like in the old days when a body was formed on a buck.

Come over to Austin, grab my spec944 and you can have all the paint sex you want. I'll even take arena red!!!!!

Seriously I need to paint the 944 before Octobers race.
And I prefer real sex over wrenching.... And anything over cosmetic work :-)

I'll even get you liqoured up first!!!

Mike

Mike, I will gladly tape and spray your 944 if you want? I drink cheap beer, so it won't cost you much. lol. In my unprofessional opinion, you should go with a single stage and not red. Single stage because it's a race car (easier to repair quick) and you'll probably be on the track with Spec Boxsters. You're bound to have a scuff at some point. Not red because it's one of the more expensive colors.

Great to hear. I've always loved to tinker with cars, mechanical or body work. But it seems to me like gettint started as a DIY in mechanical is easier than body work. Seems like body work requires more specialty tools and skills. Also the chance to practice on your own car is more with mechanical repairs than body work. I've painted small parts before, have done some Bondo, fiberglass work on a plastic side spoiler, but never tried a metal panel.

Maybe you're doing it wrong. Either the paint or the sex :)

My son recently restored and repainted an old hardtop he got from somewhere for his Miata. He rushed through it in one day, it looks great from 10 feet away but as you get closer... yikes. I guess he was getting really excited and couldn't stop :)

[Edit: and I repainted that set of wheels I got from you. I should have left them the way they were... They look ok from about 5-10 feet away but as you get closer you can tell I used spray cans... My son volunteered to let me use his HVLP paint gun he got from HF but I couldn't find the matching paint anywhere so I went with Wurth spray cans. If I had done better prep and taken more time I think that they would have been better :) ]

Looks like I'm making a road trip to TX with a case of beer and some Signal Green paint! :cheers:

Hey!!!!

My dad and I used to fix up wrecked cars when I was in my teens / twenties (late 70s-early 80s). The key to a good paint job was always in the prep work. It took patience to block sand that last little bit or apply that last dab of bondo to fill that low spot. There was a body shop in our town where the guy always turned out crap paint jobs because he got in a hurry to get the car into the paint booth.

Dad was also a good mechanic. We didn't use any mamby-pamby rubber gloves back then. We got our hands dirty. He told me once he much preferred doing bodywork because you didn't get your hands as dirty. As a punk kid, that didn't make sense to me. Now that I'm older, I understand.

Sorry I can't answer your question. My experience is with laquer and enamel. That was when gas was $1.20 a gallon.