Quote Originally Posted by infurno View Post
Maybe I am getting over my head... First of all let me say that I do appreciate and value all of your advice. Its not falling on deaf ears.

I have always enjoyed DIY and im looking at this as more of a challenge rather then a necessity. It would probably be smarter (and even possibly cheaper) to just go and pay a body shop to do it, but then I could not get the benefit of the experience

If the fender turns out poor then thats ok, I will leave it to the pros. If not, I will consider doing the rest, but I will start small for sure.

One of my friends painted his last two cars with no experience, and they turned out ok. No different from other cars you see parked next to it. That has given me a bit of comfort.

I will take some pictures and post my results. Will try to get everything by the end of next week.
I am the same way

Just make sure you protect yourself properly (I know of a kid that did not protect his lungs - he is permanently disabled at 20) - the paint job will come out okay, especially if you take your time on prep - the painting is actually the easy part in my humble opinion. Don't sand the basecoat prior to the clear, make sure you are really happy with the primer/surfacer prior to putting the base on. The clear is where you will have the issues but that is because of its consistency.

Metalflake is harder as you have to be precise with mixing/shaking the can - both the base prior to mixing and the mixed paint in the gun while painting. I actually find black to be easier to paint - hard to screw up. You mention blue metallic - that is going to be "harder" to match from panel to panel. Get a mixing cup that has graduations (cc's) on the side to help you be more precise.

You may consider the paints that are sold at autozone that appear to be lacquer based (although I would expect that the longevity/durability is not as good as base/clear).

Good luck!
Scott