I'm thinking of repainting my old car by myself. There are some panels where the paint has cracked and fallen off! Others that have been in a collision and are cracked.

Firstly, I know little about repainting but with this old car it doesn't have to be an expensive paint job.

If I buy a spray can, the kind you see for 50 baht or so, what do I have to do to 'prepare the paint'.

I was thinking of taking all the paint off but doesn't look too easy(any ideas?). Then I thought of sanding it down a bit then spraying on the new paint. Any ideas as how to make it shiny?

Do the pros take all the layers of paint off exposing the bare metal?

You need to take off all the areas that are cracked and sand back to paint that has adhered to your car.

You will need to take the area you wish to re-paint back down to bare metal , then you have to prepare the bare metal so it has a suface profile / key / anchor , to which a primer will adhere to .

I would make sure you have the capabilities and know how for this before you start and the exact match for your paint.

If it was only that easy.....

Years of mechanical experience and done several paint jobs, and minor repairs with local paint like you're describing & bottom line is never again, it's not worth it for the end result, all that work and it comes out looking even worse in most cases and is a real frustration.

Crazy or so poor ?

Crazy or so poor ?

Retired, would be my bet.

Take it to a car paint shop OP. They're very cheap here, and usually good at their job. Unusual for Thailand in that regard.

You will suffer pain and tears and end up doing it anyway.

Not to mention, it requires some very nasty chemicals and dust etc. that aren't good to be breathing.

my metallic paint job needed redoing, only a few months after a repair/repaint of damaged panels from an earlier accident.

worst thing ever is to let a repairer go freehand, and in hindsight - make sure they don't go buffing the end result, as it'll all fade away soon after.

I had a bonnet, a door and a fender fixed - but they buffed the whole car and took off all the outer lacquer that protects the car's metallic finish.

Doing some at home 6 months later - ( I limited myself to the engine bonnet), I equipped with paint strippers, and Prepsol to make sure I had a good starting surface base.

This is worth considering, as you just don't know what the base metal quality is like.

My bonnet was one of the panels replaced during that earlier crash-repair, and it turned out that they had used one of those cheap import panels.

A panel like this one is so full of divots cracks/fissures, that they used a heap of filler just to get a workable surface to finish on.

It can be a lot of work if you DIY, and not prepared for lurking problems.

Never worth it here. [Yes I have done it before years ago, but had sanders and a proper spray gun]

in the Village guy with a old Corolla with a number of little prangs, had his done, not a bad job for 10,000 baht.... Guy next door a 2000 year Corolla full re-spray + repairs to rear end shunt [new back lights and boot catch] total cost 12,000 baht. that was 18 months ago and car still looks perfect..

Thanks for the rustoleum .

It's not just because of the cost and I'm far from retired, unfortunately. It's more of a challenge and something I find very therapeutic.

Rolf Harris could paint i.

Rolf Harris could paint i.

??

So could Caravaggio, but neither will be doing my car. Actually, you've given me an idea.

Don't worry. As long as you don't try and spray metallic you will be OK.

Back many years my brother and I sprayed our speedway cars with rattle gun paint.... it looked OK.

Then it was the work ute....which was Ok and lasted a year and a half before the gloss faded.

Then we got cocky and painted a Toyota Corona in metallic silver....and it was a mess! We ended up painting it white!

20K would get a very nice job on a small car. No way would I even consider doing it myself. You would need an enclosed area (spray booth), heat lamps for the humidity here. It's just not worth it. If you added up the number of cans to get proper coverage, I bet the cost would be in the thousands of baht anyway. And it will look shit - the voice of experience doing it on the roof of my old mini. They it rusted/blistered anyway after rains. Spend 20K and you won't regret it.

Why don't you call Banksy?

Why don't you call Banksy?

Never heard of him. Is he a resprayer?

A bit off topic, Banksy is the guy who paints graffiti all over the place and does art that is pretty well sought after for it's originality, application and controversial political stances.

http://www.tumblr.com/search/Banksy%20the%20street%20artist