Need some educated advice, please.
My car is 16 years old. It's in excellent condition mechanically and interior.
The paint outside however is in bad shape. The clear coat is coming off on most body panels, from staying mostly outside. The hood in particular was repainted by an idiot in a bad shop and the base coat is cracking too.
Now, I am thinking about selling the car in the next month or 2.
Question: What would look better from a prospective buyer point of view: leave it as is or have the car repainted by myself, bad as that may be?
Background: I know nothing about car painting. Used a spray gun a couple of times for small parts. Have a couple of generic spray guns and a small capacity compressor. An electric polisher with bonnets, an orbital air sander maybe 7" that is using up too much air for my compressor, various electric sanders. Used brushes and spray cans many times.
I don't care one bit whether the final product will look perfect or not, as long as it's better than what it looks like now. And it looks bad all right.
I have always wanted to do a car paint job. This may be the perfect opportunity to learn, maybe the only one I'll ever have. I'm sure I'd have fun doing this.
I won't have tons of time.
It will have to be done outside or at best in a garage that I don't want to cover with paint.
My expectations of how easy this is to do may be entirely skewed and unrealistic from watching these car shows on TV where they do a perfect paint job in 1/2 hr .
Estimated sale value: guessing $3K - $4K if paint is in reasonable shape. So not worth putting in tons of money and time.
What say you? Give it a shot just for the heck of it? Is it likely to come out acceptable or close? Or is this one of my typical over-reaching DIY ideas? Nobody buying a $3K car that is 16 years old will worry about a couple of runs or spots, though, I would hope, so that might give me some leeway.
or....
Or do a deep polish job if that will make things look better?
Or have an Earl Scheib type job done? $500 and get more than that in increased resale value?
these pics show the bad hood paint job and the base coat cracking
My car is 16 years old. It's in excellent condition mechanically and interior.
The paint outside however is in bad shape. The clear coat is coming off on most body panels, from staying mostly outside. The hood in particular was repainted by an idiot in a bad shop and the base coat is cracking too.
Now, I am thinking about selling the car in the next month or 2.
Question: What would look better from a prospective buyer point of view: leave it as is or have the car repainted by myself, bad as that may be?
Background: I know nothing about car painting. Used a spray gun a couple of times for small parts. Have a couple of generic spray guns and a small capacity compressor. An electric polisher with bonnets, an orbital air sander maybe 7" that is using up too much air for my compressor, various electric sanders. Used brushes and spray cans many times.
I don't care one bit whether the final product will look perfect or not, as long as it's better than what it looks like now. And it looks bad all right.
I have always wanted to do a car paint job. This may be the perfect opportunity to learn, maybe the only one I'll ever have. I'm sure I'd have fun doing this.
I won't have tons of time.
It will have to be done outside or at best in a garage that I don't want to cover with paint.
My expectations of how easy this is to do may be entirely skewed and unrealistic from watching these car shows on TV where they do a perfect paint job in 1/2 hr .
Estimated sale value: guessing $3K - $4K if paint is in reasonable shape. So not worth putting in tons of money and time.
What say you? Give it a shot just for the heck of it? Is it likely to come out acceptable or close? Or is this one of my typical over-reaching DIY ideas? Nobody buying a $3K car that is 16 years old will worry about a couple of runs or spots, though, I would hope, so that might give me some leeway.
or....
Or do a deep polish job if that will make things look better?
Or have an Earl Scheib type job done? $500 and get more than that in increased resale value?
these pics show the bad hood paint job and the base coat cracking
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