Painting

[Garibaldi]

Do any of my fellow Wisconsonites (and Madisonites) have a recommendation of a good paint place for classic cars? Nothing fancy, just a basic paint job.

Topic

[Anonymous]

You won’t like my answer but……

Do it yourself!

Nobody takes pride in anything anymore. People
like Steve are an exception, but they are rare. He
showed us photos of his metal work!

If you do it yourself you’ll be sure the body is properly
prepped. Then you’ll finish the job by paying attention
to the details.

You will also have the satisfaction of doing it yourself…….

……….and staying in the garage ’till 2 AM, working your butt
off, wondering why you started the project in the first place!

Happens to all of us! wave.gif

Seriously, my answer would be do it yourself, if you have the time.

[Anonymous]

Oh……..

When you go to car shows, ask the folks who they would recommend.

[Garibaldi]

Yep that’s one thing I plan to do, but I’d also like to see if there are any answers on here as well – best of both worlds. The problem with doing it myself is I want it done right, and I don’t think doing it myself will get that goal accomplished, not to mention the considerations for resale value.

[Anonymous]

Many many years ago there were a lot of high-dollar
painters in my area who did that kind of work. Now
they hardly exist.

Also, there were a lot of stores that only sold
body refinishing supplies but they don’t exist anymore either.

I don’t know what happened.

[Garibaldi]

Quote:

Many many years ago there were a lot of high-dollar
painters in my area who did that kind of work. Now
they hardly exist.

Also, there were a lot of stores that only sold
body refinishing supplies but they don’t exist anymore either.

I don’t know what happened.

I know! Like hand stripe painting (on motorcyles) its a dying art. That’s why I was curious to see if anyone knows of any good places – they are so few and far between

[montefrazer]

In Milwaukee there is Shok’s auto repair and painting. 5701 W Burleigh, the north side of town. They have been around since 1893 according to their ad. I remember seeing cars they painted back in the 70’s and later. They paint old cars to new cars. I would recommend checking them out if you want to travel that far.

[Garibaldi]

Thanks for the info Steve, I think that would definitely be something to look into. Do you have a phone number or any other contact info for them?

[montefrazer]

1-414-873-9944 from my Yellow Pages.

[Garibaldi]

Thanks Steve! thumbsup.gif

[Anonymous]

I do bodywork/painting at home on the side. I am in Green Bay, WI. Went to tech school for autobody in 1991. Worked in a few bodyshops, did bodywork 3 1/2 years for a yacht builder, and my last job was an industrial painter. Unemployed right now.

[Garibaldi]

Welcome to the forum kenseth17!!! thumbsup.gif

That bodywork for a yacht must have been interesting!

[Anonymous]

Well the yachts were fiberglass from a mold, but we had to do the bodywork on the fabricated aluminum parts, doors, radar arches, ect. Interesting, well not exactly, covered with all-metal filler dust at the end of the day but the pay and insurance was okay, more then I can say for every other place I’ve worked. Catch you later.

[Garibaldi]

Quote:

Well the yachts were fiberglass from a mold, but we had to do the bodywork on the fabricated aluminum parts, doors, radar arches, ect. Interesting, well not exactly, covered with all-metal filler dust at the end of the day but the pay and insurance was okay, more then I can say for every other place I’ve worked. Catch you later.

Sounds very interesting, I’d like to hear more! icon_punk.gif

[Anonymous]

I agree with Shadow57.

You have three choices:
1. A super expensive place that will charge you > $4000 to do a quality paint job.
2. A cheap place that will do a crappy job that you will regret taking your car to.
3. Do it yourself.

Of course you might get lucky and find exactly what you want, but that’s unlikely.

I could do it myself. I have an air compressor and a paint gun (specifically these):
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90385

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=46719

You would need a filter, hose, some fittings, paint, naphta, thinner, and some pieces of metal to practice with. It’s really not that difficult. Maybe you have tried to paint stuff with spray cans and it sucked, but a paint gun connected to a compresor works a million times better. The above setup would work just fine, but since the gun doesn’t hold much paint you would have to mix up paint in advance and keep it in a jar (thin it with the naphta) and refill the cup while painting.

[Anonymous]

If you do any amount of painting, or run any kind of air tools for any amount of time, you want a bigger compressor then in that picture, and defignately a bigger tank to store air. It may power a conventional gun without huge air requirements, but it may be running a lot or possibly have to pause at times and let it catch up. I now have a 7.5 hp, 80 gal. I used my dads for years which is a 60 gal 5hp, and it did fine for painting, but with airtools like my 8″ orbital and sandblasting it struggled a little. Determine what you are likely to be running regularly with the compressor and look at the cfm ratings and make sure the compressor output matches or excedes them. Some hvlp model spray guns require a lot of air.
You forgot lights and ventilation. You can never have enough lighting when painting, and ventilation of some sort is a must have.

[Author]

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