I'm giving serious thought to painting my 300D 85 myself, or at least prepping it. The other day I was at the Dealer picking up automatic bushings for the shifter and I wandered over to the service department and I saw a gleaming 300D 85 that some guy owned since new, it looked like it came off the showroom floor. It was a beautiful light Blue. I was in awe--until I went underneath the car when it was up...torn ball joint bushings, rear axle boots, leaks and drips everywhere..
Anyway I dont have a paint booth, thats the first problem. I painted one car before, my RX7 with Lacquer, in a paint booth, ( see my webpage) and I wet sanded it with 600 and buffed it with finishing compund and surprised myself --after about 5 coats of wax, anyway...
I was thinking of setting up some kinda tent and doing it one panel or half panel at a time, very very slowly carefully and patiently with a mid range gun, say $300 to $350...I cant afford a new $2K paint job--I could use that scratch to buy another car..
Am I high on paint fumes? Wil my neighbors smell it and get upset? I remember previously doing lacquer was not that bad, but those fumes dont go unnoticed--an ordinary spray can will arouse passer's by with its odor..
I just want to paint a car myself once in my Life..maybe it will be terrible,..if its that bad, I will strip it and send it to Midas...PS its got to be one of the promary colors, I can't stand my gun metall silver anymore..I was thinking dark Blue or Maroon that Mercedes used that year

Any advice, pro or con?

http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/Painting.html

You'll never be happy with a foam applicator,brush or roller. Get a cheapo car port, do all of your prep now, then when it warms up, you can get it sprayed in a day, neighbors won't have time to complain. Especially if you you do it during regular working hours when most are not home.

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1999 E300DT (131,800) 154,000 Black on Black SOLD

2006 CLK 500 coupe Capri Blue on Grey (zoom,zoom)
47,000mi

04 VW TDI Passat 80,000mi
(Techno)

How to eliminate oil dependency through market-driven approaches.
“We could cut oil use in half by 2025, and by 2040, oil use could be zero,”
The Sound of Diesel Speed
Ode to MB

You could strip it and prep it yourself and have someone spray it for a few hundred bucks. One of the guys at the marina restores SL's and had his red one painted by an older guy. The deal was the car would come ready to be sprayed. It cost about $600 and looks really good. Probably about as good as a $2k job.

I'd find a local guy doing moonlighting and have them paint your car.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Use a long nap roller and use rustoleum. Will take care of theft problems too.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Yeah! I didnt think of that..

On the serious side, I think all of us, with some practice and patience and determination....could do a middlin paint job we could be proud of...the trick is like they say, you got to believe you can do it to do it--so this is the process of doing that, collecting info, stripper, sandpaper, links and advice and encouragement

You didn't leave much to say - you done said it all! At least if you think you can get it done with the power of positive thinking, why bother us normal people.

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

If you did OK with lacquer years ago, you can do the same thing with single stage urethane now. The new paint is just about as forgiving. (I shot mine out in the open and wet sanded/buffed.) Only snag is it will kill you if you sniff it.

This is a very good place to hang out:

http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

We all got something we're scared of and we're running from..and working on cars is a release and its something that I can do and forget for part of the day that I am very human and someday I'm not coming out of the alley standing up....

And don't take me too seriously either. But paint jobs are serious business if you want anything that looks halfway descent. I have a friend Bob, he is an MD and a good one, also teaches at IU Med School. Well, Bob had this little car, Toyota or Mazda or whatever and decided one Saturday to paint it dark green with a brush. Now if you got within two blocks of that car you couldn't help but look at it and say, "my goodness, whatever happened to that little car" it looked that bad. But it was OK with him, he said, "paint is paint" and I got it painted!

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Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

When I looked at your thread about using a roller or brush, I was going to suggest you taking it your local pre-school and let the little tykes give it good finger-paint job.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Surface prep is EVERYTHING. If it has imperfections, they willshow when the job is done. Use Prepsol to do a final wipe down just before shooting your primer. Use blue tape to mask so it will come off easier.

Have a garage available? Use cheap plastic drop covers and staples (through a small piece of cardboard) attached to the ceiling and walls to make a tent. Wet the floor and sweep it to keep down dust.

Personally, I like to use catalytic (two part) paint. Immron is my favorite but Durathane is good too. It dries hard as rock and is VERY chip resistant. I use a cheapo spray gun ($35) just in case I screw up and it kicks off in my gun.

Don't paint in cold temps or in high humidity. Apply in thin even coats with an hour wait in between. DON'T forget to clean out your gun between coats.

The best way to go if you are unsure about your skill is to prep it yourself, to the primer, and let a pro apply the finish coats.

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You can get farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.

1984 300D
1985 300CD
1980 300SD
1993 SL500

finger paint it

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have no worries.....President Obama swears "If you like your gun, you can keep it

I painted the 240 that I sold It was the light gold metalic and the clear was comming off .wet sanded the hole car sealed and shot it with a premixed color that matched .cost was $200 for materials.Link to pics below

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wvopowered/album?.dir=50a2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

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89 Ford F3504x4CC 7.3 IDI turboed Intercooler and running on wvo now powered by a 1997 Cumins
87 300SDL on bio and wvo killed by chevy truck 5-24-06
1999 E300TD black with gray int.

Unless the car was prepped perfectly, I'd stay away from maroon or other dark colors -- as they show EVERY imperfection.

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'91 300D 2.5 Turbo 330K
'00 VW TDI Golf, 190K
'67 BMW R50/2
'73 Norton Commando Interstate

Paint is the one thing I don't do. It takes too much time and costs a lot in materials. If you screw it up its more time to fix it. The cheapest way to go is to remove EVERYTHING, do all the prep, drive it to Maaco, Earl Sheib, etc. and then wipe it down in the parking lot, etc. The chimps at the cheapo paint joints don't know much but they know how to shoot the paint. I have seen several "cheap" jobs like this come out really nice. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K