About a year ago, my car was hit and took out my passenger side door and the one behind it. small damage to front and rear fenders but not enough to notice.

I have "new" doors on it now from the junkyard, but are both primer color.

The car is now a "salvage" car, and is not really in a condition to fix up and look great again, but good enough to drive.

Macco and other companies want over 500 just to paint the 2 doors, and thats not even clear coat. Not worth it for the condition of the car.

Basically I want to paint it myself, even if it does not look great. Just hate having a maroon colored car with 2 primer color doors.

I was looking here, and was thinking of doing this to my two doors:

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Poor-Mans-Paint-Job-or...-How-to-paint-your-c/

After some forum searches I see paintscratch.com seems popular. And I can buy just spray paint for the two doors.

Wondering if anyone else has any ideas, comments, or suggestions. The first option sounds cheapest, spray paint from paintscratch sounds like the easiest, but I do not know what the outcome from either one will look like.

Thanks for any input!

First, I am highly annoyed with paintscratch.com for selling me $40 worth of touch up paint that does not even remotely come close to matching my car. They claim it matches their paint book sample, however, and were unwilling to do anything but upsell me a custom matched paint that would require me to ship them a part of my car to match to. Now, I know that red paint is hard to match, but my Car is low mileage and has been garage stored since new - There is no fading. The cheapy Duplicolor stuff I picked up actually matches my paint almost perfectly, so it's not a paint fade issue. The people at paint scratch.com did not respond when I asked them why the $4.50 single-stage paint matches better than their $40 tri-coat paint, so I will not give them my business again, and I encourage others to be cautious when dealing with them.

If you check with a local auto body supply shop, you'll find that they can mix paint for you. Some even have the capability to put it in a spray can for you, but for two doors that will be a royal pain, particularly if your paint is metallic. Spraying real paint with real thinner and real hardener through a real spray gun is always the best way to go.

Here's a thought... Have you checked with any vocational schools in your area? Those kids have to learn how to paint somehow - give 'em something to practise on!

__________________
- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread

Where you at, you buy the paint, I'll shoot it for ya.

__________________
79 MB 280 SEL Euro 133k
77 MB 450SL 154k
05 Mustang GT Vert (3) 104k
12 TSX Wagon Tech (66k) (192k)
06 Subaru Outback base (135k) 164k
16 Acura MDX (109k) 111k
18 Silverado 2500 LTZ Midnight (212) 56k
97 Ford Ranger 163k
11 RAV4 154k
01 Escape 173k
04 Honda Pilot 292k
1967 Mustang (Resto Project)
1968 Mustang (Parts Bin)
00 Ford Ranger 124k

In Canada, rustoleum is sold under the name tremclad, Its a household name here, and there have been many cars painted with it. Some may have seen the websites.

I have painted 4 cars and trucks with tremclad, here are some photos.

These are all sprayed, mixed with 20% mineral spirits, Cost about 30-40 each job.

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
1984 Euro 300SDC, (4spd standard)
1986 Toyota Landcruiser Diesel HJ60 5spd X2

Gone but not forgotten (some sold, some stripped)
1983 300 SD, 1985 300 SD, 1983 240D, 1986 300 SDL, 1985 300 SDL, 1983 300 D, 1984 300 D, 1985 300SD, 1987 300 SDL, 1983 300 SD, 1985 300 TD Euro, 1983 380SEC, 1990 300 D, 1987 300D, 1982 300D, 1982 300D, 1994 E420, 1987 300 TD, 1987 300 D, 1984 300 D

Ok, so no for paintscratch.com, got it.

ImBroke - Thanks for the offer, unfortunately I am all the way in Arizona.

I may actually try calling a local college automotive shop, thats a great idea.

I am also thinking of getting a compressor soon, do you think the thinned-down rustoleum thinned down paint would work if I got a paint sprayer for it? Or should I stick to the tutorial I listed above?

Spraying it is the best approach. Rustoleum can be thinned and sprayed with success. Not really the highest gloss paint, but it's not bad. The only trouble I see with Rustoleum is going to be colour matching... It won't be possible to spray just the doors and have a match, but you could conceivably shoot the entire car.

One more thing, make sure the compressor is big enough to meet the needs of the gun. Oh, and practise on something besides your car until you get the hang of it. And don't forget to wear a good chemical filtering mask. ...You know, that's more like three things, isn't it?

__________________
- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread