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Some DIY bodywork/ paintwork with the help of a friend...

21K views 255 replies 50 participants last post by  Kingsize 
#1 ·
I had originally planned to get the front end resprayed in a few years but when I traded the carbon hood for the 05 hood the repaint became a priority.

The 05 hood was a fresh respray but it was crap. The paint didn't match and the prep was very poor. Some of the paint actually pulled off when we taped up to paint the underside. There were several chips that were painted over and some waves. There was even some dirt in the paint. Upon sanding I found that they had actually put bondo over the factory clearcoat to fill in 2 deep rock dents.

The front bumper had some stress cracks in the paint from when I smacked a deer last october. The bumper had previously been repainted in 2006 so I had 2 layers of paint to sand through.

A good friend of mine had went to school for bodywork and worked at a body shop for a few years. We decided to tackle this in his garage. We went to a paint shop and started spending money. We had them give us a sample of the oem paint code, the variant of the oem paint code, and also use their gun to scan the paint and give us that sample. Out of all three the oem variant is the closest match so we went with it.

The teardown. The sideskirts, fenders, fender liners, hood, bumper, and trunk are all removed. Everything but the sideskirts will be getting some work.







The hood.

I started sanding on this with a DA. The whole hood had aftermarket clear, aftermarket basecoat, aftermarket primer, factory clear, factory basecoat, factory primer to get through so it took some time. The whole front of the hood had a nice layer of bondo on it OVER the factory clear. Crap prepwork by the other bodyshop.

Halfway done.



Notice the tan dot in on the left side of this photo above the scoop...that was a rock dent filled with bondo.



With the bondo removed this is what it looked like...unacceptable. The fact that they put bondo over the factory clear blew our mine. The front portion of the hood right above the latch was also dented down a tad. All we could tell is that someone pushed down in that area to shut the hood... repeatedly.



For this area the metal needed to be pulled back out. Here is the same area after the metal was pulled out.



Not perfect...but much better. Now there will not be a 1/4" deep crater filled with bondo.

Another shot.



Since the hood was going to have some bondo anyway I made another decision...

Notice anything here?



Maybe this will help...

 
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#238 ·
Your helper looks hypnotized by the paint job.
 
#239 ·
Gave the garage some much needed attention.





Sticker bombed the breaker box.



Made this cool light that gets hot enough to melt metal. This thing is crazy. It will be like the super swirl finder.



 
#241 ·
Wow! Just read the entire thread. Excellent work there! Yes as you say it can be stressful, but the end results speak for themselves. For me it's therapy when I do my paint work. Now go enjoy that beautiful PBM!

Jorge
 
#243 ·
Sad sad day. Sunday began like any other day. I awoke to the sound of screaming kids. Life was good.

When I got the 1 year old twins laid down for a nap at about 12:45 I took my 3 year old so I could wash my car. He was washing his motorcycle while I was cleaning the car.

I began with the drivers side wheels like always. Then moved onto the passengers side wheels. I am back on the stock 17's now because I realized that driving on 235 all season tires were better than driving on max performance summer tires. It is easier to drift on these all season tires.

Normally at this point I would move onto the hood and bumper but I figured it was time for a change so I washed the passengers side first. I then washed the trunk and back of the car. Then the drivers side. Then the roof. Then the hood. Then the front bumper.

The front bumper...OMFG. My first rock chip. This is not your ordinary little rock chip...this has to be the biggest rock chip I have seen in my entire life EVER. The thing is easily the size of a quarter...or even a basketball or a large beachball. I had my son bradley stand in front of it to try to hide it from me but I could still see it. Basically the paint has come off of the whole bumper and at this time the chip was spreading to the hood and the fender. IDK what to do. So sad.

I know this happened a few days ago but I was so traumatized and in denial I could not accept it. I was so mad I could not drive the car yesterday. I was going to drive it this morning but went into the garage and saw that the chip had spread even more. Now it had moved onto the windshshield and passenger side door and the left side of the deck lid. It is like I hit a boulder or something.

Pics to come.
 
#246 ·
Normally at this point I would move onto the hood and bumper but I figured it was time for a change so I washed the passengers side first. I then washed the trunk and back of the car. Then the drivers side. Then the roof. Then the hood. Then the front bumper.

The front bumper...OMFG. My first rock chip. This is not your ordinary little rock chip...this has to be the biggest rock chip I have seen in my entire life EVER. The thing is easily the size of a quarter...or even a basketball or a large beachball. I had my son bradley stand in front of it to try to hide it from me but I could still see it. Basically the paint has come off of the whole bumper and at this time the chip was spreading to the hood and the fender. IDK what to do. So sad.
The first chip is always the hardest to deal with. :bomb:

I'm sure you're going to say your buddy did everything right when he painted your car, right? I'm sure you haven't even put that many miles on it yet? So why did it chip? I thought only the factory paintjobs sucked and chipped?

Ok... Now to be serious. I asked them while being a bit sarcastic. It doesn't matter what you do for paint on these cars, they are going to chip. It has NOTHING and I mean NOTHING to do with your paint or the factory paint. There are way to many people on here (I'm not talking about you) that no nothing about paint or painting a car, so they blame rock chips on a water-based paint.

The fact of the matter is that this car has such a big square (relatively speaking) front-end, that it's going to pick up chips easily. Lot's of people that I have seen bitch on here, have said that their past F-body or other car with a greatly sloped front end, never got chips like the GTO. That is because when rocks fly up on those cars, they don't directly impact the surface. They skim off those cars a lot like when you skim a rock on water, so it doesn't hit as hard and doesn't chip. I hope this makes a lot of them realize that they shouldn't bitch about the factory paint so much

One more thing for you to understand. Another reason why it chipped so soon is because the paint is still soft from your paintjob and it still hasn't cured 100% yet. With this being said, hopefully you will think a bit more about not waxing your car so soon as you were originally going to. If you do that, you are only going to stop your paint from curing as soon as it can and by doiing that, it will stay soft and chip a lot easier than it would if you let it outgas longer. In situations like this, it's always better to be safe than sorry

Now go get yourself some touch-up paint and fill that spot in!
 
#247 ·
At this point I do not have wax plans in the near future. The whole hood is going to have to be wetsanded again along with the area on the trunk where the holes were filled. Letting the car bake in the sun has let me know that the paint is far from cured lol.
 
#248 ·
In for peeling paint pics from drifting at high speeds
 
#250 ·
Holy shit. I jet read all of this thread to have all that work taken from you JUST LIKE THAT! Damn... that is why I hate paint and I think it is garbage at this point in my life..
 
#251 ·
I'm bringing this thread back from the dead just to give you major props. Absolutely amazing work, yet i'm so sorry to hear about the chip before things ever even fully wrapped up.

This is why i keep thinking about going full matt finish. F shinny cars brah! So much labor to obtain a decent paint job
 
#253 ·
I don't blame you. No matter what i do my hood keeps getting worse. And my front bumper looks like some kids just started throwing rocks at it. Black cars are a nightmare.

I have a friend that painted his 3 series flat burgundy so flat black with a flat clear is looking more and more tempting. Resale might blow....
 
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