Need feedback on what direction to take my Dart

[flyboy01]

Someones apartment is above that garage, they have already complained about the smell. If I do it again, I will get evicted. Its not an option.

[WildCat]

I know a guy that did the body work on his Carrera clone and took it to Earl Schib to paint it he said , They paint every day and know how to paint, they just don't prep. His car looked like a high dollar paint job.

Black is the hardest to look good. make sure the body is perfect or it will show all the mistakes

Good Luck either way

[Bakaruda]

Stop being cheep and pay a good painter to finish it. This is the first thing people see and it should be nice.

[512Stroker]

I vote Maaco.  Their paint jobs are only as good as the prep work.  Paint work usually only magnifies the flaws of bodywork.  If you think you did a good job (which it looks like you did) I think Maaco will be just fine.  Plus it is not a show car, go for it.

[flyboy01]

Its not about being cheap. Its about having a set budget for spending on the Dart per year, which works out to be about $400 per month, there is NO way I could afford to pay a pro to paint it, he would want more than I have to spend for the whole year, and I have already spent most of it for this year. I dont want a garage queen that sits in the garage for 5 years like you have, if its not drivable, then there is no point in me having the Dart. It will be running this spring whether it has paint or not. Might have to paint it like a hemi Dart, gray primer, if I can't get it painted.

[NYrr496]

I'm not coming from a money standpoint at all. If the car is properly prepared, make use of their climate controlled booth and bake it.

[68 HEMI GTS]

i would stick to your origional plan, you won't be very happy if you take it to maaco and they screw up all your hard work. you can always rent a booth and spray it there yourself.

[flyboy01]

I have been looking for a booth for rent for over a year now, of all the places I called, English Color Supply found one for me, its a dirty little body shop that is cheap, but I'm not sure there is enough light in there to read the label on the paint can, let alone paint a car in it. You would not beleive how hard it is to find a shop that will rent a booth in this part of the country. If anyone has any ideas on this, let me know. I might even call Maaco to see if they will rent their booth.

[Bakaruda]

Look when it comes to paint you get what you pay for. I like keeping the cost down. But there are lots of ways to do so. You have the body straight, and in primer. I think you could find a good painter to spray it then let you color sand and buff it your self. That does not cost much. I have built a car the other way. This time I am taking my time and building it for the last time. I know what I want and I am willing to wait to get it. I am not a Maco person. Now that said in your case it may be a good way out. I would stay there and watch them very close. Do you have the paint and clear?

[x360x64dart]

 I say go for it brother. A car that gets finished is better than a car that never sees the road again due to loss of interest. I feel your pain. The body work stage almost killed my motivation on my project. I quit probably six times, 100% sure that i was comletely over the whole thing, just to come crawlin back every time a month or two later. I finally got smart though and found someone to take it to for the finishing touches , spray, color sand, clear all that good stuff. Hell im even going to see if he will put the doors, deck lid, and hood on when hes done and get all the gaps rite, just becuase it will take me a year to do those few things becuase im so burnt out on that crap. I already decided my next car a build i'm going to try to make it as ugly as i can, just make it fast! thats what its all about anyways isnt it? We're not buildin them for any body but ourselves anyways and when it comes down to it the only thing we really care about is speed. Dont let the man get you down!

Dustin 

lookin at my bad a$$ parts always motivates me.

[flyboy01]

I say go for it brother. A car that gets finished is better than a car that never sees the road again due to loss of interest. I feel your pain. The body work stage almost killed my motivation on my project. I quit probably six times, 100% sure that i was comletely over the whole thing, just to come crawlin back every time a month or two later. I finally got smart though and found someone to take it to for the finishing touches , spray, color sand, clear all that good stuff. Hell im even going to see if he will put the doors, deck lid, and hood on when hes done and get all the gaps rite, just becuase it will take me a year to do those few things becuase im so burnt out on that crap. I already decided my next car a build i'm going to try to make it as ugly as i can, just make it fast! thats what its all about anyways isnt it? We're not buildin them for any body but ourselves anyways and when it comes down to it the only thing we really care about is speed. Dont let the man get you down!

Dustin 

lookin at my bad a$$ parts always motivates me.

I hear you, I feel the same way. I just cant get motivated to do some more block sanding on the car, its been two months and I make myself touch the bodywork. Maybe now that the weather is getting near 70F, I might get re-motivated.

[That One Guy]

I would like to say, you'll feel better if you do it yourself, the first time we painted my dad's car my dad did it, it was in an old rickety garage that was across the alley from our house, we used it as a race car shop, it had a terrible electrical set up, every time the air compressor would kick on it would blow the breaker and all the lights would turn off, but the paint came out alright, and my dad was happy with it.
We had it painted by a friend of my dad's in a decent shop with all high quality painting equipment, and it looks bad, if you're over 25 ft away or looking at it in pictures it looks good, but when you get up close it's not, you can see every place where there was body work done, and there's ripples in the paint, and it's just a crappy job
So, what I'm trying to get at is, even if you're doing it with sub par equipment and a sub par booth, you'll do it right, and you'll be happy with it. If someone else does it with sub par results you'll be kicking yourself for a long time

[flyboy01]

Damn...you should be a philosopher or something.  I think you hit the nail on the head, you are right, I think that if I did it and did a crappy job, I could still be proud of it knowing I did it all by myself, where if someone else did it, I would want to kill them. 

[That One Guy]

philosophising is my type of thing to do, I'm terrible at that kind of stuff, but it seems that when I talk about cars it comes so easily, I don't know what it is, I'm comfortable with it, My job requires me to give an end of shift brief every day, and we write a daily rollup explaining what happened that day, I have a very hard time with it, but talking about cars it just comes easy.
I'm glad I could help hope it works out right for you,

[jamesdart]

you cant bring a few 4' flourescent lights into that booth?you put a lot of work into the body if mine was at that point id have paint on it already i got tired of sanding and sanding and there it sits. you can always find a guy that paints at home? go to shows and ask around. i know a few guys here. if its as straight as you really think it is dont get all cheesy and send it to macco. you started with a real solid straight body, you had it a lot easier than most people, i say rent that booth and do it your self.  i am all about function, i dont car what my cars look like, and it shows. i drove my 69 for a few years with a fresh stroker, 727 dana, and all the suspension, all hiding under an all original ratty looking shell. it was a blast.  i remember you said every other car or truck you had was built that way, motor first, paint and body put off til last and this car isnt going to be that way.  you can always jamb it, put it back together and save the paint job for next year.

[johndart]

What ever you do don't bring extra lighting in to the dark  spray booth. The lights must be explosion proof sealed units or you and the car could be history.
Blocking the car it the most tedious job but the more you put into it the more you will get out of it. The paint mirrors the surface, the smother and straighter the better.
Black is the least forgiving colour. I would try not to lose it and spend twice as much time as you first thought on prep. Years ago that was what I did then took it to a tech school body
shop bribed the teacher with a bottle, provided the paint and he would get his best student squirt the paint, it's only as good as prep. any time I hurried a job it showed, any time I laboured
and toiled excessively it turned out fantastic. My opinion prep is upwards of 90% of the finished product. Hang in and keep at it you will be happy with your results where ever you get it painted. Later you can wet sand out any small imperfections & wet sand the whole car & buff and it will look like a million dollars.

[PureGTS]

  Bare in mind I am aware that not all Maaco's are created equally. With that said, allow me to introduce you to my dilema. 69 Charger /6 A/T. Usual rear window rust through. I stripped the car to save money and make the paint work that much easier. I had a glass guy come out and remove the glass and replace it when the time came. Sounds good so far right? They had painted the dash, instrument cluster, spare tire (still bolted in place), trunk mat, steering wheel, both front seats (87 Shelby leather seats) and on top of that the paint was uneven and striped. When I complained I was handed a can of reducer and some steel wool. Some how    just doesn't cover it. Many things go through your mind at that point. I figured the guy was after teh car and wanted me to default on paying so he could put a lien on it. I paid and I sued. I got  for my efforts. It was so disheartening I sold the car as I couldn't look at it without seeing all the grief and malfunctions they did to it. This picture doesn't do the malfunctions justice, but it does show you what I had and they screwed up and took away from me. This car, when completed, would have gotten more looks than a hemi Charger parked right next to it. Let's face it how many slant 6 Chargers have you ever seen? (Galen said it was one of two; slant six and silver blue interior) Damn shame.

  Do your own, you'll be that much happier and you'll get the results YOU want. And only you will know where the mistakes are, everybody else will have to hunt them down. Plus you won't go to jail beating some fool intelligent after messing up your ride.

[Womanator]

I built a 67 Dart for a freind to race,another freind did the body work and sprayed the car,the guy that races the car put over 40 hrs cutting and buffing it.Total of about 125 hrs went into it.Both guys had a reason to do quality work.Had Maco paint a 71 duster and ended up with what looked like water got into the airline and the paint had what looked like splatter in the paint.Maco wouldn't do anything about it but give me $300 off the next paint job.Like I would ever have them touch another one of my cars.

[eldubb440]

hey Fly.....can you get away with painting the car in pieces?  youre goin black, correct???  if you were spraying metallic you'd have to do it all together, but black would allow you spray a part or two at a time.....the only thing that may not match is the texture of the paint from panel to panel.....that problem is solved by sanding and buffing

you wind up with a very nice job, AND you do it yourself....WIN WIN

[3834spd]

Think about it this way. Maaco has a quality paint booth, decent equipment, and a gyu who paints all day, every day. Their body work and masking might be suspect, but the paint jobs that I have seen come out of Maaco and decent. You might be surprised at how well it will come out.

I have used my local Maaco with great results. If the prep work is tight, the finished product will be too. The use DuPont Centari(single Stage) and Chromabase (BC/CC)paints, which are very good. The last car I car I had them do, I got the paint color and Number and sprayed the jambs floors and trunk ahead of time. They didnt have to be perfect and it saved me lots o' cash. They did a great Job!!!

[flyboy01]

If I could paint at home, I would have already painted it, but I can't so its not an option. I am still leaning toward doing it myself, still weighing the costs and issues, as soon as I get my engine fitted and out again, off the the paint booth with it. I am at least going to spray the epoxy primer/sealer myself, If I feel real confident, I might do the rest.

[flyboy01]

Just thought I would post some progress pic.

I got the old 318 pulled and cleaned up the engine bay, as soon as I get the 383 fit int, I will pull it and sand it all down, then its off for epoxy sealer.

[PureGTS]

You can do all that and they squeek about some funny smells!?!? *insert sarcasm here* Hmmm.  We don't have any folks in the area that can let/help you out letting you shoot your car elsewhere? Heck, I shot my RR (1995) in the driveway without a booth in the open air and got really good results so it is possible. Short of getting a place to do it. Generally, if you're not making a habit of doing it, the area/neighbor(s) leave you alone. Do it alot and the reverse happens.

[speedymopars]

You could always talk to the neighbors and as them if you can pay for them to out for the night / weekend. A couple hundred for one night may allow you to paint in your garage, The painting part doesn't take that long, it's all the prep which obviously they don't mind.

[440 ValiantCharger]

I have read all the replies and I too would check out the local Maaco, two reasons, one you cannot spray at home and two you are sick to death of body work. I would hang out at Maaco and get myself known down there and check out thier work see if they are a decent shop. If you know the guys who are going to do the job before you take your car to them the better the chance of a good job. First up I would let them think I'm there for painting tips.  If you don't like what you see of the place you can just walk away. 

[dangerdawg]

whatever you plan to do, just do it and be happy about it. i had a high end paint job, and car got hit on private property, no ones fault. if it gets to primer, i'll drive it.

[73DartSport440]

primer black is all u need