It's always amazing what you can do with a little effort!! Here's the Honda after letting the paint cure and going back to do a some wet sanding, buffing, and waxing.
Weekend Projects
Are people making fun of your ride? Well check out these simple, low tech projects that were each completed over a weekend. Of course, you'll have to do some planning and preparation before successfully completing one of these projects, but they are fast, fun, and provide some quick and dramatic results!!
1979 Honda Prelude Project
The weekend project was completed in November of 1987. Our friend's 1979 Honda Prelude was in need of paint so we took a couple of days to sand and shoot it. Nothing major, just sand it down, prime any bare spots, do the final block sanding, and shoot it. We also cleaned up the factory steel wheels and repainted them silver. The color of this Honda was Inverness Blue Black Metallic and unfortunately the pictures don't even come close to showing how cool the paint was on this car. In the sun, you could see a dark blue metallic that would appear to fade to black where the paint was not in direct sunlight.
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| Here's the Honda after being sanded and repainting the wheels. It is almost ready to paint. | A small car doesn't take very long to sand and prep for paint. Now all we need to do is tape and mask it up. |
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| It won't be long now 'til we get to shoot some paint!! | It's not a show car paint job, but it looks pretty good. |
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It's always amazing what you can do with a little effort!! Here's the Honda after letting the paint cure and going back to do a some wet sanding, buffing, and waxing. |
1978 Buick LeSabre Project
This weekend project was done in August of 1988. After the successful completion of the 1967 Lemans project, my good friend decided to make his 1978 Buick LeSabre daily driver look better. So we put a quick paint job on the Buick and then added some factory wheels and some window tint. Check it out:
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| Are you driving something that looks like this? | Well, it doesn't have to stay looking like this... |
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| We sanded down the body, did some minor bodywork... | peeled off the vinyl top and filled the holes... |
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| Shot the whole car with primer/sealer... | Then shot some '67 Vette Lemans Blue acrylic enamel!! |
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Now which would you prefer to drive daily... the car on the left or the car on the right? Pretty dramatic change without spending a fortune don't you think? No it wasn't a show car paint job. Yes there were some small dings that we missed. Hey... this Buick was what we call a "$500 car." So there is no need to be a perfectionist on it, because you certainly won't get your money back for the extra effort. The wheels came from a junk Buick. That's part of the fun is tracking down parts. So if you're tired of your friends calling your ride a "beater" then invite them over, give 'em some sandpaper and a sanding block, and get to work!! Make sure you've got the primer/sealer, paint, tape, masking paper, spray guns, thinner, body filler, spray booth, and all that stuff already available so you can quickly complete your weekend project.
Say you don't have access to this equipment... well stop whining! Where we live, you can take adult education classes at night at one of our local high schools and they offer auto body repair. All you have to do is sign up, pay a small course fee (around $40) and buy the materials you'll need (paint, etc.) and you can paint your ride while taking the class. You can also rent spray booths for the weekend around here. If all else fails, do the sanding, prep, bodywork, and masking on your ride, buy the paint you want, and then take it to your local el cheapo bodyshop (you know the places where they'll sand, prime, and paint your car cheaper than you can even buy the paint) and just let them spray it for you.