To continue my sermon....

Note- don’t paint during humid or hot weather.

Humidity causes lack of adhesion. Also any water vapour in the substrate causes micro bubbles when over coating paint cooks in the sun.

Direct hot sunlight causes dry spray ie the paint solvent evaporats during travel from the nozzle to the surface causing a inconsistent grainy finish.

If you’re serious about paint you’ll need to practise with your equipment checking and comparing results with a DFT gauge and WFT gauge.

Sermon over. And.... That’s why these guys earn the big bucks.

A good paint job, well maintained, will outlive most of us.

 

This is 17 years after the finish, but it is keep in a garage.
David, yes there are tricks to the trade so to speak.

You must ground the car, you must spray with water, all the concrete around that you will be walking on and any bushes close to the area.
All done right before you tac and spray. You have to get the right temperature thinner, they make it from 70 degrees up to 95 degrees, best to have a few different ones on hand, so you can paint the day that pops up things are perfect. Told you it was fun. Wake up and say, wow, today is the day for the hood. LOL
I do happen to have a $700 stir agitator cup for metallic paint, keeps it consistent coming out of the nozzle for the entire cup.
Not something you can just jump into and start putting paint on a car. If I told you we painted with a brush and put it on thick then sanded it down by hand and used rubbing compound by hand back in the '50's and '60's with a finish that looked like you could jump into it, you might see how easy it is now compared. LOL

 

^^ Those of you who believe that a factory-quality paint job is not possible by the owner doing it himself need to see Wayne's 1949 Triumph (pictured above) in person. That car is flawless and has won all sorts of awards during his 45 years or so of ownership....

I believe the key to a proper DIY paint job is that the owner must be an absolute perfectionist who is willing to put the time and effort into the massive preparation required. And vast painting experience using the right equipment goes without saying. If I needed to have my wife's 2006 XK8 repainted and had to pay for it myself, I would want Wayne to do it. And knowing the tremendous amount of time, work, and commitment required, I would be neither surprised nor disappointed if he politely said no....

 

awesome. good advice

 

Great advice from all the posts! Thanks everyone. I guess the $11k is not outside the normal price range then.
Still, it's difficult to spend that much on a paint job when the car's book value is half of that price.

I've painted cars in my younger days, I think I'm going to look into doing it myself.
Take my time, panel by panel, quality paint, new equipment. If I can come in under $3,000 total cost I'll be happy.

Again, thanks for all the helpful input.
Love this forum

 

Taxman, I'm no expert but I have made about all the mistakes you could make over the years.
When the time gets near and you need to talk, give me a PM with a Phone number and we can gets some laughs if nothing else.

 

Go for it! That’s the spirit.

A few final thoughts. Make sure your thinner is compatible with the paint you’ve chosen. Paint is composed of 3 main chemical components - a solvent (nowadays water based), polymer filler and a pigment.

Practise spraying before on a large bit of steel. Get a Wet Film gauge (cheap) at the min. A Dry Film Gauge is more expensive so consider the benefits versus the budget.

Stripe coat the returns - ie where the paint goes around corners or edges - before the main spray.

Before spraying the lacquer clear coat, inspect the paint with a magnifying glass. You may need to buff out imperfections and respray.

Good luck and don’t feel bad if panel xxx shows problems when you’re 2 weeks in. It’s sometimes just dumb luck that things don’t work out despite all precautions.

 

I had my "97 resprayed 3 yrs ago by MAACO. The shop I used was recommended by a high end paint shop. I didn't need any extensive body work, just some work on the front bumper & a couple door dents. I went with a urethane sealer, urethane paint with an integrated sealer. This is a pic after the respray but before polishing.

 

FWIW, I just had mine done locally for under $1500. I had the same feelings about putting more into the car than I could ever get out of it, based upon today's market prices. 3 stage paint job-sealer, base coat, clear coat with Sherwin-Williams paint. I pulled off the trim and lights before taking it in. Not much required in body work on mine- just a few parking lot dings. Found the shop using local Craigslist ads.

Now, the quality is good- not great. better than a MAACO job ( which quoted me more, BTW). Good for a daily driver, but there are a couple of pinholes and dust spots ( that may come out with color sand and buff). Good enough for a daily driver, but if you want factory quality or better, then you're back to your original quote price.

 

'Cheaper to pay these guys to come visit.

 

Cheaper to pay these guys to come visit: (duplicate post)

 

Both MRomanik's and datbysan's cars pictured above show that you can get a pretty satisfactory job for around 1,500 and 2,000 bucks. If you do your homework first. I mentioned my old Mustang earlier, and while the finished job was only as good as the level of bodywork and preparation, (which wasn't very good) at least the car looked better than it did in mottled primer patches. That's okay for an old Mustang or pick up truck but that isn't going to be good enough for a Jaguar. Jaguars are elegant cars that deserve to look the part. All this just reinforces the need to buy a car that has the paint in good condition
and to keep it in good shape. If you can keep your car garaged or at least covered your're ahead of the game.

 

There is always some bodywork necessary on an old car no matter how good it might look to begin with. There's lots of door dings, rock chips, scratches and gouges, many that you wouldn't even notice on an old oxidized paint surface. If the repaint is due to the deterioration of the original paint, then they may have to be sanding through to remove all of the oxidation or maybe even strip some panels chemically if any of the paint has peeled. All that takes time, often much more time than the actual paint job. Plus good sandpaper isn't cheap, especially those sanding sponges they like to use now. You can spend a few hundred dollars on sandpaper and other supplies. But this is where most of the variation in different quotes will come from. Some painters make their reputation in spotting and fixing event the smallest flaws before laying the new paint, while others are geared more toward just fixing any dent larger than a dime. There's a market for all ranges. A friend of mine restored a Jeep and took it to Earl Schieb for $299 (about 20 years ago). As a Jeep, his only concern was that all the fenders were the same color because it was gonna get banged up offroad again anyway. The average soccer mom's minivan only needs to not look too bad. But yes, I agree, a Jaguar really ought to look like a show car.

There are ways to get a show car finish at an affordable price. Besides removing and reinstalling all of the trim as was posted earlier, a novice can even do a lot of that prep work himself at home too (read books, watch youtube to learn how) and just leave the final primer/filler and block sanding to the professional. You can get away with sanding through to bare metal in some small spots and spraying little bits of primer/sealer outdoors with a small <20 gallon compressor, but you want to check with your painter first to make sure that you choose a compatible product. This is what I usually do.

The drawback to doing your own prep work tho is that most painters will not warranty the paint job unless they do all of it in-house. Obviously, they can't be absolutely certain that you didn't drip a bead of sweat and just wipe it off with a greasy shop towel before you shot that spot of primer. But as long as you know that you did your best on the prep work, then the risk is acceptable to save a few thousand dollars.