Hey guys, I'm mike and I have a 1999 audi a4 (for the moment, selling it asap), and when I bought it about 5 months ago it had damage to the rear quarter pannel under the window and it had a spoiler, which I graciously ripped off ( literally ripped the screws right out of the metal). So, I decided to paint the trunk and do the quarter pannel myself, since my hood had some chips and a good paint job to your hood costs around 450 $ professionally done. The dent and trunk when I first recieved the car was quoted at 500 dollars to fix. To date, I have spent more than 1200 $ painting my car and learning what to do and what not to do. However, if you read this tutorial you can probally spray it alot cheaper... I went through alot of money in supplies and other **** because i messed up alot) Reading many books and looking at alot of pictures online does not really answer alot of the questions which would have saved me money. So, I'm making this thread to help all the newb painters.

FYI: During this tutorial, no animals were hurt...except for the racoon which I sprayed cactus metallic pearlescent green at 4 am in the morning However, my camera was stolen (along with many pics for this thread) along with my front passenger door blade and rocker pannel >

Okay, I am still painting my car at this moment, i'm just getting ready to put the clear on so the pics will be up in a bit of the final product. I do not have any pictures of what my quarter pannel looked like before, but the dent was huge and right under my window, someone tried to break in and used a crow bar digging in 3 seperate dents right on my body line

Materials needed:
Air compressor (I purchased a 5.5 hp 20 gallon from my boss for 200 dollars which worked AWSOME, im guessing you could get off with a lower hp because mine didnt kick on very much)

Sand paper: 2000 grit, 60 grit, 80 grit

Sanding block

Orbital sanded and "Mouse" sander: *optional* : they make life a hell of a lot easier ****can be replaced w/ DA sander***

HVLP spray gun ( i purchased mine at carquest for 120 dollars and it is a finex with a 2 year warranty. It is possible to get a cheaper gun, but I am planning on painting more and for an extra 30 dollars it was worth it to get this one, its awsome) - note- gravity fed is awsome, suction ones do not work as well)

Blow torch- only should be used by experienced people ,not noobs, but speeds crap up alot lol

Tarp and plastic cover: the plastic tarp things at ocean state job lot for 3 dollars that are 12 x 20 work great for 3 dollars, however dont buy the tape from there, it sucks and it will get you very , very pisssed off )

Mask: get a good one, dont fry your brain

Paint supplies and body supplies:
Spreaders
Mar-glass - fiberglass resin- DO NOT USE BONDO BONDO SUCKS. Mar glass is awsome, use it. I purchased it at carquest
Light body filler
Paint : Sealer/primer, can be replaced with filler/primer..if your surface sucks
Auto paint: I used crossfire paint from napa... it is a 100 percent match on my green and only 15 dollars per quart.
Clear coat,
reducer (ask your paint specialist which kind to use for the weather conditions)
hardener (aka catylist)
flex agent

Tips from my experience:
Only the clear uses catalyst. at first i mixed harderner in with it and it made a MESS
if you get orange peel, reduce it more or check your pressure. I used around 20-25psi
***when filling a hole, take a area of 3 inches around to bare metal... body filler/fiberglass will not stick to paint****
***Do not hose on the clear, USE LIGHT COATS!!! this messed me up about 5 times, because i would see the shinyness and get excited and hose the **** on... DONT DO IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! IT WILL RUIN YOUR PAINT JOB!***
***Use many light coats of base also..***
*** PRIMER WILL EAT THE PAINT BELOW IT IF YOUR RECOATING A SURFACE W/ THE SAME TYPE OF PAINT***- I tried to scuff up my clear coat and just repaint over it on my trunk, and the primer, since there is alot of reducer (1 : 1) ate through the clear and bubbled up my whole trunk... it took me the whole day to finnally go to my local 24/7 wallmart and buy some stripper***
**Dont be dumb! use common sence! I painted my trunk, and didnt tape up the inside of my trunk, and after realised the thing that covers the inside of the trunk didnt cover where i got paint on **
**Do not paint the whole section if you only have little holes, like I did. I could have just fiberglassed my holes and then used touch up paint and wet sanded it and it would have looked better than what I did **

**Remember, the PSI you want is the PSI when your shooting... set your regulator at 20-25 psi when shooting**

**If its humid, get a filter for your air compressor with a drain, yes you can paint when its humid as long as your air is dry**

**If possible, have a air filter/regulator closer to where you are spraying if you are using huge amounts of hose... I set up a cover it garage i bought for 100 dollars with lights and compressor stuff, and it was a long way from my compressor, so i used a filter /regulator on the enterance to the garage**

**When fixing body lines... make sure you use primer and see what you have just done before you begin to paint. You may think you have fixed it but in reality the bodyline isnt straight at all. It took me hours to get the line straight.**

**Remove anything you can that may get in the way of your painting. I tried to remove all my chrome trim but icouldnt get the peice off around the upper quarter pannel

Now, onto the actual how to:

First: Painting your "Lowers": I did not paint my rocker pannel sideskirts. I removed them (they are only held on with glue), and fiber glassed them, however they are made of rubber, unlike your pvc door blades. Fiberglass would not even stick to my sideskirts, this is when i realised it cannot be done. If you paint your sideskirts, your paint WILL peel off. For those who want to call me a newb, buzz off...come tell me that when in 2 months your **** is peeling and it looks like ****. Ask any paint professional, paint does not stick to rubber

Okay.. now onto more stuff

Step one, remove your door blades (they just sort of "slide" off, being held on with clips, pics will come later) , and if you are not painting your bumper along with it, remove the loweer part of your bumper (it is only clipped on)

The next step is optional but reccomended. What I did was my door blades were all ripped and crappy looking. To reinforce them, I first washed them in soapy water, and then scuffed them up (inside and out) with 60 grit sandpaper. Make sure you have NOOO shiny.

Next, put a THIN layer of fiberglass over all the doorblades. Inside and out (on the inside there is a 1/2 inch strip that you need to coat. This will make your blades like steel IF you do this right, you do not need to sand the fiberglass. But if you used too much, sand them to get an even surface. I used my hands to spread the mar glass over the surface. USE NITRILE GLOVES, MAR GLASS WILL STICK TO YOUR HANDS AND SINGE THEM CHEMICALLY AND IT WILL BURN LIKE HELL.

Coat your blades with light body filler and get them looking smoooooth and pretty.

Next, paint them as you normall would, except make sure you use flex agent in your paint.

Snap them back onto your car and you will have new looking ruggid doorblades.


For your bumpers lowers, all you need to do is sand them, and paint them regularly. They are a harder plastic


a little how to for painting:

To paint, you need a semi even surface. So, first use an orbital sander and use 60 grit to get it even. Make sure its even, spray some kind of primer over it and remove any imperfections prior to painting. Drips and other things will look like they are out, but will not be out. Primer will show all.

next, once surface is smooth. Use sealer. Sealer will make sure your old paint does not bubble up. Use only a couple light coats. If you get too much it will not dry.

Next, use a filler/primer. This is optional. If your surface is imperfect it will give you a chance to get it smooth by sanding what you shoot down to an even surface. However if your surface is aready smooth there is no need for this.

Next, use a base. I used like 20-25 psi and shot it on. Reduce it enough so you do not get orange peel. Follow the directions on the label

After the base is on... wait a few hours for it to completly dry *note, it will not completly dry for over a week, so i use that term loosely*... and wet sand it useing 1500 grit sandpaper to get it smooth. This is where you can get orange peel out and imperfections too... my trunk looked like hell before i wet sanded the base and it came out pretty. Make sure you put on the base lightly as you will get drips. Drips are bad but can be wet sanded out after it is dry.
Use moderatly slow strokes perpendicular to your painting surface.
use a 50 percent overspray ratio (go over what you already did 50 percent )
Do not hose the **** on.

Next, once your base is all set... its time for the hard part. Clear coat. This step has killed me 5 times so far, and I seeing if it will work this time (im on my 2nd coat of clear atm)

Mix up only small amounts of clear. Clear is VERY STICKY and will clog your gun. THe 2nd time i tried painting my trunk the gun stuck to my hand, and i was using a convential sprayer so it had the can on bottom... the can twisted open and fell onto my trunk along with a shitlod of clearcoat. this will ruin your clear

I used crossfire clear since I had it at work and my uncle was throwing it away (i work for my uncle), The ratio is 8:4:1, so get some cups at carquest with the lines on it. I used the ratio 4:2:1/2 or if you have the same mixing cups as me 4:2:1(i used a smaller cup for the catalyst and 1/2 amounted to 1 on my cup)

Dump this in your gun. Spray clear VERY thinly. You will put on aproximatly 6-12 coats. After you have alot of coats... wait for it to dry, wet sand with 2000 grit sandpaper and buff with rubbing compound if nessessary.

After that you should be enjoying a new paint job!


Another How:To::: Door jambs and trunks and stuff


When painting, everybody usually cringes at the idea of painting inside your door jambs and the interior of your trunk (for my example)

Its easy... Tape around your hole or cover the hole with the plastic puchased from ocean state and tape it to hold. You can tape it so you can open your door while you paint... this is what you want ... when painting door jambs remove your door pannel if possible, it will save alot of taping.

More::: Painting your rims.

Yes. It is possible to fix and paint your rims if you have alot of curb rash. I will the pics to this tutorial soon, possibly.
Materials neeeded: base coat/clear, alumnium epoxy, sandpaper.

Fix all your holes with the aluminum epoxy. use sparingly and only mix up small amounts, since it is hard to sand. After you get your rims all fixed cosmetically sand them down and spray as i just explained in my tutorial.
I removed the tires when I did this
*if your rims are powder coated, do nto paint them... unless you want to*


Any questions? feel free to ask. In a few days pics will be up of what I have. As i said before, my camera was stolen so I do not have the plethora of pictures which I had originally intended to post, but i have many.

Thanks.
Ruby