Alright so the Miata's in plastidip currently with fucked up fenders and quarters. Body work isn't an issue. I have plenty of experience here, and will be taking care of that in the near future.

I plan to put some cheap paint on the car for now. It doesn't have to look show room good or anything, but I don't want it looking like complete shit. I'm really hoping for a single stage paint here. Basically I will be painting the car in a cheap temporary paint booth that I will be making. I need some suggestions for a decent budget gun, and some cheap but halfway decent paint. I'm thinking Andy might have some good advice here.

I remember Avoid did a decent rattlecan job. Don't recall how many cans he used, though.

Are you doing body work before this paint job? Or doing that later? Honestly I would think about just getting a maaco 200$ job done if you are just looking for temp. A gun is going to run $75 for a cheap one, plus the cost of paint is going to put you near the cost of a maaco job. My single stage job from maaco did really well and looked great for nearly 4 years. Then when I moved to florida the humidity made it bubble and peel real bad.

Yep, this is right up my alley.


For the BEST budget spray guns.

Devilbiss Starting line kit (3 piece kit. 1 primer gun, 1 paint, and 1 mini touch up) for 175 bucks.

As far as paints go. Single stage urethanes are nice because they are a one time shoot, and done. However, if you ever needed to touch up, they can be slightly more fickle.

Napa (Martin Senour) paints are also excellent quality for the cost.

If you show me where you wanted to paint on the car, I can most likely diagram it out, so it would be easy to blend.



I could go on for days. Just let me know what you wanna know.

This is a complete paint job. I need to know also how many coats I'll need to do, what sort of paint prep needs to be done, and an estimate on gallons needed to cover a Miata including a hard top.

Also, that's the exact gun I was looking for.

Also to duckman I will be doing bodywork before paint of course.

Stopped reading when I read "miata"

That's cool, go away then.


Why people feel the need for idiotic comments is beyond me.

okay so full paint.

Assuming all sufficient body work and prep has been done.

Rule of thumb for paint amounts:

-2 quarts paint (most likely mixed 2:1 with some type of thinner, which is brand dependent)

-2-3 quarts clear (most likely mixed 4:1 with an appropriate hardener, also brand specific)

Will paint most cars. Especially a Miata.

If you're using single stage paint, then I would say somewhere around 2-3 quarts total material.

Paint is usually around 30-40 dollars a quart. And the reducer is about the same, however 1 quart of reducer lasts longer obviously.

Hardener for the clear (if shooting base/clear) is the same story, which is about equal to the price of a quart of clear (around 30-40 bucks again)


Number of coats is based on your judgement.

The first coat, the introductory coat, called the "drop coat" is sprayed extremely light. This is to introduce the liquid coatings to the surface to be painted.

Once the drop coat has flashed off (usually happens before you finish spraying the rest of the car, it happens quick) then apply, what I'd say is 3-4 decent coats, but again, you are looking for uniform coverage. If it looks good in two, there's no point in adding more....Unless of course you want to.

If shooting a base/clear, don't try to make the base coat shiny. That's the clear's job. If you run the base, you've gotta wet sand.

If shooting with a single stage, the same rules apply as above. Drop coat. Then gradually getting a little heavier each coat. And remember, you can always add more paint to a dry spot. It's super hard to remove paint, in the form of runs, later on. I'd rather do 10 light coats, and know for sure it's not gonna run, than I would risk trying to "get er done in one"

Depending on the paint you purchase, I can go into much depth from mixing, to setting the gun, to spraying.

Just lemme know.

This post was edited by OldAndyAndTheSea on May 1 2014 04:07pm

I really appreciate that, it's a lot of good info and gives me an idea on where to start. After I figure out the paint that I want I will let you know.

Alright so I did a little internet searching, and I think I may have come up with what I want.

For the paint gun:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dvr-802343/overview/

And then the paint its self:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-up309/overview/

If these seem like a good choice to you, then it looks like I'll have about 100$ in paint (And activator), and 150 in the gun for a total of 250$ paint job so far. I already have the bondo and glass bondo I need for the repairs, as well as the sandpaper.

So then my next question, paint prep. So obviously I'm going to peel the plasti dip and do the fender and quarter repairs, roughing the metal and then filling low spots with the fiber bondo, and finishing it off with bondo and a finish sand.

Question 1, what is the final grit that should be used on the repairs before paint?

Question 2, the car is bare aluminum under the plasti dip. Do you recommend primer first, and if so, which primer do you recommend?

Question 3, does primer color effect paint hue? I know this is the case with a lot of paints, will it effect this single stage paint?

Final question, and this one is just to get some input and opinions, how do you (And anybody else that would like to add input) feel this blue would look on a lowered NA Miata. You can refer to my other Miata thread to see the wheels and lips I am running as well.