Car Color Alternatives: Do It Yourself or Take it to the Shop
That vintage baby-blue ‘Stang really is your baby, and every bit of road tar, and every little scratch she endures from everyday wear and tear eats away at your heart. Yes, you sat your aluminum water bottle on the roof. You know you shouldn’t have, and now, there is an almost imperceptible scratch. “Almost” is the key word there — nobody else noticed it, and you still receive constant praise about the car’s pristine condition, but you still know it’s there.
These little nicks and scratches accumulate over time despite your best efforts. A truck passes you on the freeway and kicks up a rock. You drive down an alley and a protruding branch scrapes your door. An angry ex with a key leaves you a message. Eventually you decide to do something about it.
The flaws are still minor, and although they are becoming more noticeable, you still wonder whether you can fix them yourself and save the money, or whether you have to take it into the shop, bite the bullet and put off your vacation to the Florida Keys until next year.
Put on your old clothes, roll up your sleeves and do it yourself
If those fruity rum drinks just can’t wait, there are do-it-yourself options that are fairly inexpensive and easy to use. A big upside is the image of yourself you will cultivate with attractive neighbors who see you outside working on your muscle car. A potential downside of course, is that those same neighbors may see you, and decide that you’re a mechanic and then ask you to fix their squeaky brakes.
You may want to avoid the entire neighbor issue and pull the car into the garage, and it’s not just because of what the neighbors might think. If you’re doing it yourself — even if you’re just touching up a scratch rather than painting the entire vehicle — you still have to let the paint cure after you have layered on any primer, color coats, or final clear coats. If you are doing this outdoors, there is always a risk of foreign material contaminating the painted area, so it’s best to bring the car into your garage.
While a complete paint job may best be left to the professionals, touching up minor scratches here and there can easily be done at home and at minimal expense. The results may not be as perfect as the body shop, but for small repairs, it’s often good enough so that most casual onlookers won’t notice.
The first step is to match the color, and dealers will usually have small bottles of touch-up paint in stock. Clean the rust out of the scratch, or else it may come through later. A spot-sanding tool will get the job done — this tool isn’t as daunting as it might seem, it’s just a small hand-held tool you can buy for less than ten dollars.
If it’s a very small spot, you can apply the paint just using a small artist’s paintbrush, alternately, a paint syringe (also less than ten bucks) or a foam brush is all you need. If all you have is a light scratch, you probably won’t need any primer. Just apply a thin coat, let it dry, and sand it lightly, then apply another coat.
Of course, if it’s more than a minor scratch, you may have more serious rust, or even flaking paint, and in that case you may need to put a little more elbow grease into it, and you’ll need to apply a coat of rust converter before painting.
Your car isn’t a living room wall, leave painting to the professionals
You may decide you’ll have to enjoy those fruity rum drinks in your back yard this year, and if so, before you turn over your car, it may pay off if you get a good understanding of precisely what a paint shop does, and how they do it.
While do-it-yourselfers may invest in an air compressor and get the job done in the driveway — hopefully avoiding getting automotive paint all over the fence, the house, and the neighbor’s cat — professional shops use a paint booth, which confines the spray to an enclosed area. And as anybody who has ever painted a car in the driveway can tell you, it’s almost impossible to avoid getting some foreign object on the wet paint — usually a leaf, an insect, or worse, bird droppings. Or, that cat may decide to take revenge and walk over the hood.
For a full-on professional job, by the time you invest in the equipment you need, you will probably have spent far more than what you would just by bringing the car to the shop.
Another advantage the professional shop has is that they will use curing lights in the booth, which are infrared units which accelerate the drying process and ensure that it stays uniform. The air-dry in the driveway method just isn’t practical. Just ask the lady with permanent cat prints on his hood.
