Hi.
I just wanted to share some pictures of my celica and hopefully inspire some of you people with a budget.
My celica was painted in the garage with all bodywork and paint done by me. The whole paint job cost me $600. I never took classes for any of this stuff so I'm confident anyone can do it.

I bought this car 9 months ago for $1800. The body wasn't in the greatest shape.. but I saw potential in the poor thing and thus, became determined to bring back her beauty (on a budget).

The first thing I tackled was the rust. Aside from surface rust, the body and frame was actually very clean. Everything was intact. I grinded everything off and sealed with por15. The driver side door had a small rust hole on the bottom left corner. It bothered me so much that I replaced the whole driver side door with a rust-free one. Yes, I know, I'm super picky!

Original door with rust hole.


Close up of rust.


New door.



My life-saver-- por15. I love this stuff... well, except when it gets on my hands, then I hate it. (my room is messy)


Sanded down.



Base coat. Sorry, no pic of her in primer. I was too busy to snap a picture.



Cleared, wetsanded, and buffed. Car is super dirty at this point.






Everything put back on her.. by this time, it was dark outside.


I tried to take some better pictures today but it rained and was super cloudy. This was the best I could do.



I love the color. It's an OEM toyota supra color called anthracite. Here's a tiny collage I made on the color.


For a budget garage paint job, I think the car turned out great. I gleam with pride everytime I see it. I'm going to paint the trims this weekend as well as put on some rims.

I don't plan to work on anymore cars until next year. My '96 winter warrior corolla is next up in line. I think java black will be perfect for it. ...hmm, maybe jada green? Oh well, I have a whole year to think about it.

PS- I wanna thank my dad for his badass welding skills.

wow amazing. you did alot more bodywork than i did on my garage paint looks good is the clear on yet???? how many layers did you spray on??

That looks awesome, would never know it was done in a garage.

well done,

hot colour btw.

I love the results, so all you did was do a primer then basecoat, then wetsand the basecoat? How many layers is there?

Its looks very good!

i love that color. nice work. can you do mine next?

WOW!! that looks amazing.

Just a couple questions though:

you went with a basecoat clearcoat right?

and is there a paint code for that color? I think that might be what im gonna go with if i dont go red.

Nice job! I like the color alot

I hope the anatomy and Physiology book didn't get paint on it.

great work !

a girl that works on her own cars and knows where everything is on a guy person body is always hot on my book

That looks gorgeous! How does that por15 stuff work (process, pred, etc)? I'm probably gonna need it on the Supra. BTW, who's white MK3 Supra is that? Looks clean for an NA...or is it...?

very nice

nice job

primer-base-clear then sanded the clear and bufed it ppl come on

Wow man, that's freaking gorgeous. I'm tempted to do the same but uh I don't have a garage hah.

$600 really isn't budget... For my paint and supplies I am using on my winter car including a new gun comes out to less than $500...and Maaco can spray single stage for $400ish...I am not saying it's not a good job because it IS beautiful but...that's a lot of money to spend to do your own...but,I guess the pride is worth it!

Damn good job!

>

600, that's nothing

w2g for diy paintjobs! i remember doing my 1st paint job on my 4th gen celica about 5 yrs ago... i spent about $400 on everything, but it didn't turn out as nice as yours did.

awesome work

Wow, that looks beautiful.

Awesome job! You did a really good job, i like the color!

Thanks everyone!!! -- I really appreciate your comments!

808celica-- Yep, the clear is on. I did about 3 layers of base & a good 4-5 layers of clear.

Rayme-- Thanks. I did primer, base, clear.. then wetsand the clear & buff.

joe_p3t-- How about new paint for your JDM tails? .. you buy the paint, of course

Celiracer18-- Yep, basecoat clearcoat. None of that crappy single stage stuff. Paint code is 1A1.

NgoFcuk-- Por15 works great. You can paint it directly over rust.. however, I prefer to sand/grind down the rust first & use metal prep before I lay down por15. Make sure you wear gloves when handling that stuff. They are very tough to remove once dry. That supra is NA with a fully rebuilt engine and all. Don't know how much power it makes but my dad curently dailys it.

97Celica-- You're right, $600 isn't really a budget. You can get your car painted for less or buy paint for a lot cheaper.. however, I went with the SLIGHTLY HIGHER end stuff. Clear (one gallon) cost me $180 alone. ..and my $600 includes sandpaper, body filler, buffing pads, & compound. Plus, the experience was well worth it. No regrets here at all. --- I did my civic the same way. It cost me $450 totalled to paint that. (pic in profile)

I took some more pictures today. She's a bit dirty because I left her in the rain last night. I will be painting the trims this weekend.

tsk tsk tsk leaving a freshly painted car in the rain. i kept away from my car for 3 days to let the paint kinda cure after that i couldn't stand not driving it any longer.

on the layers applied are there any runs??? i hope not if anything you can just wet sand with 1500 grit or even finer

one bronze wheel, 3 silver, and then some really nice rims in the last pic

sweet job!!!

rims rims rims rims

looks great. inspires me to actually go through with mine. were your neighbors annoyed with fumes? what kind of ventilation did you use?
just curious... what did you spray with? (Brand of spray gun, HVLP/Conventional, Gravity feed? what brand paint?)

PS.. i go to school with a few Hmoob guys here at UTI.

Erich

berry nice

super nice
I like

awesome job. To bad i have rust that isnt worth fixing. No body shops will do it so i'm not going to bother repainting my car...

>

I painted the car while the neighbors were at work so there's no way they were possibly annoyed with fumes, LoL.

I left the garage door wide open while I painted (see basecoat pic). I was too lazy to seal off the garage and too poor to rent a paint booth. As long as it's not too windy outside, it should be just fine. Any dust in the paint can be wetsanded off. No worries.
I used a cheap spray gun from autozone.. ($75)

...I'm very thankful for my dad's badass air compressor.

Teach me.......I love that color, dark colors=sexy sleeperz. Great Job btw !!