How to Paint a Car at Home Outside? Better Read This First!

The Internet may tell you that painting a car on your own is something that every person can do. They give you guidelines, detailed instructions, show you pics and videos. But you can't even imagine how far all those tricks are from reality. Painting a car at home is something even a professional person can't do because there are so many features one needs to consider.

In short, you can't paint a car at home and still be satisfied with the results. But you can repair a certain spot on your vehicle without paying thousands for that. Also, you can paint a small part of the vehicle's body that is invisible at first glance. But even for this, you will need to have some equipment and knowledge.

If you want to know what I think - stay away from any DIY jobs that involve painting a vehicle. It's a really hard task and you need to have some knowledge, expertise, professional equipment, and great materials for that.

Let's discuss each factor and you'll see why I'm so skeptical about the DIY painting projects.

Painting a car at home - what will you need?

Well, let's start by telling you a simple thing - it's impossible to paint the entire car at home outside without any professional equipment. Even if we are talking about just one part of the car like a bumper or a door, for example, painting it outside will mean making your car look like a Frankenstein.

Here are some of the problems you will immediately have in the process of painting outside:

• The equipment for painting. Do you have a good compressor in your garage? Do you have a paint gun that's used for painting cars? This is the minimal set of equipment you will need.
• When painting outside, you will notice dust massively sticking to the paint. Each layer of paint will be with dust and in the end, this will turn out to be a mess instead of a shiny surface.
• You depend on the weather. If rain starts or a strong wind blows, your job will be useless and you will have to repaint the car when everything settles down.
• Also, under direct sunbeams, the paint will dry too fast and it will affect its quality - the paint layer will not be durable.
• Your neighbors may be another problem. Paint fumes and the sounds of a working compressor may be disturbing and they may even call the police.

Even if you started reading the article full of confidence to paint your car at home, now you may have some doubts about it. Considering every step of your work is extremely important before you start a DIY project. If you count the money that you need to rent or buy the needed equipment and buy materials, you will see that the economy is pretty uncertain.

Even the lowest-quality professional work will be much better than painting your car at home outside.

What will you need to paint your car at home?

Unfortunately, painting a car with a spray can paint is impossible. This paint is never good in terms of shades, quality of layers, and also the smoothness of the surface you get in the end. So, you can spray paint something in your engine bay but painting a door or a hood with a spray can is not something you should do.

So, here's what you will need to paint a car at home, near your garage:

• a compressor that's powerful enough for painting the vehicle (at least 2-3 bars constantly);
• a paint gun used for automotive painting;
• hoses that will connect your compressor to the gun - long enough to work without any restrictions;
• paint - you will need to have it matched using one of the painted parts from your vehicle;
• fillers, primers, hardeners, thinners, sandpaper, and other things to prepare your car for being painted;
• primer for the spot preparation before you use your paint;
• at least 3-4 hours of your time if the job takes just one element of the car body;
• good weather - not too hot and not cold.

Seems like you will be waiting for too long to get the optimal weather and other conditions and to gather all the needed equipment and materials. Unfortunately, that seems to be too hard for a person who never painted anything with a professional paint gun.

By the way, some experience will also be needed. Before you are able to paint a car, you will have to train a little on a scrap piece of metal. Training your moves and techniques is important. Also, you will have to watch dozens of tutorials to just understand how to operate that equipment.

Now you may be starting to understand why paintjob is so expensive.

What may go wrong when you are painting a car at home?

Everything may go wrong and spoil the paintjob you've been working for several hours on. A too-thick layer of paint will start sagging and you will need to clean and repaint it. A too-thin layer will not cover the primer properly and the color will be poor.

Dust is one of the main enemies of proper paintjob and this is the primary reason why professionals only paint in specially prepared cameras with no dust in them. Dust will stick on the newly painted surface and you won't be able to fix this.

Your paint may not be drying at all because of the humidity that you can't control. In a professional camera, specialists control climate and ensure it's appropriate for optimal paint drying at any time of the year.

An uneven paint layer will be visible. You will just see that the surface is not smooth and it's not possible to fix with polishing and other types of aftertreatment.

The lack of expertise and experience will also cause problems. Your paint layer may not be smooth, shiny, and beautiful. It will obviously differ from all other parts of the car and this will create the effect of painting with a brush.

So, basically everything can go wrong with this. It's easier to list positive things that you will get when painting your car at home, outside your garage. And the only perk you will get is the economy of your money.

Where to get equipment for painting a car on your own?

If everything I said above doesn't stop you from giving it a try, you may need to know where you can take compressors and paint guns for painting your car at home.

Well, there are two ways of getting this equipment: you can rent it or buy it. If you are considering buying a good compressor and a professional paint gun, then the only perk your paintjob was meant to give you will vanish. The price of the equipment is pretty high and you will not save any money in comparison with the price for professional car painting.

If you decide to rent out the equipment, it will be quite hard to find the company ready to give their paint guns and also compressors for rent. Even if you succeed in this, the price will not be low, too. What's more, any damage to the equipment will be repaired for your money.

I see a lot of risks in renting professional car painting equipment. And I also see little common sense in buying this equipment to paint a door in your car. Especially if you consider that the quality of the paintjob will be fairly bad.

How much will cheap professional car painting cost?

Let's say you need to repaint a bumper. In this case, you will have to take the bumper off the car, prepare it by cleaning the old paint layer off, prime it, and then paint. Seems like a simple task if you don't consider all those complicated details.

You will spend a day doing this job and also about a hundred dollars for materials given you have your own compressor and paint gun.

The low-grade professional paintjob in a local shop will cost you about $300. While professional painting with high quality may cost up to $800 or even more. But this is a bumper - the part that is attacked by stones and road curbs all the time, so why painting it for a thousand bucks? You can have it painted for $300 and forget about the problems.

The lowest-grade professional paintjob will be about a hundred times better than the DIY job. Especially if you are going to paint the bumper outside without taking it off the car and preparing properly.

Final thoughts

When preparing to write the article, I read several other articles with tips on how to paint your car at home. And I was shocked by how wrong they are and what bad things they try to teach you. Never think that you can paint a car for ten bucks near your garage and be happy with the results - this is just wrong!

The only thing you can actually do by yourself is to repair those tiny specks and scratches by cleaning them and applying a drop of paint to hide them. All other types of work for the car body should be left to professionals. Believe me, painting a car on your own is not something you will reward yourself for in the end.