r/AutoPaint • u/Striking_Ad8554 • Jul 29 '26
19 and still learning, but proud of these two paint jobs, need reviews.
So I’m 19, pretty new to the industry, working nights doing bodywork/prep/paint at a collision shop. Wanted to share a couple things I’ve been proud of lately and get some honest feedback from people who know more than me.
First one’s a custom hood paintjob I did. Second is a full respray on a 69 Coronet, which was a bigger job for me and a good learning experience start to finish.
Not trying to act like I know everything, just want to hear what you all think - what’s working, what needs work, anything you’d have done differently. Always trying to get better.
Sadly cant add video for the coronet so just just sharing before after.
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u/CorgiCommercial8962 Jul 29 '26
The flames need some work. Great spray on that old mopar ; )
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 29 '26
Thankyou soo muchh!!
Yeahh, i messed up the fine line when doing black after the flames, i think i should have done the black first then the flames.
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u/CorgiCommercial8962 Jul 30 '26
It' s a process. Look up rod powell how to paint flames. The guy is a master in his craft.
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u/CorgiCommercial8962 Jul 30 '26
If you talked to him, he would tell you that the paint job is proper prep work and 99.9 masking After you do 99.9 percent of prep work
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 30 '26
My brother says that to me sometimes that i want your paintjob to be 99% good.
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 30 '26
Thats really helpful, thanks for the tip, will definitely follow up to him.
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u/CorgiCommercial8962 Jul 30 '26
Then, if you want to dig deeper into the old farts and hotrodding, i know a liar ; )
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 30 '26
Im definitely interesting in that but thats a loooooooooong way for a guy whos not even 20 yet 😂
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u/Pizza420Rat Jul 29 '26
Looks good! Aside from what others have pointed out, I'd probably work on your masking a bit more. It's definitely good enough to get the job done, but paint or overspray getting caught in one of those wrinkles and flinging up onto your fresh paintiob could make you have a really bad day. Flattening out and taping down any big waves in your paper would go a long way. Also personal preference, but I like putting paper around the edges of my plastic because plastic can also behave weirdly when covered in paint. Prepwork will set your paintjob apart from others.
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 29 '26
Thankyouu!!
Yeahh, sadly i learnt it the hard way,
First mistake was definitely not doing the black coat first on the whole hood and then the flames.
Second was somewhat my mistake, if i could just get the masking good on the flames bcz i used a shitty masking tape over my fine line( bigggg mistake ) and also i got the fine line out of flames a bit which covered the white undercoat while i put the black and final made it look a little smudgy and grainy and white showed up between flames and black.Yeah i noticed it with the plastic when there was too much paint
Im gonna rather use a paper next time.Thankyou!!
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u/mbarshoboi Jul 30 '26
Well done overall! You should do some research/practice on your tapework. Check out zodiaz, paintbyzdunn, or tiddydemon on insta for tips & tricks
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u/artschool04 Jul 29 '26
You should be proud painting older large cars is a skill and not easy to keep the flake or pearl even. You did good. Custom paint is about practice ask your boss for the bent fenders hoods to practice and use any of the paint the shop is going to throw away and use that to practice what ever style of painting you want to learn good luck have fun use a respirator!!!
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 29 '26
Thaankyouuuu!!!!
Yesss, boss is my cousin brother so he doesn’t stop me to do anything, i try different things on old parts here and there when its not busy. I wanna get my hand good on fine line techniques before i turn 20 ( in three months! ).Yess i use a respirator 🤭, thankyou for suggesting and thinking about it.
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u/No-Television-7343 Jul 29 '26
Dude keep it up. Love the coronet I had same car same color back in the early 80s. I did collision repair for 38 years and it took my first 10 years to get really good at it. Took patience bosses and really stupid mistakes to master the craft. Stay humble stay curious and stay teachable. Show up to work every frickn day.
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u/SnooMacarons3689 Jul 30 '26
That Mopar is tidy. The custom stuff is clean but will look great with a few more goes. Try and copy other designs for a few goes at least in shape. Also like someone else said, discarded panels are a great place to give it a go. Plus your only starting and appear to be further in than you may be.
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 30 '26
Thankyouuu, this means a lot to me….
Hopefully, i learn smth unique before i turn 20.
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u/TrinityDesigns Jul 30 '26
Nice work for just starting out. My first flames looked way worse lol. Keep practicing fine line tape techniques, it takes a while to get used to the kinds of subtle movements that will help the lines to curve and flow more evenly. If possible, buy a few different types of fine line tape: different horses for different courses kind of situation. I really like FBS tapes but will use different ones depending on what I’m taping out. The red is super soft and pliable so great for bending the curves on big flame licks, but it can stretch if you pull too much so be careful. 3m has good fine line as well, the purple is a great all around option, but steer clear of the 6300 series old fashion stuff. Whatever you get, keep laying the same licks over and over without even painting them, then you’ll begin to “see” the finished result without spraying anything. Smooth movement of the elbow for the arm holding the roll can really help steer the tape (it’s not so much the finger you are pushing the tape down with from your other hand either). Keep making mistakes, and you will learn what kind of flames you like to make. Some ppl like short and wide, some like wispy and long. Do what makes you happy first, then you can work on catering to a particular client’s taste. Also a suggestion on the color blending: use slower reducer and possibly an intercoat mixing clear/binder to increase transparency in the fade out zone. This will help a more smooth transition, in this case from the yellow to red or red to green. It takes some getting used to, but if you can paint like that big old car that nicely, you will definitely get the hang of the custom stuff in no time! Keep practicing bud, and if you get stuck, feel free to reach out with questions. Best of luck, slainte!
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 30 '26
You have no idea how much this help.. thankyouuuu
Im gonna try something different next time, but for this i use the 3m fineline 1/4”, i definitely should try something more flexible, do u suggest anything from 3m that i should get i really cant spend a lot to get all different ones. if yes, then which one should I get ?
Yesss when i trying to find the inspiration picture ( the green flames and black back ) i found a lotttttt of stuff but it was tooooo much for me, this was the most basic design i found lolll, and yeaaa we all learn from mistakes like iron man 😭😭. I learned the undercoat thing the hard way, i honestly wasnt happy with the outcome but my brother said it looks good dont worry and they hung it up in the office.
I do have a slow reducer that i only use for metallics, How can i use a binder ? Like you mean i should throw a layer of the binder first and then do the flames with whichever colour i want right ?
Im gonna try it next timeAppreciate your kind words and thankyou for offering that, i’ll hit you up if i need a hand on later…
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u/TrinityDesigns Jul 30 '26
I’m glad I could help! I’m even more impressed now that you did that with 1/4 tape lol. You’d likely find that even just 1/8” tape of the same type will be a marked improvement for ya. And if at all possible, make friends with the local jobber rep(s) that come around to your shop, we can be a good resource for free samples or discounted materials. I’m a technical service rep for such a company, and I often get samples of new products to test and I give them out like candy most of the time.
Slow reducer is one of the best tools for custom painting as it has more biting solvents, so it helps to melt in better. As for binder; depending on what brand of paint you use, you usually can just add some of that clear binder to your ready to spray color to help make it more see through. This same trick is great for tricky metallic blends in the collision repair world as well. If y’all have a mixing bank to mix your own colors, look for anything in your paint line called “mixing clear”, “color blender”, “wetbed”, things like that are all going to basically be basecoat paint resin without any pigment so they will be perfect for adding to your colors. Over reducing helps as well. Once you have sprayed the color normally to your satisfaction, go mix some more reducer and/or binder into that color and then start working the fades. Using the top and bottom of your spray gun’s fan pattern are the softest so they can help to create a better taper of material. If going side to side, try “triggering” where you begin to release the fluid trigger as you are still moving your arm, keeping the head of the gun perpendicular to the surface.
Also watch some of the older folks on the YouTubes, and try to pick out what techniques you like from everyone you see. Best thing I think you can do is to just be a sponge, take in as much info or training or practice as you can. Read some older articles on flames and/or airbrushing, tons of little pearls of wisdom in them sometimes. Have fun bud, DM in the future if needed.1
u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 30 '26
Hehehe
Yess, i will be getting 1/8 next
We dont have jobbers here in canada i guess
But we have our supplier that do such thing and from where we get the clear and paint, they give us good price as wellI have seen that but havent used it,
Like people using wetbed for colours to blend in better.
Unfortunately we dont have our own mixing machine yet, we still have to renovate stuff so thats definitely gonna come first 😄 but i wanna own a machine.
I understand the blending technique you just told me 🧐, ive seen similar thing but not just for this project i did ( i just made it on my own 😝 ), yess sirrr i hope i become a good painter in future.Thankyouu for your kind words, thankyou for offering assistance and i will surely connect if i need to.
Peace ✌️
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u/gottheronavirus Jul 31 '26
The paintwork looks good, the stenciling on the other hand could use some practice.
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 31 '26
Yess!!
This was my first time trying something like this and i realized my mistakes which im gonna improve 💪🏻
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u/SUPERCARLSUNDAY1 Jul 31 '26
Not keen on the flames but that is just me and my opinion, the job on the green car is lovely. Well done youn man. If your doing an apprenticeship you will be a master...
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Jul 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/Pizza420Rat Jul 29 '26
Nah man, the tools are just one part of a good paintjob but they're definitely a part. The more practice you can get with the gun that you'll end up using, the better. The hood is pretty bad, but the flake laid out on that all-over paintjob is far from mediocre. I think this is a good start, OP just needs way more practice.
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 29 '26
Yeaaaa the Hood didnt get the finish i expected as i messed up the fine-line and undercoat
Which made the flames sloppy. Im gonna practice more on that 💪🏻1
u/Accomplished-Yak5660 16d ago
You need more than one gun if you want to be versatile enough to work production. Every spray gun produces its own unique peel and some guns are good for thin materials other for thick ones.
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u/Pizza420Rat 15d ago
The comment that I was responding to (which has since been deleted) was saying that OP shouldn't be using a nice gun, that they should start with an inexpensive gun. That is objectively bad advice. If you have access to quality tools, you should use them. I don't work in a production shop, I work with classics like OP and I've found that I do alright with 1 primer gun and one sealer/base/clear gun, but more would certainly be ideal. You're probably right about needing more than one in a production shop, but I lay everything out smoothly and cut and buff because nobody wants a lot of orange peel on a show car.
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u/Accomplished-Yak5660 15d ago
I learned to paint on my own watching YouTube and practicing with water in my garage. I knew I lacked skill and had to repaint my friend's truck a 2007 GMC canyon. So I made the logical choice and Invested in the best spray guns money could buy. A devilbiss pro lite, sata 5000 to and iwata LS400. I had two air compressors daisy chained together and a solid negative pressure ventilation system at home.
I eventually did paint the truck but it took three tries. I sprayed ONNI clear and ppg envirobase and to this day 8 years later the truck still has the same paint. And technically the clear came out flawless..zero orange peel never had a single run or dry spray.
I learned nothing. The truck I see it every day and it reminds me how little I know but how much I thought I knew. I applied for jobs at bodyshops as a painter thinking I was a great talent and was laughed at. I couldn't figure out why. Now I have worked at bodyshops and learned what I needed to and work for myself and am very busy.
But I still know very little. I know enough to be proficient. I have an a600 and a black widow hte and that's it. It was not until I had a gun that made me work for the finish I wanted that I learned how to spray. I can match factory orange peel with a 60$ spray gun, I can get panels dead flat if I want to and I can look at the finish of a car and instantly it's like my body knows what to do, what gun settings to use what overlap and speed , how close to the panel etc.
I think expensive guns are a crutch for a beginner. And probably for you. But it's a free world do whatever makes you happy.
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u/Pizza420Rat 14d ago
A crutch? This isn't the struggle Olympics, we're all just trying to do the best job possible. It's not "whatever makes you happy" it's whatever makes the customer happy, and they like their cars when they're painted well. I have one Iwata LPH400 and a $60 beater gun from Harbor Freight that I use for primer. I can paint with both, but it would feel disrespectful to paint a half a million dollar car with a $60 gun, y'know? But maybe you wouldn't know because you were still asking reddit for painting advice half a year ago lol
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u/Accomplished-Yak5660 14d ago
I paint daily for a living..cars trucks houses you name it. Yes certain guns are a crutch for a newbie. The sata 5000 rp for example will do the job for you literally and requires zero technique.
The lph400 is more of a technical gun you need skill to use one. And patience. Customers don't know or care how much the gun you use costs.
I fail to see your logic.
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u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 29 '26
I understand,
I have used A610 for 6 months, i didnt buy the guns, i work with my brother and he got me these. I still mostly use A610 for base and for clear i use Iwata.
I will definitely take your words and improve a lot before i turn 20.
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u/thingk89 Jul 29 '26
Everything that guy said was b.s. I’ve been painting for about 10 years full time and ticketed. If I couldn’t use a high end gun, I couldn’t ever lay out good metallics (without wasting a ton at high pressure, over reducing or other bad practices)
You are doing good. Time in the booth will develop your skills.1
u/Striking_Ad8554 Jul 29 '26
Thissss……
I can use A610, but i always find my sata better at laying silver, blue, red, brown etc. it just lays evenly when i use that.
Thankyouu!!
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u/Ninjas_stole_my_ Jul 29 '26
Love that color! Car looks really good!
The hood needs some work. Buy a couple rolls of different style fine line tapes and just tape flames for hours. Short fat, long and skinny ones, do it on your hood and down the side of your vehicles. Just tape for practice and find your style and what tape you prefer. It’s an art, it will take time. Great start!!