Full Body Respray Advice
 

So my API is obviously a little on the older side, the paint isn’t what it used to be. I’ve decided to save up for a full body respray and got quoted from 3,000-5,500 starting. I’m in Virginia btw if that means anything. Most shops don’t do engine bay though so I would eventually have to do that myself, however they will do the door jams. My question is should I just have the silverstone touched up in places (I’d have to go to a Honda dealer for this one to make sure it was as close as possible), save up for the full color respray of my dreams then do the engine bay in my friends garage? (I’m in navy barracks so I don’t have a garage), or Drive it home to my brother who has 10+ years of experience painting cars and pay him to do it.

Fc If my brother had ten years experience painting cars I'd let him do it no question.

get brother do it!!! even at 3k it wont be perfect job...(i expect random overspray, and hiden things like hinges etc not done well). But your bro will probably take his time and you can work on it together...

I tried touch up (myself ) and I screwed it up. I ended up respraying the whole car. You can follow up in my thread. I will post pics of how the final outcome is (in a week hopefully). My cost was roughly 6k (I payed1500, insurance claim for rest)

Where is "HOME"? I would probably say work with the Bro and pay him.

This part scares the pants off of me! I am in the same boat and thinking of trying my hand at painting my car pre-vinyl wrap. Front bumper and rear quarter panel re-spray I hope to make it look GOOD but so long as it's FLAT I plan to viny wrap whole car so dropping multi K on paint to only cover it up is crazy!

I don't think its that hard to get it right. For me it was the first time messing with sand paper and paint. I also am not very good a polishing. I think if I had an orbital I would have done much better. In the back of my mind, I always knew I was going to get it painted. I had ability to make the insurance claim as a fail safe. So I didn't take all the precautions I would normally have. I did my Jetta (white) after this event and that one came out a lot better.

The key thing is, to apply little paint at a type and let it dry than add more. It's my eagerness to buff fresh paint and do too many steps at one go that messed it up. I had read all the advice there is, but sometimes there is no replacement for experience. Knowing how much paint you have to work with helps. Tape off the the areas you don't intend to touch is also crucial.