Paint

Well its been a little while since I've done anything with the bug. I've done a little more small touch-ups on the body and it getting closer to being ready for paint.

The one thing that I've come to realize is that paint is a complicate choice. I really would like to paint the car its final color before I put it all back together, but I also want to get it back on the road. Paint is on a car to protect the metal from the elements which will make it rust. The metal on the car is in great condition for its age and I would really like to keep it that way. That means painting before it gets on the road.

The other thing that I've come to realize is that painting a car the right way costs a lot more money then I have sitting aroung. My goal isn't to have a show quality car but rather something that looks alright and runs well. I would rather spend money on other things like the engine.

I know the basic steps for painting a car but I need help with learning and performing the finer parts of this delicate art.

So far I've thought about painting it with black primer to protect the metal. It gives it that un-finished project look. I could do this myself and start to put things back together and paint the car a final color in the future.

Another thought, is paint it with spray cans. Yep, a "rattle-can" paint job. It would protect the metal and give it a more finished look. The problem that I see with this ... it's probably going to make a "real" paint job more work, which would also add more to the cost.

I also read about using a small roller to paint a car, but I know that I'm not going to do that.

Last week I talked to my father-in-law's friend Kenny who paints cars on his own. Does a great job but he has a project already planned for the winter so he wouldn't be able to get to me until the spring time. Since he does it in his spair time he said it usually takes 2 to 3 months to finish all of the work which means that it would be finished sometime early to mid summer. This is probably my best option because the car will get painted the right way and it will give me a little more time to save some money. He estimates the cost would be around $900 for paint and labor, but can change if things come up.

Fall time is here now and winter will be coming soon. I would really like to drive the car but now is the best time to paint the car while its still in parts ... oh what to do.