Experienced painters... please help

[josh_did_what]

Hi TCL, I have a huge hole in my front bumper and I discovered a new bumper is more affordable than I thought. I have access to a paint gun and somewhat knowledgeable friends, so I'm thinking about taking a crack at it and doing it myself. If I buy paint from automotivetouchup.com or a similar site, how much basecoat should I expect to buy?

Pics for reference:

[CSFiend]

Buy enough to paint that whole car something other than puke green

[josh_did_what]

Buy enough to paint that whole car something other than puke green

Thank god my car is NOT that color, I just used it because it's a good view of the whole bumper .

[David802]

Thank god my car is NOT that color, I just used it because it's a good view of the whole bumper .

Thank god.... I would buy a quart. Probably a bit more than you need but it should give you a little wiggle room to do a couple of test coats on something small, which I would suggest you do as well.

[Justin_Eshelman]

^^like he said. Do some test coats on the old bumper to dial in everything.

[phill0046]

I work in the paint shop at a big bodyshop, i wouldnt suggest doing it yourself with no experience. It shouldnt be too much money to bring them the bumper and your car, let them match the paint, then install it yourself

[josh_did_what]

I work in the paint shop at a big bodyshop, i wouldnt suggest doing it yourself with no experience. It shouldnt be too much money to bring them the bumper and your car, let them match the paint, then install it yourself

How much is "too much?" Because it looks like its going to be costing ~$150 for supplies. I guess $200 would be ok. I was kinda hoping to keep it at that cost or else it's not worth it IMO. I was hoping to get a deal since I found the bumper for so cheap.

Has anyone ever tried this before?

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/sto...er_repair.aspx

or

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/sto...epair_kit.aspx

?

The reason I want a new bumper is that I have two cracks. One is about 1 inch, and the other is 3-4, but the big one is in the corner. So if something like that would work I might try that. The small one isn't too bad, but the big one is in a location that noticeable throws off the lines of the car/design. So if I could fix the crack, and do a half-decent spray over the bumper has now I'd be happy with that too.

[lubok]

I was in your boat few years back. I had a friend lend me a hand (tell me what to do and inspect). He is an experienced painter and maybe wanted to show what really goes into prep work and the actual paint. I was painting new bumpers and fender. Did not expect it to be so much work.... Ever since then I just drop anything I need painted to a shop.

[delrio]

Painting is a pain in the ass

thats why I just spray bomb all my cars with primer when the paint is real ugly

[dieselraver]

i can't even apply touch up properly. don't do it. pay someone or you wont be happy with the results

[vwtoys]

Nothing wrong with trying things out yourself. I just finished my windshield rot repair on my gti a few months ago. So I had patches welded on, ground, bondo'd, epoxy primed, high build primer and top coat. It was a daunting, but fun task, just the painting of the windshield panel took a day. Not to mention it took probably 3-4 weekends to get the welding done. Is it worth it? Not to the average guy but I wasn't going to hand some shop 3k to fix this. I figure I spent about 350 in materials/welding. It came out decent. I did it because I always wanted to learn how to paint, and I was being cheap.