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It wasn't my Saab unfortunately, my old '87 9000 Turbo is still looking very sad and will require a lot more work to look nice again, but hopefully one day.
This is a Jaguar X-Type, it's a pretty rare 5-speed manual, 3l, Sport model, so an interesting car, but not really worth anything, so I thought it was a good choice to try a home paint job on - I had no idea how it would turn out! Full before and after pics are linked below.
Paint costs were about $500 and I used a very, very basic paint set up, just my cheap 20 gallon compressor, an Eastwood paint gun that has very low air requirements, and for moisture control a very bodgy 20ft length of copper tubing in a bucket of cold water with a cheap moisture trap at the end, and as you can see I did it in a dusty car port.
After spraying, the paint initially had a lot of orange peel and some dry spots and dust as expected. But wet sanding and buffing brought it to a pretty high level. In some ways it looks better than most new car paint jobs due to no orange peel, but in retrospect I should have check for faults with a guide coat as I missed a few and the hood should really have been fully stripped and re-done as it has some issues. I also should have done a multi stage buffing and started with a more aggressive pad and compound as you can still see some sanding marks in certain lighting and from certain angles (black paint really shows everything). But for a first effort, especially given the conditions and equipment, I'm really please. You really can do a decent paint job at home on a budget, the key is really putting the time in afterward to wet sand and buff, which is admittedly a huge undertaking and took probably 25 hours of work or so.
Hope everyone else is doing ok and have been able to get some car projects in during this time.
posted by 66.91.28...
Paint project before and after pics
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