Painting a car with spray can paint?

[Jacob McCrea]

Respectfully, having spent about 2 years spraying all sorts of automotive finishes at a body shop, this strikes me as a bad idea. But if you are bound and determined to try it, I'd first visit a body shop and get a damaged hood or door - something with a lot of area - and spray that before you create something that is very time-consuming to reverse. Also, for what it's worth, in the time it would take to hand-sand a few layers of durable spray paint from a body, you could probably learn how to do a half-decent job with proper products the first time.

[TheBabyBadger]

Respectfully, having spent about 2 years spraying all sorts of automotive finishes at a body shop, this strikes me as a bad idea. But if you are bound and determined to try it, I'd first visit a body shop and get a damaged hood or door - something with a lot of area - and spray that before you create something that is very time-consuming to reverse. Also, for what it's worth, in the time it would take to hand-sand a few layers of durable spray paint from a body, you could probably learn how to do a half-decent job with proper products the first time.

Agree 100%. Another thing to keep in mind is you will have almost ZERO UV protection. Clear coat is the UV protection on automobiles, and even an industry leading PPG Production clear is only good 5 or so years without waxing. And it's about $500 a gallon... For a reason.

At the end of the day, it's your car, do what makes you happy. Guys like Jacob and myself (in the Collision industry almost 20 years) are just trying to give you honest feedback to prevent what will more than likely become one helluva headache/migraine.

The old adage comes to mind: Just because you can, doesn't mean it's a good idea (or: Doesn't mean you should).

poor-quality.jpg

Oh... also worth noting: Get a painted door, or paint something the size of a door and let it sit about 6 weeks... Now, try and see how long it takes to "strip the paint off" with 400 grit. Your idea is genuine, but you're getting bad information on the "ease" of this. I promise.