Challenge budget paint and body

Due to extreme scope creep, we're looking at painting the spirit. Inside,outside, topside and bottomside.

First, budget: does things like tape and sandpaper count? What all materials count?

Secind: Toyman did the bus with a water sand blaster. This sounds perfect for getting old paint and surface rust off this thing before seam welding and rust repair. Why is it not? Would it warp body panels? Is there a downside that I'm not thinking of?

Lastly, a teammate manages a paint store. He can get us a gallon of industrial enamel for $1. Is that challenge legal?

If it's on the car when it appears at the Challenge, it counts. I'd say that means tape, sandpaper, and solvent do not count. Bondo and paint do.

$1 paint is legal if it is a deal that is available to the general public. If it is the "good buddy deal", then no.

Paintforcars.com has paint from 50$. It's where I got the stuff for my miata, if you're looking for cheap cheap

I don't know if it's available to general public. It's mistint industrial enamel that he can color matching. I'll ask him specifically what it would go out the door for.

Regarding cheap and easy prep, a soda blaster can do a pretty fantastic job.

25 bucks a gal. at tractor supply.a recipt is worth plenty. not like I would cheat.

The tractor Supply stuff was the original plan, until dustin offered.

Mine is from paintforcars.com. Ordered paint for multiple vehicles and a ton of supplies at the same time to keep shipping per gallon very low.

What kind of primer does the paintforcars.com paint need?

In reply to Dusterbd13:

I used the cheapest sprayable stuff napa had for my acrylic. I think they called for an epoxy primer on the can. I can check when the sun comes out.

"Synthetic Non sanding primer sealer"

The cheapest "concentrate" primer from Napa worked pretty well, I think. It was sealing primer, but sandable? Or mayve I just sanded it for no reason. Either way the paint has stayed on for almost 3 months so far.

Thanks RevRico. We're still a little bit away from paint, but I think we should be able to make it fit in the budget. With real paint even!

They have a copper color that's pretty close to factory.

I've used rustoleum and tractor paint on previous challenge cars. Its cheap and will look ok for a little while but it fades quickly and stains easy from bugs, leaves, and water marks. It will also take more effort to keep looking nice unless you have a garage.

I've switched to using cheap single stage urethane from Summit Racing, Eastwood, Kirker, etc and have had much better luck with it holding up. If its your first paint job stick with non metallic paint. Also lighter colors will hide questionable body work better.

Paint, primer, activator, and wax were about $130 for my first challenge car. It was a big budget hit but I planed to use the car after the challenge.

This is destined for a hard life after the challenge. So quality paint is necessary. Depending on price, may wait. But....

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Concourse is 1/3rd of the event. $150 on a performance modification would be a slam dunk no brainer budget hit. Just some food for thought.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to Dusterbd13: Concourse is 1/3rd of the event. $150 on a performance modification would be a slam dunk no brainer budget hit. Just some food for thought.

Concourse is only 20% of competition. Max 25 points for parc expose, 50 for autoX and 50 for drag race (or 40% for each track event).

In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:

Excellent point, it should still warrant 50% of the attention that brakes and suspension do at that ratio though :)

captdownshift wrote: In reply to Ovid_and_Flem: Excellent point, it should still warrant 50% of the attention that brakes and suspension do at that ratio though :)

No matter to us. We're going for vintage sinkhole survivor patina....in all 3 phases of competition! LOL

In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:

Looks like someone is studying up on the rules. I noticed something this year that I hadn't thought of before.

Stampie wrote: In reply to Ovid_and_Flem: Looks like someone is studying up on the rules. I noticed something this year that I hadn't thought of before.

We noticed that, too!

What did you guys notice? Cause I'm missing something...

Dusterbd13 wrote: What did you guys notice? Cause I'm missing something...

Wow....you didn't see it?

Nope. Not a clue. I'm not very good at reading comprehension.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Um.....

I'm definitely ignorant of what you are talking about.

But not blissful if I'm leaving something on the table.