There is nothing more discouraging than driving something that looks hideous. No matter how you justify the car to your friends and family, - " it runs good, it handles great, it's reliable, it doesn't burn a drop of oil" - they still think you drive a piece of crap, and deep down you're starting to believe it.

But there is hope, and fortunately it's not expensive. Assuming your body is

Our '88 suffered from faded paint and peeling clear coat.
straight and damage free, a paint job is all you really need. Too many guys get into the line of thinking that a paint job has to cost several grand in order for it to be any good. Subsequently they wait years in a primered state, hoping for that "big tax return" so that the car can get painted.

Well forget about that. Scrounge up $500 and pick a weekend, we're gonna show you how to get a budget paint job, and make it look like you spent a few G's.

Shop Around
Most of the chain paint shops offer a $299 to $499 paint special. Earl Scheib, Maaco, and similar outfits run ads in the paper and on TV even offering a warranty for several years on the paint. That's not a bad deal, but don't kid yourself, your Granada is not coming home a Concours d'Elegance show winner. For that amount of change you will get a single stage paint job. That is one base-coat of Acrylic Enamel paint. This type of paint is actually high quality and holds color well, resists fading, and prevents damage from rain and UV. However all new cars have clear coats, which gives more of a show-car glossy finish, and best protects the pigments in the color. Two stage, base coat and clear coat, paint jobs immediately bring you over the $1500 mark, outside our budget for sure. Do no expect to get door jambs, underside of the trunk and hood to get painted for this price either. We are talking minimal time in the paint booth for $500.

Preparation or Preparation-H?
You always hear about how the key to any paint job, cheap or expensive, whether your painting a car or a valve cover, is in the prep. Preparation, preparation, preparation. Well who has time for all that? We're not that patient, we want to drive the car not sand it down. Ideally we want to drop the car off to the paint shop on a Monday, and have it back for work by Wednesday that week. Here's how we did it...

Today's automotive paint is pretty resilient. It's going to stick very well to existing paint, and so long as you don't have gobs of Bondo, rust, dirt or other junk on the surface, you really do not have to spend your evenings with two hands on a dual action sander. Part of the paint shop process, even for a $500 paint job, is to "machine sand" the surface. This is essentially nothing more than a guy running a sander across the surface for a few minutes to scuff up the clear coat or top layer. But before that we do want to spend a little time to ensure we get a nice looking result.

For our former '88 Mustang LX project car, we staggered into the garage on Sunday evening and began by pulling off the lights, trim, and emblems. The

We wanted the black belt-line trim painted body color for a newer-model look.
goal is to get as much off the car that is not going to be painted, or that creates a barrier to a painted surface. On early Fox body Mustangs the black plastic trim around the belt line of the car creates an edge where paint will form a seam. Eventually over the years it's at these seams where the paint chips and begins to flake off. By removing this trim the paint can be applied in a continuous layer on the body panel. On our '88 we actually opted to paint the car monochromatic, similar to the '92 and up Mustangs. We asked the body shop to spray the black belt-line trim body color.

We also removed items such as side view mirrors, windshield wipers, antenna base, window trim and molding. If there is something you cannot remove,

Removing trim pieces is the secret to getting a seamless finish.
and that should not get painted, be sure to mask it off! Automotive enamel is incredibly difficult to remove once it gets on composite materials, such as door handles.

Before turning the car over to the shop, give it a good wash with a non-wax soap. We used dishwashing soap because it does a good job of cutting through oil and grease, as well as any existing wax on the car. Use a scrub brush or scouring pad to get off road tar and surface scum. Whatever crud is left on the car is probably going to get painted over, so be diligent.

Drop Off
With the '88 Mustang stripped of trim and cleaned to the best of our ability,

Removing the 1/4 window is tough, but key to a good paint job on Fox Mustangs.
we dropped the car off at the paint shop. They had us mask the wheels and tires in their parking lot, something we had overlooked. We also brought along garbage bags to cover up our seats and interior to prevent paint dust and overspray from settling onto the leather.

The shop handed us several paint-chip books to select a color from. We knew we wanted a color a shade brighter than the factory "pimp burgundy" hue, however we did not want to deal with noticeably different door jambs. We ended up with a 1999-2000 Ford Toreador red, a color found on Explorers. Usually this color is two stage, with a clear coat. However at our budget price we'd get a single coat. All this means is the paint wont be as resistant to fading and the elements, such as stone chips. However single stage paints do tend to look deeper and richer in color, and respond to waxing quite well.

A couple days later we picked the car up. The paint job came out far beyond

Emblems can be reused with double-sided tape.
our expectations. There is a little "orange-peel", an effect where the paint on level surfaces tends to look dimpled, like the surface of an orange. This is actually very typical on factory paint jobs, even on the newest production line vehicles. The solution is to wet-sand the paint with increasingly superfine sandpaper. While this is time consuming, the result brings out an extremely reflective and consistent surface.

We spent the following days refinishing and reinstalling the black trim and molding. Emblems and such can all be reused -scrape off the old adhesive and reapply with double sided tape (most paint shops will give you a roll if you ask.)

So there you have it, a car that looks night and day different in a matter of a week and less than 12 hours of labor. If looks alone aren't enough to convince you that a $500 paint job can do wonders for your morale, consider that we sold this project car a month later for over $1500 more than it would have brought in if we had not painted it.

Compare the pictures of the front end before and after. Most would not believe this is the same car underneath the paint job.
 

A little orange peel is typical, even on factory paint jobs. Nothing a good wet sand can't remove.
 

We decided to have the black belt-line trim painted body color to give the '88 Mustang a late '90's and newer look.
 

The 1999 Ford Toreador Red color is a nice change from the '70's burgundy, yet not so far off that the door jambs and interior look out of place.
 

The car has certainly become a head turner with the low budget paint job.