decided to tackle DIY lower painting. sneak preview of progress.-DONE!

[doublezero30]

so like the title says i decided to tackle painting my lowers myself. just wanted to give you guys a sneak preview of it while its in progress, then will post pictures when its all done tomorrow!

before i go on to pictures, i want you guys to know i am NOT going for OEM quality/color match or i would have had them professionally painted. im just looking for a real close match for the time being since i plan to have all new bumpers/sides by the end of next summer.

PICS!:

these were taken before clear coat:




door blades after clear coat:




i am hoping to have my roof the same color as the door blades. and eventually usp or s4 door blades. also want to do the chrome strip on the trunk this color as well. and i have plans for my future abt rear and the rest of the kit once i get it too. stay tuned!

[El_Chapusca]

Niceee .Would never Do them myself, Just because i kno i will screw up somewhere. Props to you sir

[doublezero30]

^haha its really not all that hard. just make sure youve got enough paint. i ran into that problem.

[Smitty2A4]

Cool Nate

Want to help me with mine once I see how yours come out haha? We would just have to do the front end (the most work) and my sides, since the rear is already done. I would not care if the match was not 100% either, since I plan to have new doorblades, sides and front next summer too, this would just be to tide me over!

[absolutegtr]

smitty, where would you find ming blue?

[Smitty2A4]

smitty, where would you find ming blue?

Not sure have not thought ahead that far haha, maybe here...

http://www.paintscratch.com/cgi-bin/makepaint2.cgi

But mine is "Ming Blue Pearl Effect" but that is showing the right paint code according to Audi...

[absolutegtr]

Not sure have not thought ahead that far haha, maybe here...

http://www.paintscratch.com/cgi-bin/makepaint2.cgi

But mine is "Ming Blue Pearl Effect" but that is showing the right paint code according to Audi...

Cool...I have ming blue as well, and want to paint my lowers as well

[phantom b6]

Did you use a can or a gun?

[A4natomical]

Not sure have not thought ahead that far haha, maybe here...

http://www.paintscratch.com/cgi-bin/makepaint2.cgi

But mine is "Ming Blue Pearl Effect" but that is showing the right paint code according to Audi...

how accurate are these spray cans?


oh and nate, how much paint dust is in the garage now? lol

[doublezero30]

how accurate are these spray cans?


oh and nate, how much paint dust is in the garage now? lol

HAHA! ill take a picture of the floor when i back out. its ridiculous.

i originally got paintscratch spray cans and although they do match very well, they do not have the nozzle like duplicolor which duplicates a real spray gun, so no mater what its going to look like butthole. i ended up coming on here and finding out that duplicolors "radiant silver metalic" is a really close match, so i picked up 2 small cans of that and went over the paintscratch paint. now it looks much better it terms of the smoothness.

smitty, ill help ya out but i dont know if we'll beable to use my garage for it lol.

going to peel the newspaper off and put the door blades on now.

[doublezero30]

heres the finished product:








and the mess in the garage:


overall i am happy with it. not a 100% match, and i need another coat or 2 of clear. but thats nothing hard that i cant do another day.

[widgget]

nice match. mad props for a nice DIY paint job!!!

you gotta tuck those exhaust tips up into the bumper a little more. (i ended up using a few zip-ties wrapped over the rubber hangers to pull mine up to the bumper)

[gq9]

Looks a tad darker, but makes a huge difference. Props on doing it yourself.

[El_Chapusca]

Holy Shit !!!!! I Must Say That Came Out Pretty Good

[jon102034050]

nice!

[Shi-Fu JaY]

yay im not alone with the DIY painted lower!
gotta love silver A4's
I grabbed a can of Duplicolor's (Silver Metallic) in the huge cans.....which is the same price as the smaller can of "radiant silver metalic" and it matches damn well too!

Good Job!

but to me, its alot easier, more fun, and safer to just take off the side skirts, and rear bumper off the car, and paint it away from the car. the dust/overspray ends up everywhere!
your gonna find metallic everywhere.

Did you paint your door blades bronze?

also, I hope you dont plan on painting the roof yourself.
being under the sun, the roof paint wont last at all!

[IronAudi]

Can you post up what exactly you used im looking for it and i can find that stuff in a spary can its all professional stuf. Im deff looking to do this soon.

[n7plus1]

^haha its really not all that hard. just make sure youve got enough paint. i ran into that problem.

what paint did you use? Did you have a place mix some up for you?

nm..read more of the thread.

[b6onboost]

honestly it looks great. some people have theirs professionally painted and they don't match as well as yours do.

[n7plus1]

what prep was done? any sanding?

[Audituning02]

Job well done, the color match is exceptional considering you used a spray can. It can be very difficult to get plastic and metal to look the same due to the different properties in the materials. Silvers and other metallics especially. Congradulations you just saved yourself several hundred dollars !!

[Smitty2A4]

Nate I think that it came out great! I will have to see it in person! But I also really like how you left the door blades black, nice contrast with your color scheme, now you just need S4 blades...

I would not make you use your garage again if we did mine, I would find a place, or make some ghetto "spray bay", but I plan to get S4 blades as my next mod so I might just have those and my lowers painted at the same bodyshop I got my S4 rear done at, so I will let you know.

[zz2h33]

excellent, i'm definatly going to tackle this one weekend. Someone at one point posted a link to some paint match rattle cans, i think it was duplicolor. It had Audi color codes. Can someone post that again?

[n7plus1]

?
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/colors/lacquer.html

[italian a4 1032]

looks nice nate

[A4 KiDD 810]

Wow, very nice !! we definitely need to see more of this on AZ instead of people dropping hundreds at a body shop(not that i'm against it if you have it), but people used to be scared of doing this kind of project, now more and more people are coming out and doing it. It looks really good though. I know this is on my list.

[A4 KiDD 810]

excellent, i'm definatly going to tackle this one weekend. Someone at one point posted a link to some paint match rattle cans, i think it was duplicolor. It had Audi color codes. Can someone post that again?

No it wasn't duplicolor, i think it was me that posted it because I know i did it a while ago. Here's the link I bookmarked, it goes directly to a rattle can for brilliant black(LY9B), but i'm guessing they should have other colors too. And its priced good too. http://www.brandsport.com/plik-5200-ly9b.html

[NightRoller USP]

That matches almost to a T. Nicely done!!

[A4natomical]

but to me, its alot easier, more fun, and safer to just take off the side skirts, and rear bumper off the car, and paint it away from the car. the dust/overspray ends up everywhere!
your gonna find metallic everywhere.


also, I hope you dont plan on painting the roof yourself.
being under the sun, the roof paint wont last at all!

haha everywhere. i learned that painting something else in the garage once.

and i agree with shi-fu-jay about the roof under the sun. i would hold off
on a spray can to the roof.

[04TurboB6]

job well done...props for doing it yourself

i bet most people wont be able to tell the difference from both silvers...

[absolutegtr]

Very nice Silver is a very hard color to match....time will tell if you did good prep work

How much did the whole project (paint} cost you?

Also, how MUCH paint did you buy?

[4Rings3Liters]

That looks awesome. I painted the lowers on my B5 and if it's the same silver on the B6 then Radiant Silver Metallic by Dupont is a near perfect match and it's available at Autozone, Advance Auto Parts and pretty much all those chain auto stores.

[mnkyA4]

I might have to do my lowers as well, except I plan to do a flat black for my brilliant black avant. nice DIY though!

[doublezero30]

project cost me more than it should have. i spend $101 on paintscratch. 2 cans of base 1 can clear. that wasnt enough and looks like crap due to the nozzle type i mentioned before. so i ended up spending about $60 on more duplicolor paint. i couldnt find radiant silver at first, so i got another silver. when that didnt match i just sanded everything down, washed, and went to another autozone and got 2 small cans of duplicolors radiant silver. that was enough for two medium coats all the way around (because it was previously silver. if you were to start with the grey lowers youde need way more). also used two full cans of duplicolor clear and a half can of duplicolor metallic black on the door blades.

like i said before though, it needs more clear coat. i think im going to pick up some professional high gloss clear and do 1-2 more coats.

[ApexIt]

nice job! that looks real good. How are the door blades held onto the door and how did you take those off? was it hard?

[Boosted3.0]

project cost me more than it should have. i spend $101 on paintscratch. 2 cans of base 1 can clear. that wasnt enough and looks like crap due to the nozzle type i mentioned before. so i ended up spending about $60 on more duplicolor paint. i couldnt find radiant silver at first, so i got another silver. when that didnt match i just sanded everything down, washed, and went to another autozone and got 2 small cans of duplicolors radiant silver. that was enough for two medium coats all the way around (because it was previously silver. if you were to start with the grey lowers youde need way more). also used two full cans of duplicolor clear and a half can of duplicolor metallic black on the door blades.

like i said before though, it needs more clear coat. i think im going to pick up some professional high gloss clear and do 1-2 more coats.

Did you sand between coats at all...minus your mistakes. Also how did you prep the surface before the base coat?

[IronAudi]

Did you sand between coats at all...minus your mistakes. Also how did you prep the surface before the base coat?

YESS... Inquiring Minds want to know

[doublezero30]

nice job! that looks real good. How are the door blades held onto the door and how did you take those off? was it hard?

two screws, one on each end and then they slide off.

Did you sand between coats at all...minus your mistakes. Also how did you prep the surface before the base coat?

no sanding between coats. i did prep the surface before hand. washed it, sanded it with 800grit, washed it again, let it dry, and then used two coats of adhesion promoter before laying down the color. i debated on putting primer down over the adhesion promoter, but decided not to since its basically a clear primer anyway. just knew that it would require more silver to cover the grey lowers than if i had used primer.