Restoration recommendations? 2000 Honda Civic LX 98k

Question

Hi all:

Below is a link to my car. I watched a few videos of Scotty painting a car but I don't think anything to this degree. I don't want to pay someone $2-3k but was thinking, could I just get paint, clear coat, buffer, and sand this to restore the paint condition? Also, how to re-attach the rear bumper as there is a gap.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XN3xwMXfgpPWsWURA

Chuck Tobias · Accepted Answer

You could always try something like this... http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z47aScNUZa4

BruceREE · Answer

Kinda broad tbh. For general, you should keep in mind that diy will never be as good as a professional job especially if it's your first time. My project e30 is fully diy (full hobby car for experience and fun only btw) and paint turned out like crap which is why I have decided to cover it up by wrapping my car lol.

For the love of God don't rattlecan, even the expert rattlecans don't have a great spray pattern and if you don't makeshift a both you'd be looking for dust left right and center. (I've seen good ones but they are the exception not the rule)

Say you have a quality spray gun already, and all the things to go with it, then you will have a better time. If you don't that's already sunk cost to this paint job. Around $600-1k in the low end, add on the paint and clear to this then it would still be $1.4ish for cheap quality cause the only one who is basically gonna notice all the little mistakes is yourself. (From experience lol)

Sanding is number 2 to address. It is going to be 95% of the work required for a good paint job, again a lot of work. I spent at least month sanding with the whole array of watching YouTube and all that since I have never done it before either at the time. (And then proceeded to royally screw up the painting itself lol rip me)

This all being said: Here is my recommendation if you are strapped for cash. Get the sandpaper and sand down the car yourself, use a cheapo sander or whichever recommend you get, as long as you can get everything flat and even (block sander helps) and even that's all you would care for. After this take your car to maaco with okayish ratings and since the car is pre-sanded they will knock off 1-1.5k off the price, my buddy did this on his Celica, I believe he got the paint done up for 600 bucks.

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As for the rear bumper it looks like the plastic clips are broken, you will have to disassemble the rear bumper and see what is bent or broken to see if it can be reattached accordingly.