GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey guys,Since the front end of the Vibe seems to be so vulerable to chips and paint damage what do you all think of this solution? http://www.clearshield.com/Products/Pai ... ection.htm

there was a thread on this before .kinda like the stuff put on the sides of our cars only problem is now the damage is done. new paint then clearshield big bucks.

quote:That is cheap compared to havig your entire front end repainted.Really? I can do it for my car for about $75-$100. Maybe less, I haven't checked the price on a quart of clearcoat lately.

True. But it's not nearly as difficult as many might think. If you can operate a piece of sandpaper, wipe down the body panels with thinner on a rag, and pull the trigger on a spray gun, you can probably do this with a little practice. I learned the "feel" of the spray gun by practicing on commercial truck frames, air and fuel tanks, battery boxes and bumpers. It's a little tricky at first, but practice makes perfect. And the price of a paint gun is not that much--you can get a decent one at Sears for about $40-$50. High quality ones that professional body shops use often run $200 and more, but they are using them all the time so high quality parts on the gun are needed for them. Probably the biggest barrier to painting for a do-it-yourselfer is the air compressor. At work, we have a large commercial compressor (about 40-50 gallon capacity I think) with air lines that run to various parts of the building. We also have a few regulators at some of the valves to help control the airflow for painting and using air tools. Hooking the paint gun up to an air supply line at 120-150 psi will ruin it pretty quick so we use the regulators to cut it back to about 35-45 psi when painting, depending on conditions. Also, cleanup and overspray would prevent you from doing this at home in the garage.

I think that is the best way to learn how to do this stuff. By working on it with people who have experience with it.