Auto Body Painting DIY

It's been a long time since I've repaired my car. In my younger days, I did some handwork on car engines. I dismantled the car engine several times and replaced all the gaskets; I just had someone else grind the cylinder head.
Well, when I bought my first new car (a VW Golf 3), I swore to myself that I really wasn't going to do that anymore. That's what car mechanics are for, and I wasn't going to mess around anymore.

I never did any auto body painting, but after so many years, it was time to do something on my own again.

Pictured here is my older car, a 2003 Peugeot 307 Break. I've driven it over 400,000 kilometres and haven't had any particular problems. The most I've had break down (10 years ago) was the clutch in the manual gearbox. It stayed in third gear, and I still got 200 kilometers out of it.

The car is still drivable, and everything works except the air conditioning. Here, it costs €150 for the air conditioning compressor. I find it too much to change that. It is the third car in the family, and we have many expenses for yearly registrations and insurance. I have the MOT and registration until the end of October, then I'll see. I might even sell it, but I'll get less for it than the cost of the insurance and registration, somewhere around €500 plus probably some repairs to get it through the MOT. Looking at the adverts, I would get €250 - €300 at most if I were to sell it. So the car is at the end of its road.

But I'm still working on it :)
The worst part of the car is the bodywork because it's rusting. Last week, a chunk of the paint on the back door and right rear wing fell off, which really bothered me.
Also, the police here are cautious about cars like that. They stop you quickly, check everything, and test if you're driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The rust really got on my nerves, but if I took my car to a car body painter, he would charge me at least €200. I would have to wait my turn, at least a month, because they usually don't want to deal with small jobs like that. Most of them have contracts with car insurance companies and work for them.

So, I decided to do it myself (DIY). I won't see this rust again until the end of October when my registration and insurance expire, and the car will go somewhere.
I've never done this before, nor have I watched any How-To videos on YouTube, although I could (maybe I should, haha).

The plan was to take about an hour, sand off as much rust as possible, apply body putty, and spray paint.
Just don't look at that rust anymore! :)

I got everything I needed from a local paint store for about €30: a few pieces of sandpaper, some paper tape, a set of putty knives, body putty, and spray paint.

Body putty, or polyester putty, is two-component. You open it, put it on a spatula, and mix it with another component from the tube.

The spray paint was mixed in the shop. There's a paint mark on the car door, and then they mix it in 10 minutes based on that mark. That was the most expensive - €20. I could have bought some silver spray paint, which is much cheaper, but then it wouldn't have been the same color.

📷 😎 📷

Sanding with sandpaper

Well, I only had four pieces of sandpaper. I could have sanded more, but I won't shop for more pieces.

📷 😎 📷

Applying polyester putty.
First, mix the two components on a spatula and then quickly apply them to the car. It should be quick to work with because it hardens immediately.

After a few minutes, the putty layer is sanded. Yeah, I know, I could have tried harder, but I didn't have enough sandpaper, and now I'm not going to buy any.

Then, I put a sticky paper strip around it.

And finally, a spray.

📷 😎 📷

I won't say I did it well because I didn't. It was my first time, and now I know where I made my mistakes. I should have mixed the components differently so the putty wouldn't harden so quickly, and I should have done more sanding to make it smoother.

But hey, I achieved the main goal I had. I don't have to look at that rust again for a few more months, and I can't see the flaws from the plane :)