Car Painting (this is a craft, right?)

Okay, so, I've always deeply envied the painted VW buses, probably because I grew up with my dad driving one. Heh. Anyway, I have a VW Vanagon that's really in need of paint and I really want to do some crazy paint job to it, just because I can (and because painting it a solid color at a body shop would cost me more money than I care to think about).

So, as odd as it seems, I would like your opinions on doing so. Would a painted Vanagon look odd? Or, should I just save money and get it painted a solid color? Blah, thanks for your time. I suppose I'm just putting too much thought into this...

 

Do what you want. I have an '88 Chevy Celebrity that I painted 6 colors with my friends. It doesn't matter what kind of car you have, have fun with it

 

Go for it man! I get sick of seeing cars that all look the same and have the same color. I love seeing unique cars. It makes me smile to see a car with a unique paint job. I bet it would be fun and after it's all painted, you can be like "Hey, I did that!"

 

I'm kinda thinking about doing the same thing. I have a black car and the paint is coming off in spots. I'm going to spray paint it black and then maybe decorate it. It's not really my car so it's kinda hard to be creative.

 

Sounds very cool, just remember..it's a lil like putting up a sign to cops..."I'm a Hippie,pull me over" Thats why I'm very low key and descreet about the few bumper stickers I have on the su-bee car too.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I think I'm definately going to do it when I er... have money for paint.

And about the cop thing... My car itself is a cop magnet. It could be plain white (which, by the way, it is) and cops like swarm around me looking for reasons to pull me over... And the one time I did get pulled over (it was windy, so I was kinda swervin' all over the place), the cop accepted my explination and kept raving about how great my car was and he asked me why it WASN'T painted. Haha.

 

Well then do share what you plan to do, if you have a plan. My paint job cost about $20. We just got a couple of cans of spray paint and painted the fucker. Surprisingly, I've only been pulled over in it once, which I am very pleased about. Whatever you do with it, enjoy

 

I DO have a plan, actually! Someone's sig here (can't remember the name) was the coolest little Kombi with mushrooms and flowers painted on it. I really would like to do something similar to that, because when I saw it, my immediate thought was "HOLY CRAP, I NEED THAT KOMBI. Er... Wait, no, I MUST PAINT MY VANAGON LIKE THAT."

 

Post some pics when yah get it done!! and yeah, cops in different areas seem to react differently. If I had a bunch of hippie stickers, it would be enough reason to pull me over as a target in some areas around here but too many people of all kinds collect v dubs to be a reason.

 

Go for the painting... just make sure you get the right kinda paint... My dad painted his old car.. And the paint keeped chipping off....

 

what kinda paint would you use for that anyhow?

(pardon my blond-ness)

 

probably touch up paint...

 

Yeah, they sell this spray-paint stuff especially for cars, and it's relatively cheap. I figure I'll use that because it looks better and lasts longer than normal spray paint.

 

I think about painting my van. It's not a vw or anything but it is a very boring dark blue. It also has badly peeling paint. I would need to strip it down before I could paint it. But I get hung up on what people will think if I paint it. Problem is I'm 54 years old and I work for a very catholic agency. I'm not sure how it would go over with them.

I do have a few small stickers in the windows and a couple of bumper stickers like "Where have all the hippies gone" and a couple of peace stickers. Over the weekend I added a sticker that says "Flower Power" and a couple of peace signs. I also put two big purple flowers and two small orange ones on the tailgate. I have more of the flowers but I'm afraid to add them. You can get by with a lot of things at 16 that you can't really do at 54.

I think I've seen that same sig line that you're talking about. It's really cool. I would love to have that mushroom on my car. But the old fear steps back in. I think part of it is that I work in drug rehab and they might think I'm out there using if my car is too far out there.

Anyway, I write all this to say go for it. You should have the car you want.

Kathi

 

I can only imagine how annoying it must be to have to worry about what people at work would think if you decided to change things that they should have no concern over. Heck, I got in trouble at work at a health food store for my car because I have political stickers on it. I had to park my car in another parking lot!

Thanks again for the encouragement everyone. I'm not sure why I was so paranoid about it...

 

kathi, if it isn't all druggie i don't think it would be too bad. not all painted cars scream that. and hogwash for the 16 vs 54 stuff. i see older women (and men) driving around in decked out vehicles. one woman in our town has a black and white cow car, complete with a tail on the bumper. i've also seen older people deck their vehicles out with christmas lights during december...

 

yeah, there was a transgender lady who was in her 40's or 50's back up from the small town that I'm from, and she had a VW van that had big smilies and dolphins and all kindsa stuff on it! It was awsome! She didn't give a crap what anyone thought, and yet pretty much everyone loved her!

 

http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64299&page=2&pp=10

I found the guy with that van pic. It's in this thread.

 

That's awesome! I had a VW vanagon that kinda needed a paint job also. IF I had kept it, I was gonna get all of my neices and nephews together and let them brush paint it.

 

I wanna go paint my car....but I just sold it....and my other one doesn't work
Oh well, when I buy a new one, I'll paint it all funky.