By the time March 2011 rolled around the CRX was starting to form some surface rust, it was time to put paint on it before things got out of control. I shopped around for supplies to do my own professional quality paint job, I quickly decided this was not in the budget for a track car. I found some guides online that described a method using thinned down oil based paint. This seemed like a great way to get the job done and save money. This method would provide a decent finish, some durability and easy damage repair. I picked a color that was easy to find: Rustoleum gloss white this meant I could buy rattle cans for touch ups. I ended up spending about $100 on supplies (I already had a HVLP sprayer)
I won't go into too much detail as there are plenty of guides for inexpensive paint jobs. After much sanding, stripping and phosphoric acid to remove rust and residue. I also sprayed the engine bay with some high temp BBQ grill paint. I looked for imperfections and used a primer filler in layers before laying down any paint. I also used some body filler in some areas but not much. The paint went on in thin layers usually 3 a day then sanding the next day, repeating this process over several weekends resulted in a decent finish. After the last layer of paint was applied I wet sanded the paint to take out imperfections then I took a buffer and buffed down the paint. This gave the paint a semi-gloss finish and a much more uniform look.
Realizing the white car with no trim looked poor I purchased some vinyl tape and applied trim strips along the doors with it. Recently (2012) I ended up painting the front bumper, for this I taped the trim area off and spray painted primer then white rattle can paint. The finish had a much nicer gloss to it than the buffed car. If i did this again, i wouldn't use such thin paint and do more layers at once.
