Painted the body with Cahmeleon Tokyo Drift Paint!

[jonequest]

Oops misspelled Chameleon.... I thought I would share (OK show off) my freshly painted body. This thing was a $500 dog that had more grooves and cuts that an old record, even a tear and dent on one side that had to be heated smoothed out. In the end it came out pretty good IMO. It is an automotive grade paint job with 2 stage primer, basecoat black, over coat of Chameleon Tokyo Drift 6 color flip paint that I found on e-Bay for $69, then cleared over with a decent Napa clear coat. Paint booth made from a 12x12 pop-up and lots of plastic sheeting, vented by two fans and ac filters. I need to take a photo with the cart back together but the paint looks cool in the sun and constantly changes colors from blue, green, purple, little bit of gold and red too. So far I have rattle canned the roof supports and other small bits and used rattle can vinyl on the old funky seat. It blows away my neighbors cart now for thousands less. Now I need to find some money for decent lift and 23" wheels to match the 48v controller and new batteries.

[eaglesdad1]

good job

[jonequest]

Originally Posted by eaglesdad1

good job

Thank you. I am not a professional painter so there were a couple of small runs from my second coat of clear. Not noticable though and I may sand buff them out after another week of curing. It was not easy to paint in a little tent. 12x12 is not as big as it sounds. :-)

[roady89]

Nice, excellent job

[rabbitreborn]

super paint job! I have a cart with that paint on it and the Paint job alone cost over $1000 to have it done. Heck the paint alone from Finish Masters was almost $700 for a quart. Be prepared for alot of comments, from what I see in the photos, you did a really nice job on it.

[CajunDavid]

I am a painter by trade and that is one nice paint job!

[jonequest]

Originally Posted by rabbitreborn

super paint job! I have a cart with that paint on it and the Paint job alone cost over $1000 to have it done. Heck the paint alone from Finish Masters was almost $700 for a quart. Be prepared for alot of comments, from what I see in the photos, you did a really nice job on it.

Thanks for the compliment. I know that HOK (House of Kolor) and other brands like BASF gets real pricey but this was amazingly cheap for me to do. I bought a quart of the Chameleon color from a company on e-Bay that makes their own stuff. It is basically a pearly type of flake in some clear. It was $69.99 for the quart. I bought the primer from Napa and already had some leftover black basecoat and clearcoat from painting my truck 5 years ago. I was worried the stuff might have gone bad. I bought primer but cheaped out and just used the clear coat hardener in it. Then did pay for the flip color. The whole thing cost me about $100 since I already had the black and clear. If anyone wants to do this just do a real good job prepping the body, then prime and finish sand with something fine (I used 600), You must lay on black basecoat first otherwise you won't get the flip effect very well. Then of course cover it with a quality clearcoat. It was 4 steps and a lot of chemistry :-) You need to mix primer and hardener, then black basecoat and reducer, then the color flip coat and reducer, then the clear needs a reducer and a hardener. They are mixed at different ratios, etc. It took a few hours to actually paint but the real time of course was in the prep work. If you have a nice good body that part will go much quicker. My body was torn in one fender, dented in the other, and have deep scratches and grooves everywhere else. My cart was used as a security and lumber hauling cart at a lumberyard so prep took forever. If anyone wants to give it a shot just get a compressor and a cheap paint gun and start practicing. I bought my paint gun for $49 at Harbor Freight 5-6 years ago.

Good luck!

[jonequest]

Originally Posted by CajunDavid

I am a painter by trade and that is one nice paint job!

Thanks for the compliment! I have learned a bit by painting a few projects here and there and getting advice from professional painters I know.

[TerryH]

Nice!!! Now get it back together so we can see the whole thing!!

[jonequest]

It is back together but I need to take a photo when the sun is out. The shame is I don't have the cash right now for a lift and some nice wheels. My last C.C. had the 12" ITP SS112's and they really made the cart shine. I am also considering painting the roof the same color as the body. Right now it has white stock wheels and roof. Kind of a drag but the new controller on 48volts keeps me smiling.