Paint Your Van Like a Hippie!

So I know there are a few paint your car ible's out there, but this is unlike all the others. I'm going to show you how I took my busted and ugly 1992 previa and turned it into an awesome hippie-van.

I did all this for a few reasons
1. The paint job my van has was on the fritz, peeling from sun-damage and old age.
2. I was fed up with the conformity of mono-tone cars rolling everywhere.
3. I wanted to ride in something that showed a part of my style.

so if anyone of those apply to you, I say it's time for a custom repaint you design.
that in mind, I am not a professional autobody painter, and this is no where near a professional finish.
okay, let's get to it.

Step 1: Design

As you can see, the Previa is a very jelly-bean shaped vehichle which lends itself nicely to lots of curves and organic shapes which is why the design has such a flowing feeling.
I also did lots of research looking over other hippie vans to get a grasp for the essence I wanted.
In the end I drafted the two sides that featured lot's of long curves along with mushrooms and creatures.

Step 2: Sanding and Priming

the next thing to do was to get all the old paint and clear coat off and lay down a nice even coat of gray primer.
This sanding process and taping off windows for sanding took me a long time and I was able to recruit a few friends to speed the process up. I used a 320 grit orbital sander to take off the original paint and then wet sanded with 600 grit after leying down the primer.
After finishing sanding and priming I was left with a super-sleek, gray jellybean. Already the van looks 20 times better than it's original paint job.

Step 3: Add Some Color

Putting the color down is the hardest part, This whole time I used only spray cans bought from Homedepot and Autozone, so there's a sweet spot in how far you're supposed to hold the spray can. I had to try many distances to find the right one, to close and it bubbles or runs, to far and it only dusts the surface.
I taped off most of the curves in order to get a clean line and crisp edge. This gives the car a more professional look rather than a vandalism vibe

Step 4: Disaster!

so it's going very well, spray down my color, putting on some clear coat and then one day BAM incident
wasn't even finished when my hood was crumpled up. However, I would not let this deter me, so I picked up a new hood and took the old one to the street! I held a mini art exhibit where I talked about my process and had anyone who wanted to, get a feel for what it's like to paint a car.

Step 5:

Now All that's left is to finish up the paint and turn to the interior.
I wanna redo it all along with the sweet coffee table I made for it.