We have all seen the commercials. A guy walks into a junkyard and finds a weathered-looking car with severely faded paint, and with one swipe of the “miracle” product, it suddenly looks factory-new ...

What do you need? A good compressor, enough hose, a quality spray gun, a sander/buffer, hammer and dolly, sanding block and board, paint, primer, degreaser, a respirator maskâ ¦ and a car to paint.

From March '85 to January '86, Pat Ganahl wrote an expansive 10-part essay in HOT ROD covering every step necessary to paint your car. If you read Pat's very thorough series, you probably thought "I ...