How to Make an Art Car

We will take an old car and turn it into an art car with spray paint, cardboard, and masking tape.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• cardboard
• exacto knife
• car
• spray paint in various colors
• masking tape
• newspaper

1. Taped off sections Tape off the windows and shiny metal parts of your car, and any other things you don't want paint on. You can tape newspaper to the windows.
2. Good base coat Assess your original paint. Is it rusting or flaking? If so, you may need to start with a base coat. Spray paint works pretty well. Sand off any rust or flaky parts. Just take a few cans of a neutral base color (we used green) and spray it evenly all over. If your starting base coat is pretty good already, you can skip this step.
3. Good stencil with a nice border Make some cardboard stencils of symbols and shapes you want on your car. Draw the shape onto cardboard, leaving a 4-6 inch border of solid cardboard around the edge. Then cut out the shape with an exacto knife. Some things we have done have been: ducks, hearts, flowers, swirls, zigzags, words, happy faces, flames, and hand prints. If your shape has something floating freely inside, like the middle of an "O" you can tape the middle part directly onto the car when you paint it.
4. Stencils painted on Starting with the larger shapes, hold the cardboard stencil where you want it with one hand. Try to hold it very tightly to the car, or tape it with a roll of tape on the back. Spray the color you want from about 12 inches away. Too close and the paint will drip; too far and the paint will blow away and get in places you don't want it. A fun one to do is to make a stencil with your hand and just put your hand on the car and spray over it.
5. Finished Product Continue with painting, covering your "canvas" (the car) with as much or as little art as you would like. After it's dry, take off all the tape and newspaper and drive it around!

Tips & Warnings

• If you leave masking tape on for too long it gets weathered and won't come off easily.
• If you don't wear gloves you will get spray paint on your hands.