Advice? How does one re-paint a driver head?

[Large David Hammer]

I found myself in possession of a structurally good, with paint scratched-up, driver head of an old favorite

 

--- TaylorMade-R580

 

Can I "sand" it smooth and then re-paint it (the crown) without hurting the performance?

 

Should I seek out, or avoid, a particular type of paint?

 

...a totally new realm for me...

 

Any advice is HUGELY appreciated.

[ElGavilan]

I like to think I do meticulous clubwork and that I am pretty good with my hands. I have tried several time to repaint Driver and Fairway heads. They have all been dismal failures as have been other examples from fellow DIY golfers that I have seen.

 

I looked into it and asked questions, and the problem for DIY is that you must have precise temperature and humidity control in the painting area -- add dust control, proper paint and painting equipment along with reasonable preparation and spraypainting skill, and you can start to see the difficulty. Other than a reputable refinisher like Golfworks and the OEM's, the only other place that comes to mind is agood auto bodyshop.

 

I wouldn't attempt it as a DIY project unless you really don't mind the appearance of the finished product.

[SteveL1]

I hate to disagree but I just recently repainted a TM R7 425 that had a nasty sky mark on the crown and have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the results. I filled the scratches a little at a time to build the paint up and then sanded until you could no longer see or feel any defects. I used 600 grit wet/dry sand paper to scuff the whole crown in preparation of a new finish. I taped off the face, sides, hosel and sole so that no overspray would get on them and used a Pasche air brush at 35 pounds of air pressure. Applied 3-4 thin coats of acrylic model paint that was close to the original color. I ended up mixing my own as the metalic black had too much metalic in it and the plain black just wasn't right either. Once the paint had hardened I used automotive buffing compound to finish it off. You can get a $35 air brush at any hobby store and use a can of Propel for the air supply if you don't have a compressor. All in all, it would be cheaper to send the head off to someone if you don't already have the equipment, but the the feeling of being able to do it yourself is priceless.

 

Is it as durable as the factory finish? Not even close, but it allowed me to get what would have been a $300+ club for $130. I know that I will end up scratching the head sometime down the road, but I can just go through the same process again. Only took two evenings of work and done without a paint booth in my basement. Next time I would probably get a more durable paint from an auto body supply or a two part epoxy like brake caliper paint.

 

Don't let this intimidate you as you can find hundreds of videos on You Tube to walk you through the process.

[joey3108]

Finish look doesn't mean is gonna be as durable as original paint.

 

Wait until you need to reshaft and heat up the heat with heat gun or torch, You'll see what i meant. I've seen so many repaint job on the head is not even hold a little heat

 

A good paint job on club head require baking room to make a good paint works how it suppose to be or the other one for sure is good...powder coating technique paint.

 

Joe