$59 dollar Royal Blue paint job has started

I bought this truck 5 weeks ago and my plans are for a $1500-$2000 ride. My initial out of pocket for the truck was $600. I wanted a lowered truck again after 20 years out of mini-trucks. I plan on doing a static drop, upgraded interior, chrome Escalade wheels and a decent paint job. I knew from previous cars that a $1000 paint job didn't fit in with the goals of money spent.

I started doing some reseach on the net and ran accross several posts about a $50 paint job. I included them below. Anyway here is what I have accomplished so far.

We spent the better part of yesterday sanding and sanding and sanding. Got the remnants of old stripes and a full length door guard down to a smooth surface. I put the first coat on tonight minus the bumper area. Waiting for a friend with metric tools and a big breaker bar to get the rear bumper off in the morning.

From all the all the posts I read it takes about 6-8 coats and then a boatload of buffing to get the finish right. I am trying to have it completed in the next two weeks. Here are some posts about the $50 dollar paint job. It's alot of reading so you have been warned.

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

http://rollyourcar.com/default.aspx

http://www.bryanswebpage.com/Paint/index.htm

It will look better than 20+ year old faded paint, hopefully better than Maaco's $400 paint job for $59 or so bucks. That is what I have spent so far. Then I can start the static drop and interior. Here are a few pictures from today.

Michele my wife helping out with the sanding.



Weapons of choice.



First section started, this is called tipping to pop the paint bubbles.



First completed coat. Only 7 more to go and a bunch more sanding. Oh fun..

seen some good results from this process on other forums, the biggest factor in how it turns out is the labour you put in sanding & buffing. I've got a buddy who wants to try this, might give it a go on one of my vehicles one day.

leg0man wrote:

seen some good results from this process on other forums, the biggest factor in how it turns out is the labour you put in sanding & buffing. I've got a buddy who wants to try this, might give it a go on one of my vehicles one day.

I can tell ya just the sanding from yesterday blistered up my fingers pretty good. I have help so as long as we stay focused and don't rush I think it will turn out nice. My wife decided on blue. I was just gonna hit it with semi-gloss black and be done with it. From tonight I can see a few things I need to do better tomorrow for the 2nd coat.

1) Paint when it is completely light out. At the end I was painting in a dark garage and got bad runs on the drivers side.

2) See above.

We did a buddies Subaru in black...it turned out okay.

Good luck!


Dev

are you spraying it with a gun???..prolly save alot of sand time

i've tried this before. for the amount of time you spend wet sanding, its not worth it.

if you ever want to strip the crappy rust paint off to spray some real paint, i think you might be in for a slice of hell.


good luck with it tho, mine turned out pretty well. the thinner it is the nicer it coats.

Two coats on and wet sanded and looks good so far. This is a father son project so the wet sanding isn't so bad when you have help. Tomorrow is the first day of high school for my son and my wifes a teacher so hopefully I won't be going alone from here.

Tommorrow coats 3-4 are going on and hopefully I will have complete coverage by then. I have a limited budget so buying a compressor and gun are out of the question. This truck isn't something I really care too much about, it just needs something that looks decent. I have an El Camino project during the winter and I am looking for a 62 Impala to buy and then bag next year.

When you posted this I thought man I bet this might be one of those roller jobs... the more read... dang if it wasnt..
If it hadnt been i was gonna post up the link i have for the roller job.

I didnt read the article over.. but i believe they were using actual rollers and i see your using foam brushes.. it the material still flowing out pretty flat?

I like the blue.

I didn't know about the roller paint job till i bought the truck. I am on a strict budget and surfed the net trying to find a way to get some decent paint economically on the truck. The more I read the more I was intrigued and decided to try it. The old paint was just horrible.

The first two coats look pretty good, my paint was a touch too thin and got some runs in it. The horizontal surfaces came out near perfect. Vertical well, not so much. I wet sanded them out and will be laying coat 3 on tonight or tomorrow.

The blue looks different in person it is much richer and less smurfish as the pictures show. Depending on my cash flow level later on I may have the roof painted in heavy silver metalflake though. We'll see.

buck nasty wrote:

i've tried this before. for the amount of time you spend wet sanding, its not worth it.

True. I agree.


Dev

Coat 3 and partial 4. Wet sanding the drips again. It looks better in the pictures than up close. There are spots that just need extra attention. Overall coverage is nearly done, just have a few areas that need one more coat for complete coverage. Still happy with project.


Passenger side much better than the driver side.



Drips I guess are better than orange peel. Gotta hit that tomorrow.



Couple of roller marks on this side of the hood.

looks better than rusty and faded, thats certain! just keep at it with the wetsanding, then a good buff and wax once it's all done.

wow thats blue alright

thats lookin' pretty nice, have you been waiting a while between coats, the paint takes a longggggggg time to cure. if you rush it, you'll be able to stab a finger nail right through it when your done.

that looks pretty good in my opinion

I spent along time with it over the weekend with wet sanding. I put on coat 5 yesterday and it looks pretty good. I needed to put it back into service today so that last coat (I hope) will go on this coming weekend. Then back to a final wet sand and buff.

The paint has went on over the past two weeks, nothing rushed here. The only problem I have with it is that 90% of the truck is looking absolute fantastic and 10% either has a run issue or a gloss issue. I have the door jams to finish and the inside lip of the tailgate and she will be pretty completed.

I am still impressed with what I have done. My wife bitched though a little this morning when she saw drips on the front bumper and a smidge on the window trim. I told her I will make sure it looks right, WOMEN.

at least shes looking out for ya.

Byron wrote:

at least shes looking out for ya.

She is the best 2nd wife I ever had. With the exception of my buying Corvette's she has been extremely supportive of my car habit. I know I should count my blessings, I did marry up.

at least your wife supports you. mine sees no reason for doing anything to a vehicle. to her, its merely a thing to get you from point a to point b

Well here is a picture I took today as an update, the truck is a little dusty from being outside too. This is the 5th coat. I need to apply the 6th and final coat, wet sand and buff. I need to finish the door jams and smaller places that show a litttle gold paint too. Overall it's a 5 footer as is, hopefully I will be able to get back to finish the project soon.

Next is to get the 3" blocks installed, torsions cranked and drop the high rider from it's lofty perches. For some reason it looks taller than it was before.



Original

looking good man! that blue is very bright

dang that looks dang good bro

a lot nicer than the gold!

for 59 bucks that 'aint half bad

leg0man wrote:

looking good man! that blue is very bright

The photo doesn't really capture the color accurately. It isn't as much of a WOW I AM HERE BLUE as it looks. I am not sure it is the color that I will end up with either, the Interlux Brightside paint has a Sapphire Blue that I am looking into down the road once the body work is 100% completed. It is darker and more of what I am looking for. The nice thing about it is I can change colors anytime I wish for next to nothing.

Unless your really nit picking every square inch of the truck I would say that no one could tell how it's been painted. Once the last coat is on and buffed I am sure of it. It turned out better than I was expecting at this phase. The last wet sanding day nearly killed me though. I took my time and was very thorough. It isn't the paint I used or the method. It is the body preparation i took.

All in all I give props to this as a decent alternative for someone who doesn't have the equipment or skill to spray a car. As the layers progressed so did my skill at applying it with this method.

Cost - $59
Time - 16 hours beyond the initial body sanding. Masking, painting, sanding, washing & drying. Then do it again.
Results - At this point I give it a maybe a 7, hopefully an 8 once completed.