Paint and primer

[Lone Ranger]

I'm definately not a pro! Pictures do make it look better than it is, they always do. I'd say five feet away it looks good but the closer you get the more flaws you see. Even if you do a bad paint job you can always wet sand and buff it nice... It might just take forever. If you want a show truck have a pro do it. If you want to save a bunch of money and want it decent do it yourself. If it turns out bad think of it as a filler coat and sand and repaint haha
Bodywork is the key! If you can see flaws when your sanding the glossy paint will magnify the flaws.
If you do spray water through it make sure you spray thinner or the solvent equivalent of the paint you go with. The water must be flushed. Get a water separator for your compressor too.
Works good to do a light coat first and let it get a bit tacky. Then your second coat will stick good and not run as easily. Watch some videos and ask other people too. There are way better painters on this site than me.

[colnago]

I was at one of our local body & paint shops, and I asked for a ball-park figure for painting a full-sized truck. It wasn't anything binding, I just wanted to get an idea of what it would take. The guy said $10K. For that kind of money, I'll have to do it myself. I don't need to enter any car shows, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Joseph

[Jacksdad]

I was at one of our local body & paint shops, and I asked for a ball-park figure for painting a full-sized truck. It wasn't anything binding, I just wanted to get an idea of what it would take. The guy said $10K. For that kind of money, I'll have to do it myself. I don't need to enter any car shows, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Joseph

I hear you - a ten grand paint job would probably look awesome, but I'd be scared to take it anywhere.

Hot Rod did a feature a while back about Earl Scheib paint jobs, and they used one of their project cars. If I remember rightly, they supposedly used some of the best paint in the business at the time, but the quick turnaround and low cost of their paint jobs came from crappy preparation. They hit your vehicle with an orbital sander, and that's about it for the bulk of the prep. Oftentimes, you could still see the swirl marks the sander left. A few years ago, a local Earl Schiebs had one of their "just painted" cars sitting outside, and you could see the scratches from across the street.

Hot Rod prepped their own car, and just had them paint it. It worked out cheaper, and the paint job came out pretty decent because of the extra time they spent getting it ready beforehand. They ceased trading as Earl Scheib a few years ago, but I believe the franchises operate independently now. Might be worth checking if you have a local shop that'll paint a pre-prepped truck for cheap.

[colnago]

I'm hoping that I can do exactly that. I don't mind spending a couple of grand to have it painted correctly, and I really don't want to buy a big compressor just to paint the truck myself. I'll ask around, and go from there.

Joseph

[1guydude]

sand blast or hand sand?! Ive seen some smaller sand blasters for cheap. Although id have to stock up and re supply the material probably very often. Not to mention the mess...
-d

[Lone Ranger]

A thirty gallon compressor will work. If you own one you will use it a lot. They are very handy for filling tires, or air tools, blowing stuff off, on and on.
Sand blasting can really open up a can of worms. It can make pin holes appear where it used to look nice. It can also warp the metal if done incorrectly, then you have a big mess on your hands. Hand sanding takes forever and you can end up sanding finger grooves. You defiantly want air or electric power. You don't need all the paint off. Think of the paint as a thin layer of filler bondo that you can smooth out. Prepare for many hours of sanding and bondo and sanding. It's only an investment of time and cheap sandpaper

[1guydude]

ya I planned on doing a lil upgrade on my compressor and giving my old one to my lil brother. Ive been looking. Ill look for one that size.
So u think my lil orbital sander will work fine? Than just get a cpl different size finishing stones/blocks? Ur not the 1st person to talk me out of the quick sand blast method ive cooked up in my head.
Im gonna watch some utube videos on body work maybe LOL
Do I use a thin layer of filler to skin the body? to make it baby smooth?
-d

[Lone Ranger]

Obviously the bigger the compressor the longer you can work before waiting for it to fill back with air. It's irritating waiting for air but I could only afford the thirty gallon tank at the time. Also for paint it would have been nice if it was bigger. It did work tho and works great for every thing else around the house.
An orbital is what I used and then a long board with sand paper on it really can smooth out too. You will have to do some by hand as we'll. I've seen videos of people skinning their vehicles with bondo. Just depends how crazy you want to go I guess. I just bondoed the spots I couldn't fix with two hammers. I wouldn't skin it, I always figure less bondo is better. Hop on YouTube like you were thinking and watch lots of videos. It's kind of an art.

[Jacksdad]

Sand blasting can really open up a can of worms. It can make pin holes appear where it used to look nice. It can also warp the metal if done incorrectly, then you have a big mess on your hands.

Ditto on both comments. I've heard of body shells being effectively destroyed by someone being overzealous with media blasting. The pressure and heat it can potentially generate can warp every panel beyond repair.

Skinning the whole body isn't necessary because most of the truck hopefully won't need it. Concentrate on the areas that need help. Remember that any bondo you put on will have to be sanded to some extent, and that gets old when you're having to take it back to bare metal in places where it wasn't needed in the first place.

A few tips to get things straight as you're working on it. As Lone Ranger mentioned, using an orbital sander to take off the high spots is fine as long as you don't go nuts, and finishing with a long board certainly lessens your chance of low spots. Keep sanding the panel from different angles so you don't end up concentrating on certain areas - picture a clock face, and alternate between connecting 10 and 4, 12 and 6, 2 and 8. You're not really looking to rotate the long board unless you have to because of the panel shape - just slide it up and down at different angles. Get used to running your hand over the panel and develop a feel for high and low spots - a piece of cloth over your hand can help as you run it over the panel. When you're at the point where you're sanding with paper smooth enough to require water to stop it clogging (I add a little dish soap, but some body guys just use water - your preference) use the sheen it produces to spot defects that will ultimately show up in the gloss coat. Get the panel wet and look down it at regular intervals - looking straight at it doesn't show you the shape of the panel anywhere near as well as putting your face right up against it and using the eye closest to the sheet metal.

Good luck - post some pics of your progress if you get a chance

[Lone Ranger]

Also when using bondo when it's still a bit soft go over it with a rough file and slightly smooth all the high spots that will save a ton of time. You learn quick how to lay the bondo smooth when it's wet cause sanding rough bondo takes forever. I'm excited to see how it turns out!
I like what Jacksdad said about the clock face; that's a good idea.