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Hello,
I’ve been wanting to paint my truck but i’m scared that i would mess everything up. There is no rust on the truck so i was thinking of sanding it down to primer and then paint. I’ve never done any painting before so please tell me all the details as to which sand paper grit to use and filler. I read a lot about this but people have different opinions.
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what kind of shape is your old paint in? does it have a lot of chips and scratches? Has the clear coat lifted?
If you are doing a paint job, I would apply new primer anyways. Why do you want to paint the truck if it’s in good shape? I would suggest a vehicle wrap which is far more economical and it will protect your existing paint. Proper painting is an art form and it depends on the end product/results you are aiming for.
It’s impossible to remove 100% of the color coat while leaving the entire primer coat pristine and intact. The paint bonds/interlocks with the rough primer. By the time you’ve removed the paint, you’ll have sanded down to bare metal in most areas too.
This is a big time-consuming job. If you lack the proper equipment, facilities and experience, you’ll be much happier with the results from a professional painter.
Here’s some basic rules. If the finish that’s on the truck is good, and not compromised, it won’t need more than a 500-800 grit sand to give adhession for your paint, that won’t sand through the clear in most cases, nowhere near sanding through to primer.
If any areas need work, it’s best to strip to the metal with 80 grit or similiar, and seal with epoxy primer, than any body filler or primer to fill sand scratches.
Your best best would be to machine the entire truck with 500 grit and go from there, that would expose and high or low spots.
If the paint is a much older type like a laquer, then your best going down to metal, then doing sealing primer, then building primer, then color in layers then clear coat in layers.
Wraps are a horrible joke and the wanabe body guys that do them commonly break lots of trim, molding, handles, lights and more. They are not all that bad, but easily many are. I’ve seen that from the mid west, to car shows in Chicago and Dallas, avoid wraps. Besides, a professional paint job costs nearly the same.
If your going to repaint it the same color, and the existing color is solid with no major wear spots, then you can just sand off the clear coat and do a fresh layer or two, then some layers of clear coat.
If your changing the color then go back to bare metal and work your way out with layers of primers, paint and clear coat. Old paint under if a different color will try to shine thru if you don’t start fresh. The original way of doing a pearl white paint job was to prime the car, then do a solid 2 base coats of SILVER, then a THIN layer of pink, then a THIN layer of white. When the light shined in that, it had an opalescent affect as the silver and pink tried to shine thru.
The biggest thing here is time. A high quality paint job involves TONS of wet sanding between the layers to avoid the orange peel effect. With bare metal, first coat in a SEALING primer, never leave bare metal sitting around unprotected, seal it right away. Then, add 2 or 3 layers of a BUILDING primer. Then after that is dried, you can wet sand to find high and low spots. Anything too low may need some basic polyester based filler, like zgrip. No need to go crazy with the amount or type of filler, just do not ever use that crappy red bondo, it NEVER dries all the way thru, even after years.
Once you’ve got it primed and all surface areas leveled, you can start adding thin layers of paint. Wet sand after the second full layer if you applied it thin, or the first if it was applied a little thick. Do not press very hard at all when sanding, let the media do the work and you will get very even looking coats. Same when doing the clear coat, wet sand between layers and add at least three layers of it. The front of the car could use five layers of clear coat. Clear coat takes about a month to fully dry, so do not wax it until its at least a month old.
I can not stress this enough, but the majority of the work if your serious about a high quality job, is wet sanding between all the layers. I used to do everything from wreck repair, to frame off restos, to salvage rebuilds to custom show cars. My arms hurt from all the wet sanding day in and day out. No joke!
Think of the time here, wet sanding a hood or single fender can take hours if done right, and your going to do this all over the vehicle many times over if you care about a paint job that pops. Time man, lots and lots of time. I’m used to doing stuff that won awards, so my mind is a little strict on the details, but I will also say that a lack of propor layers of wet sanding will add up to paint that peels in five years or less also.
This would be a great time to ask yourself if you can really put over 200 man hours in sanding alone or more. A good paint job is $2500 & up on a car. A truck like the one pictured has a lot more surface area and can cost more.
Good luck!
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