Figured I'd start a thread to document my truck painting project and to ask questions for you paint pros out there.

The paint on my 99 is in really bad shape, several areas where the paint is scratched through to the primer and/or metal, and the rest of the truck has tons of clear coat scratches and rock chips. I thought about trying to repair the existing paint, but I think in the long run it's going to be better just to repaint the whole thing, plus then I get to pick whatever color I want.

Since I don't have the time or money to paint the whole thing right now, I'll be doing the truck in phases. My plan is to prep a panel then spray it with plasti-dip to (hopefully) protect it until I can afford to finish the job. I would just prime it now with 2 part rattle can urethane primer, but from what I've read it's not UV resistant and will eventually break down over time. Once I'm ready for the next phase, I can just peel the PD off and continue on with the project. I figure if I take my time and do a little bit here and there I'll do a better job and will hopefully be able to do the whole thing myself rather than paying a shop.

I started on the left bedside yesterday afternoon. There was a nice long scratch through the base coat into the primer, several rock chips, a small dent in front of the fuel door, screw holes in the bed rail from an old tool box, and the paint was missing where the OEM mudflaps used to be.

I did everything on this panel by hand yesterday, using two small sanding blocks and a combination of 100 and 220 grit paper. That sucked. I'm going this afternoon to buy an orbital sander and some larger sanding blocks (and a damn respirator, I could taste paint dust for a couple hours after I finished), hopefully will make things easier. Still have a little bit of work to do on this side.

Here's last night's progress, after feathering out scratches/chips/flaking paint areas, filling the dent in front of the fuel door, and filling the two screw holes on top of the bed rail.



Anyway, now I understand why body shops are so expensive, this is a complete PITA. Will post more pics as the project progresses. I think I've decided on Cyber Gray as the eventual paint color, which is a factory paint color on the newer Corvettes. I'll have a cowl hood by then, still on the fence whether or not I want to do any kind of racing stripes. Maybe I can experiment with them a little bit using plasti dip.

 

Nice work bro....

 

Good progress, keep it up. Also just to save you some money and time, you really don't need to put plasti dip over the areas you've worked and are ready for paint as long as there's primer on it. It will be fine, I've been driving my 01 around for a few months with a primered cowl hood and tailgate and just now starting to paint them.

 

That color is going to look awesome. Good thinking too about protecting it with plastidip until you can finish it.

 

I'd just dust some spray can primer over the worked areas. It'll be fine and the whole thing will have to be sanded again anyway. It'll be a hell of a lot easier than peeling off plasti dip.
Love the new color choice BTW.

 

Thanks guys. I'm going to go ahead and do the PD for now, I'm not taking the truck completely apart yet so when it comes time to do the actual painting I'll be taking off the bed, doors, fenders, and hood to get into the smaller and concealed areas. I'd like to actually prep those areas before priming, and I'd rather do the primer with an actual spray gun rather than rattle can if possible. The PD comes off pretty easy, I had sprayed my fuel door and tailgate last week, and just peeled off the fuel door yesterday. Plus I'd rather drive around with flat black than primer color, and I should be able to see any imperfections under the PD that I can fix after peeling before spraying primer.

Anyway, here's tonight's progress. Left bedside is ready for spray. I have a total of probably 6 hours of work into it to get to this point. Definitely understand why body work is so expensive, it goes really slow.

 

Good job, did you do all that by hand? If so, I might suggest picking up a DA. Will save you a TON of time.

 

I went and bought a Makita DA sander this afternoon...I couldn't have done another night of manual sanding! My shoulders are starting to get sore from last night already, lol. That thing is awesome with some 80 grit paper on it

I think it took longer tonight because I did most of the work with a 220 pad on it, thinking it was 80. It wasn't until I was almost done sanding out the chips that I realized I had the wrong one on there.

 

Good deal. Careful with that 80 grit, before long you'll take off more than you wanted! lol

 

Nice work Chris. Body work sucks I know personally from doing my own truck.