Painting truck project?

9 LIVES

Demolition Expert
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Oct 29, 2006
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I have a 1988 F-250 4X4 project truck that I so far have layed 3 coats of primer (Dupont)

I have never primed or painted a car before so im taking this slowly:fish:

Now that I have 3 coats of primer on and it will be atleast mid January before I can paint (X-mas and all drained my $$) What do I need to do before I start to paint? I have been told to wet sand the primer just before I paint ?

The color scheme for the truck is Brandywine
Went to the local paint store and had priced the base coat, brandywine, clear coat, activators,hardners & thiners or what not all that was needed as far as he said. Price came out to $1,245.00 for all that stuff:doh: Thats a bit above my budget....well ok $400.00 over my budget. It was House Of Color which I know is expensive. From what the paint expert said I wont find any cheaper paint?

:poke:
 
9 LIVES said:
I have a 1988 F-250 4X4 project truck that I so far have layed 3 coats of primer (Dupont)

I have never primed or painted a car before so im taking this slowly:fish:

Now that I have 3 coats of primer on and it will be atleast mid January before I can paint (X-mas and all drained my $$) What do I need to do before I start to paint? I have been told to wet sand the primer just before I paint ?

The color scheme for the truck is Brandywine
Went to the local paint store and had priced the base coat, brandywine, clear coat, activators,hardners & thiners or what not all that was needed as far as he said. Price came out to $1,245.00 for all that stuff:doh: Thats a bit above my budget....well ok $400.00 over my budget. It was House Of Color which I know is expensive. From what the paint expert said I wont find any cheaper paint?

:poke:


I'll help you any way I can but I'm only being sincere when I say that you are in way over your head by picking a HOK Candy color for your first all over paint job. There are painters all over the US who have each painted 100's of cars that are still uncomfortable doing all over candy jobs!

Brandywine is an excellent color choice but leave its application up to a pro.
 
How much can I expect a pro to paint this single cab truck for? seing that its been primed.
 
9 LIVES said:
How much can I expect a pro to paint this single cab truck for? seing that its been primed.

This is a loaded question.

Not knowing the area in which you live and assuming the correct primer was used and applied correctly and the primer only needs a good blocking before its sealed and based, candied and cleared you could see estimates from $1000-$4000 (assuming you are proving the HOK, clear and reducer).

Once again I'm giving an internet answer to an internet question.

FYI- If you think there is any chance you applied the primer too heavy per coat or didn't let each coat flash off long enough between coats the best thing you can do is pull the truck outside on any day that it's not raining. The UV light (not sunlight) will re-flow any trapped solvent from application abuse (this is great insurance for even the best painters as well) to the top of the primer allowing the majority of shrinkage from trapped solvent to occur before its painted. Just a tip.$.02
 
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I think ive got issues. I have put 4 coats of primer on and let the truck sit outside for a week. Twice it rained and on the roof & pillars there is rust showing through. But only in those areas....looks like ill be sanding that complete area down (will wait till im ready to paint for that)
 
Did you start with bare metal then prime? If so did you use epoxy or 2K primer over the bare metal?

Long story short epoxies are designed to be water and air impermeable, have excellent adhesion to metals and fiberglass and help prevent creeping of corrosion if the coating is scratched to the metal.

2K primers have a fraction of the anti-corrosive properties that epoxies have. They are also very porous due to the talc in the product. Yes, they can be water sanded and driven in the weather for short periods but they are porous and their intergrity degrades quickly from UV.

That said some epoxy primers can't see weathering for even a week because they will allow water to penetrate the primer. We picked up an international concrete pumper manufacturing account because they epoxy primed bare metal then at some point the components were set outside and within a week rust was coming through the epoxy.

Our epoxy can be driven/sit outside and after six months the only thing that happens is the very top of the coating breaks down. All one does at that point is scuff the weathered epoxy with 180 to remove the very top of the coating and then apply one fresh coat of epoxy. Good as new.

There are 40 some grades of epoxy activator available through Shell or Air Products and you guessed it...spend the extra $2 on our level and produce and outstanding product. The typical epoxy will go 300-400 hrs on a salt spray corrosion test while ours will go 1300-1400 and a lot has to do with the grade of activator used. This is also why our epoxy will stick to AL where many others will not.

Give me some more details and I'll help all I can. If you need some epoxy I'll send you a 2qt kit on the house to help with your problem.
 
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TooMuchBoost said:
Did you start with bare metal then prime? If so did you use epoxy or 2K primer over the bare metal?

Long story short epoxies are designed to be water and air impermeable, have excellent adhesion to metals and fiberglass and help prevent creeping of corrosion if the coating is scratched to the metal.

2K primers have a fraction of the anti-corrosive properties that epoxies have. They are also very porous due to the talc in the product. Yes, they can be water sanded and driven in the weather for short periods but they are porous and their intergrity degrades quickly from UV.

That said some epoxy primers can't see weathering for even a week because they will allow water to penetrate the primer. We picked up an international concrete pumper manufacturing account because they epoxy primed bare metal then at some point the components were set outside and within a week rust was coming through the epoxy.

Our epoxy can be driven/sit outside and after six months the only thing that happens is the very top of the coating breaks down. All one does at that point is scuff the weathered epoxy with 180 to remove the very top of the coating and then apply one fresh coat of epoxy. Good as new.

There are 40 some grades of epoxy activator available through Shell or Air Products and you guessed it...spend the extra $2 on our level and produce and outstanding product. The typical epoxy will go 300-400 hrs on a salt spray corrosion test while ours will go 1300-1400 and a lot has to do with the grade of activator used. This is also why our epoxy will stick to AL where many others will not.

Give me some more details and I'll help all I can. If you need some epoxy I'll send you a 2qt kit on the house to help with your problem.

OK. You got my interest. How about a link to "your" epoxy andactivator?
 
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