Painting

Does anybody have any tips on painting my truck? like what's the best paint to use or paint gun? or any little tips and tricks that might come in handy. I wanna try and save some money and do it myself but I have no background in automotive painting and want to learn.

 

I helped my dad raptor line his Tahoe and we did all of the prep work (which was a lot). i think im gonna try and build a makeshift paint booth with plastic and pvc.

If I use a sign stage paint would I still need the clear coat? and could I not use the same gun for both the primer and the paint?

 

If you like the look, spraying Raptorliner is fairly easy. Yes the prep work is a lot but you can't screw up when it comes to spraying it. I did that to my taco and love the look

 

Its really not my favorite so I would rather not do that.

 

What about a wrap? would that be better than a paint job? maybe even cheaper?

 

Want some advice? I would consider taking paint shop course at a community college. Painting a vehicle is a science.

 

as a 30 year old adult with a full career I still want to do this, I’ve always loved the idea of painting cars on the side

 

Probably not cheaper. $2500 for a high quality wrap. It would look great though.

 

i restore antique motorcycles as a side hobby. I learned to paint by working part time at a body shop. As a benefit I get off-hour use of the paint booth.

 

My recent victim.

 

beautiful.

I get it. Like I understand more than the average person probably does. More so body work looks so daunting. I feel I could easily rent a booth and spray but the distance to the booth with the body work is where I get lost.

I want to paint my 5 lug but the whole truck needs to be taken down to paint some places to metal, filler, PDR, hi build primers it needs everything

 

I wanted to learn how to paint to. I previously worked in body shops and even though I am mechanically inclined I could never master painting and bodywork. I could paint but only with someone watching me and I never could " feel" the body work like other guys could. It takes a special skill to be able to do that. That takes a lot of time to learn those skills and be really good at it. Because I can, I do what I can to help save money and let the pros do the finish work. I'm happier that way.
If this is something you really want to do you can, but it won't happen overnight. With out those skills I don't think you will be happy with the end results. Good luck!

 

There are so many how-to videos now-a-days. If you are courageous - you can do it Might not look professional but hey - might as well.

 

Thanks.

 

First tip about painting: Know your weather. High humidity means excess moisture which is bad for paint.
Second tip: Preparation is everything.

 

Do you have a work space? I painted my friends race out of a 2 car garage. We put up plastic around a whole garage and wore a respirators. Oh to be young and dumb.

 

Whole truck - if you've never done it, pay someone to do it. It takes a lot of learned skill to keep the gun parallel and equidistant from the surface, and know when to stop avoiding runs. Then there's the chemistry, which paint, activator and clear coat. You might save some money by doing the prep work, which involves removing all windows and trim, filling nicks and dents, sanding down the entire vehicle, but even that is a buttload of work.

"Feathering" (blending one painted area into an unpainted area) is another tough skill to learn.

The best way to learn is to get the equipment and do small jobs like one small panel. Hang plastic all around your garage to create a small paint booth (the stuff will get EVERYWHERE) and practice. Invest in a GOOD respirator, cloth masks won't cut it. Be ready to sand it all off and try again, you will get runs and lots of orange peel at first.

 

^This right here. I painted cars for a couple of years after high school. The prep is the most important. Shooting the paint is the easy part and takes probably 1/10th the time of prep or less, depending on the starting condition. Shooting paint in wet weather never goes well, low humidity is best. But, I think modern paint systems are much improved over the old lacquer and enamel days, and are much more durable. Talk to a local automotive paint supply place for what they recommend, and they can point you to what you need.

A single-stage non-metallic color would be the easiest. Light colors show fewer imperfections. Black shows every-single-one. Metallic colors require experience to get them to lay down evenly and would require a clear coat.

Primer is typically a bit thicker than paint and can gunk up a gun, but with primer it doesn't matter so much since you are going to block sand it anyway. A cheap gun for primer and a good gun with good nozzle for the paint would be ideal. You also need an appropriate compressor that can keep up, with good water trapping and filtration.

Get some scrap panels to practice on so you can figure out your pressures and spray pattern and get your rhythm down. The ambient temperature can change how you mix the paint and lay it down. It's somewhat of an art -- we used to "feel" the paint by rubbing it between our fingers to know if it was too thick or too thin, it's just something you get a feel for over time. The modern systems may be more prescriptive since many work kind of like epoxies. Clean your gun and nozzle thoroughly after spraying.

A paint booth is ideal, but you can do a makeshift booth like you mentioned -- but not like outside in a yard or something, you should have a concrete floor that you can clean. Wet it down and squeegee it out before pulling the truck in, then spray the walls and floor. If you keep it wet it will cut down on dust -- but you will get dust.

As others have suggested, watching videos and taking a class at a local community college should help, but actually practicing doing it will help the most.

 

If anyone lives close to me, my next painting project will be repainting a bed to my Tacoma. I’ll share some tips.

 

Lol this is how I learned