Anybody painted their own truck?

My coworker wanted to repaint is truck using the standard rattle can spray paint. About how many cans do you think he will need? I know he will need primer and clear coat as well, but let's say for a high glass black paint, how many cans would he need?

 

if he is rattle canning a truck, dont do gloss it will look terrible. Use a satin finish and dont waste money on primer or clear as it will never look right.

 

Rattle can's stink for large areas.

Either use a roller and Rustoleum (google $50 paint job) or do a cool www.monstaliner.com treatment.

The key to decent final results with either, just like on a real paint job, is prep.

 

I painted my camper shell with the duplicolor match paint. The sides look ok, but the top looks like crap. I prolly spent close to $200 on paint between the primer, color and clear. Would have been better off spending ~$400 or so on a professional job.

 

I've painted several over the years. My first was a classic mustang, done in a nice paint booth with $$$ color and clear. Every one since then... rusteleum and done in my driveway

I'm actually working on my f250, will have about $200 into it counting good primer, body filler, misc materials. Rattle cans... do the job. But they will cost more and are a major pita to get even coverage. You'll need roughly 1000 coats to do what 2 would have done out of a gun. And since you'll need 10000 cans to get the same coverage as 1 $25 gallon can it's not the most cost effective route. What you should do is get a $20 spray gun and a $25 gallon.

The rattle cans have a very narrow spread which makes for a streaky finish. A gun you can get a nice wide spread which makes even coverage 100 time easier.

This is a rattle can before/after. Flat paint with clear, all out of a bomb. Way more work and $ needed to make it right but temps were low and it worked well enough. All clear, if you want a really good finish, will need color sanding when it's done. That's a lot of wet sanding and then buffing. This... got neither



The easier route, gallon and gun, all done with cheap paint. I hit a good 10' paint job without trying but you won't win any shows without better paint.



No before on this one.


And the one I'm working on now.


I'll be done with the cab this week and will do the bed after. Rust fixes and a color change closer to what it came off the line with. It started as silver, someone did a bad white paint job on top of it. I'm going grey/black.

After this, I have a willys cj5 that I'll be rusto'ing before the weather hits.

The rusto/roller technique, about 2 weeks hard work for what should be done in a couple easy afternoons. It follows the same routine as what's needed for rattle cans. Lots and lots and lots of coats until you're eventually even. Otherwise, streak city as 1 area will be lighter than the next.

 

Youl never get a good gloss black with rattle cans.

 

If you have access to a compressor just buy a gallon of enamel from tractor supply in the color of your choice a d you'll be a lot better off. They are about 35$ a gallon

 

please just plastic-dip it

 

How many can???? About a case of Bud Light should do it

 

Derp.

 

Pretty much done with this one. I need to put the lights back on and get the 5th wheel hitch installed. It needs a bath but stayed within budget using a mix of rustoleum (grey) and dip for the black. My gun went belly up so that added an extra $30, and then I broke the drivers side headlight trying to take it off and had to spend another $40 on ebay to replace it. I've pulled engines that weren't secured as well and as big a pita as that headlight.

Grand total in materials, $35 for body filler, $10 for metal (rust outs) $50 primer, $25 paint, $30 for plastidip, $25'ish for sandpaper. Full size, long bed, took 2 coats of color and used pretty much 1 gallon. No idea how many bombs it would have taken. The bed isn't painted, that will be getting liner after the 5th is installed, would have added another quart of material otherwise. A taco, probably 1/2 a gallon for a good 2 coats. Total gun time, maybe 3 hours with 24 hours between coats.

Looks decent for a truck I paid 2k for 5-7 years ago. Best part, no more chrome!

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I forwarded this thread to him.

 

Wrap it.

 

Bored, did my willys $25 paint job, $15 in body plastic, 1/2 a can of dip on the wheels. It's my plow vehicle, so cost is about right.