My Rattle-Can Paint Job and Ameture Detailing

Just the front panels. Green Dupli-color base, SprayMax 2K clear, Forever Black to restore the dark color of the weather-beaten plastic, and lots of time. Sanding, wet sanding, prime, more sanding, base, clear, wet sand, buff, polish, and seal. Pics of the custom seat covers are flipping when uploaded, so I have to skip them for now.

 

Looks good! I was just talking to a friend and told him I was thinking about changing the color on my ‘03 from Lunar Mist Metallic to the dark green and painting it myself. I’ve never painted with anything but a rattle can, so your project gives me a little more confidence.

 

It works for sure. If you have plenty of experience with rattle cans, then yours will likely turn out better than mine. Here are a few links to videos that were pivotal to the project:

The Best Rattle Can Car Paintjob! - YouTube

How to Wet Sand Orange Peel in Car Paint: Porsche 911 - YouTube

Best Compound and Polish To Remove Scratches & Swirls On Your Ride! Complete Compound/Polish Guide! - YouTube

 

So, did you paint the whole Dang truck? If not, how bout close-ups of the exact area? Always looks good from a distance!

 

Yes, and there are plenty of imperfections. Just have to settle for rattle-can potential, and rookie in a garage quality when those factors are in play. You can see swirls here and there in the garage light, but it's better than completely failed clear and exposed faded base. Here are some pics I took shortly after spraying and/or finishing.

 

Looks good! Always about impossible to get it to look good where it meets the original paint. After painting, did you wheel it out or anything? You did a great job with a spray bomb! My truck is the same color, so you got my attention right away!

 

Looks great! I definitely dig the Mica green. When I started looking for a Tacoma about 8 yrs ago, I wanted a Mica green, extended cab, 4x4, V6, 5-speed. I only bought my lunar mist automatic because it had a brand new frame and at the time it only had 57000 miles on it, which was pretty low. I’ll have my 5-speed conversion done in a week or so. I’m going the supercharger route next, but seeing your work is making me Jones for a color change. Thanks for sharing the videos. Definitely bookmarking them.

 

Before pics? Thinking about doing a rattle job on this old girl. Just primer on her

 

She has some rust in door sill i got to cut out and maybe a little around one cab mount, but thats all. Really love the solid front axle with the birfield joints. Wasnt super excited he swapped a 4.3 vortec into it, buts kinda nuts in that small truck, with the turbo350. Need to swap the transfer case too. Projects, am i right.

 

Ya, we blew up the rear driveshaft like 3rd time out. Cousin said, "Lets see what she's got!" She's got more then the u-joint and flange yoke could handle, lol.

 

Excellent! Looks good buddy. Here’s my 1998 with a rust oleum paint job…

 

I was pleasantly surprised at how close the Dupli-Color Perfect Match green for Toyotas was to the original. But as the guy in the video I linked says, it doesn't cover well. It matched virtually perfectly, but a coat or two more made it too dark. From grey prime, I think it took 4 coats, but you can still see slight streaks in the sun if you look hard enough. Those kinds of decisions and mistakes are where a lot of the time goes (and stress if you can't let go of ideal "shop quality" standards). How many coats do I do? Is it primed? is there still a little base? Better to have one or the other on the entire workpiece, or else the spots where the old base remains will be darker than the other areas when you paint. And the only way you find out for sure is trusting someone who's done it, or find out yourself, and either choose to live with it or go into a tailspin of time and materials trying to correct it. Since we're on this, I'll put some things I learned before the thread gets too long an difficult to search through.

1. Going into this, if you're an amateur and intend to use rattle cans in a garage, you must anticipate "amateur with rattle cans in a garage" quality. Be reasonable with your expectations. Consider this in your decision to move forward, and don't be surprised if things go wrong, especially if this is your first time working with spray paint. They did with me, and this is not my first time with rattle cans, though it was my first job on a real vehicle.

2. Research. The videos I linked above are an excellent start. Auto paint and detailing is a world of its own. Process, techniques, equipment, products... It all impacts what you do, and the quality potential. For example, in hindsight, I see that a spray gun setup would have made a better-quality finished product much easier to attain, but that comes at a cost of money and time in more research and practice unless you know how to use a gun.

3. Patience and knowing when to stop are very important. One of the nuggets I took from the Porsche 911 video linked above was to stay about 1 inch away from edges, grooves, and details while sanding. I did... Until things were going well with my wet sander, and I chose to risk it. I got too close, digging a ditch into my newly base-coated hood. Which leads to the next point.

4. If it looks good, don't touch it! I actually didn't wet sand the fenders much. The finish came out well enough for me not to. So, after messing up my hood, I learned to leave them alone rather than seeing the good finish as a boost toward a perfect finish.

5. Do it right the first time. Every step of the process builds on top of the other. If there's an issue (and there likely will be), it will show in the finished product. This goes back to the first point, and a frequent reminder was good for me. It's not going to be shop quality. Accept what is reasonable and move on. It's still better than it was.

6. Runs are better than a failing clearcoat and pay attention to flash times. Happened to me. I sprayed as close as the guy in the video said to, but the clear coat still dried to much before hitting the hood. (Local climate is cool but very dry). I know it dried because I went close and more wet on the fender with less wait time between coats. After completing the fender, I removed the masking tape from the hood and peeled the clear away. After the rework, I removed the tape from the fender without issues. A little jumbled, but I put these two thoughts together because there were two variables that the failed clear could have been attributed to. I would just err on the side of good adhesion rather than that ideal glass finish. The hood looked better the first time, but adhesion was weak. Consider the instructions on the product as a starting point, but pay attention to how it performs so that you can get the best results in your particular situation.

7. Plan. Set yourself up for success. A clean(ish) space that won't rain debris down on your work, masking supplies, trash bins, time for each phase etc. Part of this will be affected by the limitations of your materials.

8. The Dupli-Color Perfect Match product is not "Spray Any Way." You can change the nozzle angle, but the can won't spray if not upright. It's so bad that I had to hang the hood up from the ceiling.

That's what I have at the moment. I'll look for some "before" pics, but if you can imagine, the hood was just faded base coat. The clear had completely failed apart from the edges and contours that don't face the sun.

 

Very nice! Good job!

 

(I edited the long reply for more clarity )

 

Found a before picture! It was actually from my very first post on TW. Here you go.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/15-year-1st-gen-owner-finally-in-the-mix.796973/

 

get a nice bug deflector... looks sharp