Thinking of spray painting my truck

I was driving around for a while with massive tires and no lift, it bowed out my front fenders and ended up rusting, plus my rear fenders have a lot of rock chips and salt-related rust at the bottom corner, and I am a broke college student. I'm thinking doing a 2-tone type paint job to catch the rust, a bondo patch, and some peeled clear coat.

I painted two of my rims with rustoleum flat-black grill paint (high temp, UV resistant I think) over a year ago and they still look pretty good. Might have faded a little but i think they're fine.

Has anyone used rattle cans to paint any part of their truck?

I have a good hand in photoshop, this is what I'm thinking of making the end result to be.

 

O did my whole truck with satin black. Scuffed the clear coat with 120 grit, wipes it down with a tack cloth and sprayed the whole thing. Took 6 cans including the bed.

 

I did my truck in bed liner up to the curve line of the fenders. Have you heard of plasti dipping yout whole truck?

 

Do it! This is mine:





I had it painted 'professionally', not rattle canned, but if you have a steady hand at rattle canning then go for it. I like the two-tone look, and would recommend a different color than black. Mine is Toyota Magnetic Gray Metallic. In hindsight I should have picked something a little lighter, maybe halfway between the MGM and the silver.
Post picks when you do it.

 

On the contrary I like the paint.
How much did you pay for it?
It would look good on my Toy as I have aftermarket black bumpers as well.

 

I paid $750 for materials and labor. it is 2-stage, base and clear coat. A friend of a friend; backyard type of job, but he did okay.

 

I always like the look of the bottom quarter of a truck sprayed with rhino liner. Seems like it would help with dings and scratches from driving through brush but even if you did just do the rattle can paint, I think it would look good. Im a fan of the two tone personally.

 

Did you use any primer at all? I got 2 cans of auto primer and 2 cans of flat black

Yeah i have thought of it but Im skeptical of how it would hold up on my truck. Plus thats more expensive, which is not a good factor

Why a different color? In my opinion the flat black and grey/silver looks awesome, although if i could I would do a matte grey/flat black but that would require me to repaint my entire truck, not just the bottom...I have a before and after of my rims, the paint is not really that deep of a black

 

im a fan of the bed liner as well. this stuff is called raptor liner and it goes on with a air compressor, the kits come with a gun and its held up for well over a year now.

 

do the bed liner, as long as you prep the surface proper it will last alot longer than spray paint. It comes in rattle cans, about $9 a can for the good stuff, there is cheaper but they tend to look like just black paint. I did this to a couple of my older trucks, full size '70's chevys, and don't think it took more than 4 cans each. That was doing a few coats to get some thickness on there. Whether paint or Bed liner Tape off your lines and tape/paper anything close to catch overspray then you don't have to be near as careful when painting and makes the spraying go a bit quicker

 

For what you're talking about doing I would suggest bedliner also. The Raptor Liner would be my first choice. You can get the kit for $100 and it will have enough to cover the area you're talking about. It will be a MUCH better finish and a lot more durable than the rattle can bedliner. Just make sure you mask EVERYTHING that you don't want bedliner on. It gets EVERYWHERE when you spray it so mask it off really well.

As for rattle can paint, it can be done with decent results. I rattle canned my fiberglass fenders and they turned out ok. If you're trying to have it look "professional" then you'll want to spray with clearcoat over the top of the color. I had some color matched paint mixed into rattle cans on the local paint supply place and sprayed 3 coats of color followed by 7-8 coats of clear coat. All rattle can.

 

I just prefer a different color than black. I understand what the other guys here say about the bedliner being more durable, but in my case I did it more for aesthetics than durability, so I thought the metalic charcoal looks nicer than plain black. I also painted my bumpers, bull bar and steps to match.

If you like the mat black look, then go for it, but it will probably look like a rattle can job more than if you use a different color. Just my opinion. It sounds like you already have the mat black paint, so that's also something to consider. Anyway, let us know how it works out.

 

This was rattle can, flat with a matte clear. The clear coat darkened it from the OD quite a bit.


This was rustoleum but spray gun instead of a can.


Fresh paint


Same here.

 

I usually cringe when I see or hear about rattle caning a vehicle but some of these pictures look nice actually. Still doesn't change my mind on the subject. Would rather Plasti Dip a car before spray painting it.

 

I figure that I just spent $20 for most everything I need to do a rattle can job, and I am quickly running out of time. It might as well be winter here in Michigan already and I need to do it in the next 3 days or so, which is not enough time to do bedliner. If I do this now, whos to say I can't do the bedliner down the road? Thats going to be my ultimate goal, next spring probably. I need to do some body work between now and then anyway. If I am going to spend more money than just $20, I want it to be done once and done right. And yes, I already do have the paint.

Raptor Liner looks really good. Im gonna go for that in the spring

 

Friend Rhino Lined his whole truck. It looks awesome and has only a few chips in the bed after 2 years.

 

Why I went with bed liner... Looks great, easy to clean, holds up to my abuse. .

http://youtu.be/EWexAwrlhmU

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...9-2910-4CD7-88AD-A8F7E2FC89F9_zpsv0gbq5i9.jpg

 

OP, weight of an entire truck Rhino(or any other) should be weighed when considering. It also will hold far more heat on those hot days.
I've done a ton of 4x4 floor pans, bumpers, sliders, etc. and find that the rolling kit verses spray on is far easier to manage and control thickness.
GL.

 

I'd recommend not rattle canning the entire vehicle. It looks like we have some damn good rattle can painters in here and kudos to your work but IMO there's too much room for error and mistakes are on display for everyone to see. I've seen too many bad rattle can paint jobs to safely recommend doing it.

But that's just an opinion.