ok ya'll, here is my question. I am fixing to start redoing the bocy (one piece at a time, as time and money allow) I have a lot of surface rust, and I want to look for bondo, so I'll be taking the truck down to the bare metal. what is the cheapest primer that'll work for what i want to do? I plan on giving it a Rustoleum flat black paint job, so taht as I do more work to it, it won't cost a lot to keep repainting it. I know absolutely nothing about paint and body work, so if some of ya'll can point me in the right direction, It'd be much appreciated.

one more question, whats the smallest air compressor Id have to buy in order to do this? I aint got a garage, and I got a family to support, so buying a big air compressor is out of the question. my neighbor gets some pretty small air compressors through from time to time, but I'm not sure how big of one I'll have to have. the only thing I'll be running is my spray gun.

if you are going to do it panel by panel then get about a 20 gal compessor

if you have rust then I suggest stripping it down w/80grit and then etch prime it

you could get away with just spraying the rustoleum

I used House of Krylon flat black just a few days ago on the 72'. Looks great and I highly recommend using quality brand paints if you're gonna rattle can your paint. i payed roughly 3 bones a can and used around 12 cans for the even job, but i used alot more than needed.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e217/exmonkeypunk/DSC03361.jpg

your waisting your time stripping down to bare metal then RATTLE canning a paint job on. YOU WILL BE SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY when it comes time to paint for REAL!!!!!!! because EVERTHING will have to come BACK off and done RIGHT.

your waisting your time stripping down to bare metal then RATTLE canning a paint job on. YOU WILL BE SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY when it comes time to paint for REAL!!!!!!! because EVERTHING will have to come BACK off and done RIGHT.


but thats the point. the truck will stay flat black. the body work will take quite a while to do, and it will have to be done one piece at a time. I don't want to spend a ton of money painting, only to have to REPAINT large portions in just a couple of weeks.
besides, this truck will be used for it's intended purpose, which is hauling. why spend several hundred dollars on a paint job that I will worry about scratching every time I take a load of scrap off, or every time I put a load of rock in the back etc.

What hes trying to say is if you do decide to go with a good flat black later the old spray can will most likley lift and your new paint won't stick. Also rattle cans will not hold out moisture like automotive paint will. Flat paint in a gallon isn't that expensive or you can get a single stage paint and a flattener and have years of maintenece free looks. Don't cut corners if your going that far down.

What hes trying to say is if you do decide to go with a good flat black later

I understand what he's trying to say, but understand what I'm trying to say is that If I have to repaint at some point in time, I don't mind stripping everything back off and doing it again.

all I'm wanting to do at this point is to put some dirt cheap primer over the bare metal. that way it won't cost me so much when I have to re-paint large portions of the bed every few weeks as I do the body work on it.

http://www.duplicolor.com/products/paintshop.html Its $20 for 1 qt. (a whole vehicle requires 2-3 cans so they say). Most local auto parts places like advance auto, pepboys and autozone carry it as well as online places like summit. and you can pick up a cheap spray gun from harbor freight for up to $40 or less/more http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=43430 or whatever http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Category.taf?CategoryID=324 then all you need is the air compressor. You will also need to get a inline filter/air and water seperator, also avaiable from harbor freight for $10-20.



http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=DPL&MfrPartNumber=BSP100&CategoryCode=3270
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SHW%2DBSP100&N=700+115&autoview=sku


just reread your original post and realized you said you already have a spray gun, well thats one less thing you need to get.

That's LACQUER primer. @ $20 a QUART you are getting hosed! you can buy lacquer primer for @$40 a gallon. Don't understand WHY you want to do it TWICE. That's like rebuilding a motor with used bearings until you can afford to buy new ones. Don't make since. :hc:You are money ahead if you just use good primer in the beginning. Use urethane or epoxy and be done. Transtar makes a inexpensive 2K that can be used directly over bare metal. (I don't have the part # in front of me)

I've used XIM Flashbond 400 white or 100 clear. You could cover over that with anything and its a high quality primer for about $8.00 a spray can online at the XIM online store. http://www.ximbonder.com/index.asp Its superior to the rattle cans and far superior to rusteoleum, I can swear by it. Up here in the NE where salt, condensation, cold and humidity eat at rust XIM holds strong.


Frank

Take a look at SPI products, great paint , fair price.

strip it down to bare metal and paint with rustoleum

if its flat black and you are haulin just buy a 20 buck gun from rural king and spray it without primer

or you could buy three guns at 300 a piece and a 1200 paint system

ha ha isnt it amazing how some people dont listen to the poster and start to build your truck for you

I understand what you are trying to do, as I was doing this myself. I asked pretty much the same thing and got pretty much the same answers. What I did worked for me. I found some paint at www.paintforcars.com. It is inexpensive and seems to cover well. I also found primer there, it is flat black, looks good and was $40 a gallon. This was my first time for painting so I had no idea what I was getting into, still don't. I know cheap paint gets cheap results, but I also was painting one peice at a time while I did body work so it worked for me. Vintagesteel and the others on this forum know what they are talking about, but keep in mind most are professionals and like most professionals look to do the job the most efficeint way possible. Try whatever way you want to, But keep in mind that if you do decide to paint it later on, after rattling it or whatever you will probably have to take it all down to bare metal again and start over. Just my 2cents. Not trying to tell you the best way to do it as everybody has their own way that works for them

you want dirt cheap.....

1 gal of Bondo $10-20

1 gal of PCL primer $60 sand it down with 220 then 400 grit.

1 qt of Flat black Rustoleum $7 at Home Depot. it will take 4-5 qts to spray the whole truck. you might have to thin out the Rustoleum. so use Acetone.

BUT when it's time to give it a good paint job. you will have to sand off the Rustoleum paint.

Done!


i did this once 5 yrs ago and the black is still on the car and is barely starting to fade.

WHY would he have to sand the rustoleum off to repaint? I don't get it.

WHY would he have to sand the rustoleum off to repaint? I don't get it.

so the new paint will stick

I'd just use a black epoxy and no paint for now. Then when you're ready to paint (flat black), you only have to wet-sand the epoxy and go...

I'd just use a black epoxy and no paint for now. Then when you're ready to paint (flat black), you only have to wet-sand the epoxy and go...

cool thanks

the normal primer will suck up water and doesnt do a lot to keep the truck from rusting further .
you can do a pretty decent paintjob with the rustoleum if you try a patch on the old paint to see if it gives any reaction like bubblin or anything like that , if it doesnt just take off the rustparts to bare metal and give those a mist of rustpreventer (that stuff that turns black after sprating it on and chainges rust intoo sumtin elde ) make everything nice and straight since that doesnt take a lot of money just time , and paint everything in the colour you want .
borrow a good paintgun and try to paint the truck at a place that has a big compressor and a watertrap .
if you realy set on pain ting it with a small compressor try to get some propane/oxigen/watever pressuretanks and put them in line with the compressor and fill those up with pressure before painting , the small compressor gives up pulsing air and might die prematurily if it has to run the whole time during the paintjob .
some reselve air in those tanks will work as a damper for the pulse and keep more pressure in the line when you do the larger bits the airvapor condences in those tanks too so it doesnt end up in the paint .
i would do it good first time in the colour you want and in rustoleum and not bother with two pack after that , if you lay up a couple of coats you can colour sand it and polisch it to a shine .
there numerous stories on the net of a 10 dollar paintjob original from a moparsite on wish the owner used a roller and some foam brushes and verry diluted rustoleum layed up in numerous layers he sands out any runners and other inpergections and just keept on laying paint on untill its good enough to buff it out , the extreme thinnes of the paint makes the layers realy thin (first 5 or so still see through ) but those layers dry up as hard as powdercoat