I have spent the last few weekends scuffing and scrubbing and prepping the cab for paint. and i mean i have spent all this time prepping to paint the jambs, firewall, underside, inside roof, around the windows and the back cab wall. Let me tell ya, my fingertips are raw and i dont ever want to do anything like this again!
I spent about 6 hours sunday prepping the last bits of the cab. I wimped out and only prepped the parts that are visible when the truck is reassembled, i decided i had wasted enough time doing this, and painting the inside of the roof and the inside floor pans was an absolute waste of prep time and paint, so like i said, i wimped out.
I have not sprayed a base / clear in 13? years. I have not sprayed a metallic in 21 years, and that was a single stage paint. I was told these new paints spray different than they did just a few years ago and that the new metallics spray like they are not metallic. I was told that the clears spray like water from a hose and run off the target in the same fashion. needless to say, i was a bit nervous spraying only the jams, and leaving the exterior paint work up to a professional (friend).
So i mixed up about half a gallon of base coat and went to town spraying the parts i intended to spray. I sprayed the base on way wet, in my mind i was spraying a single stage paint and had to stop and take a breather to remind myself its not a race and that it goes on semi dry. I sprayed all the UP facing surfaces first, then the vertical surfaces and then the DOWN facing surfaces inside the cab. Finally i got on the creeper and crawled under the cab and hosed, literally hosed the underside of the cab. Lighting was not so good so there are a few spots where coverage is lacking but f-it chances are no one will ever see these places even if they set out to look for them.
Next i mixed up a little more than half a gallon of clear and set to spraying again. I got the UP facing surfaces again first, inside of the cab, the underside of the cab and was working on the firewall when my shop building SHIFTED from a gust of wind and it started snowing drywall mud all over my 90% freshly cleared cab.
Door Jamb
Cowl Vent, In front of windshield
The entire truck was covered with drywall mud dust. I simply cussed loudly, then dumped out a bunch of fresh clear and set to cleaning my gun, i was done for the day.
Now i have to scuff the entire truck AGAIN! and re-base coat most of it and re-clear all of it.
The good news -kinda- is that as much color and clear as i hosed all over the underside of the truck, and being that i have not sprayed base clear in ages, I only had one small run in the whole thing. AND it was a run in a place that i have to sand smooth again anyways to prep it for final painting. I was very surprised to see that in the places where i was expecting runs there was not a single one. I like this new Base / Clear paint. And the metallic seems to have laid down nicely, of coarse i havent seen it in the sun, and probably wont for a while (winter has set in).
turkey day will be spent in the shop scuffing, yay me!
-Izzy