Paint and Body work questions

[Johns 66]

Hi All,

I have never painted or done body work so please excuse my ignorance in this area. The metal work..Rust repair.... is almost complete and will be ready for body work when I get it back

Some of the metal will be blasted, some will have EDP coating on them….bed side, rockers, NOS doors etc...some will have the original paint on it...like the hood and core support.

After getting an estimate of 10 to 15k to have my truck painted and paying 300.00 to have the bedside primed so it wouldn't flash rust I am gonna attempt to do this myself.

So here are the questions I have...….

What type/brand filler do you use?
What Brand sandpaper do you use?
What brand/type of primer do you use? I have heard urethane, and polyester primers?
What brand gun do you guys use? I have seen them from Eastwood and several other vendors....but with so many options its confusing....I guess its the same with the other products.

I am painting my truck base coat/clear in the original white color...with a red stripe down the side and the interior a charcoal gray color.

From what I understand so far is that I need to sand the truck with 80 grit on a block board to see the highs and lows.....After that I need to use filler as long as the lows aren't more than 1/8th and the highs are not too high...If deeper or taller than that I need to hammer and dollie the metal.

Heres where it goes sideways....DO you add filler now or do you prime after the 80 grit sand?

After the 80 sand you use 180? then 220 then? Not really sure about this step since the videos I have watched are all different. but they all seem to go to 500 to 600 grit before applying base.

Once base is applied do you wet sand the base? If so what grit.

How much time do you have between coats...for example on the doors...The interior will be charcoal gray, the exterior is white with a red stripe....Do I do one side, clear it then do the other, or do I base the inside, then the outside, then lay the strip and then clear? Will I have enough time to do that?
After Clear what grits go you sand with? Do I need to use a block to sand the clear...I have seen some videos where they use a 6" DA sander

So any suggestions, tips, tricks, knowledge etc....would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

John

[mongocanfly]

WOW!!....that's a lot of questions...if you've never done any of this kind of work this will be a huge undertaking....
As for materials...I have a Eastwood gun...works great for me..sandpaper is all 3M...all my filler is evercoat... durablock sanding boards..all the paint products I'm using is sherwin williams... get one paint brand and stick with it from start to finish...
Having never painted you may be better off with single stage paint...my 2cents..
Any bare metal you have must be primed with epoxy primer..nothing else...
Your better off in my opinion to take any areas you have to repair to bare metal..I use 80g to do this and then prime with epoxy..under the 1st coat of filler.....80 and then 180 to sand filler..once you get it good enough you need a filler primer over the top...keep sanding and filling to your level of good...a good body man can do this in a few steps...us that arnt so good usually takes many coats...
And then you'll need somewhere to paint...dustless and ventilated with good lighting..
Didnt answer all questions...this is big undertaking...
As bad as this sounds..unless your going for show truck quality..you might check somewhere like maaco ...if you get body work done and primed...and let them paint it..

[Johns 66]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

WOW!!....that's a lot of questions...if you've never done any of this kind of work this will be a huge undertaking....
As for materials...I have a Eastwood gun...works great for me..sandpaper is all 3M...all my filler is evercoat... durablock sanding boards..all the paint products I'm using is sherwin williams... get one paint brand and stick with it from start to finish...
Having never painted you may be better off with single stage paint...my 2cents..
Any bare metal you have must be primed with epoxy primer..nothing else...
Your better off in my opinion to take any areas you have to repair to bare metal..I use 80g to do this and then prime with epoxy..under the 1st coat of filler.....80 and then 180 to sand filler..once you get it good enough you need a filler primer over the top...keep sanding and filling to your level of good...a good body man can do this in a few steps...us that arnt so good usually takes many coats...
And then you'll need somewhere to paint...dustless and ventilated with good lighting..
Didnt answer all questions...this is big undertaking...
As bad as this sounds..unless your going for show truck quality..you might check somewhere like maaco ...if you get body work done and primed...and let them paint it..

Greg....I appreciate your suggestions and I agree it will be a big undertaking. My truck will not be a show truck and I plan on driving it...ALOT

I figure it will take some time to get all this done but having the basic knowledge will go along way....plus as they say experience is the best teacher.

The repair work (Metal work and rust removal) is being done by a professional shop that knows what he is doing. He said he would get the gaps correct and the panels aligned the best he could...of course I will need filler to fine tune and the new panels will have to go from scratch.

I have bought the Durablocks, Evercoat Rage Filler so far and some 80 grit PSA paper....but as far as primer and the rest I haven't bought anything.

The metal work should be done in a weeks or so, so I do have a little time...At this moment I am working on the bed.....getting the wood fitted so I can get it finished as well. But here is a look at whats happened so far