Prep and paint

Tonight, we begin the painstaking process of prepping for paint.

On a normal set, that would involve...well...nothing.  Slap a base coat on and get ready for some "latex magic".  Oooo...  that could be taken a couple of different ways, if my mind weren't so innocent.

Painting a vehicle is, or at least SHOULD be a little more painstaking. Since this vehicle will never see the tough environment of the street again, its paint job doesn't have to be quite as thorough, but we still want a smooth, glossy finish that looks like a new truck. So, it needs to be done with some care.

We will start by sanding the entire surface to be painted. There are dings, dimples and grit  from years on the road. 

The original paint is oxidized, chipped and faded and there are a few rust spots that need smoothing out.  Next we will use Bondo to fill in little dings, dents and rust spots.  Then that will have to dry for a couple of days before we can sand it out flush with the adjacent metal.

The other project that will hopefully be tackled tonight and Friday is to clean all of the black plastic body moldings and give them a light coat of flat black spray paint.  Then they should be ready to re-install after the body panels are painted red and cured.

Probably Friday evening, we will sand down the Bondo patches and spot prime any metal that we bared with sanding.  There are wear spots along the top edge of the fenders on the bed.  They were caused by the plastic bed liner that we removed and threw away because it was beat up and faded.  I plan to just use spray Rustoleum primer for light rust and previously painted surfaces.  That should dry overnight. Saturday morning, we will finish sand the whole thing with 400 grit sandpaper.




According to UPS, my Epiphanes Bright Red yacht enamel and thinner is in Ohio somewhere and should arrive Thursday afternoon.  Just in time for coat #1 on Saturday!!!  

More pix after this weekend, I promise...
R