Within the next couple weeks, I plan on repainting my truck. Being a newb at this, I want Yotatech's imput from before I start to after I finish. I need all the help I can get. I also want to take this opportunity to introduce my rig to Yotatech:

She's a '89 4Runner DLX, 22Re, auto, 178K. She is currently unregistered, but I hope that will change soon, employment permitting. When I bought her, the rust was really out of control.

I did my best to repair the rust the right way, cutting it ALL out and welding in new plates. However, this was my first experienced doing anything like that, so the bodywork won't win any awards, but it's 1000% better than the rust, and I take pride in fact I did it myself. As of today, the truck looks like this:




My plan is to paint the truck black from the pinstripe up and fire engine red from the pinstripe down. I have searched and read a lot about roller-painted vehicles, and it seems to be a great method. Monochrome did a great job painting his truck this way, so I will try to follow his method with a few modifications. For each color I plan to follow this procedure:

I need input on this list. I have never painted a vehicle before, so if there's something I should be doing that I'm not, or if anything is amiss about that method, please let me know.

I plan to use Interlux Brightside yaht paint:http://www.wholesalemarine.com/p/ILX...ane+Paint.html
Others have used it and had great results. I also like the idea that it incorperates teflon. I plan on ordering later this week.

So that's my plan. Please give me some feedback; I'm a total newb at this point and I don't want to screw this up if I can help it.
Thanks in advance!

 

I've never heard of roller painting a vehicle. Does it leave that orange peel texture like the MX6 I googled up?

 

I don't know about that MX6 stuff, but equal parts paint thinner and Rustoleum seem to be a popular way to get good (orange-peel free) results with a roller.

OP, just make sure you mask things properly (remember to remove the tape before the paint's completely dry!) and whatever you do, please, please, please, paint the sheet metal on the inside of the truck to match the outside. It's a sign of a quality job, and will help out immensely if you ever decide to sell the truck. My truck might look light blue on the outside, but it's dark blue and over-spray everywhere else, something I fully intend on correcting eventually, I didn't really care about (or for) the paint job, but man is my truck ugly.

 

wow polyuer, that is some tough stuff. I was a pro at one time, never heard of rolling on paint to a vehicle before. I understand the technique you are using though. With the polyuer you will find that it builds up well and will also finish nicely with the sanding process you are aiming to use. You must understand that you should make sure each coat is fully dry as it will be easier sanding. poly take along time to dry, some times up to three days. all so after washing and drying, you may want to wipe the hole thing down with rubbing alcohol and a clean rag. you will be surprised what kind or residues can be left on the surface.

The only thing i saw that you did not mention. Pulling the tail light, trim, door handles and so on. i dont think masking off will work well with the application process you are going to be using, unless you have seen proof that it works fine. other then that sounds like you have planed pretty well.

good luck i want to see how it turns out.

 

Here you go. Long read but useful info.

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...0&fpart=1&vc=1

 

Thanks for the replies!
Before I go on, here's the link to Monochrome's build thread, as I'm borrowing the techinque from there (scroll down):https://www.yotatech.com/f191/monoch...42/index3.html

Magnusian- I dunno about thinning 50/50. In the above link, he only thinned it 10% with mineral spirits and the results speak for themselves. Anyone have other thoughts on thinning? About the interior sheet metal, are you referring the the inside of the fenders and quarter-panels or places like the door jams? The inside of my quarter-panels are only primer'd, so that's all I did to the plates I welded in.

Dark_Fairytales- The paint is supposed fully cure in 18 hours, so I don't know about waiting 3 days between coats. I don't mind, but I don't have a garage, so I'm gonna have to do the whole job during a stretch of good weather in NE. Time will be of the essence. The rubbing alcohol sounds like a good idea, I'll add that to the list. I was also planning on removing the lights, hardtop, and some trim, but some of it looks like a pill to mess with, like the windshield trim and door-handles. Are door-handles as difficult to remove as they look? Could I get away with just masking some of the trim?

Phildelfino- Looks like I have some reading to do!

Thanks for everyone's help, keep it coming!

 

I have done the Brightside on my truck a few years ago, and also a VW. I would not thin it, at least not for the final coat, as you will loose some gloss. Use the 2 roller method, a dry roller to go over the bubbles right after rolling. A partner would help for this, as it should be done right after rolling the wet.

You could take off your hood as the flat surfaces tend to collect the dust the most when drying.

Follow the instructions on the can for the coatings.

 

That seems to be a point of discussion as to whether or not to roll over the bubbles. I've heard some say yes and others say to leave them alone and the bubbles will resolve themselves. Can anyone clarify?

 

it depends on how quickly the paint flashes off and dries. if the paint flashes off to fast you trap the bubbles in the paint. if you use a retarder it will slow the flash off. polyeru dries slow but can flash off quickly, so the best is to do a practice panel to see what works best for you

 

Dude, I say go for it! Just make sure you spend most of your time in prep! I tell you from experience, if you want good result spend twice as much time as you think you should on prep. Don't get so excited to paint it that you rush your prep. Keep us up to date with some pics of your progress!

 

Put down the first coat today, so everybody get ready for a long post:

Two of my friends were generous enough to help out, and my two younger brothers also lent a hand. This made the job go much faster, and I think we all had a great time!

We started by removing the push bar, marker lights, rear lights, and cap. I probabaly could have removed other stuff, but I'm afraid some stuff will never go back on the way the it was from the factory (like door handles). I'm confident in my masking techniques (more on that later).


Before anyone says anything, I has to leave the rear window glass up because the battery is shot, even with a jump it doesn't have power to lower it. The switch makes a *clicking* sound, but there's no power to lower the glass. So we continued with the glass up.

Next we wet sanded the whole truck. I found that rather than continuously dipping the sandpaper in water, spray the paper and the area you're sanding with a squirt gun or spray bottle. It goes much faster and keeps the sandpaper much cleaner. After about an hour (or maybe less), the truck looked like this:



At this point everyone was ready for lunch, so we took a break to eat some mac&cheese and watch a Top Gear episode.

After lunch, we washed the truck with soap and then started masking. This took longer than I expected, but we got through it.



Now it was time to apply paint. We thinned 10oz. 10% with mineral spirits, and this was enough for the first coat. Remember, this is only going to be black from the pinstrip up.


I used the roller and gave everyone else foam brushes to paint the tricky parts the roller couldn't get to. Let me put the rumor to rest that you need to roller over the bubbles a second time. The bubbles resolve themselves a few seconds after application.
So after day one of the roller paintjob, the truck looks like this:

You probably can't see it in the pictures, but the red is still showing through in places, and there a few runs (mainly where we used the brushes), and there are a few crevises my buddies missed. That's fine, I'll sand it and give it the second coat tomorrow.

So 5 friends+a 4Runner that needs paint=one fun Saturday!

 

It helps when you can get the staff members to pitch in; things work much more smoothly


lol, looks like good progress; I'm wanting to see the finished product!

 

lookin good! Im hopin to do the same thing at some point..

 

Nice job man!!

 

subscribing

good help you've got there

at least the shirts don't say D.O.C.

 

Lol, my brother and I work for Parks and Rec, those are last year's staff shirts. They changed the color so we can't wear yellow to work anymore.

Thanks for the replies and feedback, hopefully this thread can help somebody if they want to try this method .

 

I have to admit, when I first started reading the thread, I thought this was a bad idea. After seeing the results from the first coat, that is completely reversed. That is looking good! I'm really impressed!

I'm also anxious to see the finished product. How much have you spent on the paint? My truck might just get this same thing once (if) I finish with all the mechanical items.

Keep up the good work!

 

...Cool...

 

keep it up, I plan on the exact same project. So I hope your end result looks as good as the begining

 

hey look good so far check out my roll on paint job! [IMG][/IMG]