Now Painted!: Paint Prep - Need advice as I go (3 Viewers)

[Jeff Elliott]

TTT - Surely one of our sage body men have a suggestion on how to handle the above???

 

[LINUS]

I’m seeing stud welds for a slide hammer.

**IF** you’re good / want to learn with the access to body dolly & get the 1/4 a little closer to ‘straight’ - cool.

Up to 1/4” of bondo honestly wouldn’t hurt my feeling since when metel dents, it stretches - so unless you want to shrink hammer / get obsessive, I’d take the win that it’s good enough that you never noticed bondo on black before.

1/4” of bondo on a rear quarter beats rusted undercarriage all day & twice on Sat. That’s me.

 

[LINUS]

Also, if you see the bondo still clinging nicely when you been working the area, I bet there’s enough tooth behind it.

I’m betting you would put back about the minimal amount you have due to some stretching of the metal in whatever denting happened.

From the pic, I’d make a uniform gap of filler where the taillight meets the quarter, spot prime / chalk dust the area and move on. Spot prime the welds on the interior too.

That’s nowhere near a ‘thing’ IMO.

And that’s quite a departure from how I talk when it’s say a powertrain issue - ’good enough’ isn’t my SOP ever there.

 

[White Stripe]

Yeah I wouldn't take it to bare metal.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

Thanks to all!

From the pic, I’d make a uniform gap of filler where the taillight meets the quarter, spot prime / chalk dust the area and move on. Spot prime the welds on the interior too.

Will do - I have the self-etching stuff and high build stuff in a rattle can. I think I need to use the self-etch given I've gotten down to bare metal in places - right?

Also have been told the rattle can self etch stuff (even thought purchased from auto paint store) isn't as good as the 2k(?) stuff that I would spray out of my gun?

Bottom line - I need to sand this whole driver's side down through the clear coat and into the base coat. I will undoubtedly hit metal. I need to know 1) can I wait a week or two to prime in places if I do the sanding in stages and 2) do I need to prime with the 2k stuff if I need to prime asap or mix and paint from the gun each time (not to mention the masking)?

Thanks!!!

 

[jpoole]

If possible I'd plan to prime any exposed metal immediately after sanding it all down. Unless you are keeping the exposed steel in a very low humidity, controlled environment it should start to oxidize immediately even if only slightly. If you don't want to prime immediately and have more sanding to do then you can just plan to re-sand the exposed metal to clean it up when you do the remaining sanding work and then prime it all after that. Keeping the bare steel covered as you go makes sense to me at least and could prevent extra cleanup work if the project gets delayed for a while or you have to drive the truck in the wet, etc.. Getting some primer down also can serve as a nice indicator coat to let you know how much more sanding you need to do and to help you track your progress/completed areas.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

Ok Folks - I have her mostly sanded down and have decided to delete the flares. Going to take everyone's advice and get the welding spoon to help with welding the holes up. Do I need to do anything special when welding this close to the gas tank filler neck? I would be bad to blow myself up when I'm this close!

 

[LINUS]

If you’re worried about MIG sparks splash, drape a folded wet rag over the gas-cap.

That’d be as far as I’d go.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

Made a lot of progress today... Roof rack removed, holes filled with steel stick and then some bondo. There was the slightest beginnings of rust so glad I dove in and removed the rack. Fenders off so I can weld the holes up. Not a speck of rust on the fenders!

 

[White Stripe]

Looking good. I really encourage pulling the quarter glass. It's a great time to address the rust u likely will find.mine wasnt too bad yet and I was able to wire brush the rust off and cover it with a aerosol paint. With your welds make sure you paint the back sides with something. I like por15 in a aerosol can.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

Looking good. I really encourage pulling the quarter glass. It's a great time to address the rust u likely will find

Just watched the video on youtube on how to remove it - looks simple enough - how about putting it back in? Didn't find any videos on that so makes me wonder!

With your welds make sure you paint the back sides with something. I like por15 in a aerosol can.

Will do on all the ones I can get to. The ones in the rear doors that contained the rivets to hold the flares are in the bottom corner and I don't know if I can get in there with paint??

 

[Jeff Elliott]

With everything I've done here - including my plans to pull the hatch and tailgate - I'm actually considering a color change. The only incremental work at this point is pulling the doors which could make painting easier anyway. I kinda dig that cement grey / blue color I've seen on another 80 or two.

Thoughts on changing color given the stage I'm at? The only area I wouldn't be able to address is the engine bay and would do that if I ever had to pull the motor. Door removal looks easy if I could find how / where to unplug the connectors?

Thanks all

 

[White Stripe]

Just watched the video on youtube on how to remove it - looks simple enough - how about putting it back in? Didn't find any videos on that so makes me wonder!



Will do on all the ones I can get to. The ones in the rear doors that contained the rivets to hold the flares are in the bottom corner and I don't know if I can get in there with paint??

Just use the rope method. Should be some YouTube videos on installing glass with rope. Plan on replacing the weatherstrip, it will likely be torn. For the harder to access welds u should be able to reach with a brush. For color change on mine I kept the color similar to the original color. Mine was gold, I painted it quicksand tan. The original color jams dont look too far off.

 

[RND1]

Enjoying following along on your journey. If you're considering a color change, the Tacoma Cement Gray would be my vote. Engine bay in black won't even look off IMHO.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

the Tacoma Cement Gray would be my vote.

Me too - that's the one if I did it. Still can't decide so I just bought 2k primer today. That will let me stew on it for a bit

 

[Jeff Elliott]

Ok, more progress today. Flare holes welded up, rear windows out. Not even a hint of rust on those windows. However, I did have some rust in the hatch area under the gasket (see below) - would certainly appreciate any advice on how to ensure that doesn't recur. I wire wheeled it but wonder what to do next

 

[White Stripe]

That's good their is no rust on your quarter glass area. Once rust is to bare metal I apply some rust converter. Then some rattle can primer, then some heavy duty paint like por15 or Eastwood. Doesn't have to look pretty since not normally visible. Also check the inside bottom of your quarter panels for rust. I also pulled the plugs on the back side of my rockers and used a weed sprayer witth thinned por15 and used the wand to spray inside of the rockers. Just make sure u dont clog the rocker water drain slots.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

Made more progress today - got most everything taped up that I could without making it immobile. Need to roll it out and clean up before I'm ready to shoot paint.

 

[Jeff Elliott]

That said, here are more questions... Are these jambs supposed to be shiny? I don't think this is overspray since these parts of the truck have original paint but it is surely rough / not shiny.

Side of hatch:

Under side of hatch:

Back of hatch:

 

[tjones8]

That said, here are more questions... Are these jambs supposed to be shiny? I don't think this is overspray since these parts of the truck have original paint but it is surely rough / not shiny.

Side of hatch:

Under side of hatch:

Back of hatch:

Seems the parts that are rough are just areas that would see water run off, maybe just a build up of water and grime? Also, my vote on color is black. Whenever my customers ask me what I recommend to use for straight black, I always recommend Mazda code NN. At least in my Valspar line, it’s just black and binder and looks killer in single stage. Black with Gold emblems is, in my opinion, the best looking 80 out there.