Builds The "Red Rocket" Troopy (10 Viewers)

[jblueridge]

I would sand the primer orange peel to reduce the texture some.
Last sizable body panel I did, the paint thickness was uneven and I sanded right through.
I added more epoxy, then high build primer then sanded, then top coat.

What’s the gun’s spray tip size? I have one Pro-tek gun for primer and another for top coat.

 

[gilmorneau]

If my primer has this kinda paint defect, should I sand it down and repaint it?

If the primer is thick enough, you should be able to block sand it smooth without burning through it.

Looks like @jblueridge beat me to it. What he said. lol...

 

[jblueridge]

Great Minds…etc

 

[Felde]

Great progress. You are rocking it!
I think, you need to be content with yourself what you want to get out of that rig and what it should look like.
Normal process of bodywork would be something like smooth out any uneven surfaces with bondo, sand it, filler, put a thin coat of contrast paint, block until real smooth, filler, block again, 2-3 coats of paint, 2 coats of clear ...
But your panels are all wobbly and even dented. I think, smoothing those with bondo might be a nightmare. And you end up with rather thick layers of bondo again, which for sure you are not in favor of.
I guess, you want it rust free, durable and somewhat easy to spot if the red cancer starts again, easy to touch up. And: Look cool .
So, just a paint job is what I would suggest. I personally wouldn't even try to smooth out that thing.. Keep its story visible.

A fresh shiny paintjob on uneven surfaces might look odd.
I'd go for some kind of a vintage look, probably just sand the primer, apply the paint with a roller rather than spray it, and put a semiglossy clearcoat. You might use the cutoff roof panel to do some tests.

Those ripples in the primer indicate bad adherence to the surface. I'd sand it and apply another coat.

The sticker unfortunately has to come off, I think. It likely will start peeling once paint fumes get near it. You likely can't clearcoat it either. If you just leave it, rust might start under it at some point.
Good Luck Ralf

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Sticker off. It will may bubble up or peel off due to solvents.

 

[jblueridge]

Is the air supply for your spraying absolutely clean and dry?
When my 1st compressor was dying it put oil into the air line.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Is the air supply for your spraying absolutely clean and dry?
When my 1st compressor was dying it put oil into the air line.

Always put a filter inline at the gun connection

 

[Elbee]

Awesome work! My only bitch about rustoleum red or orange is that it is not uv stable. It fades and goes chalky. Very noticeable at night by torchlight after 6 months or so. Places where the sun does not shine it is fine. Goes on easy though, very forgiving. But fairly cheap and cheerful, I always have some of it about ready for a patch up.

If you cleared over it, that would prevent it from fading and going chalky, correct?

 

[Felde]

If you cleared over it, that would prevent it from fading and going chalky, correct?

In theory, yes. But most likely it's made from PVC or Polyester and will not stand the solvents.

 

[sodafeld1]

If you cleared over it, that would prevent it from fading and going chalky, correct?

Perhaps, but I get dismayed seeing the amount of clear gloss peeling on cars around 20 years old or sooner. The one I use is enamel, so hypothetically single stage, so off you go, other things to do. Initially quite glossy from the can or even a brush. I prefer the easy forgiving paints as I scratch my troopy every week bush bashing. There has been quite a few cars painted with rustoleum and a paint roller. I have got the kubota orange, rusto calls it farm implement paint. I have some proper kubota paint but have not tried it yet, it is hell expensive in oz, but expect excavator paint to be pretty good.
The more you look into paints, the more complicated and expensive it can become.
As my troopy is for the bush and not a show pony, I use rustoleum kubota orange for the body scratches and weatherfast boat enamel white for the the roof. Just pigment single stage enamel from the can. But I give the roof a freshen up with a lick of paint just with a brush every second year or so, after a 240 scotchbrite abrasive clean.
For the slow build second troopy, I have found rust bullet the only uv stable undercoat so far. It's all bloody expensive though, a troopy has a fair bit of surface area! Talking paint is like tyers, lots of opinions and experts. But I do tell people not to look too close. Rust is a constant battle , especially if you do not have a garage. Any seam sealer on hinges are definite weak spots. 1988 hj75 colour code 000, same as kubota orange from factory.

 

[theglobb]

Alright, I made like 0 progress today Spent a couple of hours masking/taping-off weather stripping here and there. Then I laid down some more paint on one of the doors, and it just came out like absolute sh!t. Horrible.



I was not pleased and figured that I needed to get to the bottom of this before I do anymore work. Spent another couple hours playing with settings, cleaning out the gun, double checking everything that can be checked or adjusted. No difference. Drove 45 min to the Harbor Freight, got a new gun, 45 min back, test sprayed, and PERFECT! The new one works totally fine. I guess I was just unlucky enough to get an absolute lemon of a sprayer and since I have 0 experience with paint, I just didn't know any better. Got to painting the hood and it started raining out of nowhere, nothing on the forecast, not a single bit. So that's cool . I'll sand down the hood again tomorrow to get the ruined primer off of it and do a respray. Hopefully that'll be the end of my issues with paint.


Since I wasn't able to do any more paint work in the rain, I tried to make the best of it. It finally gave me a chance to throw in my rebuilt alternator into the crusty 60, I dont mind working in the rain.

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Awesome work! My only bitch about rustoleum red or orange is that it is not uv stable. It fades and goes chalky. Very noticeable at night by torchlight after 6 months or so. Places where the sun does not shine it is fine. Goes on easy though, very forgiving. But fairly cheap and cheerful, I always have some of it about ready for a patch up.

Noted. Thanks for the heads up. I'll look into if there's any sort of UV-resistant wax or ceramic coating I can put on every couple of months.

Don't forget to treat the back sides of all that welded metal, too. Rust can start inside your truck and work its way out. Freshly welded metal is particularly prone to that if left untreated.

BTW, red paint on red primer might be tough to see well when you're laying it down. Maybe try a light coat of gray or something in between so you can better see where your red top coat is going? Just a thought.

And, yes, if you get me good photos and accurate measurements, I can repro the "Dakar" decal for you if you want.

I am, that's one of the other reasons I went ahead and cut the roof off. So that I could paint the interior welds all up throughout the roof. Lots of the welds I did last summer had started to rust a bit on the inside as you had mentioned, sandblaster came in real handy with neutralizing that rust so they could be painted again.

I would sand the primer orange peel to reduce the texture some.
Last sizable body panel I did, the paint thickness was uneven and I sanded right through.
I added more epoxy, then high build primer then sanded, then top coat.

What’s the gun’s spray tip size? I have one Pro-tek gun for primer and another for top coat.

the tip size is 1.4 thats what is standard for this type of primer, it just was not atomizing well or powerful enough. Thanks for the recommendations regarding orange peel and all.

Great progress. You are rocking it!
I think, you need to be content with yourself what you want to get out of that rig and what it should look like.
Normal process of bodywork would be something like smooth out any uneven surfaces with bondo, sand it, filler, put a thin coat of contrast paint, block until real smooth, filler, block again, 2-3 coats of paint, 2 coats of clear ...
But your panels are all wobbly and even dented. I think, smoothing those with bondo might be a nightmare. And you end up with rather thick layers of bondo again, which for sure you are not in favor of.
I guess, you want it rust free, durable and somewhat easy to spot if the red cancer starts again, easy to touch up. And: Look cool .
So, just a paint job is what I would suggest. I personally wouldn't even try to smooth out that thing.. Keep its story visible.

A fresh shiny paintjob on uneven surfaces might look odd.
I'd go for some kind of a vintage look, probably just sand the primer, apply the paint with a roller rather than spray it, and put a semiglossy clearcoat. You might use the cutoff roof panel to do some tests.

Those ripples in the primer indicate bad adherence to the surface. I'd sand it and apply another coat.

The sticker unfortunately has to come off, I think. It likely will start peeling once paint fumes get near it. You likely can't clearcoat it either. If you just leave it, rust might start under it at some point.
Good Luck Ralf

I think you're spot on. I'm gonna do a little bit of bondo here and there where my welds have tiny little imperfect pinholes in them. Other than that, trying to get all of the crazy concaved dents straight again would be a nightmare. I also really like the idea of making the paint already total crap from the get-go as I was also worried about all this fancy shiny paint making the imperfections in the body really stand out and look worse. Will be worth some test runs for sure. Thanks for the idea and the advice!

Is the air supply for your spraying absolutely clean and dry?
When my 1st compressor was dying it put oil into the air line.

Yes, I have a water separator inline about half way through, and also one of those disposable moisture traps right before the gun.

Perhaps, but I get dismayed seeing the amount of clear gloss peeling on cars around 20 years old or sooner. The one I use is enamel, so hypothetically single stage, so off you go, other things to do. Initially quite glossy from the can or even a brush. I prefer the easy forgiving paints as I scratch my troopy every week bush bashing. There has been quite a few cars painted with rustoleum and a paint roller. I have got the kubota orange, rusto calls it farm implement paint. I have some proper kubota paint but have not tried it yet, it is hell expensive in oz, but expect excavator paint to be pretty good.
The more you look into paints, the more complicated and expensive it can become.
As my troopy is for the bush and not a show pony, I use rustoleum kubota orange for the body scratches and weatherfast boat enamel white for the the roof. Just pigment single stage enamel from the can. But I give the roof a freshen up with a lick of paint just with a brush every second year or so, after a 240 scotchbrite abrasive clean.
For the slow build second troopy, I have found rust bullet the only uv stable undercoat so far. It's all bloody expensive though, a troopy has a fair bit of surface area! Talking paint is like tyers, lots of opinions and experts. But I do tell people not to look too close. Rust is a constant battle , especially if you do not have a garage. Any seam sealer on hinges are definite weak spots. 1988 hj75 colour code 000, same as kubota orange from factory.
View attachment 3982132

Yea I'm with you on that, I'm not a fan of clearcoat. It always looks so bad when it fails and I feel like thats the biggest thing that fails on modern cars paint. Everyone of the old cars I've pulled out from a field have been single stage, its quite easy to get it looking better again. I'm sure clearcoat can and is an amazing thing to do when a professional is doing it in the proper environment, but I am most certainly not a professional, and I'm in a horrible environment to be doing this in as well I'm kinda worried my troopy will be TOO red if that photo above is showing the Kubota orange paint. I got some real fancy seam sealer I'll be applying to everywhere I removed it from. Wire wheel, sandblast, epoxy primer, seam sealer, then paint.

 

[sodafeld1]

Kubota came in two oranges, an early and late I believe. The earlier being more red than the later bang orange. I have noted that the U.S. market did not seem to get the toyota /kubota bang orange that oz got much. May be worth checking the early kubota paint, it may just match exactly what you have. For sure kubota paint is heaps cheaper in the States than in oz. But seeming you are doing it virtually all, the rainbow spectrum of colours is your choice anyway. On wards and upwards mate!