Jballard81's 1994 super cab 4.0 4x4 Restore

[rumblecloud]

Oh...your the kid with the plastic model car kit that ended up with glue on the window...
me too.



This is where mine is ATM. In the same boat with what to do nest.

 

[jballard81]

Sanded down the icing and then gave the rest of the hood a wipe down with red scotch Brite. I went ahead and put a couple layers of primer on the repairs only so far.

The entire hood needs to be sanded down to 600 grit according to the instructions on the dupli-color can.

Probably give the big repair a guide coat to get an idea of how good/bad it is then go from there.

Not to get ahead of myself, but the door bumper guards that I peeled off the bottom of the sides of the truck messed up the paint enough that I'm going to have to sand it down and repaint with something. Will very likely be reusing one of the greys I've tested over the last year for my interior.

The body work this far has been fun. Very, very time consuming. But fun.

 

[jballard81]

Up to probably 10 or so hours of sanding at this point and damned if it doesn't look the same

I make progress then find another spot that needs filler, so I add a touch of icing and keep going.

I imagine someone with experience would know how to find the bulk of the issues at once. Though it seems like the name of the game to fill, block, find issues, repeat.

I've also already expanded onto the fenders. I plan on fixing paint on the hood and roof. Maybe another spot on the door. But everywhere else that is above the pin stripe will get the fading clear coat sanded down, hopefully not destroying the paint and then applying new clear.

 

[rumblecloud]

That's the method I'm using. I found the clearcoat difficult to remove by sanding alone. Right or wrong, I used aircraft stripper and even with that, it took multiple applications. I'm limiting my project to the hood for now with plans to move to the rest of the truck as I gain experience. My son-in-law is a paint and body guy so i have that small advantage for pointers as well as the experts here.

I'll be following your progress, so good luck with it.

 

[jballard81]

That clear coat is brutal. It's either flaking off or it's damn near impossible to remove without damaging the paint beneath.

I've had some success with 180 grit until I start to see color come up. The problem is the line where it's flaking, it's really easy to burn through the paint as I've clearly done in the fender

My hope is that using the pin stripe as my line will allow enough of a "break" in the panel to not make the difference in new paint vs old paint too obvious. Either way, it will be an improvement and I get a chance to learn something.

 

[jballard81]

I'm getting close on the hood and fenders. At least to my level of skills/effort.

I'm pretty pretty happy with it at this point honestly.

I'm not sure if I should try to finish the body work on the rest of the truck before starting paint. I'm pretty sure I should do it all, but I'm getting impatient already

The hood and the fenders were the worst of it. There's a couple other spots I want to do add some filler, but the rest should hopefully go quickly with sanding down the bad clear coat.

 

[Terrys87]

Body work takes time and practice but for me is the most rewarding as it can make a truck go from looking like junk to really nice. It is still going to look a lot better when you are done. Paint is nothing to be scared of. To me getting clear coat to lay down nice is the hardest part but just put on 4-5 coats and be prepared to do a lot of wet sanding. New paint and it is going to look like a whole other truck. Looks good.

 

[jballard81]

Filled and blocked the bulk of the roof. Didn't realize that the roof skin had separated from it's supports as well. I'm leaving it as is, my headliner probably won't make it back in if I took it out to fix the roof skin.

I want to apply a thin layer of fiberglass the next time the headliner comes out in hopes of making it a bit stronger and giving it some more life.

Roof had a bunch of bubbles/cracks in the clear. Way more than I originally thought. Took a lot of filler.

Took a lot of sanding as well. Picked up a cheapy interface plate for my drill to use sticker paper. That helped some but only had 180 so 120 with the block was faster.

It's only getting one coat. Will add a tiny bit more to the worst spot where it's still a little shallow, but the rest of the roof is good enough. Can't see it anyway.

 

[jballard81]

Last bit of filler unless it looks really tomorrow. Would have to be pretty awful though

If it's not perfect, that's fine. Due to the oil-canning of the roof skin it's not going to last forever anyway.

Have tomorrow off from work. Hoping to sand down the rest of the bad clear on the bed sides.

Then it should be ready for paint on the roof and hood. Apparently I need to wait a week for the paint to cure before using the 2k clear I got.

Hopefully the dupli-color is a decent match and I can clear the all of it next weekend

 

[rumblecloud]

Are you gonna use a compressor or rattle can for repaint?
Just curious. I've done a bunch of spray cans, but this time around I'm going to try my hand with the compressor.
Also what filler are you using?

I'm making some progress with my hood. I had to go down to the metal on most of it so progress was slow.

 

[Terrys87]

It is still going to look better when you are done and seeing some of the dents you knew where they were is quite rewarding. You will get better with practice. Hang in there, you will get it.

 

[jballard81]

Are you gonna use a compressor or rattle can for repaint?
Just curious. I've done a bunch of spray cans, but this time around I'm going to try my hand with the compressor.
Also what filler are you using?

I'm making some progress with my hood. I had to go down to the metal on most of it so progress was slow.

Dupli-color spray cans. I couldn't find an exact color match anywhere for real paint.
If it turns out ok, I'll run it. If I really hate how it turns out, I'll start over and sand everything down for a compressor job.

I'm using Bondo brand. If I had done any research at all before buying it, I would have gone with upol gold. At least for the spot putty. The Bondo spot putty is terrible.

Also, at least for the big patches on the roof I should have gotten some fiberglass filler to gone on first before the regular filler. Imagine I'll do that next time around .

 

[jballard81]

While the spot putty from Bondo is garbage. I really can't complain about the regular filler. That's probably because I don't have a better comparison.

Next time though I will definitely go with Upol gold filler and Upol icing/spot putty.

 

[Terrys87]

I think the brand I currently am using is Dynalite or something like that. I want to try Upol next time. I follow SWRC and he puts out great information. Some brands are better than others. I bought a pneumatic air sander, but the compressor runs all the time. I just use a little electric orbital sander from Harbor Freight or Walmart. Does great for what I need.

 

[rumblecloud]

Thanks for the responses (Terry and J). I've read about the Duplicolor. For the filler. I've used Bondo and the red spot putty on prior skirmishes with other vehicles. Not sure I've heard of the Upol brand, but probably have. I'm not real experienced with this, but it's a fun learning process. Mine is black, so shouldn't be a big issue with color catching. I'm planning a trip to a local paint supply shop pretty soon to see what they have.

Yours is coming along nicely. I'm anxious to see the results. Remember...patience - no glue on the windows