| |
| What
did it cost? |
| Ful
Thane Paint 1g |
84.70 |
| Catalyst |
29.25 |
| Reducer |
5.20 |
| Full
Seal sealer |
28.00 |
| laquer
thinner |
7.21 |
| prep
solvent |
9.36 |
| misc
- paper,tape, tarp, gloves, spray suit, paper, spray mask,
etc |
73.14 |
| air grinder
and sanding disks |
39.00 |
Total
|
283.07 |
| Next
truck - what did I didn't need. ONly neeed about 1/2 the tape
and only one roll of paper. Did NOT need the 49.95 spray suit.
Could have shot the color coat with 1/2 gal and saved another
$42. Real cost to shoot the truck with these products should
have been about $185.00 |
|
|
 |
Painting
My Truck
Acceptance
into many private campgrounds throughout the USA is based
on the age of your RV and condition. My Airstream is very
cool, but my 1985 Ford truck was shedding paint from the
hood front fenders and cab roof. I didn't want to be turned
away from a commerical campground in an emergency because
my rig looked shabby. What to do? The answer - three friends
and an afternoon paint job!
TJ (in the picture) and I have been talking about painting
this for the last two years, and finally the weather cooperated.
TJ, Gary and I started at about 12 noon on a Friday, and
I drove the truck back at my trailer by 9:30pm.
Here TJ is beginning the sanding. |
Paint
the truck in a single afternoon!
 |
TJ
and Gary traded off on sanding off the old paint with
the air sander and I began taping. We decided not to paint
the bed since the paint was in good condition, and I choose
the same color so that I wouldn't have to paint the door
jambs. Also, I like how the silver looks with the trailer.
I purchased the sander, sanding disks, solvent, primier-sealer
and an activated final color coat.
Here the truck is sanded and ready to be moved and tarped. |
|
| Working
together we used plastic to cover the wheels, rear of
the truck, and the grill.
We all painted, but TJ has painted before, and it's
his paint gun, so he started painting with our primer
sealer coat.
Before the primer we used a PrepAll solution to remove
was, grease, and to etch the remaining old paint. It
is about 3pm when we started the primer-sealer.
|
|
| While
the primer cured we picked out a few bugs, sanded a few
chips that lifted and then waited about 1/2 hour. This
primer sealer and paint combination allow painting almost
immediately. We double checked the tape and TJ and Gary
mixed the color coat - which auto paint people call the
top coat. This epoxy urethane requires to additives. It
takes a lot of measuring - but if you buy a gallon (which
would do the whole truck - 3 coats) you can just mix the
pint of activator with the quart of base into the gallon
of color. That's what I did. |
|
While
we waiting the 1/2 hour we took some pictures of each
other and sanded a few spots. We shot all of the primer
on the truck- about three passes over the truck - waiting
just about 10 minutes between coats.
Once the primer was dry, the paint mixed and the paint
gun cleaned - by TJ, we moved on to painting the top coat. |
|
| Each
of us sprayed several coats. I think we had 4 coats finally
on the whole truck, and about 6 coats on the hood, and
5 coats on the top of the cab. Since this is an activated
paint that "sets up" instead of just drying
by evaporation, we can shoot until we think we are done.
Our goal was not only coverage and consistency of the
coat, but also to put a quantity of paint on the areas
that had been problems before - where the sun hits. |
|
Just
so that you can see that I do more than blab and take
pictures, here is where Gary and TJ forced me up on top
of the ladder to paint the top of the truck. Luckily the
paint mask muffles small fearful noises.
FUN!
Throughout all of this we had a great time. We learned
as we went along, except that TJ had done prep before.
Even the mistakes were funny. . This was a great day with
friends instead of another painful visit to a retail paint
outlet. Subract fun from the cost and we painted this
truck for nothing! |
 |
At about 5:30 pm we were done painting and about 1/2
hour later we began very carefully removing the plastic
and paper, revealing a very beautiful truck!
Gary
headed home to his family, while TJ and I retired to
watch the Sci fi channel on satellite for two hours.
At 9:10pm I headed back to Eugene, driving slowly as
not to imbed bugs in the curing paint. IT was dry to
the touch but felt fragile. Even today while creating
this page, I can smell the paint from the truck through
the window of my Airstream. |
 |
|
 |
16
hours later. It stills smells new, and the paint is rock hard.
I'll put back on the F250 emblems tomorrow, and wash and wax
the rear of the truck that we didn't paint.
Looks GREAT! |
|
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