As I started sanding the door, I kept finding more bits of rust under the paint.

After using the evap-rust, here's what the door came out like. Pretty amazing. Oh, and I found a few old bondo jobs. Not too surprising.

 

That is pretty darned amazing!

 

NMFirst, That looks great. What a difference....Can't wait to see it painted.

 

Keep postin pics......

 

Ready for painting. Wish I had started taping, masking and final wiping last night - took me over 2 hours this morning. I really worked on cleaning around the old windshield seal (which I trimmed away). I did a spray can test yesterday and got some fisheyes over a line of pitting that had silicone on top of it.

Since it was more humid this morning, I went back to acetone as a solvent. I used 3 oz. to 24 oz of paint. It also seemed to make cleaning the gun easier. Here's an after picture (~3.5 hours) as I was pulling the tape off. Sure can see the dents now! I made a decision not to fix them - the truck sits in the strike zone of the basketball hoop. It came out much better than I was hoping.

 

Lookin good.

 

You've got me convinced that I should paint my truck this way. Looks great. How much $$$ do you have into it?

 

Here's my list so far and approximate costs:

5 quarts of paint (probably need just 4) - $50
220 and 400 grit sandpaper - $30
2 quarts of Evapo-rust - $13
Kobalt spray gun kit - $70
Painters tape and paper - $20
Acetone and Mineral Spirits - $22
A few cans of primer and matching paint - $25

So real close to $230 right now.

 

Doing a great job and doin it your way, that's what its all about. I moved from Denver to Georgia a few years ago and I don't know how to deal with this humidity and paint at all. I never really knew how to paint in Colorado either, but when you sprayed something on metal, it more or less stayed where you sprayed it and dried quickly, dust was the culprit, not bugs and slow dry.
Let me ask again, has anyone used the Majic Implement Paint from Tractor supply? Currently that is my plan to repaint my old 75' if it ever stops raining here in GA?
Majic® Town & Country Tractor, Truck & Implement, 1 gal., I H Red - Tractor Supply Online Store

 

Well I'm pretty sure I can borrow a sprayer. I can't wait to see your truck completed.

 

Using the acetone have you had any issues with it hardening up? I tried this a while back and its seems gummy. Im just wondering what I did wrong and what you did right. Looks good keep it up

 

No issues so far with it hardening up - I assume you mean while trying to spray it? One of the reasons I went back to acetone was also a couple of comments I found on the internet suggesting that mineral spirits increased the curing time overall. Don't know if it matters or not. However, when I talked to the rustoleum folks, they said either will work the same in this regard - the change was environmental and not for performance. I did happen to get a can of rustoleum acetone - I wonder whether there are variations in manufacturers or variations in what can be also included and still have it called acetone. I've seen this with other materials.

 

All's I gotta say is.....I've talked with some local shops about full on paint jobs, and they are beyond expensive. One even said they're told to throw out 3 grand as a start price on trucks. But that's a full on job. But he's out of his mind. But if they can get that out of people, that's their deal, and it is a ton of work with the sand, rust work and all of it. For what you paid, dude that's awesome. Sure it'll fade but I think it all comes down to what you actually want in the end. If you want a truck that's pretty and you have the money, by all means do it right the first time. For me I want a daily driver that might end up getting a little beat up here in the mountains, so I'm most likely going a different route. There's no way I can afford to put thousands into paint.

 

Sweet dent, by the way. Looks kind of like mine.

 

My start down this road was also calling some local shops. Quotes ran anywhere from $2000 to $4000. I imagine I'd have a great looking paint job with no dents, but that's much more than I even paid for the truck! When I start focusing too much on little scratches and such, I have to remind myself of where I want to be in the end: a decent looking paint job, a truck of all one color, it's gonna get scratched and dented by the kids, and I want it to look like it was built in 1977. Some folks have a good point about just spending the extra $50 or $75 for some good single-stage auto paint. But with finding just the color I wanted and a strong do everything myself approach, I just had to try the Rustoleum path. Plus having the color in a rattle can has proved so very useful for doing the jambs and other spots before getting out the gun. Just make sure you wait 48 hours to let it dry!