hey, i was wondering how much it would cost to paint my truck "primer black" and shoot a coat or 2 of clear over it so it wouldnt rust if we did it ourselves buying the paint and bondo and everything you would need, my friend said he could do it for about $250 with me buying the paint, would it be cheaper and easier for me to do it?

 

Depends on how good you want it to look. You can do it yourself for about what your buddy quoted you. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick. With out a good paint booth to control the temperature and humidity, you are looking atleast 24 hours dry time between coats if your temperature is at 70 or higher with a low humidity. If you are just going to primer it I wouldn't use clear though. Just a couple good coats of primier should seal her up good. Prep time is the worst part though. All of the sanding and bondo (especially with out the right tools) can be tedious. You could probably do a decent full paint job in about 2 weeks for around $500 for all your materials. Thats with 2 coats primer, 2-3 coats paint and 2 coats clear. Don't forget you will need a pretty big compressor to spray out of a decent gun. Otherwise you will spend a lot of time fixing runs. I just finished paint ing my frame and all of my suspension components and I spent a good 4 weeks on all of it, with prep time and everything. But I'm pretty picky about stuff.

 

hey what about it being primer? my dad told me that primer has holes in it so that water could get in it and cause it to rust so would i need to put clear over it? how did your frame turn out? ive been wanting to do that also but dont have anywhere to take the body off and stuff, did you sandblast your frame or how did you do it? just curious

 

if you're gonna go through the trouble of primering it and taking out dents, i'd just shoot it with soime acrylic and call it gravy.. i did mine that way and painted it red- the most expoensive color, and it on ly ran me about 600 ucks for a shortbed crewcab... i'll go to maaco next time.. LMAO

 

The paint store told me the urethane primers are the way to go now. At little more spendy, but worth it they say. Make sure you have a mask that is rated to filter this stuff. Not all of them arent. I used it when i painted mine, and it does work well. didnt need a sealer between it and paint. If i remember right, it came in gray, yellow, and black. If it was me, i would go one step further and shoot it with black paint while its masked. i usually mask, primer, sand, and paint all in one shot. body work is done when you start this. I sprayed in my garage, and it came out all right. not perfect, but after a few road dings, none of them are. You can see my paint job in my gallery. About $200 to do the truck, and I was happy how it came out. Most of the paint guys will answer questions if you're not sure about how to do something.

 

I cheated on my frame a little. I was putting in an entire new front suspension system so I took everything off the front frame rails. I used about $50 worth of wire wheels and sand paper to clean all of the rust and junk off. I spent a good week on everything (16 hour days). Its very tedious work but it looks so good when its done. If i had a digital camera I would post some pics but I dont. I'm going to finish the back 1/4 next but will remove the bed for this. Next time I will get a sand blaster to do the work. Lot nicer job and easier to deal with. Bait master is about right for the process. It helps to get some cheap labor to help (couple buddies and a few 24 packs). Just remember to wet sand between every coat to get the nice finish. Once you get started and see how much time you invest into it you won't just stop with the primier. Especially for how cheap you can finish yourself.

 

The last car I repainted (1974 VW Beetle) I did with all the replacement of rubber and such....cost me about $1600 in painting, about $3500 in misc. parts, rubber, interior, etc. and the car was with the paint guys for about 7 weeks.

Result: In less than a year, the same seals that had lasted 28 years originally were weathered and cracking.....paint began to flake and peel at 11 months...and at this point (5 years out) it looks like an old chevy Baretta that had that horrible chevy flaking paint!

This is not even to menthion that the paint guy (whom I was told I could trust) gave my car to his son (or lackey) to "learn on" resulting in bent door hinges such that my chrome will never line up again.....did i mention the black paint they put in the interior NEVER DRIED!!!! To this day, things stick to the paint under my hood.

What I learned from this is that unless I have around $10,000 to $15,000, I will NOT attempt this again.....I would rather have my halfway decent paint and spend time and money replacing the little things as they go and keeping the drivetrain tight.

Unless you spend the big bucks, you are not going to get that "back to newish" feeling and may end up feeling dissappointed for the sizable chunck of cash you put into it. I really learned through this that it pays not to "half ***" the job!

 

If you just use primer on it, it will rust underneath the paint. After you primer it put on a flat finish topcoat if that is the look you are going for. Your paint supplier should be able to fix you up there. Putting a clear coat on it will make it shiny. In a basecoat/clearcoat finish the paint under the clearcoat is flat, the clearcoat provides the gloss.