Mine got to rusty to completely refinish it. I'm only painting the hood, fenders, and bumper. I'm going to spray Raptor liner on the bottom (below the trim piece). I'm going to do some reinforcing of the rocker panels and maybe use the old front fenders to fix the rear wheel wells, That's why I got the fender flares. I also hate wheel spray all over. I'm going to make it nice enough to use for a few years as our main vehicle. I do want to take it off roading and put a snow plow on it, I'll probably keep it for that. I'd like to buy another rust free Ex to fix up eventually. We also bought a 2001 Dodge Ram ORE 1500 with only 85,000 miles on it. It's been rolled over and needs a different body. My wife claimed the Dodge.

I bought the whole set of Paintucation videos. I think they are worth the money. They can match paint very close these days, but to really match, you'll need to blend into the doors. Take your time with the filler and use as long and hard of a block as you can. I didn't spend enough time in that step and had to do extra work when I sprayed the primer surfacer (high build primer). I'll take a picture of the glaze I used over the Rage i small low spots. It worked very well.

 

I think I'm painting everything but the grill. I haven't 100% decided yet.

 

After you block it, check for low spots by feel and use guide coat. You should be wearing rubber gloves. They oil from your hands will get in the filler and make bubbles in the paint. This glaze works really well.

Guide coat will show high and low spots. There's a spray can version also. Don't use cheap spray paint, it'll clog your sand paper.

 

Back to ugly. Everything is at Black River Body and Custom 😁.

This fender had a high spot. The left fender and hood were good and need sealer sprayed and then paint.

They helped block out the high spot. Then let me put a coat of glaze on, block it and spray surfacer. I'll block it on Monday.

They don't paint over chrome, but I am, with the understanding that it could peel. It's sanded with 80 grit and will be sprayed with epoxy primer and then painted.

 

Tonight I cleaned up a bit and installed the front shocks.

 

Under the gear PI is cast into the heads.



Under the cam shaft sprocket, PI is cast into the heads. Does this mean I have the Performance Improved version?

 

Yes, having the "PI" cast marks on the heads identifies them as the Performance Improved version, there is also another PI on the side near the spark plugs. By the start of EX production all V-10s were fitted with the PI heads but the earlier models still had the short spark plug threads, that was revised in '03 to the longer threads.

Everything is looking great so far, you have done a lot of work!

 

Thanks for the info on the heads! We're so excited to be making progress on it again. It's been close to 3 years since we driven it. I'm disappointed it rusted so bad on the damp concrete last year. But that makes it a good practice vehicle for learning body work. Hopefully we can eventually find a nice rust free EX to build. I'm struggling a bit with my desire to make it really nice vs what's practical because of the rust. Thanks for replying.

 

Time to fix the LR door.

 

I made the patch from one of the old front fenders.

 

Man, you're tracking right to showing me all the work I need to get done on mine! Glad you get to do it before I do so you can show me how!

 

Let me know if there's something else you need to see. I have quite a few pictures so I can remember how to put it back together. I thought people would get bored with most of them. I'm glad you're finding this thread useful.

 

The bumper needs epoxy primer, but everything else is ready for sealer and paint. If they have time, they'll spray the epoxy tonight so everything can be painted tomorrow.

 

I totally dig all the pics! I need to practice up on my sheet metal welding before I tackle too much. And I’ll practice some more when I do my rockers. I’m for sure interested in the paint process as it seems like there are multiple steps involved to get a good finish. I figure I’ll start with my roof on that as it’s mostly just getting rid of the deep scratches from the roof rack bars. And I can take off the hood and doors and paint those one at a time. The problem will come in when I do the rusty areas on the bottom where the cladding was. By the time I get to that point, I’m concerned that I’ll just need to paint the rest of the body because it’ll look weird if I don’t. And that’s not a project I really want to take on. I suppose that if I could blend the paint in on the hood and door bottoms, I might get away with a good paint correction and polish on the rest. Seems that there’s not much middle ground when it comes to the paint project for sure.

 

The guys at the body shop say they still couldn't do body work after going to school for it. You learn by doing it and being around guys that have learned the short cuts. Cleanliness is important. You'll spend alot of money on cleaners, solvents, and wax and grease removers. It's important to clean first, otherwise the sand paper pushes dirt and wax into the repair, which can make the paint bubble in 6 months to a year later. Check out BayOne customs on youtube and find stuff with Kevin Tetz. I bought all his DVD's, they are a great investment. https://www.paintucation.com