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Well I finally got there. After blasting the entire body piece by piece, body work (over and over) spraying epoxy primer on each piece, sanding, spraying primer/surfacer on each piece, sanding, spraying color on each piece I finally watched the video that said never spray metallic paint in pieces and it said you must shoot the entire vehicle at one time due to variations in color and the way the particles lay out. That means...you guessed it...put it all together and sand the entire truck, do some more body work found after assembly, shoot epoxy primer where required, sand, shoot primer/surfacer where required, sand with 240 grit then 320 grit, then 600 grit repeat until three coats of color are applied. Sand 800 grit, then 1000 grit, shoot three coats of clear. Sand with 1000 grit, 1500 grit and 2000 grit. Use the Norton Liquid Ice, three stage polishing system; wool pad, blue foam pad, white foam pad doing the entire truck each time.
Now I know why the paint shop told me the price would start at $10K. Never did body work, paint or prep before but best decision I ever made. A lot of work but would not do it different next time as I learned a ton of new skills and am proud to own the work. My advice to other newbies; don't be afraid to try. Finalize with small 3" buffer in tight areas. The surface looks pretty good. I didn't have the standard dollar bill to read the serial number so I used a pack of sandpaper.
Lots of YouTube videos and the Eastwood website. I think some of the best teachers in the country put videos on there. Make no mistake, I made plenty of errors but tend to learn from them so I only did things once or twice...
