i am looking into painting my 1993 F-250. is there any type of paint to purchace or is there a brand to NOT purchace? also, because it is a deisel, will that have any bearing on the brand selected? i want to paint it the original color (red), and is there a company that deals in this other than the stealership? how much paint and clear coat do i need?

tskinner

 

Well, I just stumbled across your post here while looking for opinions on waxes but I can probably help you some. Also, you may want to repost this in the paint and bodywork forum for better results (if the mods don't move it there first).

I'm currently doing a frame-off resto on a Trans Am Pace car and have painted several cars and I only use Martin-Senour brands of paints distributed by NAPA. It's not because of the brand that I use them, only convenience and price; I used to work at my local NAPA and I get to mix the paint myself (making custom colors if I want) and I get a good price on it. I've never had any problems related to MS paints. (As a side note, I've also personally met Martin Senour himself - nice and very helpful guy).

I know people that use PPG, Sherwin-Williams (which I think is also the same as Martin-Senour now), ACME and have never heard any horror stories related to any of them. Just like anything, 99% of the end result is directly related to the prepwork beforehand. If you do your prepwork right (etch raw metal, good epoxy primer, super clean vehicle, use tackrags, etc.), the paint will do it's job right as long as you use any of the better quality paints.

You can match the factory color at any good paint store or auto parts store that sells/mixes paint by simply giving them your factory paint code found on your body plate (not sure about Ford trucks, but the plate is usually found under the hood somewhere and is painted the same as the body color). Just drive the truck there and they can find the plate and decipher the info on it for you.

As far as the quantity is concerned, you can get by with a gallon of base on a standard cab if you're not changing colors drastically, it's not a crew cab dually, and you're not painting inside the bed. If you're using a high quality HVLP paint gun, a gallon will go a long way as more paint will land on the truck instead of on the floor. If you're painting over the factory red paint, you could probably get by with only a couple of coats of base. If you plan on wetsanding and polishing the clear; I generally lay down about 6-7 coats of clear because you generally sand off several layers worth when wetsanding and polishing it. Because of that, a gallon may not stretch out that far. I've never painted a full-size truck before (I painted a standard cab Ranger once) so I can't say for sure how much it will take.

Good luck with it!