I am going to try painting my first paint job right away. My subject is a 91 ford 4x4 supercab shortbox, and most of the body is decent on it. I do have a good idea how I am going to fix the bad spots, but I was kind of curious about the rest of the body to paint. Does a guy just rough up the old paint, spray some primer on then the new paint, or is it a little more complicated then that?

 

Checkout this site.

It's basic, but looks good. Good luck and post some progress pics.


http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/Painting.html

 

It all depends on the particular job. I can tell you those years of trucks had a real problem with paint delamination, as well as other manufacturers. If the clear is peeling anywhere, it should be stripped at least past the clear, but ford ( I worked in the bodyshop at a ford dealer at the time) was telling us to strip it down to baremetal and start from there. If it is factory or catalyzed paint and is in good condition, it could mean you only need to sand with the final grit recommended for the paint you are using and spraying the paint. I wouldn't hurt to use a good 2k sealer just prior to paint. Or it could mean taking it down to bare metal and starting with an epoxy primer if problems are more severe, like paint peeling on the entire vehicle. It is impossible to really tell you what exactly you should do without seeing it in person. The entire vehicle does not have to be primed neccessarily. Primer is for protection of bare metal, or for filling scratches. and bodywork areas for both fill and very minor straightening. A catalyzed paint is fine to paint over, but many people apply a sealer to get the car all one even color to help with coverage of the paint or help prevent possible incompatability problems. If there is enough areas where primer is needed, then you might consider using a 2k primer on the whole thing and sand. In this case, you really wouldn't need a sealer, just try to use a primer that is close in shade to the color you are spraying for best coverage. In general (could differ with some paint manufacturers products), epoxy primer sticks well to baremetal and seals well, but doesn't have much fill and doesn't sand well. Urethane primer is easier sanding and has filling properties, but is porous and doesn't adhere as well to bare metal as epoxy. So many people spray epoxy down first on baremetal, do any bodywork over the epoxy, spray another coat of epoxy over the bodywork, followed by a few coats of urethane primer for fill and block sanding. One thing that may be smart to do is decide what paint you are going to use, and get the product sheets for it, and follow all the recommendations for thier products and undercoats. They should tell you what you can and cannot do, like you shouldn't apply bodyfiller over self etching primer, and you need to spray a epoxy primer over the etch prior to paint. Just an example. You need to follow the recommendations of the particular products you use.