Hi all,
I just picked up an '86 F-150 XLT the other day. It's a 2WD with a fuel-injected 302 and AOD transmission. It has 140,000 miles on the clock and still runs like a top with plenty of power. All in all, I think it's worth the $700 I paid for it.

On the outside it sure looks like a beater though. It seems to be suffering from the same peeling paint that most of these blue trucks and cars of the late 80's have. What is the story behind this? My friend had a blue '87 Chevy that had this same problem. I have heard from some people that it was because the EPA made them use a water based primer. Is this true?

Anyways... reguardless of why the paint peeled off, I would like to eventually have the truck repainted. It has alot of surface rust because of the paint that peeled off, but the only rust-through is over the rear wheel wells and a little bit in the passenger side cab corner.

I was hoping that some of you with experience in this area might be able to give me a ball-park figure as to what it would cost to have all this done. I know I could go to Maaco and get it done for under $300 but I'm talking about a REAL paint job.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

A real paint job is going to cost quite a bit more than 300. I had once gotten a bid for just a paint job on my F-150 Super Cab and it was for 2500. No body work, just sanding, primter, paint and clear coat. This was from Chris And Phils in Clute Texas. Major auto body repair shop.

 

Great buy on the truck. But ScottInTexas is right,but it also depends on the area of the country. I would go around to different quality Body shops and get written estimates and what they include for the price.

Here you can get a cheap paint job a little better than Maaco for about $1,000 or a good one from $2,000 and up depending on what you want

 

well i guess it depends on what your lookin for,quality paint jobs are expensive,i think im just gonna rattle can my truck,but im just gonna take it out in the woods and abuse it anyhow.as far as 80s paint,ive noticed up here in pennsylvania where salt on the roads is an issue most of the red fords from the 80s are rusted out,and most of the tan ones are still really solid.

 

It's the same reason why in the late 80's you couldn't buy leaded gas anymore.

Getting away from lead based paints.

My 1981 still looks pretty good. It has a lot of surface pits from wax + water + sunlight, and bugs, and where I had to do repairs to it cause of damage, and I had the truck since I was 18, so there are a lot of things I look at that I done before with paint that I wonder... what the heck was I thinking??? . Then also the bi-annual buffings have made the paint thin in places, especially the roof of the cab, but definately no peeling like what started in about 1984. Although even my 1981 needs paint pretty bad to be "respected for quality" . Still looks good from a distance of 5 to 10 feet though.

I've seen mostly Metalic painted vehicles with this peeling problem, with silver being the worst offender. Clearcoat basecoat has improved drastic since the 80's though etc... They also had a recall in the 90's about defective paint, but you had to be the original owner to get it painted.


Check out the apperance and dress up forum. They should be able to help you out with alternatives.

 

The truck is (was) dark blue with a silver center stripe and silver cab. Now that you mention it, the silver is flaking off way worse than the blue. The top of the cab is pretty much SOLID rust, with most of the bad surface rust on the side located where the silver paint USED to be. Although the blue is peeling off pretty bad in places as well.

I keep going back and forth if I really want to spend the money to get this thing looking nice or not. There are much cooler vehicles out there to dump money into than an '86 F-150 (at least in my opinion).

I have plenty of time to ponder that thought, but right now I would like to at least strip the rust off and primer it with some rattle can primer so it wont rust any more. Who knows, I may say screw it, paint it camouflage and use it as my backwoods beater.

 

I've "rattle canned" trucks before. If you use a high quality paint and primer, it can do a pretty good job too.

Walmart has some automotive paint that I've used in the past that I was very happy with, Duplicolor.

Get a good primer coat on the truck, then put two color coats on, and sand one coat off smooth with very fine auto sandpaper like 1500 or 2000 grit etc, until you get around four or five color coats built up. Then you have the option of either clear coating, or leaving it the way it is, then wait a month, then buff it out with a rubbing compound. You should get a real good mirror like finish that will look really good.

Shouldn't cost you more than $80 to $100 dollars depending on what size vehicle you got, to do a very good looking rattle can job.

I'd recommend waiting untill summer though!

 

I work in an automotive paint store here and I can tell you that 90% of the cost of a paint job is the prep work involved. The actual paint itself, (depending on which brand you get), isn't that expensive. It's all the primer, sealer, sandpaper, masking time, taking off all the trim pieces so the paint doesn't have sharp edges etc. etc. etc. that gets you into the big $$.

You can save a ton of money by doing the prep work yourself. The better the prep, the better quality of the finished product. Take your time and you'd be amazed at what the finished paint job looks like.

 

The silver and most metallics have a glue coat sprayed on and before drying the paint is laid. If the glue was sprayed on a Friday at quiting time than it sat over the week end before rolling down the line to the final coat. The glue is dry and the final paint will start to peal in a year or less. How do I know this? Friend bought a new 90 F250 off the lot and a couple months later I took over payments on Brother in laws 90 W250. Mine has silver down the sides and black top and bottom. Silver started peeling on the bed of mine after the first freeze. The F250 was peeling all over. We both called dealer. Ford had him take his truck to the paint shop of his choice with a PO number and had it redone at no charge. I in the meantime am still calling Dodge direct and was told (as was my friend with the F250 why the paint did not stick after first freeze) but unlike Ford, Dodge said that the warranty did not cover paint and that they were sorry that they couldn't help. Dodge has galvanized (or zinc or whatever) coating so no rust anywhere. Got 150+k on it and it still runs like new. Although It ain't pretty it will not die. But I do all my own work on it and repair or replace parts as soon as I see any wear. I think it knows that if it ever failed me it would get replaced with a Ford.
Hope this sheds some light on why the late 80,s and early 90,s paint peels.

 

Arctic it explains a lot to me

 

i bought my 83 f150 all primered and did the paint roller and brush trick. it actually came out pretty good imo. I just use it to haul trash, playing in a little mud and running around town and didnt like a primered truck.

 

My 86 is two tone met blue with silver center and the siver was peeling when I got it 7-8yrs ago and I could tell it had been painted before.I got a chance to speak with the orig owner shortly after I got it and asked if it had been in a accident or anything because I could tell it had been repainted,he told me that the whole truck had been repainted three times under warranty because of peeling paint and when it started to peel again he had bought another truck and didn't want to deal with getting it painted all over again.I remember a friend got a new 89 f-250, black with the silver center within the first year the paint was peeling and they repainted it the color of his choice so he had the silver changed to red and that seemed to hold up better.Even my 93 bronco is losing its clearcoat and that sucks because I can't afford a new paint job and don't want a maco special.I would be happy to trade my 84 f-250 4x4 for a decent paint job on my bronco.Ford should have stood behind there paint jobs a little better IMHO.

 

Sitting over a weekend did not help but the main problem is the water based paints the EPA made everyone switch to. It took the paint manufacturers many years to get it right. It is one of the things that taught Americans that foreign vehicles were higher "quality" because their paint didn't peel.

One of my Fords (an 85) sat over a June weekend as a bare steel body. They painted right over the rust that formed wherever panels had been touched or handled. Talk about a mess and Ford did not cover that problem beyond spraying some paint on just once (and they would not "fix" it again) when the vehicle was less than 6 months old. It rusted thru the new paint again a few months later. I just drove it after that and let it rust.