I plan on spraying my '85 in the very near future to try and cover up some of the really bad spots in her current paintjob. A few areas are horribly faded, some parts have little scrapes that are starting to develop surface rust, and I plan on doing a little light sanding on those spots before I start to try and clean them up.

What I was thinking about doing was using a good few coats of Rustoleum primer first, to try and help protect it this winter, then cover it in some farm implement (tractor) paint for the end color (I like the idea of using farm paint, since I'll always be able to find that color again later if I need to do some touchup or replace a panel).

I'm just looking for an inexpensive quick-fix for my truck's age-worn paint. The truck didn't cost me much to start with, and still needs some bodywork done before it'll look perfect. I can't justify spending the money for quality automotive paint right now.

I guess my question here is, am I wasting my time putting the Rustoleum down first? Will it actually help reduce the chance of my truck rusting worse, or does it actually stand a chance againsed the salted roads of winter here in Eastern Iowa? Rustoleum and implement paint are roughly the same price around here, but I really like the look of the old Ford Blue tractor paint.

 

Rustoleum or tractor paint will need to be stripped back off if you do plan on painting with and automotive paint, so if it wouldn't have been stripped otherwise, using that could add to the cost/work of the paint job getting the junk back off when you plan on using a real paint meant for automobiles. On an older vehicle you plan on keeping and want to make sure new pricey paint lasts, often best to strip and start over and see exactly what you got anyways.
Do you have the ability and equiptment to do bodywork and spray it? Maybe instead of backtracking and using something like rustoleum temporarily, you could just work on a panel or two at a time, and get them in epoxy primer which will be provide good protection and be compatable with majority of paint products, and comes in different colors and most give a semi gloss look, and spi's is fairly glossy, as it was made for finish for frames and other parts not exposed to much uv. epoxy will chalk in time exposed to uv. Other primers do not provide the protection to metal that epoxy does. But depends on how far you are willing to go and what your expectations are. Here is a car I recently did, I know its not as cool as a ford truck, hope I get to my truck one of these days. Omni epoxy (about $30/quart with activator) is protecting the bodywork area till he could leave the car longer to finish up doing the bodywork and paint.

all sealed up in epoxy before paint.


And finally painted and cleared(spi uni clear) I didn't paint the front bumper in the pic, he got a different one too late.

 

I'm not going to make any of my usual Cavalier jokes, because that car looks really frickin' nice!

Anyway, my intent is to make the truck look half-way decent for the winter, and might just leave it that way. I'm not sure I'm keeping this truck past Spring, but want it to look fair while I drive it.

If I do wind up repainting it nice, it'll be after I buy a new bed for it and get a LOT of dents taken care of on the roof/hood. It sat a lot in a barn most of it's life, and apparently had stuff dropped on it, putting a large dent in the roof, and an even larger crack in the windshield.

It's "saddle" tan right now, and aside from the areas I touched up with spraypaint on the sides, it looks fair now. I had originally planned on just putting some Ford Blue in the middle where the trucks used to have the two-tone setup, mostly to cover the sprayed areas with a more uniform look. I doubt I'll be repainting the entire truck right away.

I had done some bodywork on the areas over the rear wheels, since they had large holes there, and it looks *ok* for now, but you can tell where I spraypainted it with the touchup paint. The bed itself is overall in poor shape, but it's mostly concealed beneath a camper top for now (found one at a garage sale, same color as the truck, $35). One front fender needs replaced, but my doors and cab corners are in good condition.

If I keep the truck past the spring, I'll probably replace both fenders (better both new than one that will probably rust later), the hood, and the bed. Then I'll worry about stripping/painting it.

Thanks for the reply though. I'll probably just lightly sand the paint on the sides, and spray it with the Ford Blue for now. Not gonna bother with the primer yet. Since it's available at any farm store, I can get touch-up paint for the blue, and I have a ton of spare spraycans for the tan already.

 

What the hell is that? Well would love to be around when he gets a flat tire. Always fun to watch these cars stranded and the driver staring at the tire

 

Well, I guess I really don't have an answer to your question, but I'm amassing just about every body part for my '89 (already have the "new" bed on), and next year I was planning on painting my truck with the red used on the 8Ns through the '57 hundred series, with some kind of stripes using the grey and blue used on the early-'60s thousand series. Kind of a tribute truck, you might say.

Caught the antique tractor bug (Fords only! ) about 10 years ago, and I can't shake it! Another nice thing about using paint from the New Holland dealer is that it's fairly cheap. And who cares if it doesn't turn out perfectly? IMO, trucks and tractors are two types of vehicles that are meant to work, not look beautiful.

Sorry for getting off on that tangent!
Pat

 

Yeah, I guess I kind of answered my own question in the process of asking it.

My original thought was to repaint the truck two-tone Ford Blue and the darker Ford Grey. I love the blue/grey look on some of the older trucks I've seen.

Perhaps after I have the parts to replace and am ready to start really going at it. Until then I'll just do the blue stripe on the sides.

 

Okay, just so you understand you get what you pay for. Any areas you use spray bomb, lacquer, rustoleum, tractor paint, ect, not using modern automotive 2k materials, should, would have to be stripped back off if a paint job were done in the future. Have to do our part to educate people with all the rustoleum, lacquer ect threads floating around as well as shows like trucks, magazines like hot rod telling people this junk belongs anywhere near a car.
I think you need to evaluate what your plans are for this truck. If you intend to do a decent job in the future, maybe you should work on fixing any rust and dents correctly, enough information here and elsewhere, and keep baremetal/ bodywork protected with epoxy as you continue to other parts. Peck away a little at a time and do the work right, then will have a good foundation to finish the job correctly with modern automotive paint, and have a long lasting finish if things were done right.
If its a beater that you plan to keep that way, don't care how it looks that much, or unload on someone else, then go ahead and use rustoleum or spray bomb stuff. Just don't expect it to look too good and last. Okay lacquer paint can buff up and look pretty nice after numerous coats, but won't hold up long or well to what the environment throws at it.

Hey I don't pick the cars, or choose what wierd parts to stick on them, I just paint em. I still like chrome bumpers and working with steel thicker then a soda can.

 

Yeah, like I said, I don't plan on this being a permanent thing. Just something to get it through the winter. I only payed $900 for this thing to start with, and I'm still on the fence whether or not to keep it or sell to get something with a little better mileage.

My two trucks, the '85 and the '89 get 13mpg and 10mpg respectively. I've been wanting to get a little around-town car for a while now, but really don't have the room for that many vehicles. So... My choices are... Keep both trucks and fix up the '85 (the '89 is ugly as sin, and there's no helping that... but it runs great) or sell it and buy something fuel efficient. With fuel prices steadily rising, and the fact that I enjoy driving the ugly 3/4 ton truck more than my halfway decent 1/2 ton, I'll probably sell it after I get the windshield replaced in the spring. That being the case, even a quick paintjob (yes, I have a good paint gun and compressor) would make it look better than it does right now.

If someone were to buy the truck tomorrow, they'd be getting a decent deal, since it only has 73,000 miles on it, and is all original. Aside from the usual rear wheel rust and a few dents here and there, it's in pretty good shape. I figure I'll spray the sides with the Ford Blue and see how it looks. If it's good enough for me, I'll eventually do the rest of it that way. I don't really want that truck to be high-gloss with a mirror finish or anything, since it's still just a $900 truck... but I don't want it to look crappy either (if that makes any sense).

 

I hope either of these two I've worked are a little better?

Or how bout my trucks, begging to be shown a little attention just once.



Good luck whatever you decide to do wild. I just am not a big fan of putting rustoleum ect on a vehicle, its better for lawn furniture.

 

I believe from your recommendations, I will do without the rustoleum portion of my plans. I'll just stick with the Ford Blue impliment paint over my existing paint for now, then decide what I want to do for a final product in the spring.

Thanks for the help with my decision, guys. I appreciate it.

 

implement paint probably cannot be painted over either without it wrinkling, maybe possibly an acrylic enamel could be used, but again, same boat, best safest would be to strip back off if doing a paint job.

I know what you mean about gas milage. I've been driving one of my trucks daily while my gas getter car waits for me to fix a few things. Love driving the truck, but all the gas stops here in gas tax heaven get pricey. If I am gonna be driving the truck so often, I actually want to see some snow.

 

I know what you mean. My F-150 *loves* snow. I would almost think she was made for the stuff.

I know whatever I paint on this fall will have to be removed before a *good* paintjob is to be attempted. I have no illusions to the contrary. My only goal right now is to make it look decent for the now, and worry about the long term in the spring (when the weather starts getting nicer and I have more money). No matter what I wind up deciding later on, ALL the paint that's on it now will be removed before a decent paint job will be applied.

I enjoy driving a truck so much that I don't think I'll be happy with a car. Currently my justification is, the money I'm not spending in car payments and insurance I'm spending for gas. So basically I'm either breaking even or coming out a little ahead.

I think I know why I enjoy driving my ugly 3/4 ton more than the F-150... It's big, it's ugly, it's noisy, and it's a real man's truck. I grew up in the times where having a 460 with 4.10 gears was the ONLY way to travel, and I guess some of that stuck. On that truck, I don't care what it looks like, as long as it runs its best. Surprisingly, for the mileage it's got, (I think it's in the 200,000 mile range by now) it doesn't leak anything all over my driveway, and starts up every time. My F-150 has a bit of a coolant leak, but that's just crappy hose clamps doing that.

Since both my trucks run good and stay pretty durn reliable, I have to wonder if it isn't in my best interest to just keep them both. I like them, and don't really want to get rid of either. Maybe I should just suck it up and pay the higher gas prices for the things I enjoy.

It's only money, right?

 

Has anybody looked at the Rust Bullet product? It says that it can be oversprayed with any topcoat or none at all. They also have there own black topcoat to cover the grey Rust Bullet paint.

http://www.rustbullet.com/

I'm planning on using this two part process for my 01 Excursion when I get it painted. The top coat is supposed to be very chip and scratch resistant...

Just wondering if anybody has heard how it works as just a primer...

 

The biggest drawback to using rustoleum as an automotive paint is this - it doesn't have a built-in UV blocker. For medium to darker colors, that means the sun will fade the farm paint significantly quicker than it would damage automotive paint.

If you choose white, or a bright yellow, this fading in theory would take much longer. I did parts of my truck with rustoleum's glossy white and it came out okay, and I also mixed in some UV inhibitor I had left over from something else.

If you google for "$50 paint job" you'll find many, many threads/discussions on the internet where people have painted vehicles with rustoleum with impressive results:

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/...0&fpart=1&vc=1

And here's my buddy Rick's effort on an old corvair - I personally think it came out EXCELLENT:

http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

Rick used a foam roller as well!

 

Why did you even ask the question if you don't want to here the answer. I agree with Kenseth.........but if you want a field truck.....paint it with tractor paint, rustoleum or maybe house paint.