Hey All,

It's been about a year since I posted but life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has kept me away for over a year. And about that long for my '60. Well long story short (too late) the last post I had had to do with my brakes. From which I took to a shop and for about the price I had expected to fix my cylinders I got a full brake job and new lines!!!

Next job on her is paint. I wanted to prep the paint job myself and I wanted to come to you for help. In a nut shell I'm just going to take her down for a simple Maaco job but I knew the prep work was the most important so this is what she looks like:


There is a little bondo on the back and the rest is "paints" and a little surface rust. I don't have much room in the driveway so a sand blast is out. Don't mind a little muscle job so blocking is what I'm thinking.

Suggestions -

 

A lot of it is just sanding everywhere so the paint gets good adhesion to the surface. If the bondo isn't cracked or coming off just leave it alone and sand it accordingly. Take as much of the trim off as you can as it makes for a better paint job. And just when you think you're done sanding go back and sand some more!

 

Make sure that the paint on the truck is solid. It's best if you can take it down to the bare metal and then prime with epoxy primer. Be careful epoxy primer is nasty stuff and you need a good respirator system. If you can't blast the rust off try to get as much off as possible and coat with a rust converter like Rustoleum's Extend. I've used it and it has lasted a long time. Once it's epoxy primed do your bondo work and apply a good filler/surfacer primer. Apply a light coating of contrasting primer out of a spray can and start block sanding, I use a piece of 180 paper tightly wrapped around a paint stir stick. Block until you start to reveal the epoxy primer and stop. Look at the surface of your body panels, the low spots will retain the spray primer and will tell you where your low spots are. Spray several coats of filler/surfacer primer on along with the spray can primer and start block sanding again. Keep repeating until you don't have any low spots. Once you have the final blocking done apply another coat of filler/surfacer primer and give it a final overall sanding. The final sanding should be done with a light grade sandpaper like 320 grit, or a little lighter.

Once the body work is straight prime again with epoxy primer and take it for the paint. The trick with places like Maaco is to do all of the body work and remove as many parts as possible, don't leave it up to the Maaco guys to mask stuff off. They'll do a ten minute masking job and then hose the truck down.

 

Prep work doesn't mean much when you put crap paint over it. If you are sold on Maaco then just let them do the job and be done with it. However, if you are interested in learning about paint and bodywork then get a book or DVD on the subject and school yourself on it. Duplicolor makes a nice line of lacquer paints now that are affordable and are geared toward the DIYer, for what you'll spend at Maaco you can do it yourself and have a decent paint job when you're finished.

 

By the time you have done all of the bodywork and prep , I would paint it myself . You will be better for it.

 

Most cities have paint booths that you can rent over the weekend. They will supply you with the booth and the air you need. You will just need to bring your Gun and supplies. If you search around you may also be able to find a painter who moonlights on the weekend to give you a hand.

I noticed you in LA, here is a link for booths from HAMB http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=116764

 

I worked next to a body shop that did high quality lead work and people would pay to have it done but the guy would get customers who would complain about the cost of a paint job. The shop owner would do all of the body work and then send the car over to Maaco, the car owner would know all about it. It cost less to have Maaco paint the entire car than what the materials would cost the body shop. Maaco did a pretty good job. I don't think it's such a bad idea, not everyone is going to have the place or equipment to a entire paint job. I say go through with the body work and take it over to Maaco.

 

Thanx for the imput everyone. This truck was a farmers truck and will continue to be so for the next 50 years. So a top of the line paint job just won't last. I just want to have one color on this truck ...

 

You'll get more than enough quality paint job from Maaco for the truck then.

The funny thing about Maaco is they will charge more to paint a few panel than for the entire vehicle. Quite a few years ago I took my wife's car in for an estimate to paint just from the windows down, I didn't need the hood, roof or trunk lid painted. At the time an entire paint job was something like $200. The guy came out with a estimate pad, started writing down the panels I wanted painted and gave me a quote of $500. I ask about their $200 paint job, he said if they weren't going to paint the entire car they had to charge per panel. I told him I'd have the entire car masked off when I brought it in and they could just hose it down like a complete paint job, they'd actually would use less material to paint the car. He said he couldn't do it that way because it wouldn't be a complete paint job, go figure.

 

I've always wondered about how there paint jobs hold up and how they would look. I had a friend who was going to take his car there and I was trying to talk him out of it. I really had never seen an actual paint job but have heard they weren't very good looking paint jobs. If anyone has any pictures of Maco paint jobs I would love to see it. How do they paint an entire car/truck for those prices. They have to justify that cost by cuting back somewhere.

Fordfunkid...I understand why you may want to go their and under the circumstances I would probably do the same thing. If you do go that route I would love to get your opinion on the quality and look of the paint job.

 

They save money in two ways. First materials, they only offer a limited number of colors for the "Special" paint, if you want something else it's going to cost more. Like any franchise operation they buy in huge quantities and divvy it up among their franchises. Second, they save in labor. They have low skill labor doing the majority of the work in an assembly line operation. A team of guys do all the masking, if they cover everything, or tape over what's not to be masked so what, on to the next stage where they have another team doing the prep sanding, mostly with DAs, whatever they can't get with a DA they don't get. Next, have a couple of guys hosing paint on all day. That's why if you want a decent job done it's best if you do all the prep work, removal of all the trim and all of the masking. Basically all you can leave up to them is to tack the car down and hose the paint on. You get what you pay for.

 

If its one color you want then as said before, get some books from your local library or heck...rattle can it...

 

Another hint. My cousin worked in a new car dealership body shop for years, and
years ago he said nobody primes with lacquer anymore. OK so since then I have
been using rustoleum flat black, reduced with acetone. It fills very good, it will
take to red putty, it wet or dry sands very well. The only downside is it takes
longer to dry, but it is a local cheap hardware item. sam

 

Well it looks like we have settled on a simple flat black paint job to keep the price way down. And I want to take the car down to the metal for the job.

Can I just attach a light grit paper to a sander and take the paint off myself?

 

If you go with flat black, make sure whatever you finish with is meant to be used as a top coat, not a primer. Primers are porous and will soon rust thru. A lot of paint manufacturers are now offering a flat or eggshell black with names like "Hot Rod Black". If you do use a primer seal it with a sealer or flat clear topcoat.
You can sand it down with an air or electric orbital sander (DA) Start with 220 grit and finish with 400, or better and faster use "Clean and Strip wheels available at hardware and your favorite big box DIY stores. They look like they are made from course nylon "steel wool" and can be chucked in an electric drill. They make short work of old paint, bondo or rust without thinning the metal. Try one, you'll like it!