Help needed....
 

Hello all. I just started sanding down the exterior of my Ranger. It was severely scratched up and some minor dents. At this point I think I am in way over my head. Do any of you do any body work? Or do any of you know of anybody who does body work? I'm looking to get this thing painted and don't really wanna spend too much money. I'm in West Des Moines, willing to bring the truck wherever I need to. I just don't want to dump an astronomical amount into this thing as I have already burned a ton of $$ on it. I suppose I should of thought about that BEFORE I got this wild hair and just left it as is. Anyhow, I could use some input if possible.

What do you have for facilities? You need an enclosed and heatable garage, the heat source doesn't have to be permanent, but the flammable source will make a requirement for ventilation. Ventilation is always a good thing anyway, but becomes necessity to not blow up the place. With it getting cooler now, the temps need to stay above 65 to be able to paint. Talk to some of the local body shops, see what they would charge for simply shooting it if you do all the prep, they may surprise you.

Three estimates thus far, the smallest being $1000. I'm surprised alright, at how inflated body shops are. My plan is to do all/most of the prep work, but I'm reduced to using a rattle can aerasol primer and I know that can't be good. I tried the lacquer primer with my compressor and gun...but what a mess I made. Twice as much sanding as when I started. thanks for the input though. Guess I'll figure something out.

Hey Wresleu, are you in a big hurry to get this thing done? Maybe you should pick up a panel at a junk yard to practice on. Might save you a lot of time in the long run. There is always Bob's Bodyshop on 65/69 on the east side of the road, about 1/3 of the way to Indianola from Southridge. Bob is good people and is always fair on price.

-Str0ud

We bought our car wrecked the guy who did the paint work charged us $250 I think it was. No more than that to paint one whole side and hang two doors. He didn't do too bad of work but it's not perfect either. He's in Riceville if you're at all interested I'll get a quote from him.

My bro in law has a gun and has painted one car that didn't turn out too bad but neither of us have a compressor anymore. I agree with Str0ud get some panels or something and practice a little, play with needle sizes, paint mixes, pressure, and gun adjustments. You'll get it eventually.