My 1995 Ford Ranger Splash Sunburst Yellow

My truck has been painted since around mid-october. It's my daily driver and besides a little mud from almost getting stuck in the yard it looks just as good as it did the day I rolled it out. The last pictures you see with the welds were taken a week or so ago so you can see by that, it's holding up really well.

i personally like the bullits better

Yeah I do to. I just gave the welds to my dad so the bullets will be rocked for a while

now put a toyota subframe under it to get rid of them i beams and slam that **** lol

I would but I'm going for a "road hugger street truck" theme. Going to upgrade the sway bars soon to stiffen it up a bit. It sits right where I want it. Next step will be building the engine for it.

so heres my question...

since Rust-Oleum is already good for rust protection, you wouldnt have to prime it if you went to the bare metal? Just clean it with mineral spirits?

I know it's made to be a rust preventative enamel. If your car's paint is not peeling down to the bare metal then it's not necessary to take it that far. You can just sand the entire car until it's dull enough for the paint to stick to. You really want to get rid of the clear coat as it might raise after you apply the enamel. Other than getting rid of the clear coat and doing the body work, that's really all there is to it. Some people choose to take it down to the bare metal but when you do that you usually have to go back and skim with a thin layer of filler and seal it just to make sure all of the surfaces are uniform and even. Just seems like an un-necessary step to me.

So no primer is needed at all then? Just sand down the clearcoat, fix imperfections, then paint it?

i used zero primer, painted right over sanded bondo and small bare metal spots. although i would recommend that if the car is several different colors primer would be nice to have a uniform color to paint over, it will use up less coats to get uniform color.

don't forget primer is not only a surface prep tool but also is considered a filler, its good for somewhat deep scratches and other things

Matt - GREAT JOB! Your Pick 'UM Truck looks Terrific! Hope I can do as well on my Elky - already have spent more than you did and I have not even bought my paint or all materials - no matter, will still be a bargain compared to the humongous quotes I got from Paint shops.

PS - looks like another expense, and large one, for me, will be a PC 7424 and attachements etc......appears to be essential to get that "show room" look...........will be able to use it of course to keep up that WET look.

pinoyxpryde wrote:i used zero primer, painted right over sanded bondo and small bare metal spots. although i would recommend that if the car is several different colors primer would be nice to have a uniform color to paint over, it will use up less coats to get uniform color.

don't forget primer is not only a surface prep tool but also is considered a filler, its good for somewhat deep scratches and other things

He's absolutely right. My truck was primered way before I painted it. If I do this again I will be doing a primer coat. Just because it wasn't until a few coats in that my bodywork started to cover.

Matt - When you rolled the paint on the top of your cab, what was your technique, ie. - Did you roll from one side across as far as you could reach and then go the other side and do the same.....or did you get in the bed and rollacross the width of the cab or what???

I have been doing the 1st of those and the paint does not level out in the center in order that it becomes seamless.........in 3 coats now it always ends up where you can SEE where
the roller left off in that mid section of the roof.

Please advise and...........

TKS Michael\Elky

Sorry for the late response, I just stood in the bed and went from front to back all the way across and backrolled it like all of the other panels. Came out fine.

Too LATE now - that's what I should have done BUT am sure it will work out once I get my NEW DA Buffer, a G110, I will wet sand out those "funky" areas where rolling overlapped and then use Poorboy's SSR 2.5 on it before Polishing.

TKS Michael

u did a great job! I'm planning on painting my 2003 Honda Civic Si Hatch that color. I painted my stock wing this past weekend and it came out great.

How did you save the paint that u didn't use.... did you mix it in a container and then just poured out what u needed at the time or did you mix a new batch ever time u would paint?

Sorry for the late response. I actually bought lids for my mixing containers and just sealed them up each night if I had any left over. Good as new the next day.