tips on repainting this truck.

[tomsteve]

welp, its not gonna be done til spring, but i am always wanting to learn more and i know ya'll got great knowledge. got this truck in to give a buff job. its a 98 with 225,000 miles on it. the clearcoat along the top of the left fender is starting to fail. other than stone chips that have been touched, theres a lot of scratches, and quite a few are through the clearcoat, but the metal is solid. even the metal under the trim around the wheel wells is solid and no rust( i pulled the trim off to buff it up and got off track alittle bit and put it back on before buffing...DOH!!!).this is a picture before buffing the left side and the only picture of a bunch that came out worth posting.




this is a picture of one of the chip repairs. i hope the hoto is clear enough to see, but im sure ya'll have already seen thee repairs.


i




so, i'm wanting to get some suggestions on prepping and painting. since the clearcoat is startin to fail along the fender( i'm sanding down this area tonight and repainting it to make it through the winter) but it isnt evident anywhere else, should i sand the clearcoat off the whole truck or would i be safe doing a good scuff and epoxy seal. and on the spots where theres chips, should i sand those spots down and feather it before epoxy sealer or would it be safe to use a glazing putty on the stone chips, or would something like slicksand be okay.

the paint is victory red, which is a solid color, and i've read that shooting red (and yellow?) is a little more difficult than other colors. i've searched and searched but cant find any tips for shooting red and am lookin for some tips to get it right the 1st time.
thanks for any advise and hope ya'll are doin good!

[another2centsworth]

on the stone chips I would use glaze preferably not slick sand.
feather the dead clear back.
seal repaired areas with 2K primer and let cure.
wet sand the primer.
scuff the good clear with 800-1000 wet.
blend color and clear.
that's just me.


White is harder to shoot than red. what makes it even easier/better for you is it is solid color.

[Len]

welp, its not gonna be done til spring, but i am always wanting to learn more and i know ya'll got great knowledge. got this truck in to give a buff job. its a 98 with 225,000 miles on it. the clearcoat along the top of the left fender is starting to fail. other than stone chips that have been touched, theres a lot of scratches, and quite a few are through the clearcoat, but the metal is solid. even the metal under the trim around the wheel wells is solid and no rust( i pulled the trim off to buff it up and got off track alittle bit and put it back on before buffing...DOH!!!).this is a picture before buffing the left side and the only picture of a bunch that came out worth posting.




this is a picture of one of the chip repairs. i hope the hoto is clear enough to see, but im sure ya'll have already seen thee repairs.


so, i'm wanting to get some suggestions on prepping and painting. since the clearcoat is startin to fail along the fender( i'm sanding down this area tonight and repainting it to make it through the winter) but it isnt evident anywhere else, should i sand the clearcoat off the whole truck or would i be safe doing a good scuff and epoxy seal. and on the spots where theres chips, should i sand those spots down and feather it before epoxy sealer or would it be safe to use a glazing putty on the stone chips, or would something like slicksand be okay.

the paint is victory red, which is a solid color, and i've read that shooting red (and yellow?) is a little more difficult than other colors. i've searched and searched but cant find any tips for shooting red and am lookin for some tips to get it right the 1st time.
thanks for any advise and hope ya'll are doin good!

I'd block sand the chips, scratches and any rough spots using 320 wet sandpaper and a 4, 5 or 6 inch block then prime, guide coat and block sand again with 400 or 600 wet sandpaper to level the surface. Sand the entire truck using 320 dry or 400 wet for solid colors or 400 dry or 600 wet for metallic colors.

[Phil V]

Just for future reference solid red and solid yellow (non metallic) are very easy to paint, much easier than a metallic base paint or pearl or candy etc.
Don't know why anyone told you red and yellow are more difficult to paint because they are definitely not harder to paint.

Its also safe to assume that most of the stone chips are on the front half of the hood with a little chipping on the front half of the fenders as well. Its usually easier, faster and better in the long run to strip the whole front edge of the hood right down to bare metal and the same with the front half of the fenders is there is any appreciable amount of stone chips. Why it works that way is if you have to feather edge each stone chip then you will have thick and thin spots of paint after sanding/feather edging with the end effect of the surface looking like a washboard (very uneven surface). If you try to block sand all those feathered stone chips then pile on some 2K high fill primer then block sand again with several different grits of paper its just faster with a better outcome if you just strip the paint down to bare metal and start fresh with clean flat bare metal. Epoxy prime the bare metal and it should be ready for paint. No need for long sessions of block sanding. Just epoxy primer and shoot the paint.

You are going to have to block sand/feather edge those scratches down to the base of each scratch then high fill primer followed by some serious block sanding to make it flat so there won't be any waves in the panels after painting.

Look really close to the top of the roof as well as the top rails of the truck box to see if there is any little white spots forming ( a signal that the current paint has UV damage from the sun and its started the delamination process. Its odd that the only place its delaminating is on the front fender tops. Needless to say look close at the hood also for little white spots forming.

[tomsteve]

if i didnt know any better i'd say you were in my shop lookin over the truck last night,phil!. i have been over the whole truck and cant find anywhere else there is a problem with the clearcoat.....yet. at first i thought maybe some work had been done on the master cylinder/ brake booster and some brake fluid got spayed along there as it was the only spot on the truck, but, after doing a little sanding and going through the clear real quick, it dawned on me. yup, front edge of hood and fenders are main areas with the chips. what i'm thinkin of now is, and i may be wrong, but does clearcoat start failing before there is visible evidence?

[Dennis N. Schmidt]

You may have misinterpreted what you read. Red and Yellow are not harder to paint that metallics. Yellow is harder to get coverage on than just about any other color of basecoat. It's not harder to paint you simply have to apply more coats of base with yellow than any other color. Red not so much. The reason for this is that the pigments that are used in yellow paints are transparent now that leaded pigments are banned. Nothing hard about painting it you simply have to use more of it than any other color.