I decided to paint my truck myself with Rustoleum following the guidance on a few web sites. Originally the truck was white, now it is black. I used over 3 quarts of Glossy Black mixed equally with mineral spirits. Rolled on with 4" dense foam rollers. I wet sanded between coats with Meguiars 2500 grit and polished with Meguiars 105 and then Meguiars 205. I replaced the rear tail lights, door handles and front side amber lights with aftermarket replicas. I found new rubber gaskets for the door locks also. I wire brushed the inner door panels and sprayed them dark gray with vinyl paint. Overall I am pleased, it is not perfect, but at least they are my imperfections. Pictures are below.

Before:



Spot Primed and Taped Up:







After First Coat of Rustoleum:




Finished:

 

Excellent! Looks like you had a very nice and straight body to work with. I used the same technique for mine, except I did less thinning and sanding. Mine looks fairly nice until about 10 feet. The best part about rustoleum is that you can just touch it up with a rattle can

 

Yes, within 10 feet you start to see the issues and they are amplified by the glossy black. And as you noted, touching up is easy.

 

Not too shabby! Me likes it. So how long did the whole thing take? What other colors are available for this type of paint job? Just asking since I only see guys doing it with black online.

 

Rustoleum has a bunch of different glossy paints: Black, Brown, Hunter Green, White, Almond, Royal Blue, Yellow and maybe one or two more at Home Depot. A local hardware store also had a nice Glossy Sand that was my second choice. I picked black because I like it on cars, though it is a pain since you see all the imperfections in the paint job. You can see all of their colors on their website and might have to order some colors online. http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=150

How long it takes...less than an hour for each of the 8 coats to roll on. 45 minutes of wet sanding, but I did not start sanding until after the 4th coat, which might have been a coat or two late.

Prep time though was maybe 10 hours. I had a local body shop fix two dents and straigten the bumper for less than $400. I wet sanded lots of minor rust scratches and used a wire brush on my Milwaukee grinder on some others. I filled a couple of dozen bolt holes in the bed that were used to attach some metal rails to the bed. Within the past year I used POR15's Prep and Ready rust killer and put on a coat of POR15 paint in a few spots, to include the tailgate that was brownish with rust and along and under the door's rubber trim.

I also replaced most of the rubber seals along the doors and windows, but not the triangular vent window. Two hours for this.

It also took me a couple of hours to meticulously tape the windows, wipers, grill (I could not unscrew the grill screws), remove the door handles, lock cylinders and logos.

I used Rustoleum spray paint primer for some spot priming, Rustoleum spray truck bed paint for the bed and Rustoelum Auto Glossy Black for tough spots and nooks and crannies.

I noticed your truck has the "DODGE RAM" across the tailgate. There is a company that sells these in Black, White and Gold. Mine had this too, but sanded it off and just painted it black. You can find the company on Ebay. I think his listed measurements might be off, but you can send him a "rubbing" to make sure you get the right decal. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1981-93-DODG...5281bc&vxp=mtr

After the 8th coat of paint I let it sit for a day or two and meticulously removed the tape -- with tweezers for some of it. Where the tape pulled up black paint, I went back with a paint brush used for painting models and repaired the missing paint. Now, you should let it sit in the sun to "bake" and cure for a few days. Or, go on vacation and leave it alone, which is what I did.

I painted the door jams too, which was another 3 hours. I washed them down with Simple Green and the orange degreasser and lightly sanded the original paint and hit it with two coats of the 50/50 rusolteum. I have a few spots that need to be hit again.

I did the same with the rims, I left them on and hit them with two coats. I did not do the center of the wheel, the hub caps covers them. Some day I will take off the wheels and spray the rest. I did not want to get paint on the bolts or nuts.

After the paint cured in the sun for a few days, I lightly wet sanded it with Meguiars 2500 grit and polished with Meguiars 105 and then Meguiars 205. Figure 2 hours for each of these steps.


Bottom line, it takes a lot of time, but after I checked prices of getting it painted, I decided to roll it on. I don't have a sprayer or an area that I could spray either. I just covered the carport with drop cloths and put garbage bags over the tires. Further on the plus side, the Mrs' was very pleased with the savings of not having it professionally painted and she likes going for rides in it.

 

instead of buying decals i think i would just paint the dodge ram letters exactly like i did on my 81.

 

I spray painted mine but the masking made it look botched. I ended up repainting it by hand and from a distance (long distance lol) it looks okay. Definately better than what it was - they had turned pink. Shoulda done the stickers but cheapness took over.

Pumbu - it looks real good.

 

i guess it depends on the color of the truck. i painted the letters on my tailgate with brush and they look fairly good from about 10 feet away but up close you can see the crappy paint job.

 

At the moment I cam going to leave the letters alone. I figured the decal would go on crooked or not weather well and I am not very good at free hand painting.

Couple of questions though:

1. What is the best adhesive to use to re-attach the front fender plastic logos? I want them so I could remove them in the future in case they or the truck needs a touch up.

2. Crazzywolfie I noticed it looks like you have aftermarket rear lights. Did you get a good seal? Mine seem to have a little gap at the top where the plastic meets the metal of the truck and water can get in. Any suggested remedies for getting a better seal?

Attached is my tailgate. I decided a few days ago to go ahead and prime the bumper with galvinized primer and paint it to match the truck. Originally I was going to leave it in its original state.

 

If you outline the letters with pin stripping tape and then mask and paper around that you can get a pretty good job with spray paint. The pin stripping tape is very flexible, gives good lines that the paint won't seep under, and can be pulled and reset several times to get it in the right spot.