Man this is so exciting! Your patience will pay off. It's gonna be sexy.

 

Thanks. I am hoping that as those that have experience doing this kind of work that have helped me will inspire others to feel confident to take on a project like this as well. I know that a number of others have the thin and peeling clear coat issues.

I started on the bed as it is easier to sand however many times it may take than the cab or hood would be. I gotta be able to get this paint and body thing down pat on the Ram. The Jag and 54 Chevy and Super Beetle are all needing done as well. I think my wife is getting used to her car smelling like paint when she gets it out of the garage in the mornings....

Going to be taking on upholstery at some point!

 

Wet sand with 2000. If you sand with courser, the scratches from sanding will show. Thin color as you stated, spray two more coats. Not too heavy or youll get runs. Then on to clear

 

Or go ahead and clear. The orange peel wont be noticable after clear, sand, buff. As long as its not too bad.

 

Good work can't wait to see the finished product!

What color are you gonna paint it? Factory or CUSTOM?

 

I am painting it the Black Metallic that Toyota used on 96 Tacoma. I have to do some touch up on my Yota so I figgured I would use the same paint to reduce the amount of left over paint when both jobs are complete.

And just for the sake of paractice before each step, I went to a local body shop and asked for a discarded hood to spray. When I set gun using cardboard it looks really good, but do not get the same result necessarily when I spray on the body. Wife is going to wonder why I have a strage multi colored hood hanging on her side of the garage.....


Back out to the garage for a little sanding....

 

whats your 'booth' temp at to cold and the paint won't flow out and level to warm and it will flash over to fast.i would go with what kejobe said, unless the base color has a lot of orange peel shoot claer over top and wet sand.

 

Temp was about 80 degrees.

I picked up scarap hood from local body shop for free from his scrap pile. Sanded it down into base. Used this to set spary gun. Only had heavy spray at first (round spot with runs). Set gun and sprayed part of hood and no orange peel and no runs except first shot.



Lightly sanded bed on Ram and applied 2 coats. Still got slight orange peel. Cannot undersatnd as the only difference is my Ram has 2K primer and one coat of Omni MP seried Epoxy Primer (MP 172). This is a two component epoxy with adhesion promoter.

So short of sanding all back opff and starting over again, I will try to shoot clear today and see how it looks. Maybe I am being too much of a perfectionist......

 

So I slipped off work a couple hours early today (being the boss has its perks) and went home to work on Ram. Here it is after spraying base on last night. (little grainy - not enough light for crackberry camera)




I shot one coat of clear on it this afternoon and only had one sag on right rear fender. My question - do I shoot another coat or let this set and sand it off before applying another coat?

 

If it hasnt been too long, keep going with the clear. If you sand it now, you risk the chance of sanding through the clear. If you do that, youll have to start over with base or itll be seen.