Are you saying to lay the base, THEN wait a couple of weeks to wet sand the base before clear?

 

I think hes talking about the cheaper integrated clear one stage stuff... although you can wait to apply the clear till the base cures (24 hrs) after sanding it or just wet sand the clear and recoat with additional clear coats...This latter is popular on the "pimped " out rides like the escalades and super large tired funny looking slow as hell (improperly geared) impalas you find in the hood... apparently the more coats of clear and bigger your tires you have the higher your social stature will be judging by the videos on youtube... Kinda like some people here think the louder you truck is and the bigger the tires.... regardless of how guttless it still is or crappy it sounds

 

Lots of good advice here. I am a retired auto body man, so I will share some stuff also. First, and please, take care of any & all rust all over first & foremost. Use a good SEALING primer, then use building or blocking primers to do the various stages of wet sanding. Careful wet sanding between layers of primer, then paint will really make the finished job come out well. The building type of primers are good for pointing out low & high spots in the metal so you can use a touch of filler when needed. If you use filler, NEVER use anything from bondo - absolute crap. Use only poly based filler. I like zgrip personally since it is easy to work with & dries fast. Bonda never dries all the way. Also, before you lay down the red, make certain the entire truck has a good base coat that is not blue because it will take a LOT more layers of red to cover it up to avoid bleed through. You can put down a base coat of white for a very opaque red, or silver as a base coat for a more metallic effect. You also want to consider metallic red, or lacquer type red. Most cars have base coat clear coat for a paint job. There are single stage paints out there that require no clear coat, but I have had little luck with them. In warmer dry weather, most base coats will flash within 1 hour allowing for the next layer to be added. Use a line dryer for your air system or the moisture will come out & screw up hours or even days worth of work. Keep in mind a paint booth if you have access is best, 1 little speck or bug will stand out in the sunlight, especially with red. I am really not kidding when I say that the paint prep you do, as in wet sanding between layers, is what will make it look good & last. Poor prep may look good for a while, but then start to peel within 2 years. Clear coat take about 1-2 months to fully dry, so when you are all done, do not let a bird poop on it & do not add wax layers or over clean it or it can be weakened. Bird poop is very acidic btw & can spell big trouble for your paint. In the spring, I will be going with the bed liner option & paint in a 2 tone scheme I am still inventing. Good luck!

 

And with the red, if you use a white base it will be brighter, compared to using, say a black base. Also there is a window to recoat. Different paints have different times. You CANNOT spray the color, wait 2 days, then spray the clear. If ou do, the clear will peal.

 

We didn't take out windows and door handles out of my dads truck. Just masked them off.

But with this truck being gray and blue i guess you need to so there isn't any more showing.

Dad got paint from Viking paints in st Louis and had right about 300 in paint, hardner etc.

 

Also, we painted his truck flame red on top and on the trim around the bottom we used the dark gray. It looks really good. I'll upload some pics when i get home

 

You can mask everything off, but to do it properly, it needs to be stripped.

Ever see a car on a used car lot that the paint is peeling at the mouldings, door handles, mirrors, or any other pace like that? Thats because it was masked, not removed, and poor prep work.

If you want that look, by all means, mask everything.

 

Here are some active threads where you can see some actual paint work in process and their methods to the madness.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...paint-job.html

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...dy-repair.html


There's bound to be more examples. Pictures help tremendously.

 

not if you wet sand the base coat before adding the clear (only works on non metallic colors)

thats what the PO did on my truck...now the paint is peeling around the door and key holes... if your going to leave them in just be sure to clean and sand the paint surrounding them really well...

 

i just repainted my whole truck a couple weeks ago really wasn't that bad to do, as many have said here prep work is the most important thing. painting the truck itself doesn't take much more than a few hours if you're doing base coat then clear coat like i did rather than single stage paint but it took a couple days of prep work before hand. sometime within the first week is the best window to wet sand and buff the truck, the paints still soft enough that orange peel sands off a bit easier. Wait longer than that and its a pain in the *** and takes forever. My trucks a short bed but i got all the paint, base coat, clear and moderators thinners and that good stuff for under 400 bucks, and the truck looks damn good. Layed down nicely and then after wet sanding and buffing looking beautiful.