So you didn't get it down to bare metal first - you just got as much crud and rust off as you could? Could you see any rust then or is that why you used the mineral spirits? (I saw the photos, but not sure how clean it was before painting).
I was very meticulous with my cleaning and scraped every speck I found. I find this sort of work to be very therapeutic, you may not. Perhaps you know someone with a pressure washer? I understand that those work very well too. Actually there was very little rust to be found forward of the firewall probably due to the grease and oil that had been splattering on it forever.
THIS is what it looked like when I was finished scraping. The mineral spirits was used to remove any oily residue before painting.
second, did you have to prime it first? We have a tractor supply so I should be able to get what I need.
No primer, but I would recommend treating with
EASTWOOD RUST CONVERTER in the aerosol can. Very easy to use and is effective. The bulk quart and gallon cans are economical but you can't reach everything with a brush.
Thirdly, I have a friend who has a paint gun and a compressor I think will run it (26 gal from Tractor Supply) moderately well. But I don't have anything fancy like what they put on the compressor to make sure no moisture gets in when using air tools. Should I get something for that?
I wouldn't worry about that for now. Chances are you won't have a problem but if you do it's not like you're putting color on the finished exterior. It's pretty humid around here and I don't have a problem.
I'm not sure what kind of situation you have there but or how much of this work you plan to do yourself but you're going to be hard pressed to get through rebuilding your truck without a "good" compressor. I bought one of
THESE and fitted it with one of
THESE and it seems to work well. I've never had any moisture come throgh the line when painting so far but will get a dedicated air line for when I do my finish painting.
Lastly, how long did you wait between layers of paint or does it say on the can?
I believe 10 minutes should be good. Enamel takes overnight to fully dry so it's kind of hard to screw that part up. You just want the previous coat to tack over... just moderately sticky. This will let each coat intermingle with the previous without being so we that it runs. It's really hard to screw this up so relax.
By the way, I looked at a lot of your photos. I really liked how you put them all online. I think if you don't mind I'm going to use them a lot in the future. They look like they might really be invaluable to me if you don't mind.
Feel free... that's why they're there.
Any chance you could just come to Nebraska and help me out? Ok, probably not, but thought I'd ask
No problem, I'll have my manager contact you to make arrangements. You do have a 5-star hotel with limo service nearby, don't you?
