The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Ok, I'm new at the body work stuff !! Help !!!

I have 61 chevy apache I just bought. I want to sand it down and paint it with primer for now. That will make it look a little better for now. What grit should I use and what Kind of sander do yall recomend. Any other tips ? I know yall are thinking what a stupid question. But I have never done any body work...Gotta start somwhere.

Here are some pictures
http://photobucket.com/61apache

The truck looks pretty good, why not leave it like that for a while and read up on doing body work and aquire tools? You would want a DA sander and some 36, 40 or 80 grit paper depending on how thick the paint is. A 6" DA will do, but an 8" will be faster. Then you will want to spray it with an epoxy primer. You will need a good size air compressor to run the DA. A die grinder and some roloc discs to strip the paint in the smaller places. You will also want an HVLP paint gun and a respirator.

Once its primed in epoxy, unless you top coat it within a week or less, the epoxy will have to all be scuffed before its painted over. That's what would stop me. Also if you plan to drive it in primer, I am not sure how well it holds up to UV. Unless you have a heated shop to paint in, the weather is starting to work against you too. Guys have used $50 rusteolum brush on paint jobs that really look pretty decent. For a quick, temperary improvement, that's the way I'd go and as long as what's there isn't flaking off I'd just paint over it.
Here's a link $50 piant jobs

look at my link below for my truck painted with a roller. The cost was low but it takes a little time to do it right.

Nice!
Where did you score that bed pad? I've not been able to find one the correct width.

So your saying that you painted that whole 1950, 3104 with a roller? What kind of paint? How many coats? Did you thin it, how thin? Sanding with? Buffing with?
Give us a few more details please.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, check out the link in 57 Stepside's response. Painting cars and trucks with rollers is kind of a "cult" thing and people who have done it generally agree that the results are outstanding.

Pros: Little masking, no equipment to buy, no over spray, very little cost.
Cons: Many coats over several days and a lot of sanding required.

General observation: Lots of fun to see the reactions of people when you tell them you did it for under $100 with a paint roller!

Yeah, I spent a good while this morning reading posts from 2006 but it sure looks extremely labor intensive.
So ya gonna experiment some Woody and let us know how much cheaper it is over shooting it with PPG?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, ILL

Like 57 Stepside said leave it for now until you get any mechanial problems taken care of. On the few rusted spots I would get some Rust Mort to kill the rust sand it down on those rusted spots and take a spray can and paint the spot for now until you can do it right. It looks ok and if you just primer it the weather will break it down and you will have a bigger problem to contend with so I would leave it for now.
62Blue
Don

Tell ya what, if you come down here and do the sandin', I'll do the rollin'.

I'm Putting the truck up for sale....thought I might try to make it a little more attractive....It stays In the dry now

If you are selling the truck, the new owner will appreciate it more if you don't mess with it. With the old paint, the new owner will be able to tell what condition the metal is in underneath. With primer, it could be hiding all kinds of imperfections. Given the choice between buying an old truck with faded paint and one thats got fresh primer, I'll take the one that's faded.

Agree 100%.... Everyone knows that paint hides flaws. Don't waste you time or money on paint, just get it running nice.

Woody,
It a bed pad for a late model Chevy truck that I trimmed to fit.

Chuck

Denny,
Yea I painted the whole truck with 4" foam rollers. The original thread that I saw this on has about a hundred pages that went on forever and will tell more than you ever wanted to know.

Fenders,grill and bed came off the truck and painted. I used a topside boat paint, a one-part polyurethane, that is meant to be rolled. Also used their roll on primer. It was thinned to approx. 50% with mineral spirits and Penetrol. Wet sanded between coats starting with 600 grit ending with 1800 grit, a total of 4 coats. No buffing as I got tired of all the sanding!

What I ended up with is a respectable looking 3 footer. If you look close there are some dry spots, a little orange peel in places but it is a 100% better than what I started with. My cost was a little higher than $50....closer to $150.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Chuck