Painting, day one

Another chore I forgot to take care of before deciding to paint today was the rear bumper and the tailgate frame.  A little scrubbing to start the day.

If you recall, the first use of my grinder way back when was the removal of the ridiculous bumper installed by the original owner for farm work, no doubt.  I used it and the Sawzall back then, but just the grinder today to remove what's left of the thick chunks of bumper extension.

Good enough.  Now I can paint.  Following an episode of Trucks! that did a fauxtina paint job on an old Chevy truck, I felt it was the right paint job for me.  Basically, their rationale was mine: the original paint was crap  and there was no budget for all new sheet metal or crazy expensive body shop work, but they wanted something cool.  This rig matched on all three counts.  Plus, I don't have great technique, great paint equipment, or a painting booth, three more requirements/drawbacks avoided by this paint job.  If dust gets on the paint, so be it.  If it ends up a little splotchy or whatnot, so be it.  Since it's going off-road, I won't have to worry about scratches, either.  All in all, a logical choice.

Step one is brushed on black.  They used regular urethane paint, but I wanted a DTM (direct to metal) epoxy primer, which I bought over eBay from TCP Global down in San Diego.  Not terribly expensive.  Highly recommended.

Yes, again, I brushed it on, following the procedure outline on that Trucks! episode.

Here it is after two coats.  I kept track of my path around the tub to avoid having to lean over any painted areas to get to unpainted areas.  For the most part I succeeded.

Step two is rust oxide basecoat, this time rolled on for still more texture, which will be of use in the sanding stage. Another nice feature of this fauxtina paint job is that I don't have to get the orange in every nook and cranny, only where I plan on sanding through to get the look I'm after.

All done. It's VERY orange, not rust oxide red, but I'm optimistic it'll look right later on once it is fully cured.

Time for the other parts, except the window frame and outside half of the tailgate.

My wife decided to take a few pictures as I was working.  Note the high quality respirator.  It worked flawlessly.  Never smelled a fume and was comfortable all day (painting this thing took six hours).

Time for the Hot Rod Flatz Glacier Blue Metallica urethane from TCP Global.  This time, now that the brushing and rolling have added texture, I only needed to get the blue on, without worrying about texturing further or getting a perfect coat.  I'll be sanding some of it off, and even runs don't really matter (which is good since I had a few).

I like this shot.

The other parts are getting the treatment, as well.  I have enough spare blue (including another quart on the way from TCP) to fix anything that goes wrong in the sanding process.

Worst paint booth in the world.  Imagine me trying to paint the right/driver's side with my back to the black sheet.  What you can't see is my welder and the back seat in the way.  (Yes, I could have moved them, but the garage is so insanely crowded that such a decision isn't so easily made.)

This will need some touch up on the bottom lips along the sides.

Ta da.