Topic: Paint on Bed Fading Badly; How to Repaint Bed Only? (On the Cheap)

[JD]

I have a 91 PU and the paint on my bed is fading quite badly. The cab is fine though.

I have heard that the beds on Toyota trucks were left off when the trucks were they shipped into the US from Japan, in order to avoid import taxes by claiming the trucks were assembled in the US or some such nonsense. However, as a result, the beds got much lower quality paint jobs than the cabs, and many (like mine) are fading.

So anyway, does anyone have a dirt cheap solution to this problem? I was thinking I could probably remove the bed, then sand and primer it. But I don't know if there is a do-it-yourself way of matching the new paint with the old paint, or whether it would be something best done by a professional. Ideally I would like to find a source for spray paint that would match my color, since I don't have a compressor, and am not really interested in buying one just for this purpose.

I don't have any decals or pinstripes to worry about, so it would seem to be a fairly simple project. Also, I am not super picky as to how well I match the color of the cab. However, there may be some fading to take into account, complicating matters.

My paint color is that metallic light blue that was popular in early 90's Toyota trucks, and other models made by Toyota back then. Below is the color (not my vehicle though)

   

[Ghtoyrunner]

go to ur local parts store and see if they have any colors that match. thats the only cheap way. i guess u could go to a body shop and see if they will mix u up a can of that color and u could just spray it on. does one off your friends have a compresser u could barrow??

[OOPS]

Most of the paint on vehicles is not a simple open the can, pour into a gun and paint. There are more steps to it then that. They will need to have a specific primer color and type. Some of the paint is 2-3 steps as far as what and how you lay it down. Then there is the clear-coat that needs to be applied. There are some paints that are only one-step but color selection is limited. Look in the yellow pages for an auto paint store in your area and go talk to them.

Have you tried rubbing the paint out to get rid of the oxidation ?

[Joey88RUNR]

Im I seeing things?.....it looks like there is No engine in your truck?   Yea I reccomend calling a bodyshop

[Rocksurfer]

Maaco

[JD [OP]]

Most of the paint on vehicles is not a simple open the can, pour into a gun and paint. There are more steps to it then that. They will need to have a specific primer color and type. Some of the paint is 2-3 steps as far as what and how you lay it down. Then there is the clear-coat that needs to be applied. There are some paints that are only one-step but color selection is limited. Look in the yellow pages for an auto paint store in your area and go talk to them.

Have you tried rubbing the paint out to get rid of the oxidation ?

The paint is sort of receding away down to the primer, in areas exposed to lot of sun. Fortunately, the primer is silver-grey and my paint is (was) silver-blue, so it's not as noticiable as it would be if my truck was black or some other dark color.

I guess it's a little more involved than I thought. Though another option might be to just paint the whole truck, rather than trying to match the bed and the cab. I heard of some guy that did a killer paint job on his car using a countless layers with brush and then sanding it smooth after each coat.  But I'm sure it was not his first paint job, and it probably took weeks of work.

I wonder what Maaco would charge just to paint a bed?

[toyyota]

I teach Auto Body and Painting at a community College. If there is a program in your area, you can learn how to do it yourself, for the price of materials plus enrollment fees. You might enjoy it and meet some fellow wheelers.

[Snowtoy]

You may have a 2 step metallic blue paint and clear coat, or it could be three stages, base, metallic, and clear, my '87 Supra is a 3 stage(base, pearl, clear), a paint store that deals w/automotive paint will be able to tell you how many stages it is.  Expect about $2-300 for oem matching paint to do the bed.  If you want to repaint it using a solid color 1 stage it would be easier for you.  It will still run you $4-500, for paint, thinner, hardner, sanding(wet), buffing materials, buffer and attachments, painters mask, etc.  Another option is the Duplicolor paints for gun application, but you are limited to a few colors and they are quite bright.  I used their red base and clear to paint a utility trailer and the paint came out pretty nice for only $20 a can, it was a lot smoother than the traditional automotive paint I have used, and it appears it would take very little effort to buff it to a smooth finish.  Since the trailer is just used for hauling stuff to the dumps, I didn't bother to  buff the paint.

You could also try painting your truck using a roller and tremclad(rustolium here in the U.S.) paint in a can.  There is a pretty good right up about what you need here
http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1
Search results
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=painting+your+car+with+a+roller&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[JD [OP]]

That Rustoleum method really sounds like it might be the way to go. I've heard all the great stuff about how cheap it is and how good it looks. But I'd really like to hear about what the pitfalls are, other than possibly limited color selection.

I like the idea of being able to easily touch up my paint job, since all the factory paint touch up kits I've tried looked awful.

Anyone out there actually try this Rustoleum method?

[JD [OP]]

Hey, snowtoy, thanks for that epic thread on using Rustoleum paint to paint your vehicle. I'm am definitely going to try this method.

Though I don't think I'll ever finish reading that whole 200 page thread though. I've spent about 4-6 hours on it, and didn't get more than halfway through. It's gotta be one of the greatest threads in all of automotive history.

[Snowtoy]

Ya I never got through too many pages either, just enough to get the steps and see some of the results.  I did try it out w/some rustoleum, and it didn't turn out all that well, but I don't think I ever got it thin enough got it thin enough, or gave it enough time to cure.  I know using the same paint on on bumpers and sliders seems to harden over time, so I imagine if it goes on super thin, and is given time to cure it should work as well as it seems.

I would pick up a used hood and use that to learn on, give it a few weeks to cure and see how it works before starting on your truck.

[JD [OP]]

Like I mentioned in my original post, the bed of my truck is fading rapidly, so I thought I might try some test areas inside the bed and see how that goes.

Re: the thinning of the paint, the recommended amount started out being about 10% mineral spirits, but in later posts, people were saying to thin it out by as much as 40% mineral spirits, depending on the outside temperature. I wanna wait for it to warm up a bit, but my bed looks so bad, I don't see how I could make the truck look any worse.

The main thing that worries me is the door jambs and hard to reach spots like between the can and the bed. It's gonna be some work, but hopefully I can use spray-on paint for some areas, assuming it matches the stuff in the cans.

[Snowtoy]

I would start w/the 40% and work back from there.  The thinner it is, the thinner it will lay down and reduce the orange peel look, which will help with the final steps.

The door jams will be easy since you will be using a foam roller.  For between the cab and bed, just unbolt the bed and slide it back an inch or two, you shouldn't have to remove it.

You will have to sand off the clear coat, or the new paint will flake off as the clear separates from the base.

[JD [OP]]

How can I tell if I even have a clearcoat? I'm not convinced I do. Besides, I thought the most I would have to do is sand out any rusty spots and rough up the original paint a bit so the rustoleum would stick, since rustoleum is designed to go over rusty metal and essentially anything. The guy in that thread said you don't really need to do anything to your original paint.

Of course I plan to sand off any loose paint. But I think the sun is the main reason it's getting bare patches. I assume that once the new paint is covering up the stuff that's oxidizing (if that's the correct term) it should stabilize. After all, it's only parts of the truck that are exposed to the sun that are having problems.

[boggerunner]

my 90 4runner is the same color and the paint looks like crap, kinda a mix of the sun, lack of waxing, and rock rash.  it will be painted silver or dark blue soon enough.

[Snowtoy]

Two things give the type of paint you have away, its age, and that it is blue metallic.  It is almost impossible to lay down a metallic single stage paint and have it come out smooth enough to not need to be wet sanded.  Sanding metallic single stage basically destroys the purpose of using metallic paint.  If you want to double check just call a local automotive paint supply(or paint store that deals w/auto paints) and give them your paint code(the dealer can tell you the paint code from your your VIN#).

The life expectancy of clear coat is only about 7yrs, and is why so many cars out there have the peeling or scale looking clear coat, sun damage or lack of wax often doesn't have anything to do with it.  The reason why it should be sanded is to prevent the clear from flaking off in years to come.  The good news is it doesn't take much to sand the clear coat off, some 800 grit sand paper should be all you need.  Since it is likely you will only be painting a section at a time, you can hand sand it, and not need to buy a sander.

[JD [OP]]

OK, I spent about a week using the roller method to paint my truck, and here's how it went.

DAY 1

I decided to go with the Gloss White, since I would not have to worry about it fading too much. I spent an entire day taping around the headlights, tail lights, and grill and rubber around the windows. Then I got some 120 grit sandpaper and went over the entire truck, then 220, then 400. Then i wiped the truck down with a damp cloth (probably should have used mineral spirits though). That was a lot of work, and I assumed the worse was over.

DAY 2

The next day, I mixed up some primer with the gloss white, about 50-50. Then I thinned the mix out with mineral spirits, to about the consistency of milk. It was around 105 degrees that day, so the paint did not need a whole lot of thinning. I think I used between 1/2 and 1/3 mineral spirits. So I put on the first coat.

I had previously done a test section on the inside of my tailgate which yielded some impressive results once wet sanded. However, I found that the paint ran like crazy when applying it to the sides of the truck. Also, many drips would occur several minutes after the paint had been applied, while I was working on a different panel. So needless to say, I got a ton of drips, probably due mostly to putting the paint on too thick. I figured (wrongly) I could just sand out the drips the next day. After this coat dried, I applied a second coat and let it dry overnight.

I saw a lot of orange peel finish before going to be, but assumed it would level out. It didn't.

DAY 3

I could see the paint was obviously not dry, so I gave it an extra day to dry.

DAY 4

I got out some 600 grit paper and tried wet sanding, but soon discovered that the paint was only partially dry. And the drips (which I most wanted to sand down) were quite rubbery. When I tried to sand them, I ended up sanding off all the paint around the drip and clogging up the sandpaper. Also, the paint went on quite rough and failed to "level out" like i expected. Also, in addition to drips, I had roller marks everywhere, plus terrible orange peel texture. The roller marks were a nightmare to try to sand down, probably more difficult than the drips.

So I smoothed out the paint the best I could and went through about 10 sheets of wet/dry sandpaper of various grits. Some places I had sanded right through to the undercoat, and there were so many drips and roller marks that it would have taken days (and most of the paint I had just applied) to smooth out every single one.

So I mixed up some paint and mineral spirits for coat # 3, assuming that the new paint would smooth over some of the orange peel and mistakes I made on coats #1 and #2, but nothing doing. You could see every little imperfection, and the original factory paint was still showing through in lots of places (probably my fault for going from factory blue to white). I can't emphasize enough how important it is to lay down your first two coats smoothly, without roller marks or drips. Applied coat # 4 that night.

DAY 5

Another wet sand, still using 400 grit paper. I took off a ton of paint I had applied the day before, and tried as hard as I could to smooth everything out and spent a good 6 hours wet sanding. Both hands had blisters and I kept getting blood on the paint from my hands, so i had to wear plastic gloves to prevent this from happening.

I was determined to have a smooth finish for coats #5 and #6, and I think I accomplished this. However, I still got nasty orange peel and roller marks, no matter how careful I was. I did develop a game I would play in my head, to keep from applying too much paint. I would tell myself that the paint coat $1000 an ounce, and my goal was to use as little of it as possible. This worked well to keep me from putting the paint on too thick.

So applied coats #5 and #6, which were supposed to be the last ones, but there were still spots showing through. So I decided I was going to need 8 coats total instead of 6.

DAY 6

More wet sanding, applied coats #7 and #8.

This was a week ago, and I'm still waiting for the paint to FULLY dry before I do the final wet sand. Meanwhile, I bought a can of spray on Gloss White and have been touching up the door jambs and I took the bed off and sprayed in between. It looks fine now.

So all in all, this was a hell of a lot more work than I anticipated, and the drying time of the paint has been a major headache, along with the roller marks and orange peel finish. So I don't know if I would recommend this method unless you have a very big chunk of time on your hands. 

I never did see this "self leveling" phenomenon occur. The paint went on about as smooth as interior paint in your house does with a roller (maybe a little smoother). I was not impressed at all, and the wet sanding is an absolute nightmare. If I had it to do over again, I think I would take extraordinary care to lay the paint on smoothly, and just put on 6-8 coats. Then let it dry for a week to 10 days and then worry about wet sanding. Because I kept losing all the smoothness I had gained each time I put on a new coat. Totally wasted effort, IMHO.