Painting hood/roof

[American Locomotive]

So I've read (on here, and other places) that best practice for newbies painting a car is to do the door jams, hang the doors, then finish painting it.

So my question is, how do you deal with the hood and the roof? In particular I'm working with a Toyota 60-series Landcruiser. So I have a huge hood, and an even bigger roof that's high off the ground. I'm sure the edges will be fine, but how does one go about ensuring the middle of the hood and roof get adequate coverage? I'm not sure how I'd do that without leaning over the vehicle.

Or do you start with the roof and hood and work your way down?

Do I just do the hood off the vehicle?

 

[36truck]

Start at the high side then work down. You might to get up the air to reach all places.

 

[Wrench97]

I did a quite a few trucks(semi size) in my younger days, for each coat start at the top and work down, the hoods/flip front end were a different color so just the roof and air shield were the high spots one what I did except for the cab overs.

 

[American Locomotive]

Start at the high side then work down. You might to get up the air to reach all places.

I did a quite a few trucks(semi size) in my younger days, for each coat start at the top and work down, the hoods/flip front end were a different color so just the roof and air shield were the high spots one what I did except for the cab overs.

My problem is the roof is like 8 feet long - there's no way I'll be able to get my arm all the way across to the opposite either. Do I setup staging, start in the center (lengthwise) of the roof, work my way across, down , then switch to the other side and repeat?

 

[36truck]

As the story goes how do you eat an elephant one piece at a time. You need to take it down it small pieces.

 

[The Cobbler]

is there a drip rail or dividing point between the roof & body that you could mask ? I am thinking of a couple of sprays, one for the roof /hood & the rest of the body . that will give you more time to concentrate on the individual panels . maybe not a perfect solution but it might be an option?

 

[txvwnut]

Setup some sort of scaffolding or work platform down both sides of the vehicle and across the back. Body work and paint the roof out to the drip edge and when the paint has cured for a few day mask it off and finish the rest of the vehicle. That’s what we did with all of the vans that came in the shop for paint.

 

[Wrench97]

My problem is the roof is like 8 feet long - there's no way I'll be able to get my arm all the way across to the opposite either. Do I setup staging, start in the center (lengthwise) of the roof, work my way across, down , then switch to the other side and repeat?

You have some time, I used a bench on each side spray the roof move the benches spray the sides.
I know of one guy that used an A frame ladder on wheels and had a helper push the ladder and tend the hose to paint horse vans....

 

[danielbuck]

you could take the wheels off and set the truck down on the brakes, that will give you a bit more access to the roof.

 

[American Locomotive]

you could take the wheels off and set the truck down on the brakes, that will give you a bit more access to the roof.

Not a bad idea.

 

[danielbuck]

Not a bad idea.

or remove the disks/drums and set the axles down on wood blocks as low as it will go before the pumpkins hit the ground. good time to inspect the brakes

 

[American Locomotive]

or remove the disks/drums and set the axles down on wood blocks as low as it will go before the pumpkins hit the ground. good time to inspect the brakes

They were all just rebuilt for this project. Given that the rotors are captive and would require complete 4wd hub disassembly to take off, I think they're staying on

 

[danielbuck]

I use one of these (not sure if it's the same one or not) in front of my F250 when working on the engine, it goes maybe as high as 3 feet? that might be perfect for this.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Werner-Aluminum-Adjustable-Height-and-Linking-Pro-Platform-300lb-AP-2030L-MP2/5005470339

 

[MP&C]

When we sprayed a 65 Fairlane race car, the biggest headache was going to be spraying the dash (roll cage obstacle) without dragging hose across the door sill. We broke it down to two spray sessions, one for the dash/cowl and roof, then the bottom sections. As mentioned above, if your car has some good paint breaks, take advantage.

Super Street/ Super Gas Fairlane Build

Although this car is now together, and I did take a grunch of photos, I realized the other day I never had done a complete build thread on it... I had been working on bowties at the time, so by default it just didn't fit in the forums I was on. There were a few excerpts here and there to show...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[American Locomotive]

Well we got the first coats of epoxy on. The roof was difficult, but I also determined that lowering the vehicle would make the rockers and door sills more difficult as well. So it's a trade off. Biggest issue was that the shop and vehicle was not clean enough, despite a lot of cleaning. Bunch of trash in the epoxy. Not a big deal, and nothing some very light scuffing can't take care of.