Question about painting.

[Coach James]

My 90 Dakota has some serious rust on the hood and cab roof and I would like to prevent it from getting worse. I am thinking of doing this: Sand the metal down to bare, prime and paint it with as near a match as I can find then maybe a clear coat to help protect it. It will clearly not match, but I don't care as it is a work vehicle for me now.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan? I have never done any auto painting before and want to see how I do with it and maybe learn a few things.

My other question is about a sprayer. I do not have a large compressor, just a Porter Cable 6 gallon. Can I get by with a cheap gravity feed gun and my PC compressor? If not, any ideas what would work better for not much more money?

Thanks

Coach

 

[Pro-Painter]

My 90 Dakota has some serious rust on the hood and cab roof and I would like to prevent it from getting worse. I am thinking of doing this: Sand the metal down to bare, prime and paint it with as near a match as I can find then maybe a clear coat to help protect it. It will clearly not match, but I don't care as it is a work vehicle for me now.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan? I have never done any auto painting before and want to see how I do with it and maybe learn a few things.

My other question is about a sprayer. I do not have a large compressor, just a Porter Cable 6 gallon. Can I get by with a cheap gravity feed gun and my PC compressor? If not, any ideas what would work better for not much more money?

Thanks

Coach

6 gallon is much, much too small for a spray gun. 30 gallon is the bare minimum, and even then you would only get short spray times out of it.


IMHO, if all you want to do is stop the rust, then I would simply go to an auto parts store and buy a couple of rattle cans of dulpi-color that matches your paint code. Sand, prime, paint, clear. In that order. You want to use a self etch primer since it will be bare metal. self etch primer is easy to find as it is the only pee green primer made, and it will stop the rust from coming back. It works like an acid to "etch" the metal and bond much better then a normal primer would. You can also use it over the old paint if needed.

Advance, autozone etc all sell touch up paint now that is matched to factory paint codes. However, since you paint is 22 years old, it won't match very well at first. After a few washes it will blend better but will never match perfectly.

 

[larryq]

Pro-painter is 100% correct on the compressor size. I have an 8 gal HF compressor that I use to spray small toolboxes, using a detail gun, and even that is pushing my luck. I have 10 feet of copper tube as a moisture drop and two inline dessicant filters and the beads go from blue to pink rather quickly due to the compressor running constantly.

If you want to color match as closely as possible, you could perhaps go to the local auto paint store and ask them to whip up a quart of your color code and some activator. Put the mixture into a disposable 'preval' spray unit and it'll do a better job laying smooth paint than a rattle can. Hardly the same result as a $500 HVLP gun and 80 gallon compressor but for a 22 year old truck it's good enough I'd think?

 

[countryroad82]

Yeah I say go with Pro-Painters' recommendation. You will get pretty nice results if you take your time.

 

[MarkJ]

+3. Even if I had the equipment already - for that sort of job it's easier to use rattle cans. You can get good results and don't need to mix/clean guns, etc.. It just makes life easier.