Rustbucket to Blue Beast Conversion

[91Rustbucket]

I finally decided to update the look of my old Rustbucket 91 Explorer. I started by stripping the bumpers, grill, roof rack, lights, and trim pieces. Followed by pressure washing it, then using 80 grit followed by 160 I sanded all of the rust down to bare metal and removed the trim sticker. Since I knew I was going to paint over the chrome I made sure to scuff those up really well so everything would stick. Once all the metal prep was done I used POR15 cleaner degreaser followed by their metal prep product, rinsed it down then stuck it in the garage with a heater and dehumidifier for 4.5 days (it could be done sooner, but I was working on weekends). On Friday I started all of my taping took about 6 hours to tape everything off right, as well as hanging plastic in my garage to make a paint booth. Saturday I used POR15 Rust Preventative Coating to paint over all the bare metal and previous rust locations. 2 hours after painting on the POR15 I started spraying the Raptor Liner, after calling the manufacturer they confirmed that painting over POR15 when it was still just a little tacky would prevent having to wait for it to dry and cure then re-sanding so it would take the paint. The raptor liner went on really well, though the gun would jam up with moisture after a pint of paint if I didn't strip it down and wipe it out. Two coats of the blue went on then when it was mostly dry to the touch I pulled the tape. I repeated the heater and dehumidifier routine and waited 4 more days for the blue to cure before I taped it and painted the black.

Products used:
80 grit sandpaper
160 grit sandpaper
POR15 Cleaner Degreaser
POR15 Metal Prep
POR15 Rust Preventative Coating
Frog Tape Painters tape 1.5"
Large roll of paper
Cardboard to cover the wheels and tires
Raptor liner tintable with "Reflex Blue" tint 8 Liters
Raptor liner Black 4 Liters

 

[RangerX]

Wow, what a great blue!
How about a couple more pics of the finished job, maybe a side shot or something?

 

[91Rustbucket]

Wow, what a great blue!
How about a couple more pics of the finished job, maybe a side shot or something?

 

[boominXplorer]

Looks great!

 

[crashhard]

Good lookin Blue

 

[Turdle]

That looks real good!

 

[Mbrooks420]

I dig the colors. I might do something like this when my Mounty body gets rough. I suppose I’ve got about 10 years to pick the colors, though.

 

[massacre]

That’s awesome!

 

[Varsity]

Looks incredible!! Awesome job!

 

[Mr. Alligator]

Great work! Looks super sharp.