prepping for paint?

if I dont sell the truck.. im gonna start on it by making it look nice again.. the paint is pretty damn good, especially with a coat of wax, but after seeing my new bumper cover, I want the whole truck done.

I figure...
- first I go over and wash the car
- then use a claybar to remove any wax/dirt
- bondo over the dents (there are only a few small
dings, one kinda large one, like the size of a nickle, on
the hood from hail maybe)
- sand bondo/rust down so its really smooth
- take off limited door panels
- take off doors and mask door jam so that jams can be
painted
- tape off windshield
- cover wheels (somehow???)

get it painted metallic emerald green

 

[JDraper]

If you do decide to paint the vehicle, you might want to consider the following: Before you do any body work on it, wash it like you said, but then use a wax stripper to remove all wax on the vehicle. Then strip all the paint off the areas you want to fix with bondo, do that, prime over them, then wet sand the whole vehicle with 600 grit sandpaper to rough the surface up slightly for paint adhesion. To do the door jambs, buy a can of door jamb prep. It softens up the paint for adhesion in the areas you can't sand.

You also want to remove as much trim as humanly possible. It makes for a much better paint job than masking everything does.

For covering the wheels, use Hefty trash bags. Works great!!

Good Luck.

BTW, if you do the painting yourself, make sure you get a good quality paint like PPG or DuPont. I just did a friends F-150 with Limco (I think it's DuPont's cheap brand), and I will never use it again. My friend bought the paint, it wasn't my choice. I would have gone with PPG, as I have painted several vehicles, and it has always worked well for me.