Poor mans paint job

My truck has a couple bad scratches, rust holes, pinstripes, ect. and I was thinking about doing some bodywork, the rustholes are easy enough to patch, small dents are just bondo and sanding, (there is one large dent that is going to be tough though). Im going to paint it after of course, but I dont want to spend the $1500+ that it would cost to do it properly for a $2800 truck (thats a steal by our standards) that spends a lot of its time offroad. Its not a hardcore bush rig, but scrapes and dents are inevitable, and pinstriping from branches happen every time I take it out. I was thinking of doing a rattle can matte black job, but Ive never seen someone do that without it coming off looking blotchy and uneven, so I gave up on the idea for awhile.

Recently my friend bought a Camaro as his first car, and as we tore into it to make it drivable we noticed that the paint job was clearly applied with a roller and brushes. This gave me new ideas, looking into it i think it would cost less than $100 in materials to do the whole thing (bodywork included). Now I know it wont look as good as a professional metallic paint job, but it might look good enough for my garbage. Has anyone ever tried this? Im mostly concerned about durability, I live on Canadas west coast so rain is commonplace, and I will continue to abuse the truck offroad. Thanks for any help.

Ill add some pictures to make the post less boring


Trails around here are not really cut for fullsize trucks


For some reason I thought it was a good idea to go wandering around the forest with a couple hundred pounds of stuff in the bed

This one gives a good idea of the body damage im working with

The Camaro, which he refuses to allow me to call "Crumble Bee". The blue is rolled on, the hood, grille, and spoiler are sprayed.

Take a look at Tractor Supply, they have a variety of colors for a great price and it being tractor paint it seems to stand up a little better. Its a little thicker but easy to apply with your average inexpensive paint gun... I've repainted old tractors for couple hundred bucks...

This is the paint. Works well from experience on the farm
Majic Town & Country Tractor, Truck & Implement, 1 gal., N H Yellow - For Life Out Here.

I plan on painting my ZR-2 crawler project with it.

I have seen it done, before. A really "special" guy, I used to work with did that to an international Scout he owned. Have you heard of a 20 footer? Well, you could see the brush strokes in the paint from over a hundred feet away. I don't think you'd like it, but, hey, it's your truck you can do whatever you want to it.

Years ago, my Dad had a '61 International Scout that was a hunting truck...spent most of its life in the woods. He came across some epoxy paint and hardener somewhere and painted it on with a roller...you couldn't scratch that paint no matter how hard you tried.


This signature is AWESOME!!!

I think if you check on the internet there are some pretty good DIY u tubes on spray painting. I think for the initial investment(you don't need a pro gun)of a gun and if you have a compressor some tape and sandpaper and a little time you will be much more satisfied with the outcome of your "custom" paint job, then you will with a brush and a roller. Just my opinion-----
Jay

Couple of summers ago I toyed around with a mustang, rattle canned it with the cheapest paint at Canadian Tire and used some rattle clear coat. Lots and lots of sanding and respraying. I had zero experience and quite enjoyed it lol

Pull Ya said:

I think if you check on the internet there are some pretty good DIY u tubes on spray painting. I think for the initial investment(you don't need a pro gun)of a gun and if you have a compressor some tape and sandpaper and a little time you will be much more satisfied with the outcome of your "custom" paint job, then you will with a brush and a roller. Just my opinion-----
Jay

Click to expand...

This one works well for the DIY'r Works great for little fab products too, where you can apply a better paint than a rattle can.
Husky Siphon Feed Spray Gun-H4930SSG - The Home Depot

I have done this. Roller, spray bombs, etc...

Mind you, I am a pro painter. I understand all paints, prep, etc, so I do have an advantage with the end results. That said, it's totally do able with great results.

There are probably hundreds, hell maybe 1000's of YouTube videos on this.
There are also many different reasons or scenarios for choosing which method.

I have had near show car quality results with rolling and spray bombs.
It is very labor intensive, sand-paint-sand-paint until blue in the face and then polish and wax. If you have a garage and a spray gun/compressor, just suck it up and buy real automotive paint. If not, well then you can experiment. Practice practice practice.
Grab an old hood or fender and nail your technique before hitting your pride and joy.

what about covering with Rhino type liner?????

Or plastidip???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know, I know, this is an old thread, but I wanted to share some new experience regarding this topic. I had (keyword here is had) a whole lot of peeling clear coat. My truck was looking like a ****** even though it runs like a top. DW rolled in a bedliner and under the cab sills about a year ago and it still looks fresh. So I got me a quart of Rustoleum Gloss Black and some thinner and went to town on the hood, cab, and fenders. I wet sanded with 1200 grit first, then rolled on the paint with a foam roller. DW looked at and said she could do better with a brush. So I wet sanded again until the rolled on paint was smooth and she went at it with a brush. (It did look better, but don't tell her that). I then wet sanded it down to smooth black paint and then took McGuires Ultimate Compound to it and WOW! Then I threw on a coat of Carnauba Wax for protection and put my shades on just to look at it. I'll see if I can get a decent picture. It's so bright and shiny the camera just glares haha.
For you cheaper (read frugal here) guys out there, the entire job cost me less than $30.US plus a lot of time wet sanding. Sooo worth it.

Looks great!

Good job!