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Painting the Old F150

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  • Painting the Old F150

    Steve (Rightpedal) asked about my F150 and rather than hijack the "How to get rubber off Paint" thread, I'll start another one -

    The F150 was my old DD for several years and is the truck, w/mid-sized box trailer, that I used to move us from MI to NC - repeated trips. It's an '88 with about 75K miles on it (I only deal in "actual/original" miles - what other kind are there?). Anyhow, it had some Michigan iron oxide but not too bad. It's a 5.0 with the Mazda 5 speed and a new clutch. It has power windows, cruise, air, tilt, power door locks, etc. I'm the second owner and I bought it about 10 years ago from a coworker at EPA with like 40 K miles on it - he basically never drove it.

    The body work is basically done and I GLUED it together using the Lord Fusor system. I think I have enough pics of the process to post a thread on that. It's strong enough that GM accepts it for unibody structural repairs! I will pick up a NC tailgate if possible - they're a pain to get strong enough to be a tailgate and pretty enough to look right. Besides, there's nothing to replacing one if you're going to paint the truck anyway.

    So I got it patched and spot primed then it went outside so I could mess with the Camaro and has been there ever since. ME's getting VERY anxious to get it the heck out of here and I can't say I blame her. This may hold the source of $$ for the high compression six I want to build.

    I'm planning to cover the paint process as well. I plan to do it in white with stripes in the original blue - that dark blue that about half of these trucks were painted. Base/clear.

    The truck runs pretty well but needs a couple of minor tweaks of the EFI - it idles itself up in some situations. My friend Dave runs a repair shop and worked at the Ford dealer when these were new so he's very familiar with the OBDI system on the ol' boy. Dave says it's almost certainly a sensor (he mentioned it by name but then started speaking in alphabet soup). We'll sort that out before it goes up for sale.

    If anyone wants to learn the steps to spraying paint I'd be very happy to have an apprentice for this project. And we can split camera duties, too. We can put you up for as many weekends as necessary - all you have to do is get here. I plan to start right after the October Maxton meet.

    Dan

  • #2
    Re: Painting the Old F150

    Dan
    Please ^(million)
    detail the painting process with as much information as you can.

    XX grit to start
    ___ primer over bare metal

    ___ primer to fill, then block sand with XX paper

    you get the idea.

    I hope to follow you along on this carefully - and possibly make my ranger the first vehicle I paint myself... it doesn't need much body work, just a lot of sanding, and a bit of 'glass epoxy work on the splash bed.

    Keep VERY close eye on the fluid level in that mazda trans - they take ATF NOT gear lube - and if they get low - they will eat themselves alive. I bought my ex brother in laws 88 - 302/5spd - he balked at the price of a replacement 5 speed, and put an old (T10?) wide ratio 4spd in it - basically a 3 speed - 4th was overdrive. Did OK in a short 2wd with a 302.
    There's always something new to learn.

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    • #3
      Re: Painting the Old F150

      Already had a trans rebuild. They're way too fragile for a truck like this, but OK for most normal usage. Mine failed after considerable trailer towing .

      The idea is to detail the paint process as fully as possible. I'm thinking of doing charts for paint chemistry, sand paper grits, finishing steps, etc. This should make it easier to follow.

      Dan

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      • #4
        Re: Painting the Old F150

        I have three cars depending on you Dan. No pressure ;D
        Escaped on a technicality.

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        • #5
          Re: Painting the Old F150

          None felt. I've been messing with this stuff since I was 15 or so - that was a LONG time ago. I'm no professional but have done enough that I'm VERY comfortable around it and it's one of the few areas that I feel like I can speak up and be adamant about it. I do some stuff differently from the pros because I've found it to work for me. I'll try to point those out as I come to them. The big one is probably the lack of a booth (we'll kluge up something) and the use of a siphon spray gun (Binks #7). Fortunately I have understanding neighbors and I live in a state that hasn't made everything illegal. I don't do enough of it to beat myself up over the environmental impact.

          Dan

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          • #6
            Re: Painting the Old F150

            woot.

            <-- subscribed.

            my trucks in need of alot of smoothing, but that will come after shaving the drip rails.

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