Painting my 06 DC HELP

Hey guys, so I’ve been wanting to paint my Tundra and I’m really unsure where to get material. The only place that I can find supplies to do any kind of paint work would be doing a raptor liner. I like the idea of these but I really like the shine of a nice gloss finish too! All that being said I need to know where to get primer, paint, gloss clear coat. I need all the help I can get. I have a compressor but what kind of sprayer will I need. Thank you everyone.

 

https://www.kolorhouse.com/index.html

https://www.eastwood.com/

ever paint anything before? While its not a hidden dark art, it does take some practice to get it right.

 

I've been a backyard painter for 30 plus years, mostly motorcycles, but a few trucks and cars. The first problem is where to do it, as in a relatively low dust area and no over-spray on your neighbors car. Materials here in California used to be affordable and easily sourced, but now, good paint and reducers, and sealers are almost unattainable. The paint I used to use required high pressure to apply, maybe 60 lbs at the tip, now the materials and equipment are HVLP, just the opposite. Most people would need some experience before tackling a big project like a truck. Given lack of experience, cost of equipment and materials, and a good spray booth you would be dollars ahead by getting a good paint job from a reputable body shop. One more thing, the paints are really nasty to breathe now and require a fresh air hood to be worn by the painter and proper ventilation of the fumes.
The Astro gun on the left is the type of gun to apply today's materials, and the old DeVilbiss on the right is what I spray my stash of old enamels I've rat packed. I still have enough for a few more motorcycles. I find, although wasteful, the old high pressure application atomizes the paint better and gives me a better finish, but I am still very much an amateur painter. Good luck anyway if you go forward with the job and it's true, preparation is the key for a good result.

 

I have only one question: What color is your current Tundra and why do you want to paint it? Like, certain colors are a specific type of paint that chalk out and can easily be polished back to a shine for less than $150 in materials and about a day of work (all non-metallics). That's covered over here.

My advice?

This is your first post on this Tundra enthusiast forum. But your post realistically has 0% to do with Tundras, and 100% to do with automotive painting. You probably should've made this your first post on a forum that specializes in DIY automotive painting.

But before you do that, save yourself from getting flamed to death which happens often, go hit YouTube first. Spend all day watching videos on DIY car painting and automotive paint equipment to get idea of what's involved, what components you need, and run the numbers to see how much $$ you'll be in for. This way you're not just walking into a forum of enthusiasts, and asking them to do your homework for you. You'll be able to speak intelligently about the topic.

What I think you'll find watching videos is:

• A lot of people will suggest it looks easy, and you can do a quality job with almost nothing
• But those same people will fail to mention you can easily kill yourself (no exaggeration) using the stuff they do, while painting at home, w/o proper respiration
• One of those products that gets leaned on a lot, Spray2K Max, isn't suitable for full-car, and it will destroy your lungs
• You'll be paying to build and/or setup a proper area to paint
• There's lots of prep involved, and your results on top rely 100% on your surface prep - surface prep your is #1 concern to getting a good job
• You'll also be paying for proper prep materials, random-orbit DA, different grits of pads, surface prep materials, fillers
• You'll be paying for some form of primer, then paint, then the materials to lay it down
• You'll be paying for inline filters for your compressor, and that compressor should have at least a 50gal tank to paint a truck
• There's probably other crap I'm missing... but the main point is, it's a lot of cost, high cost of entry, if you don't ever plan to do it again

I'm grateful guys like @chunk are around to comment on it. Maybe I'm overblowing it. But this has been my experience, after watching friend after friend try to paint their own. I've done small scale stuff (bike tanks, shop stuff), I wasn't willing to commit.

 

https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-fitzgerald/how-paint-car-bucket-rust-oleum-and-roller

 

My back yard spray booth.

 

This is pretty much me with bike frames, except I'm hanging it from my overhead deck, over my backdriveway. Wet the ground to cut down on kicking up dust, and go to town. But it sucks if you're topcoating w/clear, I always end up correcting out shit after the fact.

 

I just pick a calm morning, all prepped the night before and using a catalyzed paint, it goes dust free in a few minutes, then I move the parts into the shop and keep the doors closed until the next day. Cars and trucks require more planning, a big concrete space, wet down and a very large air supply for the old guns, is required. I did one VW bug in a real spray booth once with proper lighting, man that was tits to be able to see properly with no shade / sun glare, or wind. A long time ago though, and when my stash of paint is gone, I guess I'll be done painting.

 

@shifty` I’ve done a bit of painting before. Not trying to get anyone to do my homework for me. I genuinely don’t know the process. I’ve looked on sites and watched videos but haven’t really been able to find out certain things like mixing the activators and things like that. Was just really asking for people who have done theirs theirself. Maybe parts that they didn’t remove/should have things like that as well. But thanks for all the input. Forgot to mention it’s black. It has clear coat chipping away and I was really considering a blue color. I just want to make it look nice again.

 

Just providing an outside perspective, not making an accusation.

Put yourself in our shoes for a sec, I mean, the shoes of total strangers on the internet: We know each other a bit, but we've never seen you on here before. This is your first post, which isn't even an intro, it's just asking for painting expertise. It opens with, "The only tool I have is a compressor. Dunno where to get paint and supplies. Dunno which sprayer to get."

First things first, when your first post on a forum is a request for info rather than a hello, a lot of folks I've seen take that as a slap in the face. A lot of guys on here and one other truck forum I'm on are pretty cool about it. Actually, to that point, if you wanted to join that one they have a great dedicated paint & body forum, it's here. Tell them 'shifty' sent you. The older cats that've been there for 15-20 years should know me pretty well. You can learn a lot over there.

The reason your post comes off a little noob-ish (which is OK dude, we've all been noobs!) is this: The type of sprayer you get depends on what type of paint you're shooting. Where you go for paint can depend on what type of paint you intend to lay down. Hell, which state you live in can affect what paint and supplies you can buy. There's so little info to go on, and anyone who knows even a bit about paint knows this. That's why I say "asking to do your homework".

A lot of this depends on what paint you're trying to go with.

Like, what paint do you currently have? is it solid or metallic, so we have a clue whether you need to paint, and whether it uses clearcoat? (You answered this now, thx)

Are you going basic colors with the re-coat, i.e. one-shot (single stage) paints that you lay on a few coats over primer, then knock down and polish to a shine?

Or are you planning for something metallic, which is often multi-stage, laying down base color, potentially adding flake if not mixed in w/base, then shooting color?

You might've answered those last two.

But really - my advice is this: Define your end goal now, as soon as you can. Approach with that. Like ...

"I know I want XYZ color paint, basic, no metallic, any advice on the best way to get there, which product to use, paired with which gun, reducers, activators, etc.?"

Not only that, but when you decide on a noob-friendly product, then you can hunt very specific videos for that product to hone in on your end result.

If nobody has offered that life advice, stick it in your craw and marinate on it. It's a great way to get things done. Define what your end goal looks like, something more concrete and less vague than "I want my truck paint to look better" or "I want to DIY re-paint my truck".

This is good info. Someone else was saying on here their black was clear'd also, which is weird, because some members with black trucks (seems to be about 50/50) are sporting single stage paint, i.e. no clear.

Can you shoot a couple pics of the clearcoat fail so we know what you're dealing with? This is important if you want folks to give advice on how to best attack preparing your panels.

And FYI, if you plan to change colors, this is a really important point to make: It's a PITFA to paint doorjambs, near-impossible to paint inside the engine bay nicely, and you need to remove the bed to paint the back wall of the truck and front of the bed. If you change colors, any time you pop your hood, open your door, everyone's going to see the old color of the truck. Maybe this doesn't bother you, but it's something to think about. To boot, where your rubber seals are around the windows, unless you remove the glass, if that rubber shrinks, it's going to expose the old color. With black, maybe not so big of a deal, but... again, something to think about.

If you stick with the same color, it's a lot easier to be discrete about things, and you can feather your panel prep out to those hidden areas, then lap over it. But that's not my area of expertise. I typically stick to smaller projects.

 

First step is to get the primer right. Sand off the old paint, detach everything. Fender flares mirror caps bumpers grille tailgate 3rd-brake-light roof-strips windshield-trim doors handles trim ?gas door? Then mask off everything you dont want painted. this is the time to fix the body. If you have any big dings, hammer em out and bondo and smooth. Fill the small dents and scuffs and chips with bondo and sand smooth. And prime and sand and prime and sand and prime and sand, until your happy.

The paintgun vs compressor and paint vs weather, that comes later and is mostly going to be trial and error...unless you're in a climate controlled booth. And i wonder if an LED hat light strapped to the paint gun would be better than holding a light while painting...

 

@Shifty I’d like to post in the right place. Not meaning to offend anyone. I am part of a couple groups on Facebook and we kinda communicate a little different on there. I will definitely try not to do that again.
Here is the messed up paint spots. Driver side back door and hood.

 

I would like to paint it a flat color but what would be the difference between painting flat vs a candy apple red?

 

My buddy restored this '72 chevy and retained the unappealing mustard color for originality, and for the PITFA factor of changing colors. He shot it outdoors, at his work, where there was a big enclosed chunk of concrete. He did it early in the morning and let it sit over the weekend. It came out great. I wish I had bought it from him when he sold it. He put a brand new crate motor in the engine bay and a proper 4 speed manual for power to the wheels.

 

I dont know about these newfangled paints, some even react to magnets. But my expierience with candy was a usually metallic basecoat and like 20 layers of tinted laquers.

Even though i know how to paint i dont, and i would rather learn to apply a vinyl wrap. Replace it every 3 years or so. do all the primer prep work, but painting sucks. If i can fix it with spraypaint, i will. But as far as painting a whole body, hard nah.

 

@Mr.bee outside of Prep is spraying it that hard?

 

Spraying isnt, but getting a nice coat is.

i dont know, but if a community college offered paint&body as a course it would take at least a whole semester. Probably 2 to be decent, 3 or 4 to get fancy like candy and pearls.

 

Yep, that's definitely clearcoated. Wonder if it's original to the truck.

@Mr.bee dialed it in on candies.

I know this was targeted at him, but the hardest part (for me) is keeping an even distance from the panel, and not spraying at too high an angle, especially on long panels. My natural habit is to arc, starting farther from the panel at the ends and closer in the middle.

Yep, here's my '68 (not anymore) which was also a DIY repaint, single stage, near-match to factory but not quite. It had flaws, and I could point out every one of them. But definitely good from 5-10ft. As you can see on driver door, needed some more heavy-cut polishing.

 

Very nice, my buddy, the same guy is restoring a '69 chevy stepside with a 6 cyl. and 3 speed column transmission currently. He says he won't sell this one, but you can bet I'll be first in line if he does.

 

67/68 had the sexier front-end but '68 was guaranteed to have the big back window. I prefer the 69/70 front clip more than the 71/72, so your friend is lucky IMHO.

The one I pictured above, that was before I dropped LS1/T56 into it. That swap is written up over at LS1Tech, you can find me on there with the same username. It was also 3 on the tree w/I6-250 until I threw in a I6-292, then swapped in the LS1 with 6spd T56 floor shift. I spent way more money on that truck than I should've.

The 67-72 era is the cream of the crop for GM pickups. Actually for GM everything. They don't make vehicles like that anymore. I'd kill to get another 67-70 Impala, although I wouldn't turn down anything from the 60s!

 

The chalkboard test.

how straight can you draw a line, and how long is that line. Some people might have an 6 foot pattern, others might have a 10 foot pattern. The application of paint could definately be seen as a dance. Now make that line at hip height and knee height, then ankle height. Theres a muscle memory to getting a smooth straight spray.

 

Me and Gary, the buddy in question lament this all the time. We are both motorcyclists too, and the same goes for bikes. Simple vehicles from the late '60's thru the early 70's are the cream of the crop IMO. Along with BMW airheads and 2 smoke street bikes. I sold a beautiful '72 chevy long-bed pickup with a top of the line cab, factory 4 speed and big block 402. Talk about buyers remorse.

 

When I was learning to apply finish, I was taught to keep the gun parallel with the work surface and not make an arc. Once that becomes second nature it's pretty easy to do, if the material is properly thinned or reduced so it lays out. I built cabinets for many years and sprayed a lot of polyurethanes and lacquers over the years. The same principles apply.