paint selection and engineering

[rockcrawler31]

hey all

is there a paint bible somewhere? i had a look at the bible and faq's but i must be blind.

anyway, i'll be painting the troopy in the future so i need to try and choose a paint type. it only has the factory toyota paint on it now, and the truck WILL get dings and scratches. so i need a paint that is easy enough to repair and apply at home, and will adhere to the factory paint. should i go enamel or acrylic?

also what value is there to going to bare metal, or how can you tell if the original undercoat is ok to use. I have someone here who is experienced in prep and paint but he wants me to make the choice of paint type or how far i want to go for sanding back.

Also

i have an aftermarket rear tank that can only be raised so far before hitting a factory crossmember (used to carry the spare tyre). what will an engineer have to say about cutting it out and fabricating a bolt in raised replacement in its place? anyone know if this is passable in queensland?

also, i was considering cutting off the rear spring hangers and rewelding slightly further apart so i can fit longer 79 series springs. If i do this i'd probably do 1 inch lift spacers and fish plates to get a little lift without compromising the suspension geometry at the same time. any idea how the engineer would feel about this? again, i'd want to engineer in queensland

MILO

[CWBYUP]

I would go and see an engineer.

You will get heaps of responces on here and half will not know what there on about, Do you really want to rely on fourm chat to start cutting up you truck ???

A phone call is cheap compared to redoing all the work.

Nick

[Mick.]

It's hard to tell what your factory primer is like without looking at it but provided theres no rusty spots coming through. The other thing to look for with toyotas is the factory paint deleminates from the factory primer after about 10 years.

If this is the case the paint would need rubing all the way back to the primer because the top coat usually cant be feathered out enough to paint over. Then it would need priming.

If you don't have rusty spots or delaminating paint then just give it a good wet rub down with p600 wet, put a good sealer down (ppg scan sealer is one of the best) then paint straight over it with 2 pack.

I wouldn't use acylric or enamel. Acylic blisters,cracks,chips,blushes, dull and has no durability what so ever.

Enamel is has no durability and can be a pain in the ass to touch up if you want it to look any good.

2 pack is easy to touch up, doesn't blister, crack or chip anywhere near as much as the others and is way more durable (meaning it holds it's gloss a lot longer and can handle contaminates being spilled on it like petrol,thinners, turps without washing off.

2 pack is also available for a very good price these days and the only down fall to using it is it is a lot harder to use for the average person how doesn't use it everyday.

As for the fuel tank i'd check with an engineer before you start choping anything.

Cheers Mick.

[rockcrawler31]

Thanks for that mate.

can you lay two pack down straight on top of the factory primer?

do you have to bake it or can daytime temps be enough.

also i've been talking to some guys who do soda blasting, and they reckon you can go back to bare metal with soda and you don't need to prime straight away, and you can even clean off the panels with water and it won't rust. sounds dodgy as hell to me. anyone had any experiences with soda blasting.

sounds to me like a better, safer way to blast, but i'd still take the normal precautions to prime withing a couple of hours.

can you surface prep with metho or is prepsol the only way to go?

[BowTieGQ]

Needs to bake in oven or it would take 2 weeks to be touch dry in the sun. I prefer to leave factory paint intact. It is usualy very well adhered to the steel. Dont use acrylic as stated, the solvents in it are more powerful than 2 pack and causes it to travel through existing paint and will cause probs where there are paint edges, repairs etc. Touch ups are easy as. Prepsol everything everytime you spray anything. Oil from your fingers can cause probs even. You'll also find it cleans everything nicely, rubbers, tyres etc.

[Bad JuJu]

I thought 2pack was a reaction drying and curing paint, thus does not require sun/oven to dry.
But still requires decent conditions to apply (low humidity, moderate temp etc)
You learn somthing every day.

[BowTieGQ]

Correct. 2 pack will never cure without hardener. Make a cake and sit it in the sun and see what happens. Even after baking, the paint not the cake, it is still a little soft out of the oven. Also 2 pack is actualy enamel. But it needs hardener to cure it. There is the other enamel, refered to as spraying enamel (go figure?) or jam. Some people differentiate them as either enamel or 2 pack. When many people I know refer to enamel they're talking about 2 pack not the other enamel as it doesn't even come into the equation for most people. Hence Mick's interpretations. Not saying he's wrong though, as it's realy more acurate than I would have said. Depends on the circles your in. But to make things more complicated, there is a product called enamel add which is a hardener for spraying enamel. Not required but a better result. Also, acrylic is air dry too. Still sprayed in a booth, preferably, to keep it cleen. Enough of the lessons, go 2 pack!

[turkey]

I manufacture marine grade 2pack polyurethanes among other things for a living. There is a few misconceptions being chucked around here. PM me if ya want info on some good paint for ya car. At work right now so cant go right into it at the moment....

[Mick.]

2 pack doesn't need a spray booth to cure it will be hard enough to denib and buff the next day. When doing resprays I never ever bake them I just leave them in the booth to dry overnight and they are put together the next day hard as a rock. Thats using slow hardener, slow thinner and no heat in the booth.

I often do puff ins on bumperbars, moulds etc and I will paint them outside the booth leave them for 30 minutes in the sun, denib them and buff them. 2 pack is actually fully cured in a week (reguardless of wheather you baked it or not) and acrylic actually takes 6 weeks to cure. Fully cured meaning all sovents have evaporated and the job is like concrete and usually to hard to denib if left this long.

Enamel add is just a cheap hardener you can use to make enamel harder which will help if it ever needs touching up but still doesn't help it hold it's gloss though.

I've never heard of soda blasting but I wouldn't touch your 4wd with any type of blaster just use an orbital sander it is but easier and less messy then trying to blast or paint strip turrets.

If the factory primer is fine you can paint straight over it will 2 pack but just make sure you use a sealer first which will help prevent sink back and adhesion problems.

If the roof is that bad your looking at striping it then I would suggest you 2 pack prime it first.

Cheers Mick.

[Marty1]

Dude- if the truck is goin to get knocked about, dont go
to heaps of trouble like going back to bare metal, And if
you want to do touch ups ect at home dont get 2pac. If
it's easy to get the original white, stick with that (will match
door jams/ under bonet ect.) or get the closest white
from a common car, eg commodore/falcon

Give the car a good rub back before spraying though... take
the shine of it

[mico]

Listen to what "Mick" has said, he is 100% spot on (both Mick and myself are spray painters and from the sounds of it there are some wanna-be's posting here) some of the other things said here a just crap and should be ignored

As I said Mick is right on the money

[=SKB=]

Cut it back a bit and hit it with Hammertone. Cheap, easy, hardwearing, and looks good when done right.

[macca81]

whiteout/tipex (whatever you wanna call it) is nearly totaly identical to landcruiser white, its great for small touchups and if ya carefull with it ya can hardly tell



but then, im pretty dodgy