Southern Pride's Official Build Thread

[96k1500]

I helped my friends dad in his paint shop painting there personal cars for years, I wouldnt take the chance to paint after just a weekend of practice but if you feel comfortable and feel you can make it look good you should do fine

 

[Southern Pride]

Oh haha I won't be painting my truck after 1 weekend painting a fender. This is just the beginning my friend. There will be a ton more practice, and I'll be practicing on my buddies truck first hahaha so it's all good. I'll keep yall posted on that tho it's gonna be a while he's talking bout doin it within the month (his) so we'll see. I just figure no one cares more about my truck than me and lately I've really noticed how mechanics and these custom guys, painters, just that whole category of guys really neglects peoples ****. I'm prepared to practice, learn, practice, and totally invest in doing this myself the right way. My 15 year old paint actually makes a great base too. I figure if i took to maaco they would just scruff it up real quick and shoot it and it probably wouldn't look terrible but I'm prepared to do all the body work, DAYS of prep, and then shoot with high quality ****...so we'll see. I know I'll develop my technique pretty quick and then spend alot of time perfecting it.

 

[Mean Green]

Oh haha I won't be painting my truck after 1 weekend painting a fender. This is just the beginning my friend. There will be a ton more practice, and I'll be practicing on my buddies truck first hahaha so it's all good. I'll keep yall posted on that tho it's gonna be a while he's talking bout doin it within the month (his) so we'll see. I just figure no one cares more about my truck than me and lately I've really noticed how mechanics and these custom guys, painters, just that whole category of guys really neglects peoples ****. I'm prepared to practice, learn, practice, and totally invest in doing this myself the right way. My 15 year old paint actually makes a great base too. I figure if i took to maaco they would just scruff it up real quick and shoot it and it probably wouldn't look terrible but I'm prepared to do all the body work, DAYS of prep, and then shoot with high quality ****...so we'll see. I know I'll develop my technique pretty quick and then spend alot of time perfecting it.

Painting is honestly a technique that takes years and years to perfect!! I'll give you a few kind words of advice man, so don't think I'm trying to be an ******* lol Keep in mind your painting your truck black, black hides NOTHING. Every little ding, scratch everything will show through unless you have your body work perfect. Your on the right path by thinking that the prep work is key, BUT if you don't know what your doing when your laying the base and clear down, it's still not going to look good no matter how good your prep work is. Be prepared to do ALOT of block sanding. Also there is no need to use House Of Colors for black base. If your going with a unique pearl or tri-coat that's a unique color, then there your guys. But with 95% of the colors, PPG is top notch quality. Luckily black is one of the cheapest colors there is along with white! I'd recommend the PPG DB series, excellent stuff!! DO NOT USE OMINI, that **** is like spraying kool-aid. I'm not going to go into detail on the steps of prep, but do use a guide coat when blocking after applying glaze to a dent or ding so you can see what your doing. Do sand the edges (such as along the windows, etc small places) good with a pad, otherwise you'll have peeling paint down the road. Just be sure to get the entire body smooth, and be sure to tack down the body VERY good before sealer and base. Also use a good sealer, and when the time comes to lay down the base, make sure that you are using a decent gun, and have 0 moisture in the air source, have the air pressure set to spec, and are using the right tip for the base your applying. Just remember, keep the right distance steadily and use long even strokes at the appropriate speed. Just do A LOT of practice on old fenders and doors and the like before you try your truck. Like I said, paint is something that takes years to learn, but you have to start somewhere! Just takes a LOT of practice and patients, good luck man, I hope you have great results!!

 

[Solid94]

The only thing I've painted on my truck was the hood and roof. Thanks to the early gm paint it was peeling bad and I figured being only that semi drivers can see my roof I wanted it to just look decent. Spent two day sanding and priming and then sanding again to make sure it was all flat. Used dupli color gm Olympic white spray bombs and clear. When I was all done with 4 coats of clear I did a wet sand with 1500 grit and then a polish and you almost can't tell it was repainted in most lights. But I was going for looking decent not perfect. I'd leave it to a shop for the real deal. I even thought about wrapping my truck satin white with vynil. But be prepared to prep like crazy

 

[Southern Pride]

Yes yes guys I'm aware this is a HUGE undertaking I know it sounds stupid but we are going to be doing nothing but practicing for a looong time...I want to perfect my technique, know all the specs for the gun (he has a pro gun) and all that. I want to buy some good paint, thanks for the tips meangreen! And then just research research research all that I can so I am not skeptical about any phase of painting my truck and then I want to go for it...We'll see tho we may learn that we have no idea what were doing and it's far more complicated than we thought, but I believe we're perfectly capable and I have some good sources to call or whatever when I have questions, so we'll see. The truth will come to light once we start practicing on fenders and all that. I'm the type of guy who learns nothing by reading, but you give me some time and practice physically doing something and I perfect it pretty quick.

Thanks for not ripping me apart on this, yall are the coolest, and I will need some support but this isn't oh I watched an instructional video and now I'm picaso type thing...This is I'm ready and willing to learn, practice, practice, practice, and learn some more. So we'll see what comes of this undertaking.

 

[Southern Pride]

Oh and also Dragit, if you see this man I would love to get your take on this. I have no illusions of this being easy but this is part of research and I'd love to ask you questions and just get your general opinion since I know you're a painter and you do great work.

 

[Southern Pride]

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[Southern Pride]

Alright guys and gals you all know I've been talking about painting my truck myself and that's still a good possibility but I was in Jolly Green's thread and saw how clean his white Z is and he and dirtyhick suggested I just detail the truck up! I have just general fading and spider swirl marks. I've only take an actual buffer to the truck once and that was like 5 years ago...I usually just wash and do the quik wax detailer deal since it's quick and simple but I did a detail went out and bought a buffer @ autozone and first used meguiars ultimate compound and then nxt 2.0 after here they are:

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Buffer I bought today came with 3 pads which was perfect

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Now here there is newer paint on the pass. side ex-cab and bed so the pass side door and fender always look so much more dull but here is an after shot. These helped a little bit but not as much as I was hoping. Remember the ex cab and bed have had nothing done except a wash and quik wax yesterday then it thunderstormed all night :/ BUT I got out and did the detail on the door and fender today

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Here is the driver side of the truck which has had no repainting this whole side is from 1995

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Here's a closer shot of the passenger side where the 2 diff paints meet you can really tell the fading even with the compound and wax put on...Btw the detailed side is on the right and the new paint from like 5 years ago is on the left.

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Welp that's my bit for this week. I also didn't do the hood because I had it painted like 5 years ago also so it always looks pretty good. I just did the quick wax on it. Did the main big detail on all the paint that was from 95 tell me what you think!

 

[dirtyhick42]

I detailed the **** out of my 98 one time and it literally made the paint look almost new besides a few deep scratches. To get it to that point though it took me a solid 8 hours of work, it's not gonna come out brand new with just a wash and some compound it needs to be worked completely right for the results to be awesome. Look into Adam's detail products as I have heard nothing but good things about them and that you really get what you pay for when you purchase from them. Or if your not confident in your own abilities take it to a detail shop and for around 100 they should be able to get your truck looking brand new.

 

[Southern Pride]

I detailed the **** out of my 98 one time and it literally made the paint look almost new besides a few deep scratches. To get it to that point though it took me a solid 8 hours of work, it's not gonna come out brand new with just a wash and some compound it needs to be worked completely right for the results to be awesome. Look into Adam's detail products as I have heard nothing but good things about them and that you really get what you pay for when you purchase from them. Or if your not confident in your own abilities take it to a detail shop and for around 100 they should be able to get your truck looking brand new.

Yeah I agree it doesn't look very good but you notice how faded my 95 paint is even just after compound and wax? Do you think Adam's (which I've heard nothing but quality) will really be able to take it that far? I have some meguiars ultimate polish in the garage but I really didn't know if it would help or not?

I am new to detailing even though I know a good bit I need to know what procedures and products you're talking about exactly to get that brand new look. This took maybe 1.5-2 hours but I wasn't expecting much.

Notice in my last pic how you can still see some swirls on my drive door there