No worries about derailment.. I'm just glad this thread is helpful to you guys!
logik you just delivered the best news of all time to me because owning a black truck with the 95 paint job I thought there was no way I can get my rocker panels re matched to the rest of the truck...I had no clue black was the easiest to deal with??? Logik man if you can do me a favor and tell me what you think a shop would charge to "blend" my rocker panels to the rest of my truck? I've got a plastic wrap on them now and as you can see its a grey color and I hate it...I want them black again.
The one thing I don't get is the actual process of blending...Like u re spray and clear the damage after body work but how do you actually blend it with all the paint around it?
It's hard to say what any shop would charge you. I myself would charge about $200-250 to repaint and blend the lower half of your truck, that is providing there is no real bodywork needed to be done (other than sanding, no dent fixing or anything). I would assume your truck is rust free being in Tennessee (yeah, I have envy!)..
The actual process was relatively simple, after I made my repairs, I sanded only the area I fixed using 400grit sandpaper. I then went over the repair area again plus about 5-6" outside of the repair area with at least 1000 grit paper. This allows the new paint/clear to bite into the old. If you use too coarse of a sandpaper you will have scratches that the paint/clear WILL show. I then primed it (WITHOUT masking, you don't want sharp edges that you would have to sand out -- I also made sure my paint gun was turned down to prevent overspray), I then wetsanded the whole area (all of the repair area plus the 5-6") again with 1000 grit paper to "feather" the primer in a little better and to ensure it's as smooth as possible to prevent textured paint (also known as orange peel).
Once you're satisfied with the results of your priming/bodywork, then you can lay down the base color. Which, with this you need to obviously expand your painting zone to cover all of the primer, try to stay within 2-3" outside of the primed area. You need that other 3" to feather/blend the clear, so keep it as close as possible. I generally try to lay one light coat, then two medium coats of base color. I also wetsand every coat of base exactly like before.
Once you're satisfied with the base, you can then lay your clearcoat. Exactly the same but extend your painting zone to all 6" you wetsanded initially. I typically like to lay up to 4 coats of clear, just to make sure there is enough clear there to wetsand out imperfections and buff.
After that, what do you do? Yup, you guessed it! Wetsand some more! Since this is the final time, I hit it with 1000 to get rid of the orange peel, then go over it again with 1500 or 2000 to make sure there are no scratches that the buffer cannot take out. If you don't have experience with a buffer, I do not recommend you take on that. It's VERY easy to burn edges (ruining all your hard work) and possibly making it worse.
There is some more to it, but it differs from project to project.
The things I could/would do for these skills...Makes me want to take on body work as a career since I'm still trying to figure that out but alot of things sound appealing, but making vehicles look amazing all day would be the ****.
It's like anything else, after awhile it becomes a job, I like doing it but at my leisure. I'd never want to consider doing it full time.
Anyhow, If you lived closer I would have no problem with walking you through how to do it in person!
Believe it or not, I do almost all of my body work on my personal vehicles in my driveway or garage. My '76 Trans Am I restored, I painted in a $200 tarp style carport I set up in the driveway. Everyone always asks who painted it, and don't believe me when I tell them I did it in my driveway.
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Yes, I do some photography too.
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