Topic: DIY Jeep painting and color matching

[chrisfranklin]

My YJ could use a new coat of paint on a few surfaces this spring or summer:  hood, fenders, the factory bumper/bumperettes.    Really didn't want to do the whole body or go to an auto painter or otherwise spend more than 30-40 bucks on the job - especially since my hood and tailgate are dented.

My YJ has black, 13 year old paint.  I know about the Rustoleum auto spray (or brush-on) paints.  The black auto sprays Rustoleum sells are gloss, flat and a flat/gloss combo.    Am actually ok with doing the brush-on route, as I have seen some decent results with it.

Which do you think I should do?

a) buy one can of each variety of the Rustoleum black (flat, gloss, combo), test or otherwise matches the existing 13year old finish best, and then apply (spray or brush) to the limited areas I mentioned

b) mask everything off, pull the spare tire off, fender flares, trim pieces and spray/brush the entire body?  

c) skip the DIY and go to a cheap auto paint shop - Sheib or Maaco?

d) Go to a Jeep junkyard and just buy an old, good-condition hood with the factory black paint? Spray the other areas on my list above.

e) Other

Edit: issues for me are going to be a clean, dust-free painting/drying area, time, time for prep-work.  Any tips would be helpful.

Edit2:  BTW the metal tag showing the paint code was underneath the radiator and attached near it upside down.  Surprisingly, no tags indicating paint code were in the doorjams, engine bay or under drivers seat.  This was for a 94 YJ. 

[JeepManMarc]

Are you talking about the people who aplly rustoleum to cars with rollers that come out almost as good as a gun?  If you dont know what I am talking about let me know, I have seen some incredible looking paint jobs done this way amazingly enough.

[chardrc]

well for me i see my 1990 yj as a jeep and in that respect it will eventually get scrapes and dents and other battle scars. so for me i just have a rattle can of black paint that i use to touch up my jeep. you could find a better mathcin g black then what im using but for me it is close enough. and it isnt extremely visable

[chrisfranklin]

Are you talking about the people who aplly rustoleum to cars with rollers that come out almost as good as a gun? If you dont know what I am talking about let me know, I have seen some incredible looking paint jobs done this way amazingly enough.

Basically along those lines, JeepMan.  Or use a spray paint.  ChardRC has a point about black paint kind of blending with black paint, even if not matched perfectly.  

I'd be a lot more eager to do the roller or spray, if I had some place to let the paint dry.  

[Los Angeles has dirty air (leave your Jeep outside under clear skys and you'll find it covered in a coat of dust/particulates in a few days)- comes from eastwardly moving ocean winds and then a mountain range together trap low-level air pollutants within LA County]

[Greatwhite]

Your local paint supply store, (Autobody supply store) can mix factory tinted paint that will match the factory color and put it in a aerosol spray can for you. Cost here in california is about 20 dollars per can, if you are looking to go the DIY way that would be your best bet.  You can also by spray can Clear coat which will make the paint job last more so than just spraying base coat out of a can.  Main thing is to prep the surface properly, a good paint job is all in the prep work.  You need to get some sand paper, can also be purchased at the autobody supply store.  Start with arround 120 grit to feather out the chips or what have you in the areas to be painted, then work your way up 240, 320, 400, 600, 800.  working a slightly larger area  as you go up in grit so that you cover all of your deep grit scratches and have a uniform "non shiny" surface to paint.  You can get gray scotch brite pads to do the edges so as you dont break through the paint with the sand paper.  Then just apply even steady coats trying not to apply to much at once so that you dont run the paint.  Also is important to wait the propper flash time in between coats as described on the back of the spray can, Usually 5-15 minutes, depends on the weather conditions.  Once the base coat "color" has been applied and you are satisfied with the coverage you can then apply the clear coat which will protect the work that you have done.  The people at the autobody supply stores are also VERY helpfull if they can describe to you how to do almost anything and can suggest products to use. I Manage a Body Shop so if you have any other questions or run into any snags let me know and i will answer them as best as i can.

[chrisfranklin]

Thanks GreatWhite for the info. It helps a great deal.
 :D

[Jeffy]

Another thing, if all you're doing is repainting the the hood and fenders, then take them off.  Since you don't have a garage, it would be a lot easier to paint them elsewhere.  I think I'd go with color matching instead of painting it any old color and have it look really bad against the stock color of the body. (paint code is on the driver side firewall)

Sometimes other colors work but it's rare that they will look good.  With my Jeep flat OD green works even though the body color is a metallic sage green.  John Deere green does not look good though.  :shock:

[lanulos89]

black rustoleum matches anything

[Greatwhite]

No problem glad i could help out, let me know if you have any other autobody related questions  :)

[chrisfranklin]

Jeep passed SMOG without any "special" efforts and since she's my DD and starting to look pretty shabby and topless season is coming around in So Cal in a couple of months, I decided to order her some paint.

GreatWhite, I did like you said and found my Jeep's Paint code (and also passed along the VIN number, too, to the company).  I bought 3 Spray cans of DX8 Jeep Black and 2 cans of clearcoat.  Also bought tack cloth, masking tape and full sand paper kit of various grades.  To top this off, I ordered new windshield tie-down hardware, new black plastic headlight bezels, new hood-vent cover, new hood latches - the old stuff was looking pretty bad, too.  Great White, You think I ordered enough of the Spray Paint?

Total bill for all this came to under $200 (bit over my $30-40 price constraint, but new paint does a lot to restore the looks on a car/Jeep and so it's probably more than worth it).  I planned out the job and it looks like it will take about 8-10 days (weather and daylight needs could stretch this out further, as could any unforseen work location issues)    - a few hours each of those days - for hardware removal, sand/prep, clean, base, clear, install new hardware.  So, I am going to put in a bit of a labor investment in this on top of the supplies cost.

A few days ago, I did a trial run prepping/masking/spraying my bumper/bumperettes with a Rustoleum flat black.  The job turned out great and helped me decide on doing the whole Jeep.  If I slow down and pay attention to the prep-work and details, then I think I can pull this full body job off very well.

As for the dented tailgate - its pretty well obscured by the spare tire.  And the hood dent is tough to make out, too.  But, I may ultimately replace those body panels with painted fiberglass or kevlar ones down the road or just get them from a junkyard and paint them.

And, if I bang, roll or scar the jeep up after the paint job, it's no big deal.  I only put a few hundred bucks and some time in to the new finish.

[chardrc]

3 rattle cans for the hole jeep :shock: .. your going to be going a little thin on the paint.. which is ok if your going over the same color as the new stuff.. but i seem to remember painting a cj2a before and it took.. actually about 3... hopefully it turns out good for you....

[Greatwhite]

3 cans is probably not enough to do the whole jeep, yet again there is not a whole lot of jeep to paint and you are staying with the same color, so you shouldnt have a problem with the base coat covering.  Best thing to do is to just apply even light coats you might be able to make what you have work i doubt it though.  It depends on how much paint is in each spray can some cans are fairly large and others are mostly compressed air and little paint at all. your in it this deep just plan arround spraying when the paint supply store is still open so that you can run down and get another can or two if need be.

[Jeffy]

I highly recommend getting a spray can trigger.  They're around $3 but will make painting a lot easier and more consistent since you won't have to press the nozzle head the whole time.  3 cans does seem way too light though.  I'd say no less then 5.  Are you going to do an sanding between coats?

[chrisfranklin]

After the Superbowl, I went ahead and added an extra 2 cans of the DX8 Black and 1 Can of Clearcoat to the order (guess I am not the first guy using this place to want to ad to or change an order   - they let you ad to your existing online order if you manage to do it before the original order has been executed).  Bumped the price about $65.  So I am at 5 cans of DX8 Black and 3 cans of clear.  If I have an extra can, I'll keep it around for touch up work.  So, total for this job is only around $250 in supplies.

I'll go ahead and do a light sanding between coats and pick up one of those triggers too.  Take a couple of before and after photos, etc.

The place I used for paint is called www.paintscratch.com.

Edit: Make that $300 is supplies with the addition of the wheel paint!

[chrisfranklin]

Last night, I went ahead and ordered some silver argent wheel paint, too.  It was actually from a VW Bug supplier.  Was going to order the Wurst paint, but suppliers were out and I figured it would look a little too shiny.

The silver argent is for spraying on my old, stock wheels.  Maybe I should have gone with flat Black?  Gunmetal Grey?

I figure silver stock is probably the least headache in the long run.