The temporary paint job

As you can see I've never put much work into the outer appearance of the truck. My philosophy has always been "do it right, the first time". Since I've never had the tools or skills to do it right (when it comes to body work and paint) I've never done any of it. I finally decided that I've got to do something about it, at least until I can do it right. Dad recommended a product called POR-15 which can be painted directly over rust. Just what I needed. So I got to work with some help from Nicole and Ethan.



We started by cleaning the surface with Marine Clean and then applied Metal Prep to ensure a good stick.






Now we put our first coat of silver primer.

Here's Ethan and Nicole helping out.
































The silver actually turned out really nice, but with exposure to the sun it doesn't protect the metal from rust so we had to put on a top coat. Here's the first coat of black top coat. I was very nervous while painting the top coat since it had the consistency of tar. Luckily I discovered a paint roller that worked really well instead of a paintbrush.



So, here's where we are at so far. This is after 2 coats of top coat. I still need to do one more coat, and I want to sand it down to take the shine off. I would rather have a nice dull finish.


I'm not in love with black, but I'm glad we've done something to protect the metal from rusting more. I think it looks pretty good from a distance. When you get close you can see all of the spots that need some work. Anyways, this will do for now. Someday I'll be able to soda blast the whole thing and do the body work right.