I have a few body panels - two doors and a fender, that need to be painted to replace the smashed and tweaked panels on my red bronco. I am thinking of just reshooting the entire thing as the hood is fading slightly and honestly the grill and other fender probably wouldn't match anyway -

Basically what are my options to do so? I don't really have the room or the expertise to shoot paint right now - plus iam sure you need to be in a certain temperature range which isn't goign to happen at my place.

I probably not in a position to do much prep work, I was goign to just start visitng places around town to get quotes but before I do, any advice out there?

The current paint is a single stage farm implement red I believe... not even sure how much i need to buy - have a pint right now..

This will be a project for late winter - I have a few items I need to take care of before it goes off to paint but with time being an issue I am probalby just willing to pay a bit to get a quicker turn around.

You are going to need more paint, even just for the doors & fender. A good shop should be able to mix a pretty good match, unless the adjacent panels have badly faded. If there is a manufacturer & code, it should be straight forward. Prep on the old panels should just be a quick sand and reshoot. Single stage is pretty forgiving. I'm sending you a PM.

I think your only options for this time of the year is getting quotes due to the weather. As most "home hobby painters" are not painting in the garage due to the cold IMO. I've painted several items in the garage and have never used single stage paint as my paint rep. coached me in using a base coat/clear and said its really not that difficult but time consuming. Its pretty hard to make a base coat run, and the clearcoat takes several coats and when you think your done apply several more coats as its you best friend when it come time to wet sanding.
I think for someone that knows what there doing you'll need at least a quart for the panels your describing if you only want the outside done no door jams or under the hood.
Paint material is some what expensive I use a local Mom an Pop shop on 58th/Washington to paint the XJ and 1 gal of paint/primer/clearcoat was about 450/500 for me its was more about trying it than anything else just to see if I could do it.


Good luck on the search and make sure to take before and after photos!

Thanks for the replies - i do have the exact match for the paint that the PO used - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000L ... UTF8&psc=1

I am pretty sure the paint is fairly faded so will not match..

for reference, is the bronco that i am talking about.. no need for a clear coat as its not a show queen :)

IMG_1546.JPG

I haven't, iam open to clear coat if it's more resilient. I was just rolling with what I had

Is it possible to do a decent job of touching up base/clear if it gets beat on?

Define "decent". Nonmetallic will look better than metallic. Air brush will do the best job. I've brushed paint on big ol' chips & scratches. I never have high hopes when doing it.

base /clear touch ups can be blended , a well trained eye could point the blend out . Like Gunni said, metallics aren't fun to do

It's a complicated topic, and repairs/touch ups are really a case by case basis. Painting with base/clear, you can paint (base color) just a part of a panel. Sometimes, you can cheat, and avoid clearcoating the whole panel. It's difficult, and almost always visible, as Keith said. Painting with single stage, you must paint the whole panel, there is no way to partially paint a panel.

Single stage is cheap, but it doesn't hold up as well. Bird poop, sap, acid rain, etc will all damage single stage more easily than base/clear. We also have a lot more UV exposure at our altitude. This is why Chris's relatively new paint job is showing signs of fading. It's also why so many of these vintage trucks have had multiple paint jobs. The paint didn't last as long, and it was cheap to redo. You will see a lot more 'original paint' collectible cars in the future. I don't expect base/clear cars to need the repaints that single stage cars had. Also, paint is getting expensive, especially waterborne.

For a 'beater' trail rig, I would use single stage . For a 'nice' trail rig, I'd consider base/clear. For anything nicer than a trail rig, I'd only use base/clear. Especially at altitude. I wouldn't paint any metallic in single stage, even though it's available.

Like gunnibronco stated it's a difficult process and I'm sure that's why when the pros paint its in a controlled environment as air,paint, and humidity temp play a big part. Over the years I've gotten better but it's still scary to spend several hundreds of dollars on materials only to have things go array. Although I am confident that a decent paint job can come out of a garage. As long as you have good neighbors ! The smell of clear coat will travel and it like a cheech&chong scene once you open the garage door

Cool, thanks. I've got an air dryer and plan to make a plastic sheet paint booth with a filtered vent fan when I do mine.

I think for my rig single stage would be fine, when it fades to pink then its time to sell it to Sean or repaint ;)

[quote="phyler"]Justin, maybe we could do a tech day? I'll be in the same boat hopefully by spring and would love to pick up some tips.


Hey phyler I just checked out your build thread very nice work,Your bronco is a 75 same as the one I'm planning on getting. I'm just around the corner in frederick/firestone area. A paint Tech day would be great to attend.

We'll post up details when it happens.

Back to Gunni's comments, a good buff could go a LONG way into restoring the good panels. My cousin has a mid-60's ford in blue that was badly faded. For Christmas his wife got it professionally detailed and it looked amazing!