OK these photos may give you an idea of what I have to work with. Please this is not a debate about patina vs paint. This about trying to preserve and enhance what’s there with limitations. My daughter’s first vehicle was a very nice early 90s truck. Honestly I would have loved to have it. It was a red SWB standard cab Z71. As you know red fades badly. Early 90s GM paint was not the best. On a very close inspection the roof top and hood were resprayed. It looked wonderful. A full restoration is out of the question for this old truck. It’s not going to happen and honestly, I like it like it is, but with just a little more durability as far as the finish. Again, it’s not restoration it’s preservation. I’m not talking about cleared pickled rust either. I like to eat pickles, not drive them. The only major body work I’m planning on is welding in a new drip rail above the passenger door. I’m not worried about crumpled fender on the driver side. It also needs some metal work on the bed top. The hood and the top of the bedsides need repainting. The 90s truck I mentioned, it looked like it had a very thin mix. I was thinking, repainted hood, and bed tops with maybe a very thin mix on the sides. Do you see what I’m going for? Any ideas or recommendations? Thanks.
You might try to come up with a paint "scheme" that allows you to paint all the areas needed while leaving the rest alone and giving a more natural look. Like some sort of two tone even if the same color.
Bang out the bigger dents and do an ok repair to them. Not a perfect repair. Don't worry about the little dents. Clean off the rust, prime and paint the truck with some single stage budget paint. (Not cheap paint!) Something mid priced. Don't take apart anything you do not have to. Think about 2 weekends worth of time. You should have less than $1000 in it. TCP gallon acrylic enamel paint kits are less than $200 each That would be a typical 1980's used truck repaint. Before we got so fussy about things. You will have a truck that will look nice going down the street. It will also be acceptable at a cruise night at the local ice cream stand.
It wouldn't hurt it to just repaint the roof, hood and box above the trim line, but it probably will be obvious those panels were redone. Less so if you scrub the rust stains off the sides and buff it out, and touch up chips. Repaint the worst spots, clean up the rest and keep it waxed. Don't add more paint to the sides unless you're going to strip and straighten them.
Also know that you can't just paint over surface rust. you have to get the rust out of every pit in the metal. If you don't it will just rust away and push the paint off and look worse than it does now
Do a two tone with the trim as the break line and buff the rest out and see what it looks like. I bet you will like it and the truck will be very presentable and driver friendly, meaning you can park it at Walmart and not worry about scratching the paint
The entire truck needs to be repainted . and that’s that. you can leave the dents , pound them out and smooth the body to a point your satisfied . looking at the pics , I think most of that rust would wipe off with CLR . Really does not look as bad as it looks . repaint it white with rustoleum ( tremclad) up here . I’ve painted a few winter beaters with tremclad and added reducer and hardner to the paint and had great results that lasted through harsh Ontario winters with ( in all honesty shitty body work and prep ) get the car oil sprayed once the paint work is done to slow down any future rust and it should look good for years to come . Or blow it apart and spend 40 g’s on paint and chrome other idea is linseed oil or wd40 and drive a shiny patina wagon that last two options are said heavy with sarcasm and a side of meh !
1959-60 freshly painted with red primer... Hello, My brother and I went several rounds of “what color to paint the new 40 Willys Coupe build.” He wanted to get the Willys Coupe painted a red primer color first. So, we got enough to spray two coats on the whole prepped body in the Fall of 1959. No fancy mail order colors for us as the local paint store had tons of automotive paints and primers. At least we did not paint it a flat black primer. The red primer had some character as we built the whole car, motor and chassis components. But, discussions for a final paint colors were, no red, no black and no blue. So, we left it with two coats of red primer. The finish was smooth and no other wax or spray was necessary. It almost lasted a year of running and driving in the salt air moisture almost every weekend at Lion’s Dragstrip. If and when the car felt funny as we walked by and rubbed our hands or a towel on the fender, then we washed it to be presentable. Perhaps that helped last almost a year. It looked as good as the first day of painting a year later. We spent the months of May-July tuning, racing and getting everything just right for our build. The months were spent on setting up our finances and ordering parts for the final goal. (sponsored or otherwise) The finished product had to be ready for the U.S. Nationals at Detroit. Our final necessary speed parts were already on order (larger M&H slicks, Hilborn injectors and American Racing Mag wheels)and some were waiting in Los Angeles for pickup. Locally, we were agonizing about what is to be, the final paint color. He wanted yellow and I wanted silver. His version also included a 1956 Chevy Station Wagon painted a matching yellow. This was my brother’s version of our complete set up before we were to go to the Nationals. Plenty of room for supplies, suitcases, food/drink cooler, spare parts, tool box and a place to sleep at campgrounds instead of motels. It never got to the paint phase, as the red primer was the last phase for us. So, it was the only Gas Coupe paint job we applied to our build. The old 1959-60 16mm color film shows the actual paint in direct sunlight at the dragstrip action. taken by a friend visiting the drag strip for the day... Jnaki For any undecided body work or paint choice, if it is red primer, then it will last until a final choice of color is selected. We drove the red primer paint 1940 Willys through our Bixby Knolls drive-in restaurant hang outs and it was totally accepted as a cool hot rod. The raised hood showed what we had, a 292 c.i. SBC blower spec motor with a 671 supercharger on top. 6 Strombergs were the final item that stuck out of the hood slightly. So, with that in mind, the red primer color was fine. We had saved enough to have it painted locally and have it ready for our final test, the Nationals in Detroit. But, since you have access to the modern paints, here is one choice that says it all and a lot of folks have used it to success. At least, the body is protected and you can now drive it around, thinking of what else to do next. The final paint could wait until you are satisfied with the overall look and handling of your project. For some reason, the red primer paint looks finished. the black primer paint gives off the image of a step before the final paint is imminent. YRMV
Thank you all. I realize the basic premise is flawed. I was thinking out and it’s really impossible to do what I wanted to do. My ignorance is showing. This is how the truck looked when I got it. The bed was stained from the bed tops above the chrome trim. I’m sure there’s some micro cracking in the factory finish and it would have to be waxed really cared for. I thought the truck was white but it’s actually blue, Arcadian Blue. Arcadian Blue is a very pale blue. As far as any kind of paintwork other than a full re-paint, the only viable option is to repaint the hood cowl, door tops, cab stripe on the back of the cab, and the bed tops at the trim line for a two tone or trying to match the faded blue. The blue is so faded, making it 2 tone, Arcadian Blue and Wimbledon White would be very subtle.
You could always do the top half of the two tone now. Then chip away at prep on bottom and paint it later
I have been tasked to make small repairs to original cars and bikes , to keep the "original" paint look. I have done the repairs, sanded and polished new paint then gave it some "age" using a variety of technics and products. looking at the photos posted I would suggest this. clean with CLR as was suggested, it will remove all the "brown". I would then make any repairs and prime the body work. I would then use Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo alkyd enamel or the equivalent in the brand you prefer. Thinned and sprayed out in one smooth coat will give you the look you are after, won't cost that much and is user friendly. Before the "body experts" chime in. yes, the paint is not meant for automotive use, yes it is not the proper way to restore a truck, yes there are way better products out there. Someday I will learn the right way.
Yeah, and when they asked a group of people if they would like to drive the Wienermobile Anthony was first in line!
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