My 1995 Ford Ranger Splash Sunburst Yellow

My 1995 Ford Ranger Splash was my first vehicle and I have been driving it for the last 6 years. Over the years the factory yellow paint started to show it's age. That in conjunction with buckling the front driverside fender left my truck now only 90% yellow as the replacement fenders ended up being maroon. Tired of everyone asking why I have "purple" fenders I painted the doghouse of the truck flat black. That led to the whole truck being flat black, which in turn led to the whole truck becoming primer gray with hopes of one day having it repainted. Today is that day. I had plans of buying a new spray gun, pressure regulator, plastic sheets to keep the overspray to a minimum, goggles, respirator, blah blah blah. Doesn't matter. Anyway, having no idea how to paint a car I googled "How to paint a car" on google. The title "50 dollar paint job" popped up. After being redirected to the mopar forum and talking back and forth with Martin Tibensky aka 69chargeryeehaa(originator) I was hooked. So here is how I spent $28.75 on my new flashy paintjob.

Before Pictures:









Supplies:



Wetsanded and prepared with 400 grit sandpaper:









When thinning the paint I did a 1:1 ratio to begin with. That seemed to be a little too thin for my taste so for the second and third coat I did a ratio of 2:1 meaning add 2 parts paint 1 part mineral spirits. When applying the paint, saturate the roller to just "cover" the area. There are going to be runs, drips, and bubbles here and there so don't get discouraged. Once everything is covered, just keep dry rolling over it meaning roll over the panel without adding any more paint. You will see the bubbles start to pop and the paint starting to level. To give the bubbles a little help roll back over the panel once or twice using just the weight of the roller. Don't apply any pressure. The remainder of the bubbles should pop during the drying process. Also I used a small foam brush to get into tight spaces like fender/door/hood cracks inside the tail light buckets, etc... During the painting procedure you will be wetsanding after every other coat making sure to use finer grit each time. So its coat 1 & 2 then wetsand, coat 3 & 4 then wetsand. You get the idea. Lay down the 1st and coat let it "dry to touch" for about 8 hours, then lay down the next coat and wait 24 hours before wetsanding. Keep doing this until you reach your desirable finish. I also find that it's best to wipe the whole truck down with mineral spirits right before you lay down a coat of paint. This will remove any bugs and dirt. In experience, the more coats I put down the shinier the paint gets. I didn't start to see full coverage until about the 4th or 5th coat. You will also notice that you will get less and less orange peel per coat. Also if anyone is wondering why the windshield looks the way it does, it's dust from sanding. Here is the 1st Coat:





2nd Coat:










Wetsanded with 600 grit sandpaper.





3rd Coat:





4th Coat:







Wetsanded with 800 grit sandpaper:





5th Coat:










6th Coat:





Wetsanded with 1000 grit sandpaper:



7th Coat:







8th Coat:







Here it is after being buffed, polished, and put back together. I also went ahead while I was at it and lowered it with a 3/4 drop and bought new tires for my 17" bullets. I have a few more things to do like clean up the seals around the windows, put on my badges, and a few things here and there. Not bad for a $28.75 paintjob eh? People in my town can't believe it when I tell them that I painted it in my basement with a ROLLER. The time is really the only issue with the whole project. I work full time so I was only able to work on it a few hours each night after work. If you had the time or a few days off you should have no problem getting it done in 3-4 days. This considering that you respect the dry times on the back of the can.















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Nice job!

Thanks. I'll be taking some new pictures whenever it stops raining.

you can never tell its rolled on .. i like it man good job.. i did my civic but i gave up on it cause it got cold, so its dull, i wet sanded so theres no orange peel so its smooth but dull. im going to do white when it warms up. ill gets some pics on here in a bit..

the job looks 100% perfect to my eyes......

Admin,
Thanks for getting the forum up and running. I'm coming over from the Moparts discussion (where it all started).

A couple questions for you on the above project. It looks like you...
1. Sanded and prepped the Ranger -- including doing a uniform priimer coat.
Is this correct? What did you use as primer?
2. It look like you then did some isolated body / bondo work in specific areas.
3. From that point you went right to the color coats of yellow Rustoleum.
Just curious as to why you didn't primer over the body work / bondo areas as well? (To provide a completely uniform base over which to apply the yellow Rustoleum.)

Thanks.
Dan

Dan. The primer coat was previous. I didn't do it for this project. I did it a while back because I was planning on painting my truck at the time but something came up which forced me to daily drive the ranger. Working fulltime I never got the opportunity to finish painting it. I bought a Jeep to drive back and forth to work which allowed me to play around with this method. I didn't primer back over the bodywork because I didnt want to make more work for myself by rolling on primer nor did I have a place to spray primer. As you can see everything was covered by the 4th coat which is what I was hoping for. The paint actually covers really well considering how much it's thinned out. Also after the second coat I started using a 2:1 ratio which covered very well. By the way you can call me Matt

Looks REALLY good man!

Gives me hope for my ride

Here is a video I shot after the 8th coat before any wetsanding or buffing. I forgot I had it

Truck looks better than it did off the showroom floor

It was nice enough outside today so I washed my truck and snapped some new pictures. I still need to buff it one more time and install the emblems. I tried to get pictures of the gloss but it's hard to capture the reflection with the yellow being so bright.

man i hope i can get mine to turn out that good

are you like a cop or something LOL heard radio responses in background of video

Nope, just have the scanner

Snapped some new pictures of my truck with the Weld wheels on it.

Yo. the welds are a nice touch. I like that setup better.

she is looking very good bro, when you gonna slam that 4x4 LMAO j/k

After reading this thread there is hope for me yet on painting my truck. Yours looks GREAT

Sell me the welds, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

coreyd wrote:Sell me the welds, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They aren't mine to sell

hey matt i got a question why dident you just bondo the emblem holes and put metal behind them i know the rear might have been hard but fenders wouldent have been just question

Oh I'm putting the emblems back on it. I just haven't got around to it.

i think it looks better without emblems personally but thats just me makes it look custom

Hey Matt, how long has it been since you painted your truck?

How is it holding up to the elements?

My truck has been painted since around mid-october. It's my daily driver and besides a little mud from almost getting stuck in the yard it looks just as good as it did the day I rolled it out. The last pictures you see with the welds were taken a week or so ago so you can see by that, it's holding up really well.