clear coat question

[Rick]

i plan on painting my 87 GW in the spring and was wondering what to do about the clear coat. i want to keep the factory smoke grey color. i just want to put a fresh coat to cover the blue parts from the donor 85 GW. i plan on doing this myself, so please give me any paint tricks. thanks in advance.

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87 Grand wagoneer (stock, for now)
85 Grand Wagoneer LTD (soon to be parts beast)
NP 208
Warn Locking Hubs
15x8 Black RockCrawlers
And still piling up parts

[WINGO]

A few years ago I started painting my vehicles.

My first project was a ground up restoration on a '79 Harley.

This fall I will be painting my GW.

A good reference book that should be able to buy at any large parts store is, Automotive Body Repair & Painting Manual, Haynes (part # 1479)

Good Luck!

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WINGO
Vineland, NJ
USA
1984 GW 360

[Marc_01]

Clearing a car is best left to the pros, unless you have access to a paint booth. My friend is a painter and clearing a car out side or even in a garage would be a nightmare and a waste of money. That clear would have more dirt in it than you could imagine. But it could be done in such a way to limit the dirt and dust.

1. You will need a quality paint gun, one that has never shot paint before would be best. The pro's use one gun for clear and one for base (your color).

2. Clean your garage or where ever you going to paint.

3. Drape plastic everywhere posible.

4. Spray the plastic and floor down with water.

5. paint on base.

Now here comes a big problem. Your garage does not have a filtering system so the paint will just hang in the air. So you will need to open the windows or door to draw the paint out. But the problem with that is, you draw dirt inside at the same time.

6. paint clear

70 Degrees is the best temp to paint.

When your clear dries, you will have dirt in it. Some pieces of dirt can be sanded out and then buffed.

In your case, anything that is one color and shines will be a improvement so you might not care about the specs of dirt in the clear. Good luck!

[Rick]

i dont want a clear coat on it, i just want to get rid of the coat that is on it now. i only want a glossy coat, something that i can scuff up and fix new scratches from time to time. the jeep will eventually stay off road, so i dont want a clear coat to worry about.

[Marc_01]

OH!

If i was you, i would spend most of your time preping the surface. Then go get a single stage paint. If you can afford it, i would get Dupont Imron paint. They paint mack trucks with Imron, tough stuff!, great for a trail rig. And since its one stage, you can touch it up and buff it with out a problem.

[Rick]

thanks for the info, ill have to check on the paint. we have many big trucks in this area, so it shouldnt be too hard to find the paint or similar type.

will i have to sand the old clear coat off or strip it with some type of chemical?

------------------
87 Grand wagoneer (stock, for now)
85 Grand Wagoneer LTD (soon to be parts beast)
NP 208
Warn Locking Hubs
15x8 Black RockCrawlers
And still piling up parts

[Marc_01]

What kind of condition is your clear coat in?

Is it flaking off like on top of the roof and hood or is coroading off.

The best way to handle it would to sand all of the clear off, but this takes loads of work and time. What we did on my other truck (86 XJ) was sand all the clear off the roof and hood (this is wear all the clear was coroading off). Then once we got most of the clear off, we "feathered" the edges where the clear and base coat meet. The problem with this method is where you clear and base meet can show up later on when the paint shrinks.

So if you get a DA sander and strip off as much clear as possible the better you will be.

For the areas that are not bad, you can just scotch brite the old cleaer to prep it.

[Rick]

the hood and the top of the cab are the only places its showing signs of flaking and weathering. they will prolly be sanded completely down. thanks for the info.

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87 Grand wagoneer (stock, for now)
85 Grand Wagoneer LTD (soon to be parts beast)
NP 208
Warn Locking Hubs
15x8 Black RockCrawlers
And still piling up parts

[Narnian]

There is nothing wrong with using chemical strip. The only drawback is that it makes a mess, and you have to make sure you clean the body good after you use it. Failure to clean the body might mean the new paint doesn't adhere correctly.

My machine has that aircraft paint that you have to heat up before you paint. It looks great and is tough. However, I have to put on new fenders, and I don't know how to match the stuff. I'm going to put new base/clear coat on, and then Herculiner the sides of the car.

Water will keep dust down when painting. There is also a spray on grease that you are supposed to line a spray booth with to keep dust down, and keep paint from sticking to the walls. Ventilate your paint area, but put thought into it first. My buddy left a crack in the door to let the paint fumes out. He awoke to find a giant mosquito entomed in his freshly painted hood.

[Bernie]

Your best bet is to just use acrylic enamel with a generic gloss hardner for the easiest to use with some good results. If you use Imron on just a few panels the shine will outlast every thing else. It is also one of the most toxic paints out there to spray and a fresh air supply spray mask is highly reccomended. If you go with an acrylic enamel like Dupont Centari with the generic hardner that is much less expensive than Duponts 793 and it will set up fairly fast between coats and you should be able to lay it on with some decent results and give it a good mist coat for your last coat to get some good metalic distribution. (I'm just guessing that that gray is a metalic, judging the ones I have seen.) Just open a window in your garage and stick an old window fan in to pull out the fumes and use the above posts as far as keeping down the dirt. Don't forget to clean the Jeep good and blow out all the cracks and the surface prior to paint and prep-sol.