refinishing bodyparts

Ok, so now I have a nice new (to me) tub, fenders, hood, grill, tailgate and windshield frame. All this stuff needs to be refinished. What to do??

I want to give it all a coat of rust cap or rust encapsulator before it gets painted its final colors. What's going to be the best way to get all this ready?

I'll probably shoot the paint myself, but I'm really wondering if I want to go through all the prep - or if I'll even have time to. And I really want to have all this stuff at least coated with the rust protection before I go on active duty - because once I get to pilot training, I will not be working on the Jeep, I know this for sure.

Any ballparks on how much it would cost me to get all this stuff sandblasted?

 

seems like most have said in the range from ~$200-700 for a complete body. I would like the $200 better

 

Brian if you can do it or find it get the body soda blasted instead of sandblasted, big difference. The hood is the main problem (not to mention pitting) when sandblasting as most guys will warp it from the heat created when sandblasting, soda blasting does not create the heat.
To be honest, I wouldn't put rust encapsulator or POR under the regular paint job on the body. It would have to be thinned and sprayed on and I doubt thats very easy. I would just do the body work and then Prime and paint it good. I got a quote of $200 (minus hood) to sandblast and $250 for soda blasting for all. I'm gonna do soda blasting. As far as protection you don't have to paint or prime it at all, just spray it with this stuff and set it out of the weather, when you're ready to paint for good clean it off and have at it.

This stuff will protect it for several years so long as its not raining on the parts. I have stuff in my garage that has been there for years protected by this stuff, it can be taken off with an aerosol realeasing agent and paper towel.

 

Says the man who drove his JEEP on sunday......

I just really, REALLY don't want to have to go back and re-do things. Basically what I'd like to do is get all the bodyparts prepped and rustproofed, so that way they can sit for a while until I have time to get the actual paint on them. I could probably rattle-can with cheap primer and be good to go for a while, but eventually I'd want to come back and do it right.... so why not just do it right the first time? I'll be getting my second grant payment in December, and with my CC and loan finally paid off the money I'm making from ROTC and work is actually staying in my account now.

In other words, I might have a few spare bucks to have someone sandblast for me.

 

????

From my understanding that's exactly what you're SUPPOSED to do. I know for a FACT POR isn't a topcoat...... and from what I've read UV wreaks havok on it, and it needs to be painted over rather soon (one of the reasons I probably won't be using that in particular)

 

JMO - if I went to the expense of media blasting sheet metal, I'd then coat it with a good automotive epoxy primer. POR-15, RE, all that stuff, is mainly a remedial coating that's meant to coat over tightly bound rust. I don't think you really gain anything using it to paint over bare metal, it's more costly than primer and, despite the hype, (I'd expect) less durable than a good 2-part primer.

You might want to go over the seams on the underside of your parts a second time with your left over primer - for that you could use a brush. Seal 'em up good - anywhere that the spray primer doesn't reach or that water could be trapped. The steel isn't going to rust unless there's a gap in the paint, or the paint fails.

 

I say epoxy primer Brian. Not that I will be doing that but you know.

 

Yeah but your Bantam tends to, ah, mark its territory, too...

Anyway, you should know, time and money NEVER go hand in hand. If I had time AND money, I'd save my money and take the time. However from the looks of things, I may have the money but not the time - which is why I'd farm out the blasting if I can...

 

Brian you have it apart if you can afford it now is the time to do it right if you can. You'll be glad you did and only have to do it once.

 

That's what I was referring to, the black marks on everything that touches it.

 

I am having the tongue, hitch, landing leg, and spring hangers blasted and powder coated on my trailer.....we'll see how that holds up. By my calculations it is cheaper to do this than to use a good primer and paint.

 

Try to find a blaster that's familiar with blasting auto body parts. You don't want the lowest bidder doing it, or some knuckledragger that does heavy-duty commercial/construction stuff. "Sand"blasting is just a generic term, you don't want somebody actually using sand! There's much friendlier media out there than sand. Light sheet metal can be ruined very quickly in the wrong hands.

 

I had a fellow over to the shop the other day and we discussed painting a jeep body.

He has done a fair amount of quality paintwork while I have only done two jeeps and am still learning.

His take on sandblasting was twofold.

1 Don't sandblast sheet metal. It'll stretch the metal and the result will be wavy.

2 Don't strip off the old paint if it is holding on well. Old paint can make for a darn good undercoat. Sand off the gloss, sand off any surface rust.



FWIW

kamel

 

Brian, I didn't see if you are talking about removing rust or paint. My tub is still off and I'm attending to all of the detail underneath right now but last June 04, used Eastwood's rust remover and I spray caned Rust Encapsulator everything I could. This summer I removed the tub and disassembled everything to do it right. If you don't have that much rust, what I did is use the best paint remover Home Depot had, brushed it all over the place, then power washed it. Worked pretty good, right down to bare metal. First I had to remove all of the heavy dried grease/mud before removing paint.

Two things kept me from blasting, couldn't get the stuff 20 miles to the blaster and the hood I had blasted cost $96.00 alone. I probably won't paint this year because it will be too cold but I'll be ready next June. Anyway, the Rust Encapsulator is a good idea for storing rather that primer.

Use a good respirator, that stuff is potent. I started painting the tool box only without the respirator and I didn't feel good for about 5 days. Check out Eastwood's paint videos.

I should have mentioned, I stripped the frame and drive line and axles NOT the body with Rust Encapsulator. Before the Rust Encapsulator, I did strip the old paint/rust because it was in bad shape. It came off really easy to bare metal.

Have fun,

 

Have it media blasted then prime the bare metal with a quality 2K etching primer or epoxy primer right away. No rattle can crap here use top quality auto refinishing supplies and you'll have a body that will last YEARS. Also seal all the body seams with a seam sealer.