Josh's Bronco II Body Restoration Thread

[88B2EB]

Quite a lot of progress to post: First off, I was able to finish preping the liftgate last weekend along with the front panel, sun visor, & fenders.

The paint/fiberglass were chipped on the top and sides and needed a lot of repair work. As a side note, I would highly recommend NOT using a DA on fiberglass. It's softer than the paint so the DA just tended to dig valleys that I then had to fill. I learned pretty fast that block sanding worked a lot better on the liftgate.

This corner had been broken off when I bought the truck so it was built up with about 4 layers of fiber reinforced filler then smoothed out with regular filler. Kind of proud of myself on this one, I think the lines are pretty close.

Next was final prep for spraying. Got the makeshift paintbooth all set up and finished taping the truck off.

Layed out all the paints and product sheets to try to get myself familiar with the whole process that goes into painting. I feel like I've been studying for the SAT or something lately. There's so much that painters need to know! From left to right: epoxy primer, high-build primer, red base coat, tan base coat, clear coat, single stage black.

Shiney new paint gun all ready to go:

And, finally, some primer goes on. I can't tell you how good it felt to actually be spraying material back on the B2 after all those months of prep work. And using a professional sprayer was awesome, with it's huge 12-1/2" spray pattern, it made me wonder why I ever used a spray can for anything.

I decided to start in the wheelwells and on the back side of all the body panels. My thought was it would eliminate the possibility of overspraying onto the new paint later and I also felt like it's extremely important to coat all these 'out-of-sight' places as they're where the road salt likes to hide and deteriorate the metal. White epoxy primer:

This one's just for you Pb: black single stage on the wheelwells and frame.

Paint the frame and undercoating with either a rustoleum or tractor paint, it's real cheap and it will look amazing with a new paint job!

I'm at a standstill right now until my high build nozzle comes in the mail. The epoxy primer has to be covered (with high-build in my case) within 3 days so if I spray it now I risk having to sand it down and re-spray if the nozzle doesn't come in time. So next steps will be epoxy, high-build, block sanding, and then... yeah baby... Paint!

 

[88B2EB]

Epoxy primer:

Epoxy primer isn't meant to be sanded and needs to be covered within 2 days. The larger sprayer nozzle showed up so I was able to cover with high-build primer, which is meant to be sanded.

I can see why people primer their whole vehicle, it sands a lot easier than the old factory paint. 320 grit:

 

[88B2EB]

Wet sanded with 500:

Cleaned:

Started taping lines for the tan:

The weather's supposed to be cold and rainy for the weekend so It'll have to be more taping then wet sanding/prep on the other parts. It's expected to warm up next week so fingers crossed I'll have a lot painted after next weekend, if I can get away from work for that long that is.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Thanks for sharing, it looks good so far.

Richard

 

[88B2EB]

Thanks for sharing, it looks good so far.

Richard

Thanks man. It's good to hear your still checking in. Was starting to think I was all alone here.

 

[Colin]

yay progress!

 

[bobbywalter]

i got a project for ya

 

[88B2EB]

i got a project for ya

Thanks but too much project and not enough time already Besides, I don't know the first thing about diesels so you don't want me touching that anyway

Update: It's all painted!!!

Here's the truck all taped and ready for tan, err um, light chestnut.

Here's the tan. I started with a super light tack coat then got progressively heavier until I had a consistant cover. Keeping the coats light though was a must in the cold weather (60degF) and I think it really helped keep the orange peel to a minimum.

All taped for red:

Red:

Now clear:

Here's a closeup of the driver side door jamb:

Just for reference here's what it looked like 3 months ago:

I'm happy with how it turned out. There was some orange peel and dust nibs so right now I'm working through wet sanding / buffing and that's been a learning process for sure. Haven't quite figured it out yet but am working on it. I got the paint all on though before the weather changed so that feels really good. If all goes well I should be driving the truck by Spring.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

That looks really good!

 

[88B2EB]

Thanks Richard. Without all the experience and knowledge of you guys helping me out none of this would be possible. Still, it's a lot of work. Sort of funny now but not at the time, all those pictures in my last post alternate between day and night. Yeah...

 

[Thrashingrage]

Wow, thanks for posting all of this. You've really come a long way with this truck, be proud!! I am going to get my '90 BII painted this summer, although I'm hoping to pull the dents and do most of the prep work myself in the spring when I'm out of school and actually have a garage to work in. Thank God there's no rust, although I hope to be able to paint the frame as well for purposes of rust-proofing and general spiffiness. I plan on pulling the fenders, doors, probably core support, and liftgate so that they can all be painted individually and re-assembled. Anywho, this post isn't about me - just seeing people like you who are not only willing to learn but also do great work really inspires me. Thank you.

Josh

 

[country0001]

Nice work, now come do mine. lol

 

[1986broncoiister]

wow you really did a fantastic job keep it up...Cant wait to see more of your work

 

[88B2EB]

Wow, thanks for posting all of this.

Posts like yours make it all worth it.

Doing the prep work yourself then sending it out to be painted professionally is a good plan. I went into this thinking I would save some money doing everything myself but really places like Maaco could do the paintwork out the door for the same price I'm paying for paint! Reason is they have a corporate account and buy in bulk at a huge discount. And the Maacos around me are using the same mid-level PPG Omni that I am. Plus if you're painting yourself there's all the equipment you need to buy and that gets expensive. Don't get me wrong, if you want to do the paintwork yourself I'm all for it, just do it for the experience and learning process, knowing a shop could probably do it cheaper with a lot less work on your part. For me it's been a great experience so far and would do it again.

 

[88B2EB]

wow you really did a fantastic job keep it up...Cant wait to see more of your work

Thanks guys. Country, from your avatar it looks like you did a pretty good job yourself, although I know you mentioned it was starting to oxidize.