Well, I finally got the truck back from being painted. Some of you will remember my earlier posts of the clearcoat cracking, etc. I also had rust on the inside door seams, and the infamous door crack on the driver side.

They did a pretty good job, I suppose a repaint will never be perfect, but it definitely looks better than it did.

Ford paid 3/4 of the paintjob. My truck is a 98 that is 37000 kms out of warranty.

Anyways, here are some pics, there are more on this pages:
http://www.pbase.com/jeffl/painting_the_truck

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to sell it or not. I'm looking at Explorers now.

Let me know what you think!

 

 

 

Nice Pics. Good looking truck.

 

Looks good.

Still got orange peel I see.

 

...you pointed that out. Since I haven't the foggiest idea what "orange peel" is in this context, could you point out what it is and what, in these pictures, tips you off to its presence?

It would be very educational...

 

Hey Doc,

Orange peel is a symptom in paint that leaves the surface a little bumpy like an orange peel. In most cases you can't feel it, but if you look in the paint at a certain angle it will be obvious to the eye. Showcars usually are perfectly smooth, where as the typical factory paint job or repaint will have some degree of orange peel in it. Darker colors show it up more. It is typically caused by laying the paint on a little to heavy. It can usually be wet sanded and buffed out to give it a smooth glossy finish. The better quality of painter the less orange peel is likely to be in the surface of the paint.

 

It is also caused by baking the panels at too high a temp or for too long. Can be caused by too much accelerator in the paint and by applying coats too quickly and not allowing enough flash time between applications.

Look at this pic of yours.

http://genjala.image.pbase.com/u12/j...completed2.jpg

You see how the edge of your garage or whatever kind of building that is. You see how the edge is wavy and not straigh? That is caused by orange peel. Can also be caused by then sanding your paint without a blocksander. The way they get rid of it is to block sand the base coat before applying clear and then again block sanding the clearcoat.

Don't worry about it too much unless you paid a lot of money for the paintjob. Most bodyshops don't take orange peel out because it won't match original panels. You'd have one super shiny panel with a sharp image and then the rest of the car would be covered with orange peel. If you got your whole truck repainted then you could have had the orange peel taken out.

Show car people go nuts with the paintjobs but that is why they cost $10k +. They will block sand their paint every four layers or so... They also put like 30 layers on but that is a different story. Their paint will come out to like 6+ mills thick! On a daily driver you want your paint to be around 4.5mils thick. If it is too thick the constant temp changes your car recieves will cause the paint to crack and fail quickly. A show car usually sits in a climate controlled area except for the times they are being transported, etc.

 

Yes, I noticed the orange peel. I only had to pay around $500.00 for the complete paint job, so I didn't pay too much attention. In my original post, I mentioned that I wasn't too happy with it, but that it is definitely better than the original paint.

I'm not totally convinced that it is orange peel though. It almost more looks like the paint was not mixed properly or something. I've seen cars with orange peel before, and it looks a little different then this. Anyways, I have to take it back to get them to have a look at a couple of other things, so I'm definitely going to mention it to them then.

But, it is also going in the local paper for sale tomorrow, so we'll see if somebody snatches it up.

 

Just because Ford picked up the majority of the cost, doesn't mean you should settle for a less than quality job. If you paid $500.00 out of pocket then it sounds like the paint job must have cost $2000.00. I'd make them do it until it is right.

 

...for explaining "ornage peel" to me. Very much obliged.

 

Actually, the paint job was $3500, but I was in a little fender bender just before the paint job, so the guy who hit me contributed $550, and Ford basically just threw the repairs in. So my portion was actually $1050.

I'm going to be taking it back, but I don't know how much they can do about it now. Plus, it seems like every other black vehicle I pull up beside, my paint is still nicer than theirs. The ripple in my paint really is not that noticeable, friends of mine don't even notice it until I point it out to them.

Who knows, maybe they can buff most of the ripples out, I don't know. We'll see what happens.....

 

For $3500.00 I would expect a very nice paint job. It all depends on how you feel about it, but i've known people who have demanded a repaint and have gotten it. I would allow them to try and correct it by wet sanding and buffing, but give it a thorough inspection afterwards. Have them do it to the whole truck to make it look consistent all the way around. A good person on a buffer can work miracles, but a bad one can make a paint job even worse by burning the paint or buffing through the paint. You paid a lot of money (whether it came out of your pocket or not) so don't accept mediocre work.