Okay guys, over the weekend I started painting my tailgate to match the truck and I just finished tonight. Good news is I'm better at sanding and spray painting then I thought. Bad news is the color doesn't match

Anyway, according to the plastic-kote book the paint number for Ford's yn paint code is 8132. So I headed up to the local store and picked some up and went to work. After a few primer coats, silver paint coats and clear topcoats, this is what comes:


more pics at: here

It's to dark and not enough metal flakes. And it stands out. I haven't tried buffing it yet, but I doubt that will make much of a difference.

So next on my list is buying a nice top feed paint gun for my air compressor and visiting a good body shop who can mix me up the color I want. Or I'll just do all the prep work myself on the plastic parts I want painted and bring it up to a shop to have them paint it.

 

Actually... I don't think it looks bad at all. It might even look better with a different shade of silver IMO....

 

Hey Capt.
The quality of your work looks great, however I post baring bad news. Unless you blend into the tailgate you'll never get a perfect match, especially with silver. A 1psi differance in gun pressure will alter the color as will distance to the surface and spray technique..
Paul

 

I think it would look great if it were made shiney,,,, any ideas on how to make tailgate handle shiney silver??? or chrome??


~Toast

 

Thanks for the support guys!!!!

TZrider - you know I remember reading about the blending thing, but it was so long ago that I completely forgot it. So I was hoping for a perfect match, and didn't get it . Oh well, I still have a little touch up to do and then buff it.

Still going to get an paint gun though and get rid of spray paints.

whitetoast11 - they make spray paint like that, if I have time later I can try and photochop one of those pics for chrome. Or one of the other photochop wizards on here could do it? Very interesting idea though.

 

I gotta agree with AA_expert, it looks good, and I like the subtle color difference. All of the black trim painted that color might look pretty good.

 

Captain O,It still looks pretty nice!How much sanding to make the handle smooth enough to paint?
Thx,-Dave.

 

Dave- the sanding wasn't that bad. Took about 15 minutes for the initial sanding. First after removing the handle I sanded it with 240 grit, then when it looked like it was getting smoother I used 320 grit. When it was almost smooth, I wet sanded with 400. Then I used a sandable primer to get it as smooth as my patience would allow.

I'll be doing a write up with some picture sometime over the next few days.


uploaded some more pics, can be seen at:
http://captainoblivious.tripod.com/truck/tailgate.html

 

I got my silver from a supply place. I just said "YN for a 2001 Ford" , the color is perfect. Here's a thread

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...threadid=74282

the paint is dupont chromabase. which requires a 1:1 mixture with dupont chromabasemaker

 

My local custom paint shop sprayed my hood and wing. They asked if I wanted it blended and I told them to try w/o blending the fenders, etc. first. It came out a perfect match. I think they mixed it up from a computer match though.

 

Dave - just put up a small write-up about the painting and prep work

http://captainoblivious.tripod.com/truck/paint.html

...if anyone has notices anything I got wrong or has any tips or anything they feel would good to be added let me know.

 

I think it looks pretty good too. I would really like to shave my tailgate and get rid of the handle and blue oval badge. The SVT-150 would have to stay though.

 

needforspeed - I got your email and tried to reply, but it got bounced back to me as a invalid address Tried twice, can you give me your email.

 

looks good, can't tell it's a diff shade. I'm gonna try mine.

 

Captainoblivious, I've always had trouble with store bought paints matching. You might tru having a professiona lpaint store make you up some spray cans using your Ford paint code.

Silver will always be hard to match, but the red tht I got, was a perfect match. It takes afew weeks to dry completely, but fades right into a match.

Here in CA, you can't buy laquers, so I buy mine out of state. Laquers are much easier to apply, and cam be color sanded after
they are dry.

http://www.towerpaint.com/