How much paint for a T600 with sleeper

Find a new shop. like a guy owns his own, does the work himself.
one in town used 5-7000$ single paint depending on what he had to do. (Sand it or just or prepped to paint)

 

I dont have a clue. I know he painted a farmers 3 international 9400s for $5000 each a few years back in white.

 

Post some before and after photos.

 

I have just painted a medium size car 3 coats and 2lt is heaps. so .5 gal precolour, probably even .25 would do.

Are you thinking base coat and clear color (most common and for metallics) or just base?

Definitely go to an auto paint supply shop not some parts shop to get your paint. They have all you need at trade prices.
Consider buying a cheap random orbital sander if you don't have one, one with Velcro backing base. It will make rubbing back you old paint a lot easier and faster. I imagine half a day.

Start with a beer and bag of white cotton rags and few laps or Prepsol, metho, wax and grease remover to remove old polishes, road grime etc. Don't try and make one rag last the whole job. Painting is about cleanliness and impurities.

Grab another beer and start with 500 dry paper and sand like your not paying for it. Don't try and get $10 from a 50c sanding disc. My guess for a truck buy about 20. 500 is all you need, don;t go down this path of 360, 500, 800, 1200. Float the sander slow and steady and try not to tip sand nasty chips with the edge of the sander. Or if so feather around that deep spot a lot. Alternatively buy some 2 pack filler designed for small blemishes like stone chips. Flush fill it twice but sand it well also. Also grab some flexi sanding pads. They are a cigarette sixed bit of sponge foam with grit attached. They are good for where the orbital can't get like behind door handles, body lines etc.

Once sanded, pending if you sander is dust extraction or not. If not use a clean (new) nylon feather duster, air (with no oil or moisture from compressor) to blow excess dust off, then Tac cloth the surface. Do it several times and fold the Tac cloth like toilet paper, if your a folder. Scrunching is a fail and again don't be shy on the Tac cloths. They are cheap and disposable from the auto shop so but 10.

Can't recall the name of the product, but there is this stuff like water that you lightly spay on first that is like an etch binder coat to promote adhesion between surfaces. Its cheap and dries within a minute and worth the effort I feel.

Then start applying undercoat 1-2 laps, base 2-3, clear 3-4. No need to sand between coats. Go light, even and consistent opposed to heavy, slow that look 100% off the gun. Paint kind of settles into itself for a second so can look a bit meh the very second you spray it. Fan on wide, trigger on almost full, 23psi, 6" off surface. If its giving you #### (orange peel) you can try and thin product a little more. If its dusty slow down application.....generally.

I won't say painting is all prep but a good deal of it is. I taped before sanding so go light on the beers as you want your taping to be on point. Buy a few different widths of tape at the auto shop for different applications. Thinner ones for curves, 1 to1.25 for general. I tape wind screens, windows, color lines, head lights, door sills first then add the paper to that line, not one tape and paper application to do the job if that makes sense. If you rub through the tape sanding just touch it up. I used a 3M taping machine with 6 and12" paper, and 60" plastic. You buy rolls of paper/plastic and the machine links the tape to it as you pull it out. I find it easier and faster than applying the tap to paper on a surface somewhere before applying it to the required surface. Taping is the slowest part of the whole job.

Pick your day and local. Preferably indoor on a 77 to 80F day with no wind or sign of rain/humidity. You can easily lap the top half of a truck 3 times with base and clear in half a day. If its cooler get fast thinners, if it hotter get slow thinners for. Make sure your compressor and water trap is up to it. You don't want to be stopping to wait for the compressor to catch its breath, or dump the water mid job. If indoors an extraction fan is a good idea to keep the haze down. Good luck, look forward to seeing it.

 

Wish you luck my friend!! Depending on whether you have done automotive painting before, I would definitely do a single stage paint! Won’t look quite as shiny as clear maybe but definitely looks a whole lot better than having clear coat runs down from every rivetAsk me how I know! And the more stuff you can remove (mirrors etc) or completely mask over (like door handles etc) the easier it will be to paint. And depending on the blend ratio i think you could be ok with buying 4 gallons as long as you end up with more than that in sprayable material. I can guarantee you will be questioning all your life’s decisions during the process but if you succeed it feels really good No pain no gain!

 

I tried posting a link but it failed! Search even on this forum. I saw several good threads about the very adventure you’re about to start into

 

There is always youtube for technic, but like much on youtube it leads you down a rabbit hole often without all the smaller details to navigate the warren. My last car I painted I blew it thinking how hard can Candy Apple Red be. Needless to say when I re-did it I just went metalic base and clear. Nice, simple, familiar.
Come time to paint dirty ol K, its going just one solid colour so I'll be spraying a few old car doors with mirrors or rivets before attempting the truck. Just to get the feel and how it lays down. My first car with a solid 2 pak sounds a bit like Shedflipper's, went of great..................but then revealed on to heavy. Bugger.

Its a lot of work for any outcome, but also can be very satisfying and a good life experience. Can also be a frustrating scaring adventure. My truck looks to been professionally pained but it still has a run. So providing its not down the middle of the door a small run, bug or imperfection is acceptable if your outside and DIY. You can always body stipe over it, repaint that panel, of leave it as a memento haha.

 

If you get a run or a bug or something a piece of masking tape will suck it right off without making a mess but you can only use a piece one time and then you have to throw it away and get a new piece! Just gently touch it to the paint run! Done that more times than I want to know