DIY Painting a TJ, or not DIY painting a TJ

I had a junker pickup that the wife thought looked too bad to keep in the driveway so I went down and bought a gallon of Ace hardware's implement paint just to cover it up. I think the brand name was X-Rust or something like that, but that stuff really surprised me. It covered well, leveled nicely, took a great finish, and lasted for over

10 years with no issues of fade or peel. I even got ambitious and polished the hood one day - looked great for months. Hard to beat for $15 a gallon. I've been looking for some more to do my 88 MJ and son's 91 XJ since both have that peeling clearcoat look right now.

No. Is there a nearby community college that offers auto body courses? I painted my station wagon while taking such a course. I paid for the materials, but everything else was provided by the school, including that lovely paint booth.

agreed... materials can be surprisingly expensive. i bought a gallon of 'Colorado Red' (DuPont ChromaOne single stage) for my XJ, and it came to almost $400. plus hardener, reducer, etc.,etc.

from what i've heard, reds and yellows are the most expensive colors (not counting metallics or pearls) since they have the most dyes in them. white is the cheapest.

SteveBrady proclaimed:

Well, I guess it would if you regularly chugalug the old style antifreeze and are bulemic...

Haven't painted a Jeep(yet), but a couple of years ago I painted both my wife's motorcyle and mine.

Mine is a big Harley dresser with all the bags and a fairing...12 pieces in all. Painted it black and it took like a 1/4 of the color and a 1/4 of reducer(plus all the primers, sealers, clear/coat etc). Cost was about $300 for materials, and that's at jobber prices.

My wife's was just 2 tanks and 2 fenders and took a pint of color(which was $52 just by itself)and a pint of reducer. It was painted that '02 Mustang Redfire. I spent almost exactly the same amount to paint it...about $300.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

Don't they still sell the good old Imron?

Yeah, I guess, but I didn't want to mess with that. Base coat/clear coat is pretty easy to work with and fairly easy to fix runs in the clear unless you load it up with pearl like I did. Next time I'm gonna try and flame one of them...those guys on the chopper shows on TV make it look easy(yeah, right!).

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLT 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep YJ Rio Grande ASE Certified Master Auto Tech + L1 TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51

Painting a single step polyurethane has to be easier than basecoat/clearcoat and is probably a lot cheaper too.