I recently purchased a 2001 King Ranch SCrew and, like many trucks from that time, it has some rust issues on the rocker panels. It also has some other minor body work that I would like to do, if I am able to complete it on my own and save some money. My question is how big of an area must you paint at one time. It appears that the previous owner carried items that rubbed through the paint on the roof and they purchased non-matching touch-up paint to fix it. Not a big deal since no one can see it but it still bothers me. Can I sand down just a few small sections and carefully paint it using the proper paint or do I need to do the entire roof to get a good finish on it? Same thing with the rocker panels. I am going to attempt to replace them myself (using some threads from here to help me along) and need to know if I can paint those or if I should sand the entire section.

The paint in general is in pretty poor condition on the truck. I guess that comes with the territory of $9500 trucks that are 11 years old. If I am able to do this work, even one section at a time, I will probably end up repainting the entire truck over the next year or two.

 

Save up. Do it all at once.

If you do a section at a time. It will all fade in time differently, and won't match 100% perfect.

As for the rust. Go get some rust inverter. I use OSPHO on the farm I work at and it works pretty good I think.

 

My truck doesn't have any rust on the rocker panels and it's a 97. Then again, it completely depends on where you live. It does have buttloads of tar on it though. I've spent ~55 on tar removal products, Kerosene, WD40, ect and there's still tar on it.

 

AS satated previously do it at one time. If your doinga large area you must blend with clear 2 panels minimum. For example if have to paine a fender you must blend into the hood, and door. The roof not as much blending will need to be done. But if large areas need to be done I would do it all at once.

 

I would save up and do it right... Paint is one thing that you don't want to **** with. If it looks crappy, EVERYONE will know.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Tons of stuff I want to do with this truck to make it a definite keeper but need to do all of it on a budget. Called a body shop and was told that painting this thing would be close to 6k!!! The wife would kill me if I dropped 6k on a truck that I purchased for under 10.

My plan for now is to deal with the rust in the spring. I've got a friend that is good at welding so I'll probably ask for his assistance. I'll probably just primer it at that time until I'm ready to do some major painting. Also going to look at putting Herculiner on the undercarriage to prevent more rust issues. Wish I could afford LineX but that isn't going to happen.

 

if you can do the bodywork yourself, have maaco paint it, ive seen some nice paint jobs in the 1500-2500 dollar range.