I believe I had a thread about this at one time, but I think it was lost when the server crashed. So here we go.
First off, let me warn you...as with most paint & body projects...this is very dusty and I recommend breathing and eye protection from falling dust and other particles.
I had a bit of an easier time than most might because I had the rearend, driveshaft, and rear control arms out of the car. This was due to a complete rebuild of the rearend.
You want to start by degreasing any areas with alot of grime and such, because this will do nothing more than clog up your grinding/wire wheel, wire brush, and sand paper. Once you have hosed it off and let it dry (you could just wait overnight...or you can speed up the process with a leaf blower like I did lol), you need to begin prepping. Here's how mine looked after degreasing:
My car had a bit of rust in some spots, so a 4.5" electric grinder with a wire wheel was used to grind it down to bare metal on those spots. I tried to keep this to a minimum to avoid removing the very tough factory primer as much as possible. Next, begin cleaning other areas such as around fuel and brake lines with a hand held wire brush. If you need to use the electric wire wheel on any of there, be extremely careful to not get close to any rubber or plastic items for obvious reasons. It's a good idea at this point to use some compressed air to see how everything is looking. If it is to your liking, you now need to begin prepping the surface with sand paper. This will be the most tedious process, second to masking. You need to make sure all surfaces are scuffed enough to provide something for the primer to stick to....or else you may have bad results or flaking paint in the future.
Once you are done sanding, you need to clean the surface. I used lacquer thinner followed by 70% alcohol, but you may use your preferred cleaner. Now comes the fun lol...time to start masking...mask anything you dont want paint on. and make sure to mask the sides and top of the car (use blankets or whatever you can find...trust me you don't want to remove overspray from your whole car...it's no fun. Next comes paint. I used Krylon Rust Tough Primer and Krylon Rust Tough Dark Machine Gun Gray paints. These are available at most auto parts stores. 2-3 light coats of primer...just enough to evenly cover the surface, followed by 2-3 more coats of the gray finish coat will be more than enough. I believe this took about 3 cans of each in the end.
Let the paint dry overnight then remove the masking the next day and put it all back together. Go buy some mirrors for the next car show!
Here are some pics of the finished result with the painted rearend housing and such:
Pic of the rearend out of the car while I was painting it
Putting the rear back in
I also painted my control arms and rearend housing using the same process and Rust Tough Gloss Black. I will also add that I did this over two years ago now, and the paint is still in great shape, and living up to its "Rust Tough" name. Only a couple tiny spots of surface rust have popped up, and I believe this was mainly due to rock/pebbles being kicked up by the tires. This was easily fixed with some light sanding and repainting those areas.
Hope this inspires some stangers out there to pay attention to one of the more neglected areas of our cars :SNSign:
First off, let me warn you...as with most paint & body projects...this is very dusty and I recommend breathing and eye protection from falling dust and other particles.
I had a bit of an easier time than most might because I had the rearend, driveshaft, and rear control arms out of the car. This was due to a complete rebuild of the rearend.
You want to start by degreasing any areas with alot of grime and such, because this will do nothing more than clog up your grinding/wire wheel, wire brush, and sand paper. Once you have hosed it off and let it dry (you could just wait overnight...or you can speed up the process with a leaf blower like I did lol), you need to begin prepping. Here's how mine looked after degreasing:
My car had a bit of rust in some spots, so a 4.5" electric grinder with a wire wheel was used to grind it down to bare metal on those spots. I tried to keep this to a minimum to avoid removing the very tough factory primer as much as possible. Next, begin cleaning other areas such as around fuel and brake lines with a hand held wire brush. If you need to use the electric wire wheel on any of there, be extremely careful to not get close to any rubber or plastic items for obvious reasons. It's a good idea at this point to use some compressed air to see how everything is looking. If it is to your liking, you now need to begin prepping the surface with sand paper. This will be the most tedious process, second to masking. You need to make sure all surfaces are scuffed enough to provide something for the primer to stick to....or else you may have bad results or flaking paint in the future.
Once you are done sanding, you need to clean the surface. I used lacquer thinner followed by 70% alcohol, but you may use your preferred cleaner. Now comes the fun lol...time to start masking...mask anything you dont want paint on. and make sure to mask the sides and top of the car (use blankets or whatever you can find...trust me you don't want to remove overspray from your whole car...it's no fun. Next comes paint. I used Krylon Rust Tough Primer and Krylon Rust Tough Dark Machine Gun Gray paints. These are available at most auto parts stores. 2-3 light coats of primer...just enough to evenly cover the surface, followed by 2-3 more coats of the gray finish coat will be more than enough. I believe this took about 3 cans of each in the end.
Let the paint dry overnight then remove the masking the next day and put it all back together. Go buy some mirrors for the next car show!
Here are some pics of the finished result with the painted rearend housing and such:
Pic of the rearend out of the car while I was painting it
Putting the rear back in
I also painted my control arms and rearend housing using the same process and Rust Tough Gloss Black. I will also add that I did this over two years ago now, and the paint is still in great shape, and living up to its "Rust Tough" name. Only a couple tiny spots of surface rust have popped up, and I believe this was mainly due to rock/pebbles being kicked up by the tires. This was easily fixed with some light sanding and repainting those areas.
Hope this inspires some stangers out there to pay attention to one of the more neglected areas of our cars :SNSign:
