Going to repaint my 89's hood

[SafariRob]

Guys, the hood on my '89 is losing its paint rapidly; even the primer is wearing thin and rust is beginning to form. This same thing happened to the roof, but the rust got really bad, so I used paint stripper to remove what was left up there, sanded, and then brushed on ACE hardware external enamel. That worked fine, but the color match was dismal, even though I took a paint chip for the computer to scan.
So I need to do something different with the hood since it will be very visible. Now, I know nothing about automotive painting, and any painting I do will be out in the driveway as I have no garage.
I saw an advertisement on the Speed channel about Dupli-Color paint. Normally, when I think of Dupli-Color, I think only of little bottles of touch up paint, which definitely won't work for what I want to do. But this ad showed a guy painting his entire car with a paint from Dupli-Color.
I went to NAPA and checked the paint out. Yes, there are pints of paint that you can use with spray equipment, but you have to use the colors available. That's not what I want. But there are also 11 oz cans of spray paint that are matched to a vehicle's color. All I needed to do was get the paint number off the RPO sticker in my Astro and the paint color could be cross referenced.
So I got the GM number, U (for upper) 9264, and sure enough there's a Dupli-Color version, T192 Huron Blue, available.
'Course, it has to be ordered, but it should be in come Tuesday.
So, if all goes well, I'll soon be posting photos of my Astro's hood getting fresh paint. Who knows, maybe even the paint will be close to the original color, unlike the roof. But even if the match isn't great, it'll have to look better than it does now.
More to come.

[rlsllc]

I can't wait to hear how this goes. I want to do the same to the hood on my '91, I try not to think about the roof.
I wonder if anyone has had any luck matching the black that trims all of the side windows. I need to touch that up as well.

[SafariRob]

I
I wonder if anyone has had any luck matching the black that trims all of the side windows. I need to touch that up as well.

Roy, that was going to be my next project as the black trim on my van is really pathetic. I haven't found a color code for it yet, though.

[peter]

I had a rattle-can made up for me yrs ago while I watched at the local UAP (United Auto Parts) store. The match was perfect. Damn thing cost almost $20.00, but the colour was dead-on!

[rlsllc]

Yah Rob, black is black...NOT!

ColoUr...I love the Great White North, eh. Are you saying that they matched the black, if so, what was the basis for the color, like a code, chip sample, etc?

[SafariRob]

Here's a photo of my van's hood:




I intend to strip the old paint off, sand it a bit, hit it with primer, and then shoot the color.
Here's hoping that Earl Scheib would be proud!

[Rebel]

Here's hoping that Earl Scheib would be proud

=D> You are the man Rob. BE sure to wipe it all down with Prep-Al before primer. That'll help the primer get a good grip on things, takes off all the dust, wax and other chemical build up that has occured through the years. Good luck and will be looking for pics.

[peter]

Yah Rob, black is black...NOT!

ColoUr...I love the Great White North, eh. Are you saying that they matched the black, if so, what was the basis for the color, like a code, chip sample, etc?

It'd be nice if you rednecks could finally get the spelling thing down pat. It's getting kinda embarrassing, ya know....?

The coloUr LOLOLOL was blue, and it matched perfectly

[SafariRob]

Even though it looked like rain today, I began removing the paint on the hood. I got a can of Ace Hardware paint stripper (the thick stuff, so it doesn't run all over) and a paint brush and applied the stripper. Didn't remove the hood because I figured for sure it would rain and I knew I'd run out of daylight before getting everything ready for painting.



Above you can see the stripper lifting the paint. Actually, if you were here, you'd also hear the paint being lifted--the process makes a bit of noise as it works, believe it or not.



After the stripper did its job (and in places it took several applications of the stripper), I used a 3 inch wide putty knife and scraped the lifted paint off. Usually this was no problem to do, but some places put up a bit of a fight. Not much of one, but it took a little effort. The primer, however, is much tougher to get off. I believe the sander will make quick work of it, though.
One thing to remember: Be sure and watch where any of the lifted paint/stripper residue lands. If there's any action left in the residue, it'll begin to attack paint elsewhere. Also, be sure not to get any stripper on the grille--that plastic doesn't stand a chance against it, as I found out.
And you're right, the hood should be removed from the van before doing this, but I decided against that for now.



Here's the Astro with its hood closed and washed with soap and hot water. I wanted to be sure and get any residue of the stripper off before I sand the hood. I like to think that the hood looks better already; at least it's sorta one color and nothing is peeling.


Well, tomorrow I hope to do the sanding and at least get the primer applied, if not all the paint. Would be nice if the weather cooperates.

[SafariRob]

Rain and the threat of rain keeps me away from getting this project done, but I did manage to get the hood sanded and the primer applied. I used Dupli-color's self-etching primer--it's a green color and I wondered how well the silver top coat would cover it.

The hood in primer:




I had no sooner began spraying the primer when the rain began. I hurriedly stuffed the hood into the back of the Astro, but a lot of big rain drops had hit it. I resisted the urge to wipe off the rain--I wasn't sure if the paint was dry enough for that--so I let it air dry and hoped for the best. As it turned out, the paint retained the splatter marks of the rain drops, but sanding the hood with wet 400 grit paper took care of that. After drying the hood, I re-shot the primer, let it dry, and wet sanded it lightly due to some rough spots.

Next day, I masked off the front part of the hood so I could spray on the silver. The silver covered the green primer well, so I was relieved at that, but the rain began again so I couldn't shoot the blue paint on the rest of the hood. Bummer, I really wanted to get this done and back on the Astro.
Here's the masked off hood withe silver applied:



I don't think the match will be very close between the new paint and the old, but I figured that was going to happen. It'll just be nice to see the hood without pealing paint and spots of rust.

[Jboy2]

Lookin Good =D> =D>

[Rebel]

Lookin good Rob. Man that rains a killer,,right when you're trying to start a project,,do it every time.

[SafariRob]

Finally got the hood completely painted. Laying down the blue--and getting it even--proved to be too much for my rattle can kung fu. The end result had alternating bands of color shades no matter how I tried to fill it in. It seemed that the initial coat set the stage for what the final result would be.
But, I told myself, it is sure better than what I started out with. So, I next sprayed on the clear coat, figuring it would hide most of the banding. Ugh, it made it worse as the clear coat was murky in some places and clear in others. Repeated coats did nothing to improve it and finally the clear can was empty.
I'm not thrilled with the hood at all, but I bolted it back on. Here's a photo:



The photo tends to hide the imperfections, so it may look okay here, but it's not. However, on the positive side, the color match is pretty good--much better than I had anticipated.
All in all, I still think it looks better than what I started out with, but there sure is room for improvement. Don't know if that's possible with Dupli-Color spray cans though.

[Jboy2]

Looks WAY better then before Rob =D>

[SafariRob]

Thanks, Jboy, but looks are very deceiving in this case. A friend, who wasn't aware I was repainting the hood, stopped by after the hood was back on and asked me what happened--he said the hood looked 'funny'.
Best I can figure, the initial problem is the metal flake in the blue paint and the way it settled in when I sprayed it. Thinking about it now, I probably should've only sprayed the paint while moving the can in one direction. Instead, I sprayed the paint from right to left first and then made the second pass from left to right, alternating like this until the hood was done for the first coat.
I didn't have a problem with the silver paint, but it's not metal flake. It didn't get splotchy until I shot on the clear coat. I didn't think the clear would be a problem at all, but soon into the spraying, clumps of semi-solid clear came out of the can, splattering the hood, even though I had taken extra care to shake the can well before use. I doubt there's a lot of demand for Dupli-Color paint and it sits for a long time on the store/warehouse shelves with things really settling inside the cans, so that's something to consider.
But I will be using more of the Dupli-Color blue to repaint sections of my van. However, the sections won't have the broad areas like the hood has, so uneven paint color shouldn't be a problem in areas like the upper door frames. Think I'll leave out the clear coat, too.