I plan to completely repaint my 95 XL Ranger. The previous owner "intelligently" rock guarded it before I bought it and didn't do it properly. I don't know what he did, but it's chipping, flaking, peeling, and rust bubbling. In other words, it need's a complete repaint. Hood, doors, roof, fenders, box, tailgate, etc. I love this truck, been good to me so far, but it looks like ****, and I want to look good again.

Here are my current plans. I am going to undertake this challenge when I go on 3 week vacation this August. Hopefully I can do this is a week.

- Remove hood, box and front fenders and doors. I am going to leave what remains of the cab on the truck. (Good idea or bad?)

- Clean everything with solvents for autobody paint prep. (Any good solvents?)

- First sand run with 36 grit to remove all the rock guard ****. It's tough. Then 90 grit to clean it up a bit, then 120 to smoothen it out. Maybe a run of 320 to make it real smooth and nice. (Any tips?)

- Prime it with autobody antirust primer. Sand with 600, prime again. (Any tips?)

- Paint. Painting a dark blue gloss. (Need help and ideas here, don't know how to do this, really)

- Sand the paint with a 1200 grit sandpaper, let sit for 24 hours, then apply a coat of wax.

Now the only major problem I can foresee is that I have to do this completely outdoors. I have no access to a garage to do this. I am not looking for a perfect looking job here, just something that will look nice. If I do it outside, what precautions should I take? I should be able to keep it shaded the entire time.

Here are some pictures showing what I want to fix.

 

stop before you start man

 

WIP as in work in progress? nailed the TLA!