Gregturley

I am surprised the old and fresh paint matches so well.

Took the rear window out of my 95. From the inside start at a top corner and work the seal down while putting slight outward pressure on glass. Work your way across the top and down sides and glass falls out back of cab. Can't help you putting it back in since i pulled it when i junked the wreck but the old rope trick may work.

Finally got done with the compound today. Buffed the hood and was not happy with it so i went at it with the DA some more, then buffed it again. Got rid of almost all the scratches and really starting to shine. Went over the whole truck by hand with Mirror Glaze Show Car Glaze. Never used it before but it did shine it up even more. Tomorrow is wax day. Driver side of hood. Old paint. Truck was last washed about 1 1/2 years ago. Never waxed since the day it rolled off the lot. Had black crap growing on it when i bought it and when i started this it had gotten almost that bad again. Can't believe how easily the old dead paint came back to life.

@Doubletrouble 3m 05723. Amazon 2 pack $32.xx after tax. Local wanted $35-40 each. Thats for the #1 compound thats white. 1st step in that system. I was told thats all I'll need to do on white. Dark colors youll need to do steps 2 & 3 each uses a different pad. This is complete 3M system on eBay. I'm using 1st step only. May go over it with some mirror glaze stuff that i have, just depends on how it looks. I will say the 3M stuff puts the Mirror Glaze stuff to shame but I have a bunch of different Mirror Glaze in the garage along with a fine black pad.

Amazon brought my pads. Now I'm getting somewhere. 1st pass with compound. Probably do at least 1 more.

Same door after 3000 DA. Before compound. After a quick pass. About 1 minute on a 1 foot square area with the wrong pad. Amazon hasn't been here yet. Sorry the lighting is not better. This is the old driver front that i am going to replace. Im using it to practice.

@Doubletrouble Like i said nice, helpful guys there. Didn't try to sell me a sand and buff, gave me a 30 minute lesson. They use 3M Perfect-it 1 2 3 system. I'm using 1 compound and white foam pad. I didn't take any pics of the process. I am not an expert but: Pretty simple in theory. Wash car and get it spotless. No dirt or grit. Thats what got me on the hood i didn't clean it good enough and had grit get under my sandpaper. Hand sand: 3000 grit wet/dry paper (i used 2500-don't) and water keeping surface damp. Soak sandpaper in water for 10-15 minutes. Don't want it wet with hose, use mist from a spray bottle. DA: 3000 grit 3M Trizact and a DA pad that has some cushion to it. The trick is keep the speed down and pad flat with light to medium pressure. You don't want the DA to really spin, mostly just dance around. Mist with spray bottle keep damp. What i worried about was burning through the clear around body lines and edges. As far as compounding, I'll get back to you on that. I will get some pics as it sits after sanding and before compounding and after I'm done.

Tried to get him to finish out the hood. He said i was capable and if i screwed it up said "you know a guy that can paint it". I learned some more about bringing dead paint back to life. With the type of cars i usually drive that is a good thing. It's a family owned/ran body shop, everyone there is really nice and helpful and Daniel knew when he did that it would drive me nuts and make me finish it. I told him i was going to start picking apart every car my shop gets back from them so they all better be perfect.

Went by the body shop to get them to buff a couple spots i found on the rear door the other day. Owners son took care of the door and started looking the truck over, found a couple spots on the bed he didn't like and got those too. Then he saw the hood. He knew it was good enough for me but he proceeded to give me a lot of crap about how bad i did and went at a 2 foot area with a DA, 3000 and compound. Huge difference. Now i had a really slick, shiny spot right in front of the driver seat. He then sent me home with instructions, a couple 3000 discs, his DA pad and some 3M compound and told me he expected better. Spent yesterday going over everything that wasn't painted with the DA. Going to try the compound tonight and tomorrow. They let me leave my trailer there while i did some work on my carport. Now im scared to go pick it up because i know he's going to start looking at my truck and find something else.

@Doubletrouble try these

@Doubletrouble That little thief likes to wait till i set something down then swipe it but all she did today was clean off the oil pan with her head. Vinyl was peeling on both sides and the fresh door doesn't have it so i figured I'd see what a white truck looks like without it. Not sure if i like it gone with the dark tint but i had to remove it if im going to fix it. Fixed the rust on front door with a grinder and duct tape. Didn't have any white paint in the garage. Before duct tape. After duct tape. Even managed to peel off my VIN sticker off the old door in 1 piece to put on the new door.

Got the rear door on and removed the vinyl behind the windows. Might get the front door swapped out next weekend.

Got the tonneau cover back and on after work today. Turned out better than I expected since I didn't use any spot putty or anything, just DA'd the piss out of it.

@Cronus577 Any damage to it? what do you want for it?

Carport is behind my privacy fence in the back yard. I don't park under it i work under it because my garage isnt tall enough to work out of. If I'm lucky i get to park in the shade from the house. Washed the roof and hit it with some polishing compound this afternoon. Now the only black stuff on the truck is what belongs on it. Little more work on the hood, get the tonneau cover on, tailgate trim & hang some doors and i can wax it. Really looking forward to that.

My 95 3500 was black. Shiny nice bed was a factory take off from a 02 and cab was flat black from all the clear peeling off. @Threadzy thanks a lot. Keep waiting on a call to pick up the tonneau cover, then realized its only Tuesday even though it feels like Thursday. This week is dragging by.

@Royal Squire i think I'll hit it with some compound. Not much on washing cars by hand. @Doubletrouble sand it down and paint it. Thats what i was told on my last car with peeling clear coat. I had clear peeling off in sheets. Told i had to get ALL the clear coat off for the paint to have something to stick to. Believe me when i say it looks better in pictures.

Did a quick pass with the buffer and some fine swirl remover. Passenger doors, rocker, and cab side turned out ok, passenger side all pretty much matches now, at least enough my relatively low standards. The hood needs some more work. Lots of sanding scratches left but it's starting to shine up. Need the truck for tomorrow so it will have to wait.

@dripley thanks. Finished wet sanding the hood, passenger side doors and back part of the cab yesterday and got a buffing pad today. Might start on the hood this afternoon after work if its not raining. It wont be perfect but it already looks like a different truck just after washing it. No more black and green film all over it. Only bad thing about doing this is now i have another car to keep washed.

Got the car port braced up enough that i dont think it will fall in on me. Too much rain coming in to start on raising it this weekend. Got the lettering on the tailgate, waiting on the plastic trim to show up. Haven't decided if I'm putting the "4x4" decal back on.

My stuff just got put on hold again. Carport roof finally started falling in today. I knew it was really bad but was trying to put it off a couple more months because i want to raise it and its attached to the garage. Im going to have to rip off part of the garage roof when i do it and was trying to wait until dryer weather was here. Cant ignore it any longer. At least the last guy was nice enough to mark where the leak was.

Flux core sucks for sheet metal. Definitely get a MIG with 75/25 gas. You can get a nice Miller (my choice) or Lincoln 110 volt that will do 3/8" or so for around $750, then Eastwood has Chinese welders and plasmas that are actually really good and their customer service is excellent. I would not cheap out on a welder. Get the best you can afford because its something that can last you years if taken care of. Good thing about a floor is you wont see it when you're done so its a good spot to learn. I am not a paint and body man but i can do the cutting and welding. Its the mud work i hate. Good luck with it.

I have driver floor patching to do also. I'm just going to cut up some sheet metal and weld it in.

@Doubletrouble probably work better than my idea of tossing my 7 year old daughter on it and turning her loose with the DA. It quit raining by the time i got home today and i was able to finish up with the 400 paper. I didn't bother with any spot putty just got rid of the deep scratches in the paint. Forgot to take pics because i was in a hurry to drop it off at the paint shop, but i got it there before they closed. Ended up with around 80% of the paint sanded off. Not perfect but will look 500% better than before. Reason i was in a rush is i have a spare hood. Swapping the white hood off so i can wet sand and buff it and keep the truck on the road. If i screw it up I'll get it painted after a couple more side jobs. Probably have it back mid next week so ill get some finished pics soon. Should have tried to get a job at the body shop and let him pay me in paint and body.

@Royal Squire this is the 1st time I'm happy to have a short box. I wouldn't be able to reach the middle if it was a long bed.