Fitted the tail gate. Received advice to mount tail gate hardware prior to paint since it is not easy to align tail gate.

Painted front rail, inside of side rails, jabbed out tail gate area, painted primed wheel tub, and jabbed out front area. Pulled tape about 15 minutes after shooting last coat of clear.

Painted front rail two wet coats of epoxy primer since I could not get to that with bed standing up:

Finished jabbing out tail gate area, painted gas door pockets, and back sides of gas doors. Removed all masking.

Wow! this truck is looking good.
you are even priming and spraying bolts! now that IS attention to detail.

D15 CRX wrote:you are even priming and spraying bolts! now that IS attention to detail

Thanks. I always "restore" every part I take off when I do projects....

Blocked bed sides with 400 grit dry in an X pattern. Put bed on truck to get all new plastic hung in the garage cause after months of body work its just one big dusty mess in there.

Spent the entire weekend hanging new plastic in the garage. New divider wall, ceiling all covered, all walls. No more sanding allowed in this area now. Also hooked up new air line filter. All ready to paint but out of energy at this point....

Tail gate painted. Pictures taken two hours after last coat of clear.

The base coats went on nice and flat with good coverage. Orange peel / dry spray in the middle where trim panel will cover don't care about that. Top and bottom of panel smooth and glossy clear flowing very nicely. Got some sags at the very top so I stopped for 1/2 hour then put a total of four coats of clear up there. I'll let it sit for a week then sand flat and reclear. No defects in the lower half, that section is finished. Overall pretty good. Just gotta stay more focused when shooting that clear; and move the gun slightly faster in the cooler temps.

For those wondering about the pin stripes here are what the measurements are suppose to be from top to bottom:

3/16" bronze stripe
1/8" white stripe
1/8" bronze stripe
3/16" white stripe

I don't have them perfectly spaced but it was the best I could get them. Plus those stripes are down low on the body not a biggie.

I sprayed the tail gate white them masked in the stripes, masked off the top of tail gate, then shot the bronze paint. Then shot the clear. The fine line tape gives very crisp lines. I pulled the fine line tape about 10 minutes after last coat of bronze. First coat of bronze was a lite coat to seal the tape lines then two wet coats after that.

Made a fixture for locating the stripes so they would align with the cab. That way I can paint bed off of truck.