I swapped paint for bark with a small pine tree while backing our 32' camper trailer. Blended right in to the rest of the woods. This is the passenger side front door.

But first, I had to remove the badge. A 16 ga. solid guitar wire and a couple of bamboo skewers make quick work of the badge. The side molding was more difficult and I couldn't use the wire because it started to dig into the molding. I had to pry it up with a plastic wedge while cutting the adhesive with a thin, sharp putty knife.

The eraser wheel worked great on the vinyl lettering, pinstriping, and adhesive left over from the badge, but there was too much adhesive where the molding was. I just used Goo Gone and a putty knife on that.

Blocking with 80 grit to find the highs and lows.

I took care of a couple of door dings with glazing compound, and fixed the others with body filler.

I also repaired some dings in the right front fender.

At this point, I can't live with the dents in the top of the bed rail. Anal retentive for sure.

Last bit of bodywork is a minor crease I put in the right rear fender while backing my trailer through a gate. Definitely going to be more careful after all this work is done.

So you're probably wondering why the right side of the bed is white. Well, if you're trying to pass a school bus when the driver decides to swerve to the left smack dab into you as she passes a letter carrier truck putting along delivering mail, then you get this.

This was my first major foray into collision repair. I had to buy a right half truck bed, detach the fender/inner fender assembly from the bed, cut my fender out, and spot weld it all back together. That's a whole other thread, but here are a few highlights.

Wont be to much longer this one will be looking like a new truck good work

Awesome job man. Thats a lot of work. I'm a total newbie to body work as well and have taken on a simmilar project. Not brave enough to paint myself though. Looks very good. Stud guns seem to work wonders. Thanks for posting. You should be proud of what you've done there. I'm sure you also gained a lot of valuable experience. Good Job!

GERALD007 wrote:Awesome job man. Thats a lot of work. I'm a total newbie to body work as well and have taken on a simmilar project. Not brave enough to paint myself though. Looks very good. Stud guns seem to work wonders. Thanks for posting. You should be proud of what you've done there. I'm sure you also gained a lot of valuable experience. Good Job!

Thanks. I'm still making preparations for painting. I spent a week cleaning out the clutter from my workshop (now I have a pile of crap covered with a tarp in the backyard) and vacuuming every nook and cranny. Ordered a CamAir QC air filter/dryer, paint booth filters, a separate spray gun for clear. Now I just need a week or two between remodeling jobs to do the block sanding and painting. I' worried that I'm going to be overcome by events....deer season, fall fishing, outdoor kitchen, landscaping...and still be driving a primer black/white/green truck next summer.

I have continued to get my shop ready for this paint job. I've got both my compressors hooked up hooked up in tandem to my air line. The hot, compressed air from each of the compressors goes through a separate automotive a/c condenser, which is cooled with a fan. Then the cooled air and liquid water go into a separate water trap (old compressor tank), then the dry air is returned to the main tank, and the water stays in the water trap. I'll do a post on that separately.

The air from both compressors goes through a pre-water/oil filter, then into the QC-3. I put a connector at the bottom of the vertical pipe so that I can bypass the QC-3 when running air tools. Even without the QC-3, the air is dry. I ran my DA sander for hours at a time last week without a single drop of moisture being spit out. I might get a half teaspoon of water when I drain the main tank. Quite a bit of water comes out of the water trap tank.

I need to add a tee fitting and quick disconnect above the valve so I can drain this pipe without having to unscrew anything.

I replaced all the cheap industrial connectors with Milton high flow connectors, too.