Cal

Prepping for new truck paint

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And I told the paint shop that I would provide the new body stripes and decals so that they would all match.  It took some doing, but I was able to get good 19' runs of pinstripe with my SC cutter and SignCut Pro!  I was pretty apprehensive as the specs for the SC are 12' max cut...  The other decals I was able to knock out easily with SCALP.  Plan to drop the truck off next week for new base coat - clear coat.

 

Oh yes, cutting them out was the easy part.  Applying the transfer tape and all that static electricity kicked in and made that job pretty time consuming.

Cal

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what year?

Only one I could find of the 93 with lund visor and lund ground effects running boards - loved that truck but fuel milage was worse than the full size one I got to replace it (that I am selling now)
still have a set of bumper pads for the top of the rear bumper for that one too

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Dodge owners unite!  I have a 2006 Charger SXT, matte black, everything debadged

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Dodge owners unite!  I have a 2006 Charger SXT, matte black, everything debadged
currently add the 03 hemi that is for sale, the 09 journey and the 14 ram 2500 hemi. The 81. Imperial was a jewel but impractical at the time I was starting the family so it had to go.
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Thanks.  It is a '99 that I bought new.  The clear coat is failing on the roof and hood (for the second time) so I am getting a complete paint job this time and springing for the best cc.

I am a Mopar guy and have had several Dodge trucks over the years.  I really like the looks of this one.  My cars are an '08 Avenger and a '72 Plymouth.

Cal

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I bought my car in 2008 and in 2012 the clear coat started peeling everywhere....and I mean EVERYWHERE.  I just wet sanded it all down and sprayed the whole car with plastidip.

 

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Nice, been thinking about plasti dipping my Toyota Tacoma in flat black.

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How is the plasti-dip holding up?  Doesn't it have a 3 year lifespan?

We painted my sons truck when first bought 10+ years ago and put on a good Euro-clear.  His truck has always sat outside and doesn't always get regular washing.  His clear coat and paint is still in excellent shape except for the hard edge along the spray on bedliner where it is beginning to peel off.  Taking a page from that playbook, I removed the spray on bedliner from my top rails and will have a good Euro clear used.

And how about this - my son was 16 when we bought his first daily driver, the 1998 Dakota, with 120,000 miles.  That is still his dd and it has about 250,000 now.  My amazement isn't the miles but that the boy still has and drives it daily and the paint looks as good as it does.

His '98 is blue, my '99 is the green one.  This pic taken several years ago.

Cal

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Oh yes, cutting them out was the easy part.  Applying the transfer tape and all that static electricity kicked in and made that job pretty time consuming.

Cal

What techniques did you use for app'ing the app tape? I bought a Big Squeegee and after a little learning curve I use it on anything that is longer than about 3ft. or wide enough to worry about. For the smaller stuff I just do the upside down trick I learned here (placing the app tape face up and laying the design down into it.)

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To the Plastidippers why not just wrap in vinyl? I know the plastidip is cheaper and less time consuming but I did both of these in about 18 hours and around $500 (material cost) for each truck. Vinyl looks better, lasts MUCH longer, and a hell of alot easier to remove than plasidip. Plus color selection is almost endless and can pretty much be de-wrapped and rewrapped in a matter of 2 days with no prep except a good cleaning.

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Well, I have no idea how to wrap with good results on a vehicle. Had a hard enough time wrapping the bottom part of a blender bottle, lol. I airbrush so I know I can lay the paint down. I guess do what you know you can do.

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I had an '88 Dodge Ram-50 that I bought used when I was 15 and drove it daily for 15 years, although technically it wasn't a Dodge, it was a Mitsubishi. Been all over the country with it, 25 different states.

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I had an '88 Dodge Ram-50 that I bought used when I was 15 and drove it daily for 15 years, although technically it wasn't a Dodge, it was a Mitsubishi. Been all over the country with it, 25 different states.

I had 1 I drove until the frame rotted in half. Sledge hammered 2x4's into the rails and got another year out of it before it broke in half

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To the Plastidippers why not just wrap in vinyl? I know the plastidip is cheaper and less time consuming but I did both of these in about 18 hours and around $500 (material cost) for each truck. Vinyl looks better, lasts MUCH longer, and a hell of alot easier to remove than plasidip. Plus color selection is almost endless and can pretty much be de-wrapped and rewrapped in a matter of 2 days with no prep except a good cleaning.

 

Vinyl can look better, but plastidip done right can be just as nice as wrap. I have and still do both. My brother in laws car is wrapped, and my sisters car is dipped. They both have their goods and bads, its all personal preference. I like to wrap the vehicle and dip the wheels.

 

Green car wrapped, color change is dip.

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What techniques did you use for app'ing the app tape? I bought a Big Squeegee and after a little learning curve I use it on anything that is longer than about 3ft. or wide enough to worry about. For the smaller stuff I just do the upside down trick I learned here (placing the app tape face up and laying the design down into it.)

 

Goose, I've not heard about the upside down trick.  I will have to do some looking into this.

The decals were not a problem.  On the pinstripe I just laid out about 2' and then unrolled from a 6" roll of application tape and applied, and smoothing it out, then pull it across the table for another two feet and repeat.  I needed 3 hands!  One to pull the pinstripe across, one to unroll the app tape and one to keep the bubbles out.  Then stuff didn't line up exactly and I had to cut the app tape to restart it.  Man what a job it was!

Cal

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I don't remember who gave me the tip or even when but early on when I was brand new someone on the forum here (Kudo's to them BTW) chimed in on  post that probably saved me more headaches than anything I've learned. As mentioned, just unroll enough app tape to have a little safety zone on the ends and cut it and leave it sticky side up. Then take your vinyl and place it face down and squeegee from the back side. If it's long then you can shape in in a U and start sort of near and end about 6 to 10 inches in (for me this is easiest to start over on the right side so my left had holds up the rest of the design while I work my way toward it from right to left. For most stuff that is normal sizes the backing tends to have enough curl that you can just set in on there and then work the squeegee without worrying about holding anything up.

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Thanks Goose, I tried to like your comment but it said I have already reached my quota for the day!  Still learning stuff every day!!!

Cal

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To the Plastidippers why not just wrap in vinyl? I know the plastidip is cheaper and less time consuming but I did both of these in about 18 hours and around $500 (material cost) for each truck. Vinyl looks better, lasts MUCH longer, and a hell of alot easier to remove than plasidip. Plus color selection is almost endless and can pretty much be de-wrapped and rewrapped in a matter of 2 days with no prep except a good cleaning.

I don't have the patience to install and the plastidip costs me $260 for 4 gallons.  I don't plan on going back to midnight blue pearl anytime soon so no worry about removal

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Oh and I have a semi transparent vinyl to smoke my taillights that has shrunk over the years due to weather.  Rubberized paint I think would hold up just a little better.

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found a better one of the old 93 - 

was the worse vehicle I had for mileage except the 73 ford 1 ton with a 460 but it was fun to drive - at 1 point had the same Michelin tires on it that state police mustangs used and would make Camaro owners sob off the line!  not that I would ever participate in that type of behavior   B)

 

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Nice clean truck Scott.  I will post up a pic of mine after fresh paint.

Cal

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Cal - that was when I sold it in 03 - never had a vehicle sit in that yard for sale more than about 10 days - maybe 2 weeks until the current one - the economy has changed a bit. usually people look at the vehicles and how they are taken care of and snatch them up - not so much this time - but also have a bit higher end vehicle with the hemi, sport package, highway gears, rolling tonnea, etc than the other ones.  I need someone that wants to tow a larger 1/2 ton towable to fall in love this time

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Cal - you need another Dodge - this is a great truck with only 73,000 on it. I'm still driving it daily but it won't be long I will have to change back to the new one for camping . . . needs a good home that will continue to give it love.  just sayin ya know

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