1998 Toyota Tacoma - Weekend Warrior Tacoma: Rags to Riches Part 2: Paint

16. The last bit of primer to be sprayed on the truck was a gray sealer primer, which Josh laid a very light and smooth layer over the whole truck.

17 and 18. Now, our truck was ready for paint. Josh had this blue Velspar paint he was going to use on a Cadillac. Because we were on a budget, we decided to use it now. It's a custom color, but was based on a 72 Cadillac color, and was two parts paint, to one part reducer.

19. Josh is applying the paint to the truck. Josh recommends applying medium to light coats of paint, and it should be cross-hatched.

20 and 21. Midway through the paintjob, it's still very lightly coated. We needed another coat to take away the transparency.

22-25. Our last step was the most crucial, so as to ensure a "suede" paint look. Josh mixed our clear as before, four parts clear to one part hardener. Once this was mixed, he re-mixed it as one part already mixed clear to one part mating agent. This gave us a dull-paint look. This is great because you can wash it just like paint and it won't dull like primer. It will also give that cool hot-rod look. Just make sure you don't ever buff this, because if you do, it will bring the shine out of it.

26. Josh applied clearcoat over the entire body and made sure not to miss any spots.

27 and 28. Once the truck was dry, Josh came back to remove the tape. The blue candy pops just the right amount against the flat blue. We still have a noticeable tape line, as could be expected, but it's not nearly so bad as it would have if we hadn't sprayed it first.

29. Here's the finished project. Once the truck is put back together, we'll return to Josh to have him stripe the hood, tailgate, and the graphics in silver.