truck & trailer paint?

I painted a 1993 fruehauf 53 van myself a few years ago. $150 in supplies and a week of hard work to do it right and cheap.

 

i found an outdoor paint for metal which was a very close match to my tractor. about 4 gallons of paint. I scuffed everything with green pads and an electric sander. then i wiped it all down with mineral spirits. taped off everything. then i thinned the paint and rolled it! Yes I figgin rolled and it looked great and shiney! lasted 3 years till i wrecked it. best $1400 trailer i ever had.

On the doors i used spray paint to get every thing around the edges. They wound up being 2 tone with 2 shades of blue.

I blasted the rear bumper, primed, and used aliminum colored spray paint.

I could have done it better but i found a cheap way to polish a turd and i was very happy with it.

 

Have fun with all the rivets. it takes time but its worth it to prep it right

 

I have painted several, acrylic enamel is a good durable paint but dulls quick, but cheap. Then there is base coat clear coat, clear is usually a urethane very durable nice shine, but sometimes the clear peels. Then of course its Imron thats the good stuff very expensive. Of course any paint job is only as good as the prep, but I think best bang for your buck is urethane same stuff as clear used with base coat but mixed to your color of course. No clear needed but it you want some for extra scratch protection you can and since you can put the clear on the paint when wet no peel, with base coat the color needs to dry before adding the next stage. Just the good primer, the red, and blck to do my old pete with out clear is gonna run little over 1500. But I'm gonna put clear on it I'm not looking for a show queen, but a darn nice working truck. If I was doing a trailer the previous post hits it pretty close as to how I would do it. You can cut cost by half using enamel, and double it for Imron