DIY: Painting my Nissan Patrol

[hayzin]

Hello my 4x4 brothers.

Some of you may know how I've been working on my so called secret project at home....well, here it is!
A few weeks ago, I was debating over whether to paint my NP or not. Sure enough, when you have friends with as big 'keerdhaas' as yourself, you end up doing things you never thought you would. So yes, my friend Irfan and I got the idea to paint my Nissan Patrol at home. I figured I could learn a new skill and do the kind of job that I would be most satisfied with as opposed to being at the mercy or denters and painters who would charge an arm n leg for the job. Although, I must point out that saving money was not the priority here, it was more about satisfying the 'shaukeen pagal wala bug' that most of us insane car enthusiasts have here on this forum
Here is the story of how all this happened and where we have reached so far....enjoy the pics and do contribute to the thread.

[hayzin]

So the first question obviously was, what color to make it? White was good for starters, but from the first day of purchase, I had decided that white, although a graceful color on most 4x4s, but this one just looked like a giant deep freezer on wheels and had to be changed. After some brainstorming and a visit to the paint shop, the color that we decided to go with is called: Deep Lapis Blue Metallic, by Honda.
Before I proceed with all the pics and info, I'd like to thank my cousin Nadir (NUIC) and friend Irfan (ngen) for all their support with the equipment, technical guidance and overall finishing process.

[hamz80]

Would love to see how it comes out! And for that "Keerdhass" comment, i fully agree that a person with passion for cars cannot sleep properly unless he gets everything to his liking.
It will be great InshAllah and then you would be getting calls for paint jobs of pakwheelers!
Good Luck!

[hayzin]

Well as most of you may remember, this is how my NP 'used' to look like. The standard white with standard Nissan Patrol stickers.
As I said earlier, white is not a terrible color to have on a 4x4, but I was looking for a more bad a$$ look. Especially since I sold my monster BJ60, this look just wasnt doing it for me.....not enough cars on road that would get out of the way on their own

[hayzin]

@hamz80

Thanks for the kind words bro. Stay tuned for the whole story.

[machine]

Oh the Big Cat is now crawling out of the bag Wasnt expecting the paint DIY Upload the pictures at your earliest Brother.

[hayzin]

So since I was no expert on painting cars, I took all the advice I could get from NUIC and Ngen. I also met with a few painters to get as much info as my brain could soak in. Doing this for the first time ever is quite exciting, yet the nagging voice in your head telling you that boy if you screw this up, its going to cost a hell lot more to fix!
The smart thing to do was start on a small area and get a feel of the spray gun pressure, get all the mixture proportions of paint and thinner accurate. So I removed the fuel cover and rear doors first...

[hayzin]

By the way, advice for anyone trying to do the same thing...USE THE RIGHT TOOLS! It took me an hour to remove one door just because I was using the wrong tool. Thank God for Irfan, he came with his lil toolkit and the other door was off in 5 mins!

[hayzin]

The doors finally came off and Irfan started on the prep work with masking tape and newspapers, while I sand papered the surface and mixed the paint.

[hayzin]

With the door all prepped up, we were ready for the first coat of paint! Despite all the excitement, the reality of getting it right was always looming over my head.

[hayzin]

@machine
Bro I'm on the uploads in NOS mode
Bet youre surprised by this one eh? Hehe. Rock sliders bhi hoongay Inshallah. Stay tuned

[hayzin]

Here is the fuel cover after the first coat. Not bad for a small surface area, but wait till we get to the hood and roof! The consistency of the color was perfect, better than I expected. After this, I did 2 more coats of paint and 2 coats of lacquer in the end.

[fawadakbarkhan]

Lovely! Subscribed!

[060276]

very very interesting DIY...looking forward for more pictures ...I hope u will post as many pictures as you can in this year. As i cant wait till next year...

[thekonsultant]

u got my attention here.... great work by the looks of the fuel cap. keep the pics rolling

[AZEEMMAJEED]

good going which company paint materials are you using and did you sanded the car a thome

[tausifs]

You've got some serious guts man. The fuel lid looks beautiful and I am confident that the final product would look awesome. Post the final finished look of the fuel lid after all the coats. Best of luck for your project.

[hayzin]

@All
Thanks boys. More pics coming up...

[hayzin]

So after doing the fuel cover, my confidence levels began to rise. The rear doors were all prepped up and I felt ready to take on the rest of the panels. Painting a 4x4 is way more harder than a normal car. Took much area to cover, but this was just the beginning and the start was good.
The funny bit here is that as I went on, I realized the most effort goes in removing parts and prepping the surfaces. The paint part doesn't take as much time comparatively. No wonder the professionals charge so much! Its more labor than anything else.

[hayzin]

And viola! The doors came out not so bad after the first coat! After waiting for everything to dry up, I began applying the 2nd and 3rd coat of paint.