DIY: Painting my Nissan Patrol

[hayzin]

As I pointed out earlier in the thread, the color is of Honda, Deep Lapis Blue Metallic. Shade card pic is there. As for sandpaper, we bought different gauges of sandpaper. For the intial scrubbing, I used gauge 3000 and 2200. In the end towards the finishing after paint and lacquer, one should use 1500 gauge with compound to take the shine out.

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

[hayzin]

After a long day of prepping, taping, sandpapering, paint etc. the short winter days took the sun light away and we had to finish everything up. After lacquering the rear doors and fuel cover, the task of re-assembling everything still had to be done. At my insistence of course, ngen had to bear with me and we began re-equipping everything. By everything, I mean the doors rubbers, speakers, the doors themselves, the emblem, number plate etc. Took a while to finish.

[Maxxis]

O man.. u r a legend.
Ur Patrol gonna look sexier than ever.
Color selection is really good.

[hayzin]

The day was long but fruitful. Yet I was so excited to see the result when the sun came up, that all night was spent just thinking about Day 2. I'm you all can relate to this feeling...brings out the kid in us

[hayzin]

Thanks Maxxis. For the next couple of days, we joked around about how my Patrol with the combo of white and blue looked like a Motorway Police vehicle, hehe.

O man.. u r a legend.
Ur Patrol gonna look sexier than ever.
Color selection is really good.

[hayzin]

Sure enough, as soon as the sun rose on Day 2, I ran out like a little kid to check out the results of the night before.
Thank God our efforts and hard work had paid off, the result was not bad at all. Now I was ready to move onto the bigger parts of the Patrol.

[hayzin]

The plan was to remove the parts that I could easily remove myself and get things prepped so as to make maximum use of the sun time. I removed the hood and this time geared up with a mask and gloves. The fumes from Day 1 really messed up my throat and cleaning your hands with thinner is a real pain. Thanks to my wife for taking this pic of me at work and advising me on the gear

[kingzaki]

very nice DIY

[hayzin]

Finally, Irfan (ngen) also came over and lended a hand. We took turns doing the coats on the hood. Then I also started on the grill that is under the wipers. Now the wheels were turning, there was a good momentum and time management was going on track. We managed to do the hood and wipers waali grill in one day.

[hayzin]

This was probably the easiest part of the Patrol to paint and I was quite relaxed about it. Time was on our side, but the sun was not going to be up for long and I was sure that by the time we get everything back on the Patrol, it would be night time for sure.

[hayzin]

Sure enough as estimated, the sun was long gone by the time we had finished the hood and reassembled it back onto where it belonged. Another long day came to an end, and this time, I slept in peace.....plus the next day was Monday, back to office. Now the only downside to doing this was that owing to my day job, I could only do this on weekends. So the two days of the week, Saturday & Sunday, were the only days I could work on the Patrol. The good thing was that there was no rush to finish it. I took my time.

[hayzin]

Yet again, I ran out the next day to check out the result in the sun. The output was not bad. Consistency in the color was there but only one thing bothered me now. We were working so hard to do all this and getting it right, that it didnt seem right to leave the small dents as they were. So for the next few days I debated over whether getting it dented and then continuing the paint job.

[SER_GTR]

What Air Compressor And GUN Are You Using....!

Kindly Mention Details...

Very Nice Outcome......You Spray Just Paint...Or Do Sanding And Primer Coat Before?? And Hardener Later??

[ngen]

Sand the car down first then wash off all the debris.
once dry apply the first coat of paint/thinner mixture. Ratio 1:1
wait 20 mins and apply the second coat of paint mixture. Ratio 1:2
wait 20 mins and apply the third coat of paint mixture. Ratio 1:3
once the paint is dry spray the clear/hardner/thinner mixture. Ratio 0.5:1:1
wait 20 mins for second coat of the same.
the more coats the more the shine.

[hayzin]

@SER_GTR

As ngen has pointed out the details to you, this is how we did it. Ideally there should be a base coat, but since we had a base of white to work with and sanding down the painted parts, it served us well.
The compressor we used, which was generously lent to us by NUIC, was an Italian brand. The pressure we got out of it was roughly 40psi, although it is recommended that there be atleast 60psi of pressure to work with. The spray gun gauge I believe was 12/14.

[hayzin]

Also getting the ratios right is vital. If you mix too much or too less of anything, you will have to do it again. The tricky part is the lacquer. There were some instances where we had overspills. The price for correcting that is a lot of labor work in the sandpaper and rubbing compound department.

[hayzin]

The next part was going to be tough.....the roof. Because of the height and accessibility issue, I tried to wrap my head around how to get it right.

[hayzin]

The next weekend came too slowly. Geared up and ready to make full use of the 2 days, I decided to do the roof. Prepping the roof was quite tough. It was the biggest surface to be painted so far and the toughest bit to do in terms of ease of access. It was also more complex because all the windows had to be covered and rear lights had to be taken off.

[hayzin]

And so the roof became blue. Was really tough to do. This time I was on my own, no help in prep work, no help in mixing the ratios, nothing. ngen was out for the day so I had my hands full.

[hayzin]

Here is what the roof looked like at the end of the day.