Fixing bedside rust 09' Denali, maybe this should be in resto...

G

GNDAN

Hello,
I figured I'd come here to share my success story. I am new to painting and have never done it before, I am huge into hot rodding (Have a heavily modified Buick Grand National) and I've done everything from engine, trans, harness, and ECU building and tons of fabrication but have never done any body work what so ever which was the only part of a hotrod build I couldn't do (and one of the most expensive). After a bunch of reading online I found everyone raving about the quality of SPI's products and figured I would give it a try, since hey I needed low cost supplies since in my mind I was going to screw it up at least a hand full of times.

I started by purchasing new unpainted bumperettes for the truck and painted them. I used a Harbor Freight Purple gun for the epoxy primer and it sprayed well. Blocked them with 600 and laid on two layers of base coat (SPI black on the bumpers, PPG U855 on the bed) with my SATA 4000 which I also blocked with 600 and then did two coats of clear with the SATA 4000. When I sprayed on the UV clear with the clearly not recommended 1.3 fluid tip it laid down like glass when it was sprayed I could not believe how nice the surface finish was. Painting in my garage I had a very small amount of debris particles maybe 2 each which wet sanded right out with 1500 and then buffed.

Once I got done with the bumpers I figured that wasn't bad at all and was super excited how well they came out so I decided to move on to the bed side. The bed was wayyyy worse than I initially thought and resulted in me having to rebuild the inner fender well. I got the panel in and got the body filler down how I thought was straight and followed the steps I used on the bumpers. It turned out incredible, I have never used any other products but SPI since I have never done this before but I will say I am coming back a lot more! I already placed my second order for supplies to do other things I have wanted to paint for a while. I will still be putting on bed sides since I welded the panels in it will only be a matter of time before the repair rusts but now I know I am capable of it. One thing I know for next time is I do not want to block the base coat since the paint is too smooth compared to the factory finish.

,Dan
 
I actually think doing a bed side is a much easier repair, but even with all of the metal work I do, I just hate doing side patches.. Looks like you got it under control though.. Nice work..
 
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