back in black... *I slopped some paint on the 'ole girl*

[Longhorn Man]

I painted the longhorn.
Last winter I had set a goal for myself. I had hoped to actually had replaced some body panels, and maybe have a straight truck... but, one way or another, I wanted it to be painted by the time the snow starts fallin this year.
While, yes, it has snowed twice already... none of it stuck, so in my little world, I met my goal.
Don't look too hard... matter of fact, I'd prefer you squint when looking... it looks better when you do that...
at night...
in the fog...
in REAl tall weeds.
It didn't come out NEARLY as good as I had wanted... but that's ok.

I didn't have time to expiriment on junk panels (other than the ones bolted to my truck) so the mixture I needed was discovered as I was shooting it. 50/50 was a bit too thin, so I thickened it up a bit and it laid down pretty good... but there's still runs under the top coats, and they show. That's OK, come spring, I'll be repairing the panels one at a time, and I'll re-shoot it one panel at a time too... maintian the look, but improve the underlaying canvis.
It has been 13 years since i used a paint gun. Matter of fact, I bought the old style (most refer to them as primer guns these days) with the cup on the bottom. To be honest, I don't even know if it was a HVLP or not. The box said 30 - 50 psi... I set it at 35, and it'd deadhead at about 60. What ever... not important.
I used the trusty old Rustolium...

Found it on sale about a year ago... something like 4 bucks a quart. A gallon of mineral spirits, and a bunch of sand paper for my DA and long board... and some filler I've had laying around for a few years... and i was set to go.

So here's a few shots of the begining. I worked on it from 8 PM saturday night, untill 8 AM sunday morning. LOTS of sanding.
I rehung the hood, replaced the passenger side door with one I've had laying around since the death of my first truck (the blue longhorn) and ripped off all the crap bolted to it... door handles, mirrors, nubs for trim that won't find it's way back on (chrome divider on the back of the cab). Since the passenger door is blue, I figured I may as well paint the inside of the doors... but I left the rest of the inside gold. Since I have no idea what it'll look like when it gets real paint... I figured I'd leave the gold on there for contrast since I have black seats and trim inside.
I shot the first 2 coats of paint early that morning on the first go-around. This stuff takes FOREVER to dry... if you go this route... remember that. FOREVER to dry. I sat around for an hr and it was still wet, so I said screw it, went and got some breakfast, and went home and crashed for a few hrs.