Painting my blazer clear?
 

So at some point in the near future i want to repaint my blazer. I'm still not quite sure which route i want to go. Thinking graphite or something in that area but what i'd really like to do is stripped paint with a clear coat over it. Anyone else ever attempt this? Love to hear any constructive criticism, technical tips, recommended materials, or thoughts on this idea. Even just ideas of your own on how to compliment a bare metal look

I was thinking how i would compliment the bare metal look. Well first off i'm going to have black wheels(hate break dust). Thinking of yellow a little bit lighter than caterpillar yellow for the break calipers for some additional color. Then I want to bedline the bottom of the blazer with either black or clear bedliner. I will be building my own bumpers and brush guard before too long which will also be bed lined. Also plan on de-badging it and removing or painting all the chrome on her as i don't like chrome.


Also heres a kitten:icon_tinykitball:

i think it would look sweet bare metal my guess is that you would have to spary an adhesion promoter to get the clear to stick but im not sure. if you have any random car parts hanging around try it. i would wet sand or use a paint stripper to get to bare steel use a wax and grease remover then use 1000 grit sand paper to give the clear something to bite to put it outside and see how long it last before it starts to flake off.

Thanks for the response rezlab, I was thinking about going the paint stripper route but of course ill try it on a piece from a junkyard or so. I like the idea of having something simple and easy to repaint essentially. I was reading something on a crafts forum about having to use a rust inhibitor because it can still rust under the clear coat. However I probably wont be doing this anytime soon because i'm having what i think is tranny problems. So for now she is in the garage until i can get that fixed. All ideas are welcome and would like to hear what everyone thinks.

Hi, first of all sorry for my bad english

The bare metal look could be original, but take in account that since cars normally aren't be designed to be finished bare metal (Ok, Delorean is one the un normal ones), when you strip all paint, the bare metal surface finish could gave you some headache. Also the clear barnish doesn't protect the metal against rust, so rust spots could start to apprears some time ahead (for example, if little moisture gets trapped, the oxigen inside the moisture could rust the metal).

If it is accepatble, try to get a good "steel like" paint, and apply it over a primer and against rust preapred surface. Allmost the same bare metal looking, less rust problem. You know, some old airplanes "aluminium finished" are painted ones (for exmaple the P-51 mustang)

But personally... graphite color is to cool :)

Could always do that 'rusted on purpose' thing VW people were doing to their hoods a while ago...

I look forward to seeing the results. But I have to suggest one thing that seems to have been missed. No car is perfect off the assembly line. Even the best vehicles have some body filler. Is it your intent to remove the body filler and show the imprefections, or clear over the body filler.

Yeah thats my point. I already saw a lot of times that annyoing filler even in brand new components (even original parts)

woo
 

Thanks for bringing up these good points. I hadn't thought about the body filler or the aluminum finish paint. In all honestly i don't really care about slight imperfections in the metal. I assume it cant be that severe and it adds character. Rust is also one of my favorite looks like something you would see in the fallout series. I've got quite a bit more reading to do on preventing rust with a clearcoat and will be calling a few body shops to ask some questions.

Good news everybody, I haven't had the chance to get the blazer checked out until the other day. Not transmission problems yay! P0420 so now i have a new cat and am waiting for my O2 sensor to come in. After that I'll do a thrush welded muffler, new shocks, and ill be removing the back seats and putting a hidden toolbox and cooler in place of it. Love the feed back and thoughts guys keep em coming!

I you like rust, just paint it... don't kill you machine :)

Congratullations about tranny, great idea about tool box. Should be done in site, with a GRP mold or something?

For the toolbox i'm just going to take measurements and build one myself and have it bolt into the existing holes for the back seats to keep it from moving.
Should be some easy steel fabrication for it and i can make it how i want. Adding small hangers for wrenches, sockets, jack, and whatever else i can fit/need.
Not sure how i'm going to do a cooler just yet.

As for rust i like how it looks but i don't like what it does. I did read something on a product called POR 15 clear coat. Seems like a few people have used it for bare metal with good results. Doesn't seem too expensive so i will give it a try on a scrap piece when i get the chance. My new catalytic came in yesterday from rockauto but it looks pretty beat up so i'm going to ask them about a few things before i install it.