Words by Shaun Whale
Photography by Shaun Whale

» Read Paint Your 4WD Part I

After driving around for a couple of weeks in an undercoated Suzuki, I finally had a spare weekend up my sleeve to give the old girl a few coats of paint and get her looking like new again. After gathering all the gear from Supercheap Auto it was down to Ajay’s Smash Repairs to give the Zook its final coats. After doing all the prep work outside, including the primer coats it was a real luxury to spray inside, out of the wind and elements.

I was fortunate enough to have access to a workshop for the day, which made spraying so much easier. However, your final spray-job can be done in your driveway or in any well ventilated area, as long as you do the necessary preparation.

When you spray outside though, you’ll be amazed how many little insects and air-borne creatures find their way onto your fresh coat of paint.

While this was manageable during the prep stages of the paintjob, it was something I didn’t want happening during the final coats. So I suggest that if you are thinking of doing your final coats outside on your driveway or in your backyard, try and protect the vehicle from the elements using tarpaulins or even the better-half’s old sheets.

Gear you need

• Air compressor, hose and spray gun
• Acrylic paint
• Acrylic thinners
• Paper and masking tape
• 1200 wet and dry sandpaper
• Basic tools
• Safety mask

Stripped down again! I’m starting to get good at this.	Wipe down everything with a wax and grease remover before you paint anything.

What paint?

When it comes to adding a bit of colour back on your 4WD, there are two main kinds of paint commonly used, acrylic and two-pack. Apart from being highly toxic, two-pack is a specialist kind of paint that requires a stack of extra considerations like an oven room and an air-feed safety mask.

Two pack paintjobs are generally done by professionals as you need less final coats to get the same finish as acrylic.

Just make sure that you use proper automotive paint and not any old paint you found laying around in the back of your garden shed. Specialised automotive paint allows you to spray very thin coats for a strong, crisp finish but also touch-dries much faster than ordinary paints.

Folding the masking tape over itself gives a good edge.	A decent compressor made life so much easier.

Get her kit off

We’ve been there and done that for the prep job, so taking your 4WD apart again should be a breeze. The same goes for the final paintjob as the preparation, the more you strip off your 4WD, the better the final result will be. Who said anything about this being an easy job? At least you are going to know your 4WD inside and out by the time you have finished respraying her.

After you have removed everything you possibly can off your 4WD, mask up all of the areas you don’t want painted with masking tape and paper. I used a stack of old newspapers when I was spraying my Zook with primer, this time around I used a large roll of brown paper and masking tape to save time and get a better result.

It sure helps when you can pick somebody’s brain that’s had more experience with paintjobs than you’ve had reaching for a snatch-strap!

Cover up anything you don’t want sprayed.	The mighty Zook before we stripped and painted her.

Let there be colour

It’s amazing when you start to spray the final colour to your 4WD and you begin to see the transformation begin. Geez, maybe all this preparation work has been worth it! I am using the same air-compressor from Supercheap Auto that I used to spray the primer coats. But before I start adding the coats of Midnight Blue, I attached an airgun to the compressor to go around the vehicle and blow any bits of dust and foreign particles off the panels. Use a clean rag and wash your 4WD down with wax and grease remover, then you are ready to spray. Don’t forget to put on your safety mask!

Standing proud after the work is done.

Spray in a controlled motion holding the spray gun about a foot away from the panel and spraying just past the edge. With acrylic paint you will need at least four or five coats, leaving each coat to dry for a minimum of five minutes before you put the next coat on. After your final coat leave to dry for at least 24 hours before you lightly sand with 1200 wet and dry sandpaper to remove any dust particles and smooth the finish. Also avoid putting your 4WD back together for 24 hours, the last thing you would want is to mark your new paintjob putting the doors or bumpers back on – we’ll save that for next time we head off-road.

You can use a buffing compound to bring out the shine in your paintjob, however doing this will also highlight the imperfections in your panel beating skills, so basically it’s a personal choice. I personally like the semi-gloss, unbuffed look so will stick with that.

So there you go, a DIY paintjob isn’t as hard as I thought it would be!

Thanks

I’d like to thank Ben at Ajays Smash Repairs for his help and advice.

Ajays Smash Repairs
35 Nancarrow Ave,
Ryde, NSW
Ph: (02) 9809 5113
www.ajayssmash.com.au

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