theoldsrocket

I want to paint my trunk on my 1972 cutlass it has little rust bubbles on it. Anyone that can tell me the steps on how to prep and paint the trunk lid I have a idea of it but not sure thanks.

joe_padavano

I applaud your initiative. Be aware that good paint is 95% skill of the operator and 5% materials selection. Your best bet is to take an auto paint and body class from a local community college or vo-tech school. There's much more to it than can be explained in a post here, unfortunately. Also be aware that if you're seeing bubbles, you likely have more than just surface rust on that trunklid.

theoldsrocket

It's only temporary until i get my plates then I'm going to get it professional painted i just need to take pictures after its painted to show them.

69442C

X2 on what Joe said.

If you will have the car going to a professional shop in a reasonable amount of time, I would leave it to the people who know what they are doing. Besides, they will see what you did and will likely strip if off anyway if they want to stand behind their work. So why spend money plus your labor just to pay someone later to undo what you did. Painting is something that is learned with lots of practice and generally with the supervision of someone who knows what they are doing. If you are still determined to do this yourself, either sign up for a course at your local school or find a body shop, get to be on a friendly basis with them and offer to barter for some instruction. Body shops always need floors sweeped or cars washed so maybe you can work a trade of your time for theirs.

jo75olds

Jeez guys he is only painting the trunk, not like he is re doing the whole car here. I did my trunk in two days, mine had a bit of rust too, most likely a bit more then yours dose

So this is what I did, get a sanding block and a good medium (not to corse) sand paper, just to remove a bit of the paint

Get yourself the POR-15 Starter Kit (it's more then enough), use Silver, unlike all the other colors, the silver has an extra metal additive, and I have used POR-15 before, you can tell the difference in the way it applies

Go to your local pep boys (or other auto parts store) and pick your self up a can of DupiColor's GM Speckle Trunk Paint

Make sure you follow the directions on the POR-15 to a T (Note, it will tell you not to pre sand, but I find that if the rust is under the paint, it is bes to expose the rust, and let the POR-15 kick its ***)

Just remember with the spray paint, don't do it all in one coat, 3-4 light coats, left to right sweeping motions, apply it smooth. This spray paint is MUCH thicker then most, just be gentle with it!

Just remember, it's just your trunk, no big deal if you make a little mistake, you can always go back to it next weekend!


Also use taped down newspaper to prevent any overspray, dont screw up ur paint job while painting

Best of luck

Jim

69442C

Hmm, seems we have 2 responses that deal with painting the trunk as in trunklid and one that deals with painting the trunk as in the trunk compartment. I guess we'll need to see which one is the intended area.

joe_padavano

X2. I read the OP as "trunk lid". Obviously painting the trunk interior is a no-brainer.

69442C

Agreed. The follow up post explaining that the paint would only be temporary also led me to understand the question to be about painting the trunk lid. Refinishing the trunk compartment from nasty looking to looking like a ***** with a new sweater is very basic compared to exterior refinishing.

jo75olds

I read it as "trunk", a trunk is a trunk so in my mind that is the inside of the trunk, no? Trunk lid would be a different story, but I read trunk, would be interested to see which one it is

Bluevista

Pics for the insurance company to get coverage??
Photoshop them if you don't want them to see rust, they can't tell.
That's one of the reasons real professional vintage and antique auto appraisers only use film cameras.

In the future if If you want to learn how to paint or prep trunks or any other parts check out the paint and body forums and the guys who do it every day for a living will keep you from getting in trouble.
Autobody101.com and the Autobodystore.com forums are a couple of good ones.

theoldsrocket

They already told me if they find Photoshop in the pictures they will never accept it and they are good at spotting that stuff. So what I wanted to do is just temporary paint that trunk lid.

68cutlassdriver

hilarious!!!

joe_padavano

And we have a winner.

theoldsrocket

so anyone have ideas or opinions?

69442C

So the intent is to make the deck lid on the car look nicer than it is so you can get speciality tags for the car? And this only needs to be temporary. It would help to have a couple of pictures of the car and the deck lid as the type of paint you could apply will give very different looks. You want to make this fresh paint look similar to the rest of the car as best as you can. For example, spraying enamel, or a single stage color will give a very glossy appearance. Will that now look completely out of place with the rest of the car's finish? I would tend to think it would since you state you want to have the car painted. The other option would be to apply a base color (dries flat with little to no gloss) and apply a lacquer clear that is sold in quart cans by DupliColor (ready to spray too) that you could buy at an auto parts store. This will give an appearance that will have gloss but less gloss than the enamel/single stage option. The clear can be made to look more glossy if you were to buff it, which you would not likely do. The next question is do you have a compressor and a spray gun or access to that equipment? I'll assume you do. My suggestion will be the quick approach to making something look better from a distance and this should never be done if the intent is to paint something that will be permanent. I would clean the deck lid with wax and grease remover, sand it down with 320 grit sandpaper and don't worry about the pit marks, unless they are pretty bad. This is where the photos would be very helpful. Try to minimize going down to bare metal. I would not apply any primer but would spray the color onto the deck lid, let it dry for 30-60 minutes and then spray the clear on it. I would apply a could of light coats of color first, let tehn dry about 15 minutes and then apply another 2 heavier coats. Just don't go crazy or the paint may start to lift or bubble. The clear can be applied with an initial medicum coat and then 2 heavier coats. It should look fairly decent and be good enough for your pictures. Tell the paint shop what you did so they can remove all of this when they refinish the car. Keep it under 100mph on the highway so the picture purpose paint doesn't blow off the deck lid. If you post pictures, I may change this suggestion depending on what I see. This suggestion goes against every rule for painting but will work so you can click a few photos. Also, remember that overspray goes everywhere so cover the rest of the car well. The paints in this suggestion are more forgiving to remove if you get overspray on places but I would cover whatever is not being painted. Newspaper is pourus so use multiple layers or something a little heavier.