Body Panel Painting / Color Change

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Mon Jun 30, 2014 11:51 am

Anyone have any advise when it comes to painting body panels on the KK to do a color change? I was tossing around the idea of repainting the factory Silver paint to something a little less "bright", since it kinda sticks out pretty easily in the woods. I was thinking about doing a flat matte forest green or like a dark olive drab. I figured green would be a lot better to remain somewhat less noticeable the woods and look good with a sandstone interior. Any advise would be greatly appreciated since my only painting experience comes from painting random body panels and metal with rattle cans. I was thinking of just getting a cheap spray gun from HF, scuffing all the panels, priming, sanding the primer as instructed, doing 3-5 coats of matte green paint, and just hitting it with either a matte or semi-gloss enamal topcoat.

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JeepMorrison · **Joined:** Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:34 am **Posts:** 1236

Have s professional do it, its alot of work to get it pulled off looking factory and not craptory

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At The Helm · **Posted:** Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:47 pm

X2
If using quality ppg base and clear, the materials alone are going to be expensive. I've shooting matte clear is a pain too.

There was a kj on here that had that same color done, it came out really nice looking. Iirc his name is/was 2006 kj.

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Jun 30, 2014 3:34 pm

To do it right you'd need to blow it apart so you can paint inside the doors etc Lot of work, I've done color changes on 5 of my own and its weeks worth of work before you even start spraying color on it
2006KJ did his, write up on here somewhere, of course his Dad owns a body shop where he's worked since he was a young.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Tue Jul 01, 2014 4:21 pm

You can always dip the whole Jeep. :goink:

I personally wouldn't do it, but it's been done many times.
Are you trying to blend in because you hunt or...

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Jul 01, 2014 11:45 pm

To do it right your looking at 40+ hours of labor from someone who knows what he's doing.The paint maybe $1000 but expect $2500-$4500 in labor.Everything has to come off and be taken apart.

I did this to my KJ and if I would have paid for labor and full price for paint(and supplies) it would have been a $9000 paint job but I worked at a bodyshop so I paid no labor and everything else was at cost.Took 6 days to do.

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:36 am

Gageraid wrote:

You can always dip the whole Jeep. :goink:

I personally wouldn't do it, but it's been done many times.
Are you trying to blend in because you hunt or...

Haha something like that. Its more or less to help me draw less attention if I happen to end up in a place where I'm not supposed to be. MA wheeling roads are very woodsy (lots of evergreens like Pine) and muddy in the Summer, so its helpful to have a dark green or black color if you end up in a place where you're not supposed to be. I actually had a good buddy with a silver TJ who got spotted in the woods by MA DCR (MA's version of DEM). I don't think he intentionally was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, I think he kinda just kept on driving until eventually they saw him through the trees. Even he said that they never would have seen him had his Jeep not been bright silver lol.

I've got another good buddy who ran a full service body shop with his father. I figured if I decided to attempt it I'd ask him to lend me his expertise (and his spray gun haha). Obviously before I even think about trying this I'm going to swing by the scrap yard and pick up a few body panels to practice on.

I understand that the longest (and most tedious) task would be taking off the plastic logos and weather stripping and taping everything off, but its not the first time that I've had to do that to my KK lol. Just humor the idea, but is a plain matte color (like you'd see on an Army humvee) really that difficult to paint rather than a regular glossy clearcoat?

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tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:50 am

Getting it ready is what takes the most time, removing doors, fenders, hood, rear hatch, emblems etc then all of the clean up, sanding and everything
Spraying it not hard but it is an art , you just don't pick up a gun and start spraying. Depending on kind of primer, paint depends on pressure etc.

Be a lot easier to just stay away from places where you shouldn't be in the first place. Being on land that you shouldn't be on is a no brainer

Pierocksmysocks · **Posted:** Thu Jul 10, 2014 10:29 am

tommudd wrote:

Getting it ready is what takes the most time, removing doors, fenders, hood, rear hatch, emblems etc then all of the clean up, sanding and everything
Spraying it not hard but it is an art , you just don't pick up a gun and start spraying. Depending on kind of primer, paint depends on pressure etc.

Be a lot easier to just stay away from places where you shouldn't be in the first place. Being on land that you shouldn't be on is a no brainer

+1. Situational awareness... Plan out routes and make sure you have maps of the area (GPS) and you won't run into that issue. Otherwise Plastidip is a good idea - that way if you get caught, you can just peel it off and claim it was someone else! :BANANA:

mawlkrawler · **Posted:** Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:53 pm

Pierocksmysocks wrote:

Otherwise Plastidip is a good idea - that way if you get caught, you can just peel it off and claim it was someone else! :BANANA:

Lol dammit why didn't I think of that!!!! ^_^

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Body Panel Painting / Color Change

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