Paint Question

My Jeep is currently painted flat black and I want to paint it a light color (Terrain from the Ford Raptor). This Jeep is a low end, low value vehicle, with very limited potential, so I want to minimize the costs and would like avoid all of the prep work that would normally be done in proper restoration paint job (such as sanding/blasting). I am wondering what it would take to paint a light color over flat black? Would this just be more trouble than it is worth?

 

You'd need more coats over flat black because of the darkness of the primer, and even then it still might come out darker than the original paint chip. You'll also need to do at least minimal surface prep, because otherwise the paint will flake and peel.

 

Scuff the whole thing with scotchbrite, clean it with enamel reducer, spray some adhesion promoter on it and then a coat of light colored, non sanding, enamel based primer sealer. Enamel topcoat and you're off to town in your stylin' new paint job. If you have to sand anything for a basic enamel bath you won't have to go any higher than the 180 grit on a DA sander. (I said a BASIC ENAMEL BATH, not a high quality paint job, guys..)

If you take the jeep to the car wash and really blast it clean first you'll have a lot better luck at getting things to stick. The adhesion promoter is an old used car trick. It softens the existing paint for a few minutes so the new primer sealer can stick.

That's the way we would have done it in 1981 anyway. Oh, and somewhere in there make sure to mask your gages, tires, and windshield....lol.