[truckordie]

Alright guys. I've always seen the trucks with the beautiful powdercoated suspensions and always wanted to be part of that. Unfortunately, I'm young, and don't have the funds to throw at powder and the truck is my daily, so it can't be down long enough to do that.

This led me to trying paint. Everyone told me paint was a bad idea, it'll chip, etc. I wanted to try it anyways. This is what I did.

I used Duplicolor Metalcast base coat. I planned on using the 2-step Duplicolor Metalcast paint which mimics powder. I was going to do purple, but the more silver I sprayed, the more I liked it. I tried many different variations of this. I painted the front box Metalcast Red, Metalcast Purple, both with black arms. They were cool, but not enough. I decided to spray the arms too.

As I was spraying the silver, I fell in love with it and decided to keep it. So this is what I ended up with.

My advice is to spend the time taping off, it will pay off. After I sprayed the arms, tie rod ends, and calipers silver, I didn't like the purple. At that point I tried red! I couldn't make up my mind.

I wasn't feeling the red either. So I went simple. I paint the front box gloss black, and love it.

Also sprayed the rear leafs.

So far it's holding up great. My truck stays on the street and is babied. I would suggest the paint to everyone. Super easy to use and extremely simple. Opinions? Have a great day!

 

[Dhthmn114]

Looks great... More pics of the truck itself!

 

[truckordie]

This is back when I had the front box painted red. Didn't work with the silver arms IMO.

I'm loving the new scheme, just haven't gotten pictures yet.

 

[88k5]

mines been painted for 30,000 miles......

 

[Riggs]

Looks great but I think it's time for some new leaf springs lol

 

[Zero]

Looks good! :thumbup:

Spraying the crossmember anything other than black looks like dookie, can't get around powder there.

But doing control arms silver like that looks great, I've thought about doing mine just like that. But I'm too lazy for taping so I just go to town underneath with a can of semi-gloss black :rofl2:

 

[88k5]

Spraying the crossmember anything other than black looks like dookie

if you say so...

 

[truckordie]

if you say so...

I wanted to do something like that, but with the silver arms, it threw too many colors into my white/black/silver scheme.

 

[theproject]

What about doing it silver to match the arms? I just color matched all my stuff to and interested to see how well it holds up.

 

[duke]

I like the red myself ,but the black and silver looks good. I was unaware you had joined up here man.

 

[StealthSVT]

I think the silver and black looks great, although I am kind of partial to the silver, lol.

 

[truckordie]

I like the red myself ,but the black and silver looks good. I was unaware you had joined up here man.

Yes sir, just decided to actually start posting. I've always followed the forums. I have the outside generally how I want it, and want to start working on interior, so I wanted to be able to ask questions on here. Console swap and cigarette lighter bass knob done, but going for suede soon..

 

[duke]

cigarette lighter bass knob done

Tell me more young buck.

 

[truckordie]

I will do a write up on it once I'm out of school. I'll take pictures. Basically took apart my bass knob, cut off the back of the cigarette lighter, and glued the knob to the back of the cigarette lighter. Basically made the actual lighter the knob. Super easy.

 

[chevdm6]

Did you do any cleaning or prep work before you painted the suspension parts?

 

[truckordie]

Did you do any cleaning or prep work before you painted the suspension parts?

Well, my truck stays as clean as I can keep it. I just took a pressure washer, a rag, and a flathead screw driver to it. The only thing I really had to do was scrape some grime from around the ball joints and in the grooves in the arms.

Pressure washer, and a rag basically. Wait for it to dry, taper off, and sprayed. It came out great for little prep work. When I started I really just wanted a look and was going to actually spray later, but it came out great with little prep.

 

[chevdm6]

Well, my truck stays as clean as I can keep it. I just took a pressure washer, a rag, and a flathead screw driver to it. The only thing I really had to do was scrape some grime from around the ball joints and in the grooves in the arms.

Pressure washer, and a rag basically. Wait for it to dry, taper off, and sprayed. It came out great for little prep work. When I started I really just wanted a look and was going to actually spray later, but it came out great with little prep.

Okay cool. I am going to do this when I lift my truck. Luckily I will be using new spindles so those will get painted before they are put on. Did you use rustoleum then for the paint?

 

[truckordie]

I used Duplicolor Metalcast paint. If you are doing this before you put the lift on, I would highly advise powdercoating it. It holds up better over time, and is much more durable. You'll scratch the paint when installing.