Painted my 1993 k1500 Blazer!

[Bigb55]

My 1993 k1500 Blazer has been my daily driver for 20 years. Has almost 300k miles. The last 5 years I have been slowly restoring it to like new. The inside was fully restored a few years ago.

The paint was cracked, faded, and peeling. Which was the norm for 1990s trucks. It's an Az/SoCal truck so rust was not an issue. OEM color was GM Dark Garnet Red Metallic and Metallic Beige.

I sanded the old damaged paint off. The hood and roof were down to mostly bare metal when I was done. The sides had very good OEM Paint and we're scuffed per primer TDS. Due to it being a daily driver/camp truck, small dents were ignored.

I sprayed whole truck with Kirker Epoxy Primer. Stuff laid down great, filled small imperfections like old paint lines, and was easy to use. Made a great foundation for the paint. Then I sprayed Kirker Dark Garnet Red metallic and Mocha Frost Metallic single stage with their base converter.

The converted single staged spray very well and was easy to use. I had no issues and this was my first time painting a car.

It was all toped with Kirker Black Diamond clear coat. Also easy to use and spray. Ended up with a slightly worse then OEM orange peel. But nothing I'm going buff out.

Everything was applied "Wet on Wet" per Kirker Tech. Epoxy dried for 1.5-2 hours before top coat. Each top coat flashed 10-15 min. Then dried for 30-40 before clear.

For my first time ever, done in a DIY garage booth, it being a 20 year old daily driver, and under $600 in paint. I love it!

 

[Bigb55]

And here's a shot of my babies.

 

[nvrenuf]

Looks really good, I want to paint my Blazer but so far I've been chicken to start that project.

 

[Bigb55]

It's not to hard. Just have to decide how nice you want it during the prep work. I probably spent 50-80 hours sanding old paint and making it as smooth as I would be happy with. It's not show car quality, but 100x nicer then it used to be.

 

[Bigb55]

Here's the hood during sanding. Paint was cracked all way down to the sheet metal. Pretty much took it all off. The roof was similar.

Fun fact, gmt400s were galvanized on body panel and hood. Only the roof was non galvanized. Found that out next day after I had it to bare metal and it had flashed rusted the whole roof. Hood was still shiney. Lol

 

[76zimmer]

True you are….prep is the fundamental beginnings of a good paint job, or even a bad one. I did my K5 in a couple weeks, just to get some real paint on it. Bodywork, not a concern as its mostly a trail rig.
Well done on yours, its nice to have a shiny paintjob.

 

[Bigb55]

Paint cured nicely. So I put on the new vinyl stripe and my fender trim. I'm debating on getting new lower side molding or leaving it off.

Also ordered a new correct 92-93 grille and new headlights and side markers. It currently has a 99 Tahoe grille and billet insert, since that was all the rage back in the early 2000s. Now we're
all putting things back to stock.

New "Silverado" cab emblems will get put on soon. Cause everyone needs to know it has the higher trim package lol.

Highly recommend kirker paint for a daily driver, work truck, wheeler rig. It's cheap and works nicely. I couldn't justify spending more on it then I did. Maybe the next paint job it will be worth the $4-6k to have it done professionally. Who knows?

 

[76zimmer]

Those GMT400’s (is that what they’re called?) are on the upswing following the squarebody run. Looks great.

 

[Bigb55]

Those GMT400’s (is that what they’re called?) are on the upswing following the squarebody run. Looks great.

I know. Which is great! Because more aftermarket parts are coming back. I had to hunt down a non cracked dash for this truck 7-8 years ago. Now LMC sells them.

I have two floor to ceiling storage cabinets with spare dash and plastic interior trim pieces. I buy them as they pop up. Plan to keep it going another 20 years. Backup plan is to plastic weld stuff as it cracks and vinyl wrap the trim to hide the weld lines lol.