Subbed. Great work! That TDI was a steal at that price!

Well today was the end of my paint work. I woke up this morning and decided the jeep was going to be completely painted today. So after 7 hours or prep work, building a paint booth and painting it is done. Here is how my day went.

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After Almost 2 days of trying to place an order with Iron Rock Offroad I finally placed my order for a 4" Critical Path Long Arm kit. Should be here in about a week or a week and a half. My timing belt kit was confirmed shipped today so that will be installed this weekend and after washing all the oil off the motor from the leaking valve cover the motor will be ready to bolt up to the trans for mock up. I can get pre-made mounts from a guy in Canada for $265 shipped or I can go through all the issues of building my own with hours of my time and probably $100 worth of steel, and motor mounts.

Turned out awesome, man! I think the prep work was well worth it! That's what separates your OD Green from the rest.

Would you mind PMing me your steps for prep? I'll be bed lining my rockers and lower doors at some point, and I want it to be as best as possible. I'd appreciate it!

Wow you inspire me, I have been wanting to get working on my sons XJ. My wife wants me to help him get it painted. Love the color!

Looks like the paint came out really well! Prep really is everything! I work selling aftermarket parts like hoods, bumpers, wings etc and everyone thinks they can just shoot some paint and have it look perfect, but I don't think enough people realize how important it is to actually go through the correct steps. Well done!

Thanks a lot of time and little money went into it. I love painting but I really hate all the prep work. I have around 25hrs in this paint job and maybe a hour of it is actually laying color. The biggest thing is having a clean environment to spray in. I did the best I could and still have dirt in the paint. I built a make shift paint booth in the out of plastic in the garage. I draped it from the bottom of the truss's to the floor on and wet the floor with water to control dust. I know OD green is not for everyone but green is my favorite color and being a veteran has made it really grow on me. With it being a Flat color if I cratch it or mess it up all I have to do is grab a spot gun and some sand paper and I can respray that small area with minimal time in it. When I have a little more time I will post up the prep step.

It went from this
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To this

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And this is what it will look like suspension and tire wise when I am done. This is my old 99 I sold. I really missed it.

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well suspension wise it will be about 2" lower than my old 99.

Well I just spent 25 minutes typing up the entire process and all the materials I used, right before hitting the submit button I tried to copy it because I have another thread on TDIclub and it deleted it.

Basically a really short version goes.

1. Wash it
2. Sand it, make sure there are NO shiny areas, everything need to be dull from the sandpaper, if you sanding by hand use 400, is your using a DA you can usually get away with down to 180.
3. You need to tape EVERYTHING off and this plays a huge role into the final product, take off as many pieces as you can.
4. Wax and Grease remover, use it, pour it into a lint free cloth. in one hand wipe it on with the other hand with a dry cloth wipe it back off.
5. now build you both, I used plastic drop cloths and put them up on the walls and on the ceiling and also sprayed the floor with water to keep the dust down.
6. Roll it in and get to painting. let it sit in the booth for ATLEAST 1 hr before moving it out, my paint was dry to the touch after an hour although it was not fully cured so let it sit for a few days if you can before doing anything.

If you want great results a rattle can will not give them to you no matter how much prep work you do. I used a $30 harbor freight HVLP gun that did an awesome job. You also do not need a huge compressor. I have a 60 gallon single stage it handled the job with ease but you can also use a small compressor you will just have to take a break every once in a while to let it catch up.

^^Nice, much appreciated!

No problem, sorry my in-depth post was deleted before I could post it.

No worries! I've been there, and it's always on the ones that you worded the best. Then when it's deleted, you can never make it sound as good.

I do have a question though... was this done on a single coat, or did you lay multiple coats and do any sanding in between? When I lay down some bed liner, I want it to be as solid as absolutely possible.

Feel free to PM me if you don't want to pollute your build thread.

Paint should be put on in two coats, your first coat is a base and it is not supposed to cover the other color completely. Your first coat is just a dusting the second coat should fully cover everything. No need to sand in between coats unless you have waited more than 24hrs for the second coat.

Well I made some more progress on the Jeep the last couple days. My timing belt kit came in from IDParts.com and I got it all changed out. The timing belt job went very smoothly with the help of my wife.

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When I was originally looking for another 4.0 to put back in the Jeep I went to my local LKQ and noticed a 4cylinder cherokee with a HP Dana 30 with 4.10 gears. I knew the LKQ did the 50% off sale on memorial day so I decided to chance and wait for the memorial day sale. Well waiting paid off for me. I paid $42.49 for a HP Dana 30 with 4.10 gears in it. I also bought a 4.10 Limited Slip Ford 8.8 rear axle for the same $42.49. I have $85 plus tax in a set of 4.10 axles!!! I feel I REALLY REALLY Scored today.

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Nice score on the axles, I was wondering what year the Dana 30 is out of? '90 and earlier have the Vac disconnect don't they? Are you going to swap the front axle in or just use the gears? I wish I could swap in that for $100 what a deal.