I have this 1983 toyota that my dad bought from the show room in 1983 . It sat in my yard for 10 years then I got it going! I wanna paint it now and been wondering what kinds of paint 2 use! I wanna keep the body red but it would be cool to have some more Input!

 

More pics

 

Search some you tube videos of home paint jobs....

Pretty cool you got your pops old truck. a first gen pickup at that.
lucky young man. You going to drive it everyday?

 

From those pictures the paint looks good for being original. If you are going to keep it red, try simply doing a deep detail (cut, buff, wax). You would be surprised how good old paint can turn out.

 

Just drive that thing! There's nothing wrong with it. I wouldn't worry bout paint til ur ready to fix the dents, then I'd be afraid to USE the truck. It's perfect the way it is, unless ur wanting a mall crawler instead of a man's truck. Lol.

 

Painting isn't that difficult. With the proper prep, quality paint and the right tools, anybody can paint. For a first time painter, I would recommend a single stage urethane paint over a 2K urethane primer. If you plan on doing any body work before you paint then the proper way to paint a truck would be to strip the truck down to bare metal, spray an epoxy sealer, lay down the body filler, sand, spray a high build 2K urethane primer, sand and spray a single stage urethane topcoat. Then color sand and buff to a high shine. I like single stage on trucks because its easy to sand and buff out scratches.

 

Were these trucks clear-coated from the factory? Mine doesn't look like it.

OP, I like your front bumper.

 

Thanks for the feed back! I have fenders and doors with no dents! Yeah it's a really cool truck! I'm just about 2 put the 5th engine into it! It has over a million miles 2! . My dad had it painted red again about 18 years ago!

 

I also wanna paint the flatbed!! My dad put alot of work into (I was a baby at the time) mostly for rust prevention... Ill get some better pictures when i get home.

 

Exactly! Mine looked pretty rough, then I used 3M rubbing compound, then Turtle Wax polish, and then topped it with Turtle Wax Ice Wax. It looks pretty decent for 20 year old paint.

If you're dead set on repainting, get a cheap paint gun from Harbor Freight. We've painted at least 5 vehicles using their paint guns and they work great for the cost.

 

So last night I took my front end apart and started sanding! I bought a quart of a glossy red and glossy black! I'm gonna do black on the lower stripe on the doors that extends onto the fender. And black on the stripe on the hood

 

Looks like it has lots of dents, are you going to fix that? The most important thing about paint is prep, lots of how-to on the net, you can also look for ''50$ paint job''. Got any pics of the other first gen next to it?

 

Hey thanks!! Pretty much all the door dents pushed out! I'm gonna call around tomorrow all the scrap yards for another fender because my driver side one is gonna take alotta bondo.. I have done my research and I have been taking my time on the prep!