See, I think that looks a ton better. I literally hate how the driver side of my truck is 90% and the passenger side is about 45%. I figure for the time being (the next year or so) it will look nicer when driving around and people walk around it and look at it. I don't think i'll mind the different shades under the clear as it should look about 100% better than it does!
This is my eventual plan for next winter, strip her down to her guts and start over... floor pans, cab corners, rockers and probably some new outer sheet metal as well. The core of the truck is mostly solid, and now that I've got most of the drivetrain rebuilt and how I want it to be, it's getting time to do the exterior. And that's going to be a winter project as I figure it will take me 4-6 months to complete. I can do the 40-50 hours it's going to take to clean up and re-clear the areas it needs before spring. I don't have the 400-500 hours and the cash to complete the humpty dumpty right now the right way with the addition of an interior color change. So i'm compromising in the meantime. Lol
It totally looks better. And if it's something you drive regularly, it won't make you cringe everytime you walk out and look at it!
The real question is what is under that 2 stage paint?
Presumably it was repainted at some point as I don't think there was a single truck that was 2 stage paint back then, 82 or 86 in my case (although it's kind of muddy, what you read, some models went bc/cc before others, not just trucks).
You said you hit primer under the current basecoat.
The goal is how far do you need to strip it down.
I "thought" my truck was original paint, but had some touch ups (based on overspray in places). What I found was it had been re-primed and re-painted, likely very early in it's life (warranty job maybe?). The original paint is still present in the bed and door jambs etc. But the entire body was sanded to, almost, bare metal. The areas I took down to metal have hints of the original black primer. The "new" paint was a beige primer and single stage top coat. The beige primer is bonded VERY well to it's substrate, but the top coat literally peeled off everywhere with a razor blade. Even though it lasted alot of years with NO paint peeling in real life.
That required me to get rid of ALL of the color coat as it was all suspect and in the end, only a select few random small areas where the top coat actually bonded to the primer properly.
Given that you are dealing with a 2nd or subsequent paint job on your truck, you may get out of stripping all the current basecoat off if its bonded well.
On the upside, when I'm done the truck will not have multiple coats of paint on it and the beige primer was actually fairly thick for what I'm sure was a sand and squirt job, so a good portion of my block sanding is hopefully complete after this round. God willing I can give it one shot 3 coats of primer, block it, sealer coat and be on to paint. Truck is very quite straight already, but I'm this far along, it will be STRAIGHT before I lay the color to it again.
