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Lee's Raptor Color-Match Thread

11K views 44 replies 26 participants last post by  Bowtieguy1987 
#1 · (Edited)
Well guys I color matched my rockers and fender flares almost three months ago. I had promised a write up, so here it is. I think it matches fantastically, and it sure does look awesome IMO.

I now a 100% believer in this product. It is simply fantastic. You could not make an easier DIY product I do not think to mix, spray, and look as good as this.
I prepped by pulling the moldings off, also pulled off the 2500HD badges and 4x4 stickers, and took off the fender flares. THE TAPE THEY USE TO KEEP THE FLARES AND MOLDING ON IS A BITCH AND A HALF!!!!
I then took the truck to the shop where i was going to be working. Took the bed off, started taping and plastic-ing. Prep is the absolute most important part of this project. I taped and plasticced for a very long time, and I did get a little overspray I didn't find when it was wet way up under the cab.
I used 100 grit sandpaper and scuffed the crap out of the paint. It takes some big cojones to do this. You need to clean the surface before sanding with xylene (what I used, lots of stuff will work) and before spraying the product.

3m adhesive remover and double sided tape from 3m were needed to remove the existing tape and then re attach the flares.

I color matched the push pins and body bolts with some spray paint leftover form my bowtie haha.

I had paint and body people, all my friends, and family doubting this project. I was pretty worried they might be right. But I nutted up and did it.
The spraying is the easiest part of course. Just gotta keep nice smooth strokes going. I sprayed at around 60-65 psi.
My advice if I had to do it again, use longer strokes, plastic and tape EVEN MORE than I did, and waited a little bit longer to take the tape off, not do it during school..... but other than that I am really happy with it. It makes it so much better to have someone helping you, to motivate you to stop staring at the ceiling and thinking about how much you hate paint/body work, and to help you during the race against time that is the application process.
I know I have posted in a lot of people's question threads about this product. This is just here to show off my results, my recent detail job, and of course here for any of you guys to ask questions. The color match is so good, better than some others I have seen.

I did two coats on everything. I used painters plastic and husky trash bags sliced open as plastic, and frog tape for all the lines I pulled :cool:

If I think of anything else I will add to it.

I hope the final pics give you a good idea of the color and texture.
I really wish I had the money at the time to burn on adding a liftpump, prolly would be a lot easier with the bed off!

Prior to my project (yuck IMO)


In progress (they didn't spray the gold under the moldings lol... looked real strange with that and no flares)




Finished product







:drink
 
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#3 ·
thanks man. I have been ho'ing a few shitty pictures of it for too long. Today I washed clayed, and waxed it, then took some really good pictures with a borrowed DSLR. I wanted people to see how good it looks on a good quality camera.
 
#8 · (Edited)
haha. sure man. i'd love to.... it was a lot of work. i reckon i could do it a lot quicker the next time around. i was pretty nervous to actually start spraying the shit

Perfect job Lee!! Looks awesome!
That looks really good! Man what a difference!
Nice pics, take the cab badges off.
Thanks everyone!!!!
and Skank, do you mean like the LT badges????

my to do list for this summer is
-weathertechs
-updated rear cab mounts
-lift pump
 
#12 ·
Looks awesome!!
 
#13 ·
100% improvement! Looks great man you did a real good job on it!


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#14 ·
Looks awesome dude! I used duplicolor spray on bedliner with one of my cars on the rockers and it turned out excellent and I wanted to use raptor for an even more professional look, thanks for the pics as motivation to order the kit!
 
#16 ·
Thanks everyone!!
I basically went to the guy we've known for years who does paint and body and asked him where he would buy paint from locally. He named two and I went to one called finish master. They do Dupont products. It's basically just tint with no binder in it. About 40 bucks of it, enough to do four bottles

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#17 ·
Looks good! Huge inprovement over when you bought it.

I do have a few questions as i really need to do this to my truck ASAP.
1: Can it be sprayed smooth as paint?
2: I seen the kit on Amazon.com (4-750ml + 1-1ltr), will this be enough or do i need more to do the same as you (Minus the flares)?
3: Has anyone done this but not done flares and left them color matched in paint? Does it look weird or "off" being there will be a slight color difference?
4: To get paint for my truck (Graystone Metallic), do i go to a body shop and ask them to mix me up a gallon or so of paint and mix it in with the liner than? Or how exactly do i do this?

I am no stranger to the sanding/body work part, but painting is new to me.
Thanks for any help!
 
#18 ·
hey man thanks for the compliments, sorry it took me a few days to get back to you

1. not that i am aware of, or at least not out of the gun that it comes with. you can mess with the PSI of the compressor and how far away you are spraying from to get different results. I was really happy with my test spray so I didn't adjust much

2. the kit of 4 should be plenty to do what you need on a shortbed pickup. one thing to plan for, is the coats need to be applied 1 hour after the previous one, and the supposed pot life (how long from when you mix the bottle of paint to when you should have sprayed it all is also 1 hour, in my experience it was sprayable past 1 hour) So if you can plan for the timing of all that and don't have to waste as much of the stuff as I did then yeah you'd be golden. I sprayed my bed, cab, and flares with 5 bottles, and probably threw at least a bottle or bottle and a half away because I wasn't able to time it/schedule it to where I could spray it all at once. I did the bed completely, then did the cab completely. like I said used maybe 3.5-4 bottles total. You could always just order an extra bottle (option on TP tools, in case you find other things to spray or are worried about running out rather than buying a whole nother kit.

3. Yes I believe I have seen that done, my flares were so beat up and yellowed it made sense to do them. But my truck is white, so this whole process would be different as far as looks go for a dark truck. If you have the patience, I say do the flares.
And also, if you get the paint from a GOOD paint shop like I did the shades will match nearly exactly. the difference you will see is how they reflect light in direct sunlight because the texture is different. I get all sorts of compliments of how well and professional mine turned out and how great it matches.

4.Yes, basically what you are buying is a quart of paint, minus the binder. So you are basically buying a pint sized container (enough for 4 bottles) that has twice the amount of tint you would normally need for a pint of paint, with NO binder in it. If it comes to it and your guy is confused, I can have him call the guy who mixed mine. He knew exactly what he was talking about. You have to pay for a quart's worth, but only get a pint if that makes sense. It is basically just all tint.
I can't say I've seen it on a graystone truck (my favorite color) but it does look awesome on the white and also the black trucks I've seen pics of.
 
#19 ·
looks like a different truck!
good job.
 
#20 ·
^^^ thanks brother! I'm really happy with it looking like a different truck. A lot of people questioned me making it white again since what I had was more "unique/original" than a plain white truck, but I'm so much happier with it.
 
#25 ·
The industrial paint shop we use at work will do Raptor liner same as you did for $350, guy just had his truck done and it looks OK, but yeah line-x is ridiculous.
 
#24 ·
I have seen some "pro" shop jobs that look worse than quality DIY jobs. just buyer beware, i'd look into their past trucks before dropping a load of cash.

This texture as you can see is pretty smooth. too smooth i think would look really weird if it was just flat paint with no texture.
 
#26 ·
Looks great! I want to take the molding off mine but after looking behind part of it I see I will need to paint it from where it has rubbed off.
 
#29 ·
The paint is actually down to the metal or what?? That's really strange dude. Mine just had a little staining that a clay bar solved and a lot of nasty glue. I have heard people have had paint issues with the molding. It does look so much better imo

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#28 ·
I wouldn't do this on another person's truck for 350. You need way more hours into this project on order to do it right and it look right. I bet they hardly prep lol. I had 350 into materials

Thanks for the compliments fellas.

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#30 ·
This truck looks like crap.
 
#34 ·
Good job, Lee. Now do it again, in black, please. I just wanna see what it would look like.
 
#35 ·
That looks sharp. been lookin around for other trucks done like this and cant find many with good pics. lol Thinkin about doin this to my truck soon. How is the liner holding up so far?
 
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