$50 Paint Job for 1985 Toyota Tercel

[jaco-motor]

I bought my 1985 Toyota Tercel Wagon 4WD SR5 six months ago as a non running car for $400. I did the mechanical job, head gasket, tune-up, brake job and steam cleaned the inside. I drove the car for awhile and I didn't like the look. A professional paint job was certainly out of budget. So I remembered reading a long time ago about this $50 Rustoleum thing, so I went back to the Internet and started to read everything I could about the subject and "Voila," I jumped on the job! Ouch! The car was two tone; the original dark beige copper on the roof and the trunk door. The white was a rattle can job bad!! So I started to dry sand with 220 grit outside and then put the car in the garage on four jack stands. I used a gloss white Rustoleum paint diluted 50% with paint thinner. I used a 4" foam roller and a 1 1/2" paint brush. After three coats, I realized the brushed paint was nicer and more shiny than the rolled one. Anyway, the three first coats are just for a build-up. I wet sanded with 500 grit and now I used the roll and tip technique! Wow! Much better, so I put three more coats and wet sanded with 1200 grit. Now I am ready for the two final coats. At this phase it looked very nice and I smelled the success! To make a change, I decided to paint the wheels and sanded with 220 grit; paint the inside gloss black 10% diluted one coat. The outside two coats of gloss white diluted 10%. Also, painted the caliper and the drums with black heat resistant paint; why not! There was no center hub cap but after a long scientific research, I discovered a Jello cup. Yes, Messier, a Jello cup fit perfect painted black with the chrome bolts; it looked delicious!

I finished the job with one more coat. The total is seven coats and it looks great! The idea is not to compete with a professional job but to take an ugly looking car and make it look nice. It is really a $50 paint job! Jack

[ARCHINSTL]

The pix look good! That was a LOT of work!
That color reminds me of my '83 that I got in late '82; I loved that car (whence the '86 in '05!).
Clever idea on the Jello caps - how about taking another, closer, pix of a wheel and posting it? You are not the only member who's lost OE caps.
When I installed the Miata Daisy wheels on Goldie last year, instead of the Mazda-embossed center caps, I used a center piece made from an electrical box, painted satin black. And I used rubber crutch tips to cover all of the mismatched lug nuts! See a wheel's pix in the Gallery thread I did on Goldie last year.
Tom M.

[solarlord]

jack- looks the real deal- certainly put more than 50 bucks on the value-ive got a two tone and the sun has flaked the top coat of clear lacour on the roof -have you any ideas on a top coat of clear? dec

[dlb]

in the first pic, the rear passenger side corner panel is dented in but it looks like the dent's gone in the other two pics. did you knock it out or does the white just disguise it?

[takza]

Lookin' good. Now if those Jello cups were about 1/2 as high.

[Tercel__jon]

That looks really nice! I saw the one where the guy painted his 69 charger with the canadian version. Tremclad I think. Diluted %50 eh? Im gonna have to give this a shot eventually.

How much paint would you say you used?

[jaco-motor]

in the first pic, the rear passenger side corner panel is dented in but it looks like the dent's gone in the other two pics. did you knock it out or does the white just disguise it?

no it was a bad ding. I had to remove the inside panel and use a melal bar and sledge hammer.

[jaco-motor]

jack- looks the real deal- certainly put more than 50 bucks on the value-ive got a two tone and the sun has flaked the top coat of clear lacour on the roof -have you any ideas on a top coat of clear? dec

I would wet sand with 500 gr to clean and smooth the side; finish with 1200 gr and clear coat.

[jaco-motor]

That looks really nice! I saw the one where the guy painted his 69 charger with the canadian version. Tremclad I think. Diluted %50 eh? Im gonna have to give this a shot eventually.

How much paint would you say you used?

I use 1 3/4 quarts of Rustoleum paint for my 7 coats. Remember it is a 50% diluted with paint thinner. And I use around 3 quarts of paint thinner, including cleaning my brush. The foam roller go in our freezer wrapped in aluminum foil so it is ready for next use. I used only one foam roller. It is really a economical job with lots of patience!!

[takza]

I'm just wondering...does the end result scratch easily?

I FORGOT and used Rustoleum on my truck straight out of the can using a brush...runs like HEY...scratches easily. There are other brushable oil-based paints that are much easier to apply...probably scratch about as easily though.

[Tercel__jon]

I use 1 3/4 quarts of Rustoleum paint for my 7 coats. Remember it is a 50% diluted with paint thinner. And I use around 3 quarts of paint thinner, including cleaning my brush. The foam roller go in our freezer wrapped in aluminum foil so it is ready for next use. I used only one foam roller. It is really a economical job with lots of patience!!

Thanks! Ill have to grow some patience but Ill definitely do this eventually.