Appliance Epoxy Paint Job

[EricsXJ]

Posted a new article on my website http://www.ericsxj.com/ so I thought I'd share it here.

Appliance Epoxy Paint Job

As many of you have discovered, having a white XJ is nothing special - they are all over the place. Jeep must have made two white ones for every other XJ that left the factory. But despite that, I have come to appreciate white vehicles. My truck is white. And compared to dark colored vehicles, not only do they stay cooler in the summer, but they stay so much cleaner. Yes yes I know its "cool" to have a muddy jeep, but I'm talking about vehicles in general, not just jeeps.

Our 2nd XJ is a white 1997 model that we picked up in 2010 and was in horrible condition. This was primarily a daily driver that my son could drive back and forth from school, so buying cheap was good. The exterior was bad but typical of a vehicle that was 18 years old. The factory paint was a dull white color, very noticeable parked next to my nice white truck. Not only that, the previous owner hacked the front fenders for no reason (running stock sized tires), had no flares, and there were small dents and damaged paint all over the body. So after addressing the interior and some mechanical repairs (which I won't go into here) it was time to make the exterior nice again. At this distance the body doesn't look bad but I assure you it was beat up and neglected.



If you've seen my other write-up where I painted Project Rubicon with desert tan (khaki) spray paint, you know that rattlecan paint jobs are cheap, easy, and can look good. Obviously with this project I wanted to have a glossy, bright finish, but I didn't want to use regular white spray paint. Instead I decided to use Rustoleum's "Appliance Epoxy" which can be purchased at Walmart, Home Depot etc, or online. They also have black for those of you who want to go that route instead.



To see if this paint would work well, I tested it on the grill and headlight bezel on the vehicle for about six months. I also painted a black plastic endcap and left it on the sunny side of the house for the same time frame. The test was successful. The paint dries very hard, can be applied thick, and held up great with no chipping, peeling, or fading.

The not so fun part of the project is the prep work which consisted of sanding (scuffing) the entire jeep with 150 - 220 grit sandpaper and filling most of the dents. I replaced both front fenders, so at least with those pieces prep work was minimal.



I also wanted to add hood pins because the hood release cable was VERY tight and I would rather remedy this issue now than deal with a broken cable in the future. So I made that modification at this time also.



Then I pulled the jeep out of the garage to wash all the dust off.



The grill and one of the headlight bezels were cracked so I bought replacement pieces that also needed to be painted. A friend also gave me his stock flares that were factory black paint. It was easier to paint all of these pieces separately off the jeep.



Here is a comparison shot of a newly painted flare on the old fender. You can see how much brighter the new paint is compared to the factory paint that was on this jeep.

[EricsXJ]

The weather was ideal to paint outside before it got too hot.



After shots:



Because I was going white on all bumpers, flares, and endcaps, I thought it would be good to go with clear side markers and turn lenses.



Not factory but look close enough, these Cherokee decals look good.



The back:



Its still a rattlecan paint job so its not perfect. But overall I am very pleased with how it turned out.

[831_xj]

Wow that looks really sharp Eric! Another job well done

[EricsXJ]

Originally Posted by 831_xj

Wow that looks really sharp Eric! Another job well done

Tried to make it look as nice as yours did when I first saw it, minus the off-road modifications!

[rocknxj]

Its not complete without fridge magnets.

[xeroOTG]

Fridge magnet, like this? my wife had one made for her Cherokee... No white Cherokee is complete without one!

Looks great Eric, I had considered painting mine with appliance paint. Thanks for the pictures!

[kmanxj5050]

Was this hard to get even? Or does it level out well its self?

[ValveMachinist]

Thank you for your post. Very very very nice job for a rattle can job !!! The real question for me is how many cans did it take to do the whole job ? And keep those budget jobs posted !

[mtbxj87]

storm trooped out! Looks good, better than my dryer..

[EricsXJ]

You should plan on 12 cans. You could probably get away with 10 if you have a white Jeep. I think I bought 15, did multiple coats / thick coats on some of the black trim pieces and I had 3 partial cans left over.

[Red99XJVT]

Very cool! How is the paint holding up on the plastic parts?

[EricsXJ]

Originally Posted by Red99XJVT

Very cool! How is the paint holding up on the plastic parts?

Holding up great. Couldn't be more pleased.

[rockhead]

Can you update on how this is holding up. I am considering trying it.

[EricsXJ]

Holds up great. We had a few spots of rust come through around some edges, so make sure you get rid of any rust when you prep.

[PCO616]

Originally Posted by EricsXJ

Holds up great. We had a few spots of rust come through around some edges, so make sure you get rid of any rust when you prep.

NICE JOB! The good thing about having to deal with small rust repairs, dings, etc. is that you did the job in the first place. Intimidation isn't a factor and you know what materials to use.

As for your statement in the opening post ("... having a white XJ is nothing special") I object! lol. After having 2 black XJ's and still owning a black MJ, I bought a white '89 XJ. I was not enthused about the colour but I couldn't be happier now.