Aside from playing around with paint on some engine parts, I was also able to paint something else, namely, the bed! I had my dad help me with this because he's been painting for over 40 years and has a bit more experience than me. We decided it would be easiest to pull the bed and create a mini paint booth in his garage.
For the booth, we set up a fan in a window outside the booth blowing air into the garage, and a fan inside the booth blowing air outdoors. With a few small holes in the plastic, it created a nice flow of air through the booth and negative pressure inside. This technique worked extremely well. I could stand right outside the booth while my dad painted and could only smell a hint of paint.
First, we had to lay down a final coat of black primer/sealer because I am trying to mimic the original paint process as close as possible for my eventual faux patina procedure. Since the team my dad works for is sponsored by Sherwin Williams, he was able to get me a really good deal on paint. You don't hear too much about S-W automotive paint, but it's actually some pretty respectable stuff. My dad said it's some of the nicest material to work with that he's used. The sealer/primer we used was called Undercoat.
Next was the moment I've been waiting for, color! We used single stage S-W Dimension urethane. Two coats and it was done.
The paint laid out really nicely,
almost too nicely to scuff up. If it wasn't for all the dents I left in the bed, I would seriously be considering just going ahead and painting the whole truck.
The next step is to put the truck back together and hit the paint with some abrasives! I have practiced my procedure and am confident it will be convincing enough to not be noticeably fake. Now I just have to wait impatiently while I let the paint cure for a week. It's probably a good thing I'm off to the beach this week or else I might have ended up screwing something up.