[jdorrough]

I read different post on here trying to determine the best way to paint the lettering on the tailgate. There didn't seem to be a consensus so I went with the approach that made the most sense to me. I started by cleaning up the spot welds it was shipped with. I then primed the whole thing to give me some protection on the bare metal and to have a nice base to paint on. I then painted just the backside of the tailgate black. I put down 3 light coats. If I were to do it again, I'd dial those up to 3 or maybe even 4 medium/ wet coats. I then shot the whole thing in red. This is where the fun started. I wanted to balance letting the paint dry enough vs the clear coat window so I started sanding around the 5 hour mark. I wish I'd have waited a bit longer. I wet sanded with 600 grit which was much harder than I expected. It took me about 4 hours of sanding to get all the black showing. I sanded through in handful of spots that I fixed with a little brush. I finished by shooting a tack coat of red on the inside and clearing the whole thing with 2 wet coats. It's not perfect by any means but I'm happy enough with the final product.