How to Prep Your Jeep Wrangler for Paint

Sep. 09, 2015 By Jim Brightly, KF7SCT

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With its hardtop back on, the 2005 Rubicon Unlimited is absolutely beautiful in its new Maaco urethane paint with UV protection and a final clear coat. The color is 2015 Ford Mustang Competition Orange. It’s very close to the Jeep’s original Impact Orange, but the new orange pops more.

I did everything wrong when I was preparing my 2005 Rubicon Unlimited for its trip to North Las Vegas Maaco for a new paint treatment. About the only thing I did correctly was leave the factory orange paint in place and remove all the easily removed hardware (headlight bezels, mirrors, taillights, etc.). My mistakes prompted me to write this article. If you know the correct way to prep your Jeep prior to painting, it could save you significant money and time.

Rustoleum’s Farm Equipment orange was very close to the original Jeep orange, but not on the button.

Why did I choose Maaco? It was a simple choice. And, although the, “Uh oh! Better call Maaco!” tag line is a catchy one, it wasn’t the reason either. Each shop is a privately owned franchise, but there are thousands of franchises, located all over the U.S., so I can get the paint easily matched wherever I might find myself after scraping a tree or sliding off a boulder. Plus, Maaco’s reputation—much like Denny’s coffee—is that you’ll get excellent service and a very good paint job in any shop anywhere. For an avid off-roader, Maaco’s paint treatment is well-worth the money, regardless of the level chosen.

To begin the preparation—if you’re going to paint it yourself—you’ll need to carefully clean all the surfaces with denatured alcohol. You may have to go over it more than once.

If you’re going to paint the Jeep yourself—which I don’t recommend—Rustoleum will really protect the Jeep’s metal.

Use a good pistol-grip spray can holder when you spray the Jeep. Don’t go cheap; buy the best one you can find in your area. It’ll save your fingers and your sanity.

While Rustoleum is arguably just about the best paint you can apply to raw metal to protect it from oxidation (rust), it’s just about the worst paint to use for prepping. Actually, according to Becky at North Las Vegas Maaco, any “rattle can paint” is the wrong paint to use—even primer. Before finding out that Rustoleum wasn’t going to be compatible with Maaco’s urethane, in order to protect the raw metal from rusting, I sprayed all the non-painted products from TNT Customs—side panels, flat fenders, rock rails, and some chassis components—with a Rustoleum orange that was very close the Jeep Impact Orange. Many of the chassis components I painted Rustoleum semi-gloss black.

As you can see, Maaco offers several levels of paint treatment. We opted for the $800 urethane that was on sale.

In the sanding booth, all the remaining hardware is removed.

A crew jumps in as soon as the Jeep is stopped and begins to get the Jeep ready for sanding—both hand and machine sanding.

If the paint used in prepping has the wrong chemical makeup, the professionally applied paint—in the case of my Rubicon Unlimited, urethane—won’t adhere to the base paint. Becky said it was actually better just to leave the metal raw.

If you have the use of an air compressor, a spray gun, and a clean area in which to use them—and know how to use them—you can buy compatible primer (check with the shop that’ll be doing the final painting on what’s compatible) from several auto parts stores (Carquest, for instance); however, you’ll need several different grit sandpaper, hardener, thinner, stirring sticks, mixing cans, filters, breathing masks, etc., in order to apply the primer properly. In other words, you may want to leave it to the professionals.

Even the Jeep’s original paint was sanded smooth in preparation for the primer.

Special attention was given to the factory decals that had been on the Jeep for 10 years.

The Jeep and Unlimited decals had to be smoothed down completely. The Trail Ready medallion and radio antenna were also removed.

However, if you still want to do your own paint prepping… read on.

I’m not going to get into all the nitty-gritty about how to pound out all the dents, or how to fill in all the scratches, or how to sand the Jeep’s surfaces, or how to mask the glass and other hardware. The professionals will want to do all those things themselves, and there are entire books on that subject that cover it better than I could ever do.

The full doors also received special treatment in the sanding booth.

After the sanding, extra primer was applied to specific areas around the Jeep.

Since the Jeep had no top on it, Maaco masked the complete interior.

If you insist on applying the primer to your Jeep, then ask the shop that will be doing the painting what primer to use so that it will be compatible with the final surface. If it’s raw metal—never been painted—you’ll have to clean the entire surface completely with denatured alcohol. Use clean shop towels or blue paper shop towels. Either way, you’ll need a lot of them. If the surface has already been painted, you’ll still have to clean it but not quite as well.

They also masked the tires and bumpers.

Even the engine was masked so that paint could be sprayed under the hood and on the fenders. The Rugged Ridge front bumper, Ramsey winch, and Rigid Industries auxiliary LED driving and fog lights were masked.

With masking in place, primer was applied all over the Jeep so the urethane finish would be perfect.

Once the surface is clean, apply the primer with very light coats. Don’t try and apply a thick cover coat all at once, you’ll only produce runs and a surface that’s called “orange peel”. Spray it lightly with several coats. Remove any hardware that you can; i.e., side mirrors, lights, license plate, etc. If you’re going to trailer the Jeep to the painter, you can remove more hardware. Just be safe and if you’re going to drive it, don’t remove anything you’ll need on the street. This’ll save you money, and it’ll save the shop time.

The grille and under the hood were also covered with primer.

Starting at the front—so the under-hood areas and grille top could be covered first—the entire Jeep was given the first coat.

Once the first coat was dry, the second coat was applied. As you can see the painter is entirely protected while spraying.

Masking off and hardware on, the Jeep is ready for delivery. Maaco even re-applied the Jeep decals on the sides. Although they’re not shown, Maaco also painted my Bestop half-doors so that they’d match the rest of the Jeep.