Painting Dump Trucks

My boyfriend, Josh, occasionally sands and paints dump truck for his dad's company. And I occasionally help him. It's not particularly hard work, but the days are long and can be really cold when we're trying to work during winter months.

First, we take off all lights, mudflaps, and mirrors we can. Then we usually spend some time sand blasting, depending on how rusty the bed and frame are. Josh usually does the blasting and I empty the fifty pound bags into the cylinder and shake it so the sand doesn't clog. Once we get the truck back into the garage, we then sand with a circular sander to get all the grittiness of the sandblasting away. The metal ends up really rough from the blasting, so circular sanding is totally necessary. Then, once the garage is warm enough, we set up our paint gun, mix the primer, and prime the truck's bed and frame. After another coat of primer, you can add your color! In our case, it's a nice navy blue, which is the company color. You can add another coat of color and then put allllll the lights, mud flaps, and mirrors back on. All of this usually takes at least 3-4 days, but once it's done, it's pretty rewarding and my arm muscles feel much stronger. The last time I helped Josh with sandblasting I moved 1,500 pounds of sand in one day!