OldIHC

Well after the cab sitting for a year or so waiting for the rest of the parts to be done for an assembly...I found that the paint job that I spent many hours on prep and finishing developed some bubbles and blistering. I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that contamination of the air was the culprit. I am not a professional painter of vehicles and even though I ended up with a really good looking, orange peel free paint job, it didn't last. I am removing the paint to the primer and starting over.
My advice to anyone considering doing their own paint job is to use an inline desiccant air dryer snake http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dvr-130502/overview/ even if you have a water separator on your compressor. Also, a new hose and drain the tank prior to painting. I now keep the inline snake on my air line at all times, even if I am just blowing off parts from sanding.
The air must have had moisture and or oil in it and it contaminated the surface as I painted. Doing it once was not easy but doing it twice is even harder. You live and you learn and this is how you learn sometimes.

I know I'm late to the party, but is that a split rear window? Very cool!
Is the Dakota frame swap chronicled here on Old IHC?
I never paint anything: no paint=no bubbles or orange peel! patina rules!

Bob-
I'm sorry you're being challenged right now;
but, at least, your bad experience can educate the rest of us. And- When all is said and done, you'll be confident that
the integrity of your paint job will solid. Truck is going to be Awesome!
Paul

Thank you Paul! I'm hoping for a good paint job this time around. After I get it painted again, I'm ready to start finishing the front end, grille fenders and hood. I don't expect this to take more than a week or two, so not so bad.
Monsonmotors..yes I split the rear window as a custom effect. I have several changes on the truck that I feel makes it mine. I had a website that layed out the transformation from original to what it is now. but Godaddy decided that it wanted to charge me an arm and leg for it so I shut it down. I may do another when I have time. If you or anyone has questions on how to install the K or KB body on a Dakota chassis, just ask.
Here is a link to Photobucket that has a lot of pictures but not in very good order. The heading says 1947 but that was before I was able to verify the serial number. It is a 1948.http://s816.photobucket.com/user/Bobbinalong/library/1947%20International%20Harvester%20KB-1?sort=3&page=1

Is it possible that your sheetmetal parts were sandblasted, for metal cleaning, before painting?

A few of them were blasted with black diamond, others with glass bead and some panels were new metal and just ground with abrasives. All parts were bare metal with prep wash before epoxy primer applied.
The blistering did not favor any particular areas. What are you suggesting?

My friend had the body and fenders of his 1948 Fat Fender Ford shot with a garnett media to remove the old paint and anything else hiding under the paint. The media was aggressive and may have contributed to the sheet metal becoming brittle and prone to cracking. Thin sheet metal gets very hot at the point where it is blasted. The body and paint guy who did our non IHC told us that blasted sheet metal often has some oxygenation starting in the surface of the sheet metal. He said this situation is very difficult to remedy. His best possible fix, he said, is an epoxy etching primer like PPG dp40.
Ten years and three or more repaints the 1948 is still suffering paint problems.
We had our non IHC sheet metal cleaned with blasted ground walnut shells. The metal cleaning shop is certified to do aircraft. His air supply is very dry after passing through several drier systems. The walnut shell media is much less aggressive and does not heat and open to surface of the sheet metal to oxygen.
REDI STRIP cleaned our R120 in 1990 in a submersion tank situation followed by a second total submerged in a reverse electrolysis treatment. The paint has not suffered any problems, yet.
The shop that will be cleaning the body parts for my son's L110 Shorty project apply an epoxy etching primer as soon as the parts are cleaned. I doubt that 5 minutes pass between the cleaning and primer.
An epoxy primer is a good base for most following body surface repair including the application of filler.
I wish you the best possible outcome and I'm sorry you are having trouble.

Sorry to hear about your paint disaster, but thanks for posting! I'm getting ready to paint an OT project and reading everything I can, hopefully to avoid problems. I haven't painted a vehicle since the 80's (except rattle cans) so I need all the advice I can get. The cost of materials is insane, but pales in comparison to the time invested.
Good luck with your repaint - first time around looked nice!

The professional who did the body and paint on our 1940 Ford, suggested, "If a person can pi$$ they can paint." He went on to say, "It is the detailed surface preparation that screws most finishes up."
If a person is looking for a paint finish with that look with a perfect deep reflection, this takes time and patience. As an example, 50 hours of prep went into the hood of our Fat Fender Ford. The doors and fenders each absorbed 20 - 30 hours. The trunk lid is made of three lids and the time was about 25 hours. The final cost for the near perfect body and paint for our project was $24,749.03. Would I do this again? Absolutely. For me, this was money well spent for something I really wanted. No excuses and no apologies. A person does not have to look very far or hard to see bad paint.
The L110 for my son will get much less attention to detail because he is not looking for this level of detail and finish. A local body and paint shop will do the deed for much less.
Like the Captain suggested, "Clean air system and clean air". I know the Captain will get it right. If a good finish was not important, to him, he would have left it and not posted anything, here.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes and the information. I know the next paint job will be good but lasting is where my confidence is low after what happened the first time. All we can do is the best we can. I told my son that I wanted a truck to take to shows but I might end up with a rat rod. lol