Camouflage 4wd Sidekick with Louis Peloquin
Louis Péloquin was raised in Canada between the suburbs of Montreal and the northern wilderness of Quebec, where he learned to love the outdoors. So for Louis, it was only natural to want a camouflage painted 4wd vehicle to help him fully enjoy all of his outdoor hobbies. Before painting his Sidekick, he started with his canoe to perfect his painting technique. The end result is two really great Camouflage projects that we were very impressed with and just had to share.
Louis works long days in a seasonal job from June to October as captain of a whale observation boat, so that the rest of the year he has all the time in the world to do what he enjoys most, roaming the Quebec wilderness, fishing, trapping and most of all enjoying nature like a kid in constant amazement.
Louis has spent most of his career working as a diver or boat captain, including a 168 ft. U.S. research vessel. For the last 10 years, he has worked on the St. Lawrence River in Northern Quebec bringing tourists to sea to educate people about whales and other marine mammals and their environment. He prefers captaining 12 passenger Zodiacs because it provides much more intimate contact with most of the 13 species of whales that feed in Canadian waters each year. Besides, being on this type of boat allows him to sleep at home every night and gives him the freedom to spend his off-season in the Quebec wilderness.
We asked Louis to tell us more about his camouflage projects, so our interview with him follows below. For Louis’s step-by step instructions, featured in our Project Ideas section, click here.
How long did it take to apply the camouflage paint to your 4×4?
The actual painting only took about 4 hours, but the process to get to this point was somewhat longer. When I bought this 4X4 it was red with white striping and chromed mag wheels. A kid in the village was very happy to end up with the mags on his car. I started by sanding down the striping and every little spot of rust. Fortunately I didn’t discover any holes in the body. Priming every sanded surface and masking what areas as needed as I went along; I have to say I did that over a period of about 3 weeks. During that period I worked 5 days for about 4 hours each time. By then it was all primed with a pale gray.
At this point I discovered the Krylon “Camouflage System” and the recommended primer was much darker than what I had already applied. I gave it another coat with only a light fine sanding and the Krylon Gray Primer, which I did over a week on 3 occasions of about 3 hours each.
When the painting day arrived, it took a good 3 hours to mask everything and a little less than 4 hours to finally paint it, not counting the hour spent collecting leafs and branches. So the whole job probably took about 36 hours spread over a month. I also spent approximately 6 hours on my canoe, which actually was my testing ground to get an idea of how to apply the Camouflage Paint.
What inspired you to paint your Sidekick with the camouflage paint?
I live in northern Quebec, and I wanted my truck to blend in the wilderness. Honestly, I think I’ve wanted a camouflaged truck since I was a kid.
Any prior experience with painting an automobile or with camo paint?
I did some bodywork on my previous vehicles and a bit of painting. Twice I painted the whole truck, in both cases I rough it up a bit. My last one, a 98 Tracker, I painted flat black with a rust protecting paint. But camouflage painting I had never done before.
What was the most effective method you found to create the camouflage design that you wanted?
When I spotted the Camouflage Paint on the local hardware store shelf, I saw that the packaging suggested an order of application for the 4 different colors and also that I could use local tree leaves and branches for patterns in the paint.
Holding the leaves close to the surface and spraying short overlapping bursts of paint, and repeating this over and over, color after color, gave me an excellent result.
What Krylon products do you like the most? Why?
Camouflage Paint, because I’ve used it and really like the result!
Are you currently working on any other projects or have plans for a future project?
More camo at my fishing camp.
Tips for people who are interested in doing a camouflage paint project.
Take your time. Remember that the small mistakes you might make won’t show when you’re done because you always overlap a little and can mask small miss with only a mist of a darker color.
If you or someone you know use Krylon in a unique way, we’d like to feature you in a future column of You Did It! Please click here to email a little about yourself and how you use Krylon. You just might see yourself in an upcoming column.
