yep, be sure to get air hose where your gonna be starting and then the slack to work back to where you will finish. and good luck from me also!

 

 

If its warm when you spray, tie a rag around your gun hand wrist to catch any sweat. I wore rubber gloves and the sweat ran out of the glove and dripped on my fresh paint.

 

Spent all day yesterday getting my sideways lights constructed- two cheapo 48" fixtures screwed onto 2x4's...

Cleaned up the garage, put plastic up on the walls and windows,


And did a little last-minute fix of one of the plastic guide thingies that fell apart awhile back. Made this from a doorknob protector found at Home Depot; seemed like about the right kind of plastic...

.

Got up early this morning, went to church early, then came home and got after it. Covered the floor with plastic, brought the Vette in, jacked it up, and got all the loose parts situated in a manner that looked like it would work. Sprayed the door jambs and inner doors first, then while those were drying I sprayed the hood and roof panels. Once the doors were dry enough to handle I hung them on the car with two bolts...



I'm still not sure how I managed this with no help...I slid the doors onto the hinges, got two bolts started while holding the shell with my 'free' hand, then inserted a #30 cleco into the holes in the hinges that I had drilled months ago for lining them up...miraculously no dings!

After that I proceeded to basecoat the rest of the car, and it looks like I had JUST enough paint. I've got three good coats on just about everything...
.

It took me till about 5:30 to get that far; daylight had run out and it was starting to get chilly as well (nearly froze last night). Unfortunately, I was not able to shoot any clear but with the low temps I think I'll be OK laying that down tomorrow. I've gotta go down and pick up some more reducer for the clear (I wound up reducing the base about 60%) so hopefully by tomorrow afternoon everything will be cleared and ready for color sanding and buffing.

BTW to all of you who chimed in with advice/ comments...THANK YOU, EVERY ONE OF YOU!!

Enjoy and stay tuned!

 

Glad everything went well so far. Good luck tomorrow with the clear coat. Can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Looks fantastic Dave!!! Great job...

Rogman

 

nice job so far, don't rush! don't know how you got the doors on with no help either?! wow

 

I'd give it a coat of adhesion promoter before shooting the clear

 

Hi bird,
Those pictures certainly show some great work.
I can only imagine how you must have felt at the end of the day.
I'm anxious see what you do today.
Your thread has to be an inspiration to people considering doing it themselves, and also clearly shows what's actually involved!!!
Regards,
Alan

 

Alan, to answer your question, I think I was running on adrenaline, cuz when I finally sat down last night I got so sore I could hardly move! I still have some Motrin left for tonight!

 

Thanks Doug...I'll ask my paint vendor about that this morning when I go to pick up the reducer. I really wanted to get the clear on yesterday but the temperature window was a little too narrow. I didn't start shooting paint til about 2:30 pm; it was around 5 (readARK) by the time I got it all laid on there.

Someone previously had mentioned that there is about a 24-hour window between base and clear...comments?

 

the prep time, when done right always takes longer then you think or expect. to kinda answer your question, that's why i recomend a coat of adhesion promoter. If your concerned about being too long since paint, lightly wet sand with 1000grit sanpaper, taking out the shine, if you do that, no adhesion promoter really necessary, won't hurt either though

 

Right after this morning's post I went out to the garage where the morning sun was coming directly through the windows, and I could easily see that there wasn't nearly enough paint in some spots...after the initial sensation of heartbreak and mild panic, I called my paint vendor Chuck at Temecula Valley Paint and told him about the situation. Went down there (about a 20-mile round trip) and picked up one more quart of base, another quart of reducer, and a couple more tack rags...

First I re-shot the light spots, then went back over the entire car two more times...


NOW I had something that I could work with...after talking with Chuck this morning he assured me that no adhesion promoter would be necessary inside of 24 hours (Thanks for the idea though Doug-at least I asked him) so no harm done...

I let that flash off for about an hour, then began shooting clear. I very carefully positioned all the parts so that I could squeeze between them with the paint gun, then briefly stepped inside and asked wifey to begin prayer...God actually blessed me with an absolutely PERFECT paint day, about 75 degrees and absolutely no humidity. I began with a light tack coat, first the headlight doors, then on to the hood, then the roof panels, then over to the car. I repeated this routine four times, with each coat being a little heavier than the previous one, the last coat being nice and wet.

Understand that I have never really mastered base/clear paint systems- I've always had problems with solvent pop and runs, but my neighbor (who paints a LOT of cars) showed me this technique awhile back and it worked well. Light coat-a little heavier-full wet coat. So today, I did that, used GOOD clearcoat, and not one run or solvent pop anywhere on the entire car. There is a bit of crap and debris that floated into the paint but that will buff out, and there is certainly orange peel but if that's the only problem I'll be happy, that buffs out too!!




Thanks again for looking in y'all. Now I need pointers on buffing!!! Any takers??

 

Pretty, shiny, and awesome!!! You must be very stoked to have this part done... Good on ya!!! Can't wait to see it in the California sun!!!

Congrats...

Rogman

 

great job! I dig the flourescent lights on sides held up by 2x4's, good advice on the application of the clear coats, thanks! advice on wet sand and rub would be to split car up and do over time, lot of energy it takes, use soapy water and have a good buffer with high quality glaze

 

Very very nice. As I read this you have four coats of clear on in one day! And no runs. You are in great shape. I was pretty happy with the 3M Perfect-It system, bought all their stuff

(http://www.tcpglobal.com/3m/3m450-10...YaDQgodyX4AGA#)

and just followed the directions. Keep posting on whatever buffing you do and congrats!

 

3M is great quality, we were using that in the body shop over 20 years ago. maguire's and mother's I think have probably just out marketed them

 

I have some of the 3M stuff at home and used it on the small parts but I didn't get perfect results with it when I buffed it out...but I'm thinking that was a lot more operator error and improper equipment than anything to do with 3M.

I have a wool buffing pad and a yellow foam pad; before I was buffing with the wool pad and polishing with the foam pad but now I think I'm going to buff with the yellow foam pad and polish with a softer black foam pad.

I'll probably start color sanding tomorrow afternoon...comments?

 

Wish I could enlighten you Dave!!! I know when I get to your point, I plan on talking to my PPG jobber and some of the knowledgeable folks on the Forum... Currently, think I will settle on one system (3m, Meguiars, Wolfgang, Pinnacle, etc) and follow their recommendations... Much easier back in the day with spraying lacquer, color sanding, compound, liquid ebony and you were golden...

I would ask your paint guy for his recommendation and see if he can recommend a couple of pros that he deals with all the time...

Just my $.02... Glad you are doing this before me and maybe I can learn from your accomplishments ;-)

Rogman

 

We just went through this on my project. We color sanded our project first with anything between 1500, 2000 and ended with 2500 wet. Most of ours was done with 2000 and 2500. We had almost no orange peel but we did have dust nubs and a couple of very small runs to get out.

We then used the 3M 1,2,3 system but we end up not using the final stage 3 because the 2 looked great.

As I recall we used the black and light color foam pads and most of the buffing and polishing was done at 800 to 1000 rpm and do not sit in any spots, keep it moving

It is a lot of work but you can make it look great!