Great pictures Dave... Think you "may" have the pressure too low on the inlet at the gun... I've heard that for a lot of guns, you need at least 25-35 psi at the inlet to the gun to get the "desired" output at the cap...

Maybe shoot a few different lines at different psi's to see if you can see any differences... Just a suggestion, as I don't know what your paint tech papers suggest for a cap pressure...

But you are right, if you can get the rest of the car to look like your gas lid, you'll be lookin' good!!!

Rogman

 

Great thread, I'm starting my 72 this fall.

 

Dave--

When are you spraying the body??? This weekend???

Rogman

 

And what did you decide to do with doors? Paint and clear them after install with rest of entire car. That is what I would suggest, I've done my share of painting over the years. I had my driver door off trying to chase down a water leak, those doors are heavy! I couldn't imagine trying to get those doors back on hinges without screwing something up. If you do paint and clear them seperate, put tons of masking tape on door edge and fender edge. also X2 on the guys admonitions for plenty of light

 

Since I destroyed the brake scoop on my OTHER car last weekend, I thought I would do a little sub-thread post on fixing it. I KNOW, it's not a Chevy (Even worse, it's a !@#$!* Mustang!) but it IS fiberglass repair, so here goes...
Here's what it looked like immediately after I backed into it with the Vette...

These are the damaged areas after sanding with 60 grit paper. It had three longitudinal cracks that went through the whole thing, so I wound up applying two plies of fiberglass mat to the inside surface behind each crack.

This is what the scoop looked like after I hand-sanded all the orange lacquer off first with 60 and finally with 120 grit paper...

Next I took a handful of cut-off glass fibers that I shaved off of the mat with scissors and mixed them up with fiberglass resin. I took this material, packed it into the outer surfaces of the damaged areas,

And then covered those areas with aluminum tape overnight to keep the whole gooey mess in place.

The next day I sanded the repairs smooth,

Applied filler,

Sanded THAT to a 120 finish, then re-sanded the entire scoop to a 220 finish,

Masked and applied a coat of SEM rattle can lacquer primer,

Then last Thursday afternoon sanded the primer to a 320 finish and shot three coats of PPG single-stage urethane federal school bus yellow...
.
FINALLY, this morning I sanded out the runs with 320 grit wet sandpaper, color sanded to a 1500 finish, and buffed it to death with 3M rubbing compound under a wool pad and finished that with 3M finishing compound under a foam pad...

There it is. Ready for...whatever.

 

good job on the repair. it looks a couple shades lighter, maybe just the light?

 

Yepper, looks great Dave!!! The scoop looks to match the rockers ;-) let's get the Vette painted and put back together!!!

Rogman

 

Actually it is probably a shade lighter than the rest of the car, but truth be told the whole car is about six different shades of yellow. When I finally get the Vette painted and put back together I'm looking at actually replacing the left rear quarter on the Mustang, and repainting the entire car. I had never shot 'single stage' catalyzed paint before and this PPG stuff is pretty amazing. Incredible gloss right out of the gun...

I'm looking at two weekends before I can shoot the rest of the Vette...spend Saturday getting everything cleaned in preparation for paint, get my side lighting built and get hangers made for the doors, then spend Sunday shooting paint. 3 coats base/ 4 coats clear then color sand and buff until my arms fall off.

BTW thanks for the advice guys, ALL of you...you're all the ones who pushed me into the idea of shooting everything at the same time (body, doors, hood). I'm still trying to figure out where to put the hood while I'm doing this...I might just set it in the driveway on sawhorses and keep my eyes peeled for the HOA goons...

 

sounds good! what's keeping you from painting with hood installed too?

 

I'll have to shoot the body sill and the edges first, then drop the hood into the hole...just seems simpler to place it on sawhorses and shoot it off of the car. Really I'm trying to avoid handling the parts anymore than absolutely necessary while I'm applying the paint.

Once everything is basecoated it won't really matter because I can clearcoat everything separately...

 

well, I don't have any concerns about the hood being installed totally at the end after clear, its the bugs that may fly into it (driveway instead of sealed garage)when you do the clear.

 

Got home a little early from work today, and we're having this beautiful mild Santa Ana going, bone dry and about 78 degrees, so I dragged out the sawhorses and color sanded and polished the wiper door and rear valance. As you can see by the second picture I got some solvent pop going in the middle of the wiper door...not good.




Looks like I'm going to have to re-sand the wiper door and lay a couple more coats of clear on it. I shot all of these details with some 'Zolatone' brand product that I had sitting around. It doesn't flow very well, and I might have used a little too much pressure at the gun as well as laying the first coat on a little too thick. I painted my son's car with this stuff a couple years ago and had lots of problems, most of which I attributed to cheap paint guns and my own inexperience.

I also polished out the rear valance, which for some reason came out a LOT better...




This part had quite a bit of orange peel in it but none of the solvent pops, so once I got it flat (1500 grit followed by 2000) it polished up quite nicely.

I'll take the wiper door and scuff the whole thing with 600 grit paper, then shoot a couple more clear coats on it while I'm doing the rest of the car. I did go and pick up a gallon of 'new' clearcoat today at Temecula Valley Paint (a little hint for all of you Riverside county guys); it's called "5-Star Extreme". They told me that this stuff was "the best for the least" and that the Zolatone stuff that I was using for the small parts was pretty low-end product. I told them that I wanted something that would flow a little better that the Zolatone and hopefully be more resistant to the solvent outgassing and popping under the surface. Probably next weekend will be the big push...

I will gladly solicit any advice at this point...e

 

I don't remember reading what products you are using and/or whether you are following a"process". I generally try to follow the product sheet recommendations for a paint family and don't improvise. There was a paint job done on my car by a supposed reputable shop quite a while back and as I was prepping the car I noticed that some of the clear peeled off with masking tape like a bad sunburn. That was kind of alarming. You might want to try out whatever clear you are using with whatever basecoat you are using and not just rely on what the guy behind the counter says.

I looked up the stuff you are using. It said "Compatible with most paint manufacturers' solvent and waterborne systems". Looks like they have an out if it doesn't stick to your basecoat. Don't mean to be alarmist here but painting a whole car and then having something go wrong would be heartbreaking.

On the other hand if it works for you and I can get it here in the SF Bay area I've still got some parts I need to paint and have run out of the clear I was using, so good luck.

 

Thanks for looking in, Ignatz. You might have missed it, but there was a method to my madness here, which was to get as re-acquainted as possible with the whole paint-spraying art before I get to the main part of the car, and I think I'm getting there. I started with small parts first so if I need to I can go back and re-do those easily rather than having to do a large part of the car over, and refine my method before I have to risk large quantities of expensive material...

The folks at my paint store are actually very helpful, we're on a first-name basis by now, and they've assured me that this new "5-Star" stuff I'm using will be much better than the Zolatone product that I had used before, so we'll see. I think I had a little (well, a lot actually) too much pressure at the gun so next time I'm gonna dial that back a little as well...

 

Dave--

You gonna spray this weekend???

Rogman

 

I've been wondering about this thread, him painting last few days also.

 

Rog/Doug- God willing, the entire car should be painted after this weekend. I have a fresh gallon of clearcoat, and we're looking at rain on Saturday, so Sunday when I shoot it the air should be nice and clean and bug/dust free.

I purchased a pair of 48" flourescent light mounts, and Saturday I'm gonna make up some wooden stands for them to get a little extra light on the sides of the car. In addition I got a ton of plastic sheeting so Saturday I'll move the cars out, cover the floor and side garage walls with plastic, then move the Vette back into the middle of the garage, put it on stands, and mask everything.

Sunday (weather permitting) should be the big day, the after that cutting and buffing forever and ever...

Thanks for the interest guys and STAY TUNED...

 

Just wanted to wish you good luck on the final paint job. Can't wait to se the results of all your hard work.

 

Good luck Dave!!! Can't wait to see the pics!!!

Rogman

 

I found it helpful to first rehearse my moves with the spray gun and where the hose was going to be as I moved around the car. Good luck!