My long term tidy up!

[violetpop]

Looked like rain all day so chose not to mask up and paint. Did a few other bits while I was in the garage.

Polished up the head lights and tail lights. Notice that one tail light is different to the other... I prefer the right hand side one so I will track one down at some point.

While the car was under cover I started to paint part of the bay. At some point when the engine is out I will paint the rest of the engine bay.

Really hoping for a nice sunny day to get cracking!

[k31th]

weird to have two different tail-lights, but an interesting situation nonetheless. good update

[violetpop]

No doubt someone has replaced one at some point. Not a big deal but I will rectify soon.

[violetpop]

Paint Day!!

Well... Forecast was 80% chance of rain so I thought I would head into the shed an tidy up a few other hits and bobs.. Mainly painting the side mirrors, scuttle panel and a few brackets under the bonnet.

I see a break in the clouds, sunshine. Screw it, now is my chance!

First up I will show you my setup..

This is pretty much everything I used for the painting the car. I side the tubs and various bit of sand paper, sanding blocks, body fillers etc

The materials and tools I had for painting the car is as low budget as you can get. Ozito electric sprayer, 4L of acrylic lacquer and 4L of thinners. That 20L drum you see if what I mixed the paint in and filled up the pot from.. Ghetto right?

Then the usual stuff, masks, wax and grease remover and various masking tapes. Also some tac cloth for good measure.

So I set the car up gave it a full wipe down with wax and grease remover and masked her up. I've the last few days I've been trying a few techniques of masking to try and hide the tape lines as best as possible. It helped a lot of masking was pretty straight forward.

Once the car was masked and I was satisfied with it I gave the car another wipe down with wax and grease. Mowing through clean rags just wanting to be 100% that the surface was clean grease free.

So I setup the spray gun, mix the paint in the big container and pour some in the pot. I have my busted up door here and I shoot against it to see how its coming out... Good I see so I hit the car with the first coat.

Paints coming out fast, I'm sweating because I don't want to stuff it up but I get into a groove and get a light first coat on.

Second coat and getting some decent coverage. Taking it easy as I don't want any runs and or paint drooping.

By this stage, the plastic sheet around the wheels was coming off, wasn't too fussed as I'm not going to use these wheels I just kept on motoring on.

With the second coat done, I felt like I had things under control and enjoyed the rest of the spraying.

In the end I got on 4 coats and happy with the outcome. The electric sprayer puts out so much paint, I went through all 8 litres of paint to get the 4 coats on.

Looming at the paint up close, it has a texture to it, not 'smooth as glass' like 2 pack clear coat. Its a fine line with this sprayer because if you are too close, it pours paint on and if you are a little too far away, the paint dries quick. Which I think is why my paint ended up a little textured. Nothing a wet sand and buff can't fix.

Last few photos are with the masking paper!

Car is painted!!

[Tom Tucker]

Respect man. Awesome job

[gaz097]

It's such a art painting acrylic, and from what I have read and spoke to a lot of old school painters is you need a good quality gun. The fan needs to be smooth and consistent from one side to the other.

I've attempted to paint a few things (guards, Bonnets, doors, tailgates back in the minitruck days) plus a triton repair and only once I got the paint to go on smooth. I was using a cheapish gun and I could never stop the edges being dry spray.

Everything but that one guard required a fair wack of wet sanding and polishing. Always turned out good but really takes some extra time

[violetpop]

Agreed! Certainly a skill that would take many years to perfect.

I was thinking this method will be good for touch ups if needed down the track, just sand prep and spray. No funny clear coats and metallic finish.

I think I will give it a few days to dry hopefully park it out in the sun tomorrow to warm up a little and then get stuck into wet sanding.

I actually have 1500, 2000 and 3000 sanding discs to use on my dual action polisher that have a foam backing so hopefully that will cut down some time.

I tested a small section very quickly and it looks like it will polish up really good.

[gaz097]

It's that first coat that's brought you undone. It needs to go on heavy enough not to orange peel, and just light enough not to run.

[violetpop]

It looks that way hey. Its ok because I find sanding oddly satisfying to I am in for a treat haha.

 

Going through your build thread, lots of info mate!

[bloodycrashboy]

man..... I wouldn't want to be your neighbor, over spray all over my car!