Excited About Painting the Car, Wait Did I, Aw Crap!

[jikelly]

I went from working on my mustang 24/7 to working on my thesis 24/7 september 16th. I hoped to finish it so I could graduate in december, well I missed a deadline and had to postpone graduation until the spring. That was okay though because it meant I could go back and finish my paint job. I really want to get it done so I can drive my baby again.

If you've been following my paint saga, then you know that I sanded through the clear in a couple spots while trying to knock off all the orange peel. That was, I thought, a minor set back. Then the guy at the paint store, who has been right about everything, looked at the pictures I took of the car and the orange peel, and told me I needed to wetsand the whole thing and then reclear it.

Well I started resanding the stang last week. I didn't want to make more work for myself so I was sure to leave a bit of the orange peel on my stang after I went over it lightly with 600 grit paper on a block. Got done, washed the car, and was able to get the dadgum waterstains off in time to head out to the drag strip for a few runs in my roomates 05 GT.

We got home and I went straight back to work on the car. Hood's ready for the stripes and then clear, trunks ready for clear, and I started masking the car. (figured on shooting it tomorrow) Anyway, I was looking at the fenders and I noticed that my fiberglass hood had rubbed through to the base in a couple spots. I had only sanded the fender lips in a couple spots to remove imperfections in the finish, and I got to wondering if I shouldn't just reclear the lips.

I was able to find a data sheet for the clearcoat with some really good instructions on applying it. I thought that was cool until I read where I needed to remove all gloss from the cured clear before applying another coat.

Great.

So I'm going to go in search of 3M 600 grit scuff pads tomorrow, and a heater for the garage since stupid winter is coming again. Dark at 6:25pm, I want to slap whoever came up with daylight savings time. I've got to go over the whole car, even the areas I didn't plan on reclearing incase of overspray. Wee more sanding.

Maybe I'll be finished someday.

 

[68torinogt]

ill read this tomarrow

 

[enferno]

I went from working on my mustang 24/7 to working on my thesis 24/7 september 16th. I hoped to finish it so I could graduate in december, well I missed a deadline and had to postpone graduation until the spring. That was okay though because it meant I could go back and finish my paint job. I really want to get it done so I can drive my baby again.

If you've been following my paint saga, then you know that I sanded through the clear in a couple spots while trying to knock off all the orange peel. That was, I thought, a minor set back. Then the guy at the paint store, who has been right about everything, looked at the pictures I took of the car and the orange peel, and told me I needed to wetsand the whole thing and then reclear it.

Well I started resanding the stang last week. I didn't want to make more work for myself so I was sure to leave a bit of the orange peel on my stang after I went over it lightly with 600 grit paper on a block. Got done, washed the car, and was able to get the dadgum waterstains off in time to head out to the drag strip for a few runs in my roomates 05 GT.

We got home and I went straight back to work on the car. Hood's ready for the stripes and then clear, trunks ready for clear, and I started masking the car. (figured on shooting it tomorrow) Anyway, I was looking at the fenders and I noticed that my fiberglass hood had rubbed through to the base in a couple spots. I had only sanded the fender lips in a couple spots to remove imperfections in the finish, and I got to wondering if I shouldn't just reclear the lips.

I was able to find a data sheet for the clearcoat with some really good instructions on applying it. I thought that was cool until I read where I needed to remove all gloss from the cured clear before applying another coat.

Great.

So I'm going to go in search of 3M 600 grit scuff pads tomorrow, and a heater for the garage since stupid winter is coming again. Dark at 6:25pm, I want to slap whoever came up with daylight savings time. I've got to go over the whole car, even the areas I didn't plan on reclearing incase of overspray. Wee more sanding.

Maybe I'll be finished someday.

a lot of ****ing work. i went through similar with my car.

i thought the damn thing was NEVER going to be finished. . .but, it's all done now and it's ****ING amazing



just hang in there buddy!
when i look back, it was soooo worth the extra time and energy.

 

[1320stang]

Man, it's all in the details. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but think how proud you'll be once you're done.

Larry

 

[bnickel]

all these problems you're having reminds me of exactly why i decided to have mine painted by someone else. i would have loved to paint the car myself but i'm getting too old for that s**t. besides, with my back problems there's no way i'd be able to do it anyway. mine is going to the trim shop today to get the headliner and vinyl top installed. YAY!!!, finally after waiting almost 3 weeks they'll be able to do it this week.

 

[jikelly]

I touched up the problem areas, where I sanded through to the base coat, and created a new worse one.

It's horrible. I have little Idea of how I can fix it, or if that's even possible.

take a look at the pictures on my webpage. Please advise me on how I should proceed. http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/jikelly/paint pictures.htm

 

[zookeeper]

Before I shot my car, I was scared to death of getting a run or sag in the paint. But I used to visit a couple of the painting sites regularly and one of the posts there made sense to me. The subject was orange peel vs runs, which was worse? One of the more experience painters said he'd much rather sand out a couple runs than go through the work of sanding out an entire car worth of orange peel. It made sense to me, and I noticed that some cars I'd seen, the edges and door jambs still had peel where you can't sand and buff. So I followed his advice and the advice of the House of Kolor tech rep who said to put on one "tack coat" of clear, let it sit 10 minutes. Then put on one medium coat and let it sit 12 minutes, followed by one final "super wet" coat and call it good. I did that and was amazed by the finish. No peel to speak of (a little at the end of the passengers rear quarter) and only one sag about three inches long. I haven't buffed the car yet, but you'd never know by looking at it. Maybe HoK clear is different, but after using it, I'll never use anything else.

 

[68torinogt]

i forgot to go back and read it. but im too busy too right now

 

[oboebrian]

I agree... sanding out orang peel... especially on single stage paint, is not fun. Luckily on my 72 I only had a slight hint of orange peel and hardly any foreign objects in the paint sucha as dust (especially since it was painted in a dirt backyard). I agree sanding out runs is a lot easier than orange peel.

 

[jikelly]

I think I've decided to simply live with my screwups. I really don't want to risk making the problem worse by trying to fix them. You can really see the main problem area real well in these pictures.

Is that a good or bad decision?

 

[geostang351]

Where? At the front of the fender?

 

[jikelly]

Ahh I got worse problems now I think. It looks like the clear/base didn't cure or harden correctly. The paint seems a bit too easy to chip, but maybe not everywhere. I've got a few chips on the front fender where I think my roommate bumped it with a wrench or something.

So, I tried to chip a spot on the trunk with a star bit screwdriver. It chipped under light blows, a little more than a tap, but I didn't swing back on it.

I tried a spot down low under the fender, where the trunk floor meets the fender apron thing. I hit it with the same amount of force, but it only resulted in a scratch. Hey, I hit it a little harder and it chipped, but not as much as the trunk, so I don't know what to think.

Can I just lay under it and someone push the car over me a few times? I'd feel a lot better I think. Sucks when you work really hard on something and it turns out like crap anyway. Maybe once the sun comes back I can get it out in the heat and it will finish hardening, but it's been like three months so if it ain't hard now I don't think it's gonna get hard. Do they make Viagra for car finishes?

 

[krash kendall]

So, I tried to chip a spot on the trunk with a star bit screwdriver. It chipped under light blows, a little more than a tap, but I didn't swing back on it.......

I tried a spot down low under the fender....

... I hit it with the same amount of force.....

..... Hey, I hit it a little harder and it chipped, but not as much as the trunk, so I don't know what to think.

Stop doing that!

 

[jikelly]

Don't worry I stopped. I think it might be okay. I tested the finish on our other car and it had about the same chip resistance as that lower spot on my car. Then I tested a spot on my fender where I already will have to do a touch up and it had pretty good chip resistance. Maybe it's alright after all.

We'll find out. I'll let you know. Eventually I'll put together a write up of my painting experience. It'll be filled with what not to do's.