1.5 days later,.....a bitter/sweet update.
All I've heard from people when it comes to talking about touching up this paint is always the same:
""You'll have trouble getting it to match", "You may as well repaint the whole car,...You'll NEVER get any color to match that faded 10 year old paint job"
Yet I plod along.
I go to Ford, and order the touch up vial from the color code on my door jamb,...and attempt to touch up the rock chips......
It don't match.
So I Take the gas cap to the paint store and have a qt. custom tinted to match it. They even leave a little blob on the door to demonstrate to me how exact they have matched this particular paint.
Confident that I have solved the mismatch dilemma, I buy a qt. of premium base/clear from a company called Matrix, and a gallon of high solids clear from the same company,...it cost a little over 200.00 for the stuff w/ the requisite reducer, and activator. That was almost a month ago,......I knew that someday I'd tackle the rocker molding and rear bumper repair and I knew I'd need it.
Yesterday I started that project.
I started by ensuring that the Florida penguin smacker was happy........I washed what will never be seen:
Both rocker moldings were trashed. They had seen one too many curbs,...and were victims of just stupid jacking procedures, the rocker pinch weld was folded flat in several places....The moldings were still attached to the pinch weld despite that fact, and were all kinds of distorted because of that. So they were removed as soon as I got the car in the air 2 months ago. They were the first thing I dealt with today.
I stripped them w/ my DA using 180 grit paper,...followed by 320 before I primed them w/ rattle can high build primer. After 4 cans, I soon came to terms w/ the fact that as much of a pain in the ass mixing primer is,...I could buy a qt for less than the spray bombs were costing me and have product to spare,...so off to the paint store I went. Came back 40.00 lighter.
After I got the rocker moldings done,..I turned to the bumper,...after I got it stripped,...I masked off the cobra insert on the back bumper,.....found my Xacto knife,....switched out the blade so I could have the sharpest edge possible so i could cut the excess tape out around the letters. I start slowly, carefully cutting out the excess tape from the recessed c-o-b-r-a. It was right about at the "O" that I decided to see how far I could stick that Xacto blade into the tip of my right middle finger. Turns out it goes in real deep.
After a short recess so I could drip blood all over the main floor bathroom,..I return w/ doubled bandaids on the finger and resume cutting out the rest of the letters. I prime the offending damage,...and return to the rockers,....cause one way or the other I'm painting those b itches today.
The paint mixes at 1/1 so my one qt. should make 2 qts of sprayable material. I should have more than enough to paint the rockers,..and the whole rear bumper if I need to....I fill the gun and I spray the first coat.
I use the entire gun.
I wait for the stuff to flash,....mix up some more yellow,...fill the gun and dump another coat, and come back w/ an empty gun again.
The yellow is just starting to hide the primer underneath, It's gonna take at least another coat maybe two.
I'm down to a half qt. of paint
The paint completely hides at 4 coats,..and despite the fact that it has been two years since I've had a spray gun in my hand,..I think the base came out OK.
See that blue tarp? That was supposed to be under the stand,..in the garage.
The clear is the toxic stuff. Actually it's the activator that contains Isocyanates,......The same stuff in superglue,....a chemical that is not too far from the stuff they used to drop in the little basket in the gas chamber,........Cyanide.
You find out that it takes a certain respirator cartridge to safely breathe while spraying this stuff,....and the garden variety Home Depot respirator does not come with that cartridge.
What type of respirator do you 'spose I have?
The symptoms of exposure to Isocyanates are numerous,...but most revolve around central nervous malfunctions, central nervous malfunctions, central nervous malfunctions...........
There,......sorry,.I'm a little foggy for some reason tonight.
Where was I? Oh yeah! I'm getting ready to post a picture of the same things only w/ the clear added.
As with all pics,...they never do the actual paint justice,....but you can just get a sense of the shine I was able to get.
So,.....you should be asking yourself,........ "He said this was a bitter sweet experience,...everything looks really good,....where's the bitter part?"..............
Ready?
It don't match.
It's off by a mile. So far in fact that I can't paint the rear bumper,.....it'll be so far off from the quarters, you'll see it a mile away.
It's actually a more lemony yellow when compared to the muted boring shade that now covers my car. Quite frankly,..I'm at a loss. I cannot afford the time, and money to do a complete repaint,..nor do I want to spend another month or more prepping this car for that.
I don't have enough material left to even paint that bumper anyway,...I guess I could take it back to my paint supply shop and have another qt. double secret probation custom tinted..........
Maybe it'll be a different shade and I'll have three shades of yellow on the pig.
