5280's Paint Project

[5280Hawk]

Man, it takes a lot of buffing.

I have a rotatry orbital buffer, and it's taking forever to get the paint to shine. I started with the Turtle wax buffing compound (red label), then went to the polishing compound (green label) It's shining up but it's taking forever.

At this rate it MIGHT be done by spring.

 

[5280Hawk]

After Four hours on the buffer today. The Hood is done!,

at least as done as it's gonna get!

You can see some imperfections when you look in the light, but im not trying to win any awards

On to the fenders and valence!

 

[40Flipper]

Did you wet-sand at all or just go straight to buffing???? Curious for my efforts. Gonna start wet-sanding tomorrow....

 

[5280Hawk]

yep,

I wetsanded w. 1500 to get all the lint and crap out of the paint.

 

[40Flipper]

Prior to that did you wet-sand at all between coats? I have a good amount of orange peel on mine fro the first coat so trying to figger out the best way to proceed.

 

[5280Hawk]

yeah, I wetsanded between every 2 coats, try 600 grit and get finer paper every two coats.

I went 800 then 1000, then the 1500 prior to the buffing compound, then i finished with the polishing compound.

 

[5280Hawk]

I got some work done on the fenders and front valence over the weekend.

I finally pulled the passenger fender, It was pretty dang cold to be out there under the cruiser. but oh well,

Shot of the two fenders and valence - they don't look too bad from that angle

close up of valence before -

I basically sanded ALL of the paint off to get all the chips to go away,

Fenders before -

Close up of rusty areas by the wheel well -

I have one of the fenders almost ready for paint - you can see some of the bondo work in the photo -

I also used some JB Weld to fill the holes from the Snake Blinder - I still have to sand it down and see how it holds up.

I plan to finish up the rest of the body work and start rolling again in a few days.

 

[40Flipper]

I bought a couple cans of rustoleum sandable primer to fill in the tiny chips and nicks on my fenders. I did 3/4 of the truck with a primer coat. The primed parts made the paint roll on much smoother and more evenly. The unprimed parts were very uneven and took much more work wet-sanding. It's not necessary to do this but I wish I did the whole truck this way. For the $3 it'll cost you it makes life much easier.

 

[5280Hawk]

I think I will, especailly the valence where there is no paint left.

I have a can of the Rustoleum Automotive primer.

 

[Project60]

Nice!

Looking good! I second the idea of the primer.

 

[Tools R Us]

Man, it takes a lot of buffing.

I have a rotatry orbital buffer, and it's taking forever to get the paint to shine. I started with the Turtle wax buffing compound (red label), then went to the polishing compound (green label) It's shining up but it's taking forever.

At this rate it MIGHT be done by spring.

To make the job quicker use a more aggressive compound. For the first step after color sanding I like Meguiar's Diamond Cut Compound 2.0, it makes quick work of it. Use it to knock out most of the dullness, then move to a finer compound.

The good thing about the "normal parts store" compounds is that they aren't very aggressive, so it's harder to mess up and take too much paint off. The bad part is that they aren't very aggressive, so it takes a lot more work! When you move to more aggressive "professional" compounds, you have to be much more careful around edges, ridges, etc. It's much easer to remove too much or all of the paint in those areas, but they are much faster in large flat areas.

meguiars.com: E-Store /Professional (Mirror Glaze Brand)>Auto Paint Care>Paint Cleaners/Compounds

They also have a good forum;
Car Care Forums: Meguiar's Online - Powered by vBulletin

 

[5280Hawk]

Thanks Alot for the tip!,

I think for the fenders, now that i know what to expect, I will get through them a lot faster, I'm not as afraid to used the more aggressinve compound, anfter the final wet sand.

 

[Tools R Us]

Another thing to be aware of is that new paint is soft, takes a while to fully harden. When you sand it, scratches and burrs that stick up are formed. When the paint is soft, the burrs are like little plastic flags, the buffer hits them, the fold over and pop right back up. If you wait until the paint is harder the tiny edges, burrs break off much easier, making the job easier.

Also new paint off gases solvents until cured, so don't seal, wax it for at least a couple of weeks. Warmth and putting it in the sun will speed the curing process.

 

[40Flipper]

Hawk- do you have any orange peel on that hood what so ever? I'm using 600 grit and I'm either burning through the paint or it's still faintly orange peeled. How did your hood look when done? It it slick and smooth or is there some small texture to it? Thinking I might throw on the next 3-4 coats then sand after those are done to have a thicker base. Either way I'm still gonna have to wet-sand a bunch.

 

[5280Hawk]

I had oarnge peel on the first couple coats, but not after a few more coats and wet sanding.

It seemed like I would get it where a lot of bubbles formed. I started going back over the areas that had bubbles, with the roller really dry, to smooth them out.

If you're getting alot of Oarnge peel, the paint is probably to thick and won't spread.

Also, when I wet sanded that hood I would use very little or no pressure on the block. I let the "suction" of the water and sandpaper apply the pressure to actually do the sanding, take your time and you wont burn through the layers.

I had a few really small spots that no matter what i did i could still see though the paint to the primer. I ended up just dabbing a small amount of paint right on the spot with the end of the roller, or a foam brush, then wet sanded it with a small peice of 1000 or 1500.

The photos of the hood look better than it does in real life, It's probably a good 3-4 foot paint job, and that is just fine by me.

 

[40Flipper]

Cool. Mine's at about a 10 footer right now.

 

[5280Hawk]

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Back to work in the garage today.

I got the JBweld all sanded down, you can see the filled holes for the snake blinders. JB weld really worked well, Thanks MUD!

I went with your advice and primered the fenders and Valence before rolling on paint. heres a few shots of the First coat of Rustoleum after the primer.

 

[5280Hawk]

I can't remember if this is the fourth or fifth coat of paint on the fenders. Either way i feel like i'm getting pretty good at getting it to go on flat.

 

[Project60]

Looks good... I still need to drop by and see the color in person.

 

[5280Hawk]

Project60, I PM'd you