Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[charliekwin]

Air dam (and attached bag of hardware) fell on it after I moved it, while thinking "hmm...that's probably not a good place to put that." I was right!

That's what I get for trying to clean up a bit. Guess it's time to start watching CL and the classifieds.

ETA: looks like Summit sells a replacement for $90! I feel a little better now.

Edited August 19, 2018 by charliekwin

[charliekwin]

Woohoo! I might (fingers crossed!) be done with body work and filler. Finished the rear valence and the quarter panel I'd been putting off. These all had the most work needed to get them back into shape and for now, at least, I'm happy with how they look. Hoping to shoot the primer over the long weekend, if I can clean up the garage and get everything prepped by then.

[grannyknot]

8 hours ago, charliekwin said:

Woohoo! I might (fingers crossed!) be done with body work and filler.

Nice,  can you describe your next few steps?  This is such a crucial stage in the success or failure of the finished look and there seems to be a lot of variety in the procedure, just like to hear yours.

Thanks

[Patcon]

Be sure and treat any rust you see. I think part of my paint failures I posted about in Cody's goon thread were places near the edge of the panels where we sanded down to the metal and didn't retreat for rust before painting

[charliekwin]

4 hours ago, grannyknot said:

Nice,  can you describe your next few steps?

Next steps, following the advice of my paint guy:

• To this point, everything's that's been sanded was done by hand with 80 grit
• Scuff up the untouched areas of epoxy with 180 or a red scotchbrite pad (I should have done that while I was already working on the filler, but oh well)
• Wax and grease remover, dry, then tack rag, then 2 or 3 coats of primer (using SPI's regular 2K primer)
• Say quiet prayer that I did a good job on the body work, and my panels all look decent enough
• Block sand as needed, probably 220->320->400

I'm planning to shoot a single stage color, but don't have that yet, so that's as far as my next steps go. But, according to SPI, I should be able to shoot the color over the primer without a sealer or any additional steps.

[Patcon]

I agree if your primer looks good and it guide coats well to 400 grit then you can go straight to color, no sealer. Guide coating will probably reveal some areas that need some work. I prefer the powder guide coats

[charliekwin]

Labor Day? Yeah it was! My goal was to get primer on everything this weekend. Mission accomplished. Two of the lessons learned along the way:

1. Shooting high build is a whole different ballgame than epoxy or regular paint. I tested on the underside of the hood on Saturday and thought I had it figured out. Nope. The SPI primer sets fast and it wasn't until the end of things that I started getting the hang of it. A panel or two is fine, but I don't really want to do the whole thing again if I can help avoid it!

2. There's no such thing as a one-day project. (To be fair, this is a lesson I've learned many times. It's just that I've forgotten it just as many.)

Saturday was prep day: scuffed everything and fixed a couple of dents that I missed before. And shot the air dam with adhesion promoter and epoxy. 

Sunday I did the shell. You can see some striping on the roof where I had problems with the gun. Regardless, really happy: the stripes will sand out, but the roof is flat! The rear looks pretty good. I even got most of the swage line on the quarter. Came out better than I expected.

Monday was everything else. More problems with the gun left some thin areas in the paint and I almost left it alone...then came to my senses and put everything back in the tent to spray another coat. Again, really happy. I need to do some minor touchup on the headlight bucket seams, the top of the driver side door, and on the hood, but again, everything came out straighter than I thought it might.

Need to get some spot putty and guide coat and start blocking, but I don't think it'll need much. Honestly, I could put color on it now and it would exceed the expectations/goals that I had before I started.

I'm getting a beer!

[Patcon]

All of these paints are heat sensitive. Especially the epoxy paints. If it's warm in your booth they will set up faster. Also these paints can be sensitive to tip size. The P-sheets will have the recommended tip size which can greatly influence feed issues. Also are your straining all of your paint into the cup?

[charliekwin]

Yup, strained and using the right tip; it's heat and my lack of speed. If I were to do it again, I would put some retarder in the paint. SPI says 30-45 minute pot life at 75 degrees. It's been 85-90 the last couple days, and I had less than half that: the first coat would go on fine, but it started slowing down by the time I got to the second. Something I'm keeping in mind when it's time for color.

[Patcon]

1 hour ago, charliekwin said:

Yup, strained and using the right tip; it's heat and my lack of speed. If I were to do it again, I would put some retarder in the paint. SPI says 30-45 minute pot life at 75 degrees. It's been 85-90 the last couple days, and I had less than half that: the first coat would go on fine, but it started slowing down by the time I got to the second. Something I'm keeping in mind when it's time for color.

Some products have different speed reducers based on the temperature. I don't know exactly how that is done with epoxy. Nason's epoxy has no provision on the P-sheet for slowing it down and there is not another catalyst listed. I guess smaller batches...

[charliekwin]

Not sure about epoxy either, but even at quite high temps  of ~100 degrees it sprayed nicely. This particular primer is urethane based. I'm planning to shoot a single-stage urethane color. Haven't picked it up yet, but if it behaves similarly to the primer, I'll need the retarder.

[Patcon]

6 minutes ago, charliekwin said:

Not sure about epoxy either, but even at quite high temps  of ~100 degrees it sprayed nicely. This particular primer is urethane based. I'm planning to shoot a single-stage urethane color. Haven't picked it up yet, but if it behaves similarly to the primer, I'll need the retarder.

What single stage are you looking at?

Yes, you do not want your finish coats to dry that fast. They won't level out and any over spray or misting won't melt back in